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New Media Center Laptops Make Waves

Entertainment-oriented notebooks from Acer and Dell enter our rankings this month.

Carla Thornton

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Photograph: Chris Manners
A powerful desktop replacement by Acer and an entertainment breakthrough from Dell crack our chart this month.

The reasonably priced Acer Aspire AS9504WSMi is a fast and well-stocked Media Center notebook that has 2GB of RAM, a 120GB hard drive, a sparkling 17-inch screen providing 1440 by 900 resolution, and instant-on TV. The portable would have grabbed our Best Buy honor were it not for the awkward keyboard and the distortion-prone speakers.

Dell's latest Media Center notebook, the XPS M140, is the best leisure portable from the company that we've seen. The unit offers rocking sound and instant access to movies, music, photos, and even recorded (though not live) TV. The M140 is Dell's first 14.1-inch wide-screen model.

Find the Very Latest Notebook PC Charts

Click on the links below for the latest online notebook PC rankings or a comprehensive list of all notebook PCs we've tested.

Top Notebook PCs From the March 2006 Issue of PC World

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