HP OmniBook XE2

HP OmniBook XE2

SUMMARY

PRO: Affordable, doubles as an audio CD player CON: Small screen, limited free technical support, shorter-than-average battery life

If you get more work done when listening to Mozart, the thin, reasonably priced OmniBook XE2--based on Intel's new mobile Celeron-333 chip--may improve your productivity. Buttons on the front let you play audio CDs and control the volume without turning on the notebook or raising the screen. And the audio on our test unit sounded pleasingly full-bodied.

For the business-minded, the OmniBook XE2 offers impressive performance for the price, and its compact package houses a fairly nice configuration. The model includes built-in, fixed CD-ROM and floppy drives, yet it weighs only 7.5 pounds and measures just 1.4 inches high. The trade-off: a budget-size 12.1-inch screen, which looks fine but tops out at a resolution of 800 by 600 pixels.

Extra wide key tops make typing on the XE2 especially easy, though the action feels a little too springy. The big mouse buttons prove comfortable, and the included Synaptics utility lets you reprogram them to launch applications. The easy-to-access hard drive can be locked in place with an optional security screw.

The XE2 performs about 7 percent faster than last month's third-place budget notebook, the now-discontinued, virtually identical OmniBook XE based on the Pentium II-266PE chip. Unfortunately, battery life takes a hit in the Celeron-333 version--the XE2's battery lasted just over 2.5 hours, or about half an hour less than its predecessor.

HP's score for notebook reliability rose from fair to good in our latest reader survey. But support policies could be better. Most notebook vendors offer unlimited free technical support, but HP cuts the umbilical cord after three years--a drawback for those who hang on to their notebooks for more than a couple of years. The quality of support slipped a little this month, too. In our latest round of anonymous calls, technicians gave several incorrect answers and didn't seem as eager to help as usual.