WHAT'S HOT: Internal bay options for this handsome two-tone laptop are a steal. A CD-RW drive, for instance, costs only $179, compared with the marked-up after-purchase price of around $400 most other notebook vendors charge. The modular bay, which sits beneath a fixed floppy drive, accommodates a $139 SuperDisk drive, a $229 Zip 250 drive, or a second hard drive up to 30GB, which costs $699.

Graphics professionals and others who need a roomy, detailed view will appreciate this laptop's native 1400 by 1050 resolution. Three big round shortcut buttons at the top of the comfortable keyboard and reprogrammable mouse buttons offer five convenient ways to launch your favorite applications or Web sites.

WHAT'S NOT: The TransPort GX+ suffers from slightly subpar battery life and performance. It lasted 2.5 hours in our rundown tests, compared with an average time of 3 hours. And with a PC WorldBench 2000 score of 154, this Pentium III-800/650-based system runs applications more like a Pentium III-750/600-based notebook.

WHAT ELSE: Little extras set the Transport GX+ apart. It offers a protective cover over most of the ports on the back, and text labels clearly identify all the major components, such as the removable hard drive, memory, battery, and the mini-PCI modem and network interface combo. The underside sports a plastic pocket for a business card. The healthy set of audio connections includes an extra line-in port and a composite video-out port for using TVs and other big screens as monitors. However, with only so-so built-in sound and no external volume controls, it's far from the ultimate music CD-playing laptop.

BEST USE: Although a fine machine overall and plenty fast for most applications, the pricey Transport GX+ falls short in performance when compared with other Pentium III-800/650 notebooks running Windows 2000. Unless you need to outfit your company with fast portable disc burners, other notebooks offer more oomph for the money.

SUMMARY

MicronPC TransPort GX+ PC WorldBench 2000 score of 154, Pentium III-800/650, 128MB of SDRAM, 256KB L2 cache, Windows 2000, 15-inch active-matrix screen, 16MB of video memory, 20GB hard drive, 8X DVD-ROM drive, built-in V.90 modem and network adapter, touchpad pointing device, 8.2 pounds (including AC adapter and phone cord), Microsoft Office 2000 SBE. Three-year parts and labor warranty; free, unlimited 24-hour tech support. $2250 800/642-7667 www.micronpc.com