WHAT'S HOT: The Satellite Pro 6100 comes 802.11b (Wi-Fi) ready, with the antenna and wireless card built in. The notebook's one modular bay can hold the optical drive (a DVD-ROM/CD-RW combination drive in our unit), a second battery, or a weight-saving module. A Secure Digital expansion card slot sits above the modular bay, useful for transferring files between the notebook and other SD-equipped devices such as PDAs and digital cameras. At the $2599 price, you get a humongous 60GB hard drive.

WHAT'S NOT: The Satellite Pro 6100 performed almost exactly the same as the Satellite Pro 6000 model it replaces, even though it's equipped with a faster processor and twice the system memory. With its 2-GHz Pentium 4-M processor and 512MB of RAM, the 6100 pulled down a PC WorldBench 4 performance score of 100, compared with a score of 99 for the 1.2-GHz Pentium III-M Satellite Pro 6000 with 256MB of RAM, which we tested previously. Battery life was worse: The 6100 lasted a mere 1 hour, 53 minutes in our tests, compared with 3 hours for the 6000. As with the 6000, the notebook comes with no printed documentation, and a USB floppy drive costs $99 extra.

WHAT ELSE: Though a little heavier than average for a one-bay notebook at 7.8 pounds (including the power adapter and cord), the Pro 6100 is a midsize unit. Except for a floppy drive, the sloped dark case includes all the usual legacy notebook connections, most of them beneath a drop-down door on the back. The right side is devoid of features other than the end cap of the hard drive. Storage, memory, and battery are all easy to access and remove.

If you prefer typing with a bit of give to it, you'll like the 6100's springy keyboard and mouse buttons, the latter being two rubbery-feeling crescents stacked on top of each other. They worked fine in tandem with the eraserhead in the center of the keyboard. You won't find a document-scrolling button, but two application-shortcut buttons conveniently flank the mouse buttons. Compared with the more musically inclined consumer models in the Toshiba stable, the Satellite Pro 6100 is a milquetoast multimedia box. It has the same small speakers in either corner of the keyboard as those other models, but the 6100's sound is not very rich or full bodied. Except for a getting-started poster, it includes no printed documentation, but an Acrobat-format manual located conveniently on the hard drive covers all pertinent areas.

UPSHOT: Though a weak follow-on to the Satellite Pro 6000 in the performance department, this 2-GHz version of the 6100 (which is also available with a 1.7-GHz or 1.8-GHz Pentium 4-M processor) would make a good primary office machine thanks to its huge hard drive, big screen, and Secure Digital slot.