Compaq Prosignia 160

Compaq Prosignia 160

The Prosignia 160--a desktop PC replacement designed for small- to medium-size businesses--wears its 2.5-inch girth well. Roller-coaster curves, including a steeply beveled front, give it an interesting look, despite its monochrome gray color scheme. However, mediocre performance and below-average reader ratings keep it off our Top 10 chart.

If you're always afraid of breaking something on a notebook, you'll find the Prosignia's thick case reassuring. We especially liked the extra support on the back of the 14.1-inch screen.

The Prosignia's bays sit in front, with the fixed CD-ROM drive smack in the center (a fixed DVD-ROM drive is available for $199 more). The multipurpose bay holds the floppy drive or an extra-cost second battery, a hard drive, a Zip drive, or a LS-120 Super Drive. To easily swap components, just press down a lever and pull the part out. You'll need a screwdriver to remove the hard drive.

The Prosignia's hearty audio system delivers plenty of volume and bass. Your hands partially cover one set of speaker vents when typing, but another set located on the sides makes up for the muffled sound. (Too bad Compaq doesn't include a MIDI/game port to take full advantage of the sound.) The laptop's external audio control buttons sure beat using the keyboard, but we prefer the ease of using a dial.

You'll feel this notebook's sturdiness in the comfortable, touchpad-equipped keyboard, which rests on a firm base. And if you live for shortcuts, you'll appreciate the Prosignia's four programmable keys, the most versatile we've seen on a notebook yet. You can program each button to launch apps individually or in combination: Your Home button, for instance, could launch America Online, Microsoft Money, You Don't Know Jack, and Kai's Power Goo; an Office scheme might put Adobe Acrobat and Microsoft's Word, Excel, and PowerPoint at your fingertips.

The Prosignia comes bundled with a juicy selection of software and documentation. You'll be ready to go to work right away with Microsoft Office 97 Small Business Edition and Norton AntiVirus preinstalled. The stack of documentation features a thick reference guide with an extensive section on the modem, a rare inclusion. Compaq also provides a 700-page manual containing practical examples of how to use the Office business suite. Throw in an ergonomics booklet and a half-dozen electronic Office 97 training guides, and you've got an armload of extras few notebook owners receive.

SUMMARY

PRO: Rugged design, big hard drive and screen, accepts wide variety of accessories, built-in AC adapter, bundled business software, great sound. CON: Bulky, so-so performance, no port covers. $2999; 155 PC WorldBench score, Pentium II-300, 64MB of RAM, 512KB secondary cache, 6GB hard drive, 12X-24X CD-ROM drive, 14.1-inch active-matrix screen, built-in 56-kbps modem (K56flex), 8.6-pound traveling weight, 2.8-hour battery life, Windows 98. Compaq 800/345-1518 www.compaq.com