WHAT'S HOT: The Toshiba Satellite 1905-S301 lasted 4 hours, 11 minutes on one battery charge, shattering all previous records for Pentium 4 notebooks in our tests. This model has an eye-catching design as well, with a blue lid, prominent silver-clad speakers, a semitransparent keyboard, and easy-access music controls.

WHAT'S NOT: Though not the heftiest notebook in Toshiba's stable, the Satellite 1905-S301 requires some muscle to tote it around. It weighs 8.3 pounds (not including the power adapter and phone cord) and is 2.3 inches thick.

WHAT ELSE: While the 1905-S301 outran its competitors in battery life, its speed on applications was merely ordinary: Its PC WorldBench 4 score of 98 was a shade slower than the performance we've seen from other notebooks using a 2-GHz Pentium 4 desktop CPU and the Windows XP Home operating system.

As a large notebook targeted at users seeking a desktop replacement, the 1905-S301 offers a fixed combination drive on the right side of the case and a fixed floppy drive on the left. The stylish keyboard is easy to type on, and the notebook is well equipped with all the usual connections. In addition, you get an S-Video-out port (an increasingly common feature) for hooking up a TV to display presentations, videos, or images. If a digital camcorder is in your future, you may also appreciate the notebook's FireWire port, useful for downloading digital movies (you supply the editing software).

Music lovers will find the 1905-S301 convenient for its front-mounted music CD controls, which include an LCD status panel and a volume wheel on the side. However, there's no dedicated power switch to let you use the notebook as a stand-alone CD player. The big speakers were a disappointment too; they sounded a bit flat and not as loud as you'd expect.

The 1905-S301 has embedded 802.11b wireless antennas and an on/off switch on the front, but you'll have to pay $100 more to get the necessary 802.11b Mini PCI card. Aside from having to remove a few more screws than usual, you can easily reach the notebook's memory slots and hard drive. Another design quibble: The optical drive's Eject button could be easier to find by touch--it's flush with, and tucked halfway beneath, the notebook's beveled side.

Toshiba provides no printed documentation for the 1905-S301 except a quick-start foldout. Novices should find the foldout helpful, as long as they aren't confused by the odd labeling for some of the parts (such as "primary control button" and "secondary control button" for the mouse buttons). The included digital user manual (in Acrobat format) does a good job of covering all the details.

UPSHOT: Although it suffers from mediocre sound, the 1905-S301 will satisfy anyone looking for an eye-catching portable with a big screen, a combination optical drive, and long battery life for well under two grand.

SUMMARY

Toshiba Satellite 1905-S301 PC WorldBench 4 score of 98, 2A-GHz Pentium 4, 256MB of DDR SDRAM, Windows XP Home, 15-inch active-matrix screen, ATI M6-P graphics with 16MB of DDR SDRAM, 40GB hard drive, 8X DVD-ROM/8X/8X/24X CD-RW combination drive, built-in V.90 modem and network adapter, touchpad pointing device, 9.8 pounds (including AC adapter and phone cord), Lotus SmartSuite 9.7 Millennium Edition. One-year parts and labor warranty; free, unlimited toll-free 24-hour, daily technical support. $1799 800/867-4422 www.csd.toshiba.com