The next-generation laptop war will begin in earnest in Q2 when Intel and AMD ship their Centrino 2 (Montevina) and Puma platforms, respectively.

Both promise significantly enhanced 3D performance from the chipsets' IGP, greater battery life, and better wireless connectivity.

AMD's Puma, detailed here, will ship with the mobile version of its excellent 780G chipset, enabling users to play the latest games, at reasonable resolutions, with acceptable frame-rates. Take a look at our Puma vs. Centrino video to see why AMD's happy.

Whilst at IDF 2008 at Shanghai, an Intel employee, who wishes to remain anonymous, was reminded of the fact that AMD finally has a compelling mobile platform to put up against the fifth-generation Centrino platform. They responded with the following statement: 'it's easy to hide behind graphics when their (AMD's) mobile processors are rubbish in comparison to ours'.

Do you happen to agree with this acerbic statement? How important do you view the processor in a mobile environment? What's more important, graphics performance or CPU power in a mid-sized laptop? We'd love to hear your thoughts, folks.