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World Class: Best of 2003

The gear of the year: your complete guide to 50+ hardware, software, and service winners--including today's number one product.

By PC World Editors   

Complete Coverage

Computing

Entertainment PC

ABS Media Center PC 8500 ($1799)

ABS's Media Center PC 8500 proves that computers are working their way into other rooms in your house. Designed for your living room, the 2.8-GHz Pentium 4 configuration we tested comes in a sleek, stereo-component-style case that helps it fit comfortably in your entertainment cabinet. The 8500 runs Microsoft's Windows XP Media Center Edition, a tweaked version of Windows XP that includes the ability to record live TV much the way a TiVo digital video recorder does. Recording TV isn't quite that easy in Media Center, but it's definitely manageable, and even fun. Well-chosen extras like Creative's Inspire 6.1 6600 speaker set round out the package. An included RF remote simplifies watching DVDs, listening to music, recording and playing live TV, and viewing photos.

Tablet PC

NEC Versa LitePad ($2399)

Lite is right. NEC's slickly designed Versa LitePad is only about half an inch thick and nudges the scales at a mere 2.2 pounds. That's a perfect carrying-around weight for a Tablet PC.

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