WHAT'S HOT: One of HP's tiniest laptops yet, the new Omnibook 500 weighs in at only 3.8 pounds and measures about an inch thick. But it's a fast, long-lasting little notebook with a rock-solid and easy-to-navigate keyboard, a crisp 12.1-inch screen capable of 1024-by-768 resolution, two USB ports, modem and network connections, and basic audio and video ports. The bundled media slice, which snaps onto the bottom of the notebook, adds two highly flexible modular bays equipped with internal floppy and CD-ROM drives at this price. Either of the bays can hold an optical drive or a battery. As a result, you can carry a DVD-ROM drive ($335) and CD-RW drive ($466) simultaneously, or three batteries at once.

The primary battery alone lasted 3 hours and 9 minutes in our tests, an impressive length of time for a super-slim notebook; equipped with two extra batteries ($209 extra each), the notebook should last more than nine hours. The Omnibook's slice also features CD player controls and front-mounted stereo speakers, which did a pretty good job with our music CDs. But its coolest feature may be the electronic docking release, which lifts the notebook off the slice at the press of a button. Running Windows 2000, the Omnibook 500 earned an impressive PC WorldBench 2000 score of 149, tying another fast PIII-600/500 notebook, the IBM ThinkPad X20.

WHAT'S NOT: With no internal bays and fewer built-in legacy connections than most other super-slims, the Omnibook 500 relies heavily on the slice for many features. The slice adds parallel, serial, and PS/2 mouse and keyboard ports, and a video-out connection for using a TV as a screen, all of which are missing from the notebook itself. Attaching the slice is also the only way to gain use of the CD-ROM drive. (You can buy a $59 USB cable to attach the floppy drive sans slice.)

WHAT ELSE: This silver portable features matte-gray accents and two programmable shortcut buttons at the top of the keyboard, flanking a large blue sleep button. (One button, dubbed the presentation-ready button, lets you launch a document or application on a monitor or television). The Omnibook is a snap to upgrade, including an easy-to-remove hard drive. RAM is easy to upgrade, too. Print documentation consists only of a Startup Guide, with comprehensive coverage left to an Acrobat electronic reference manual on the hard drive.

BEST USE: Frequent travelers with deep pockets will appreciate the fast, handsome Omnibook 500 the most. Its flexible design lets you trim connections to lower the notebook's weight, or add bays and legacy ports and even use three batteries at once. All but big-screen fans (and those with thin bank accounts) will be pleased.

SUMMARY

HP Omnibook 500 PC WorldBench 2000 score of 149, Pentium III-600/500, 128MB of SDRAM, 256KB L2 cache, Windows 2000, 12.1-inch active-matrix screen, ATI Rage Mobility-M with 8MB of SDRAM, 10GB hard drive, 12X-24X CD-ROM drive, built-in V.90 modem, eraserhead pointing device, 7.5-pound weight (including media slice with internal CD-ROM and floppy drives, AC adapter, and phone cord), one-year parts and labor warranty; 24-hour toll-call tech support. $2149 800/752-0900 www.hp.com