Micron's TransPort NX: A 'Desktop' Notebook

SUMMARY

TransPort NX PRO: Fast, fully loaded; excellent technical support. CON: Heavy, no modem, mediocre audio, battery lasts only 90 minutes. VALUE: A well-priced desktop replacement, especially suitable for those who work with multimedia or graphics applications. $3299 Micron 888/208-1937 www.micronpc.com

Thin and light notebooks may be catching on with the jet set, but if you plan to use a notebook as your primary PC, you probably want more than the svelte models offer. Fortunately, many 8- to 10-pound behemoths pack fast processors, giant screens and hard drives, wider keyboards, and in many cases enough video RAM and multimedia connections to set up a mini audio-video editing studio. If all this sounds appealing, you could do worse than Micron' s new 9.4-pound TransPort NX--especially if you don't intend to lug it around much.

The TransPort NX may not give you the best audio, the slickest case design, or the longest battery life. But the $3299 Pentium II-366 version of the NX (a PII-333 model is also available) does deliver good performance: Armed with 64MB of RAM, our shipping unit earned a PC WorldBench score of 190, less than 1 percent behind that of Dell's Inspiron 7000 A366LT, the fastest notebook we've tested.

The TransPort NX also has a lovely 15-inch screen, touchpad and eraserhead pointing devices, and lots of multimedia and expansion options. The TransPort's two modular bays make it the first Micron notebook to accommodate as many different internal devices as competing notebooks do. In place of the floppy drive, you can insert a second 14GB hard drive ($999 extra), for a total capacity of 28GB. Instead of the LS-120 drive, you can pop in a second lithium-ion battery ($99) or a Zip drive ($199).

Ports to connect multiple devices, including a TV or camcorder, let you record and play audio and video. Suprisingly, audio output is weak, and no modem is included.

The TransPort NX offers more for the money than almost identical notebooks by Enpower and AMS Tech, including better-quality DVD and superior tech support. This is a workhorse PC that can go the distance--as long as you don't have to carry it.