We chose the well-rounded NEC Versa 6030H as the best-overall notebook. It has fast performance, a multitude of portability features, and a high ease-of-use rating. While the Versa 6030H is a hot multimedia notebook, several other models weren't far behind in our best-overall ranking.
Shadowi
ng the Versa 6030H was the WinBook FX (our pick for best low-cost system; see below). Toshiba's 8.2-pound Tecra 500CDT also did well. The $4999 unit provides many leading-edge features, including Zoomed Port Video (ZPV) and CardBus support, as well as 4-Mbps IrDA capability. With a 120-MHz Pentium, it performed better than many units with 133-MHz processors, and it placed in the top five for battery life.
Impulse Computer may not be familiar to many users, but its Duonote made a big splash in our Lab Report. It's a moderately priced multimedia notebook ($4699) with a nice modular design. Compaq's $6398 LTE 5300 is a 7.4-pound lightweight that also placed in the top five. The highly modular system scores high in features (right behind the IBM ThinkPad 760ED and Hewlett-Packard's OmniBook 5500 CTS) and also in usability, because Compaq supplies a three-year warranty and 24-hour, toll-free technical support. (An even more modular model that wasn't ready in time for this roundup is the Compaq Armada 4100; see
the article "Notebook Under Construction" in the Reviews section.)
Best Desktop Replacement
Several notebooks in this roundup beg the question: "Do I really need that desk-stealing power hog back in my cubicle?" Not only do these systems provide excellent docking options, the best desktop-replacement systems run fast and furious in our performance benchmarks, providing desktop-level performance. NEC's Versa 6030H, our best-overall pick, is again the winner, but some strong runners-up are Toshiba's Tecra 550CDT and Compaq's LTE 5300.
The 7.5-pound Nimantics Quanta 6x 133 is an affordably priced ($3999) multimedia notebook with high-end functionality. It has a 12.1-inch SVGA display, a voluminous 2.1-GB hard drive, and an efficient lithium-ion battery that lasts 2 hours and 37 minutes in our tests.
HP's OmniBook 5500 CTS ($6120) costs much more than the Quanta 6x 133, but it's a premium notebook for making presentations with its wide-angle 12.1-inch SVGA display.
Be
st Low Cost
It's quite a stretch to call any multimedia notebook a low-cost product, but some are easier on the credit card than others. We drew a low-budget line in the sand at $4000, which left us with nine notebooks. The WinBook FX is our low-cost winner. It had high all-around scores and did particularly well in usability. Nimantics' Quanta 6x 133 took the number-two spot, followed closely by Texas Instruments' 100-MHz Extensa 570 CDT.
Dell's Latitude LM P-133ST had the best battery life of all the test units. Its lithium-ion battery and effective power management scheme kept it going for 3 hours and 41 minutes in our battery run-down test. We must also give battery-life honorable mentions to the Gateway Solo S5-133 (3:31) and IBM's ThinkPad 760ED (3:24), which both also use lithium-ion batteries (but aren't low-cost portables).
The 6.1-pound TravelPro 1900 ($3695), from AMS Tech, is a top-quality multimedia portable with a 133-MHz Pentium, a 12.1-inch SVGA display, a 1.3-GB hard driv
e, and a three-year warranty -- components and support you would expect from a higher-priced notebook.
Pentium Portables
