NEC Versa LX PII-400

NEC Versa LX PII-400

WHAT'S HOT: Like its thinner, lighter sibling, the Versa SX, the Versa LX offers one modular bay that can hold any one of a range of optional add-in devices. You can swap out the DVD-ROM drive to save weight (thus dropping the overall weight of the unit to 6.8 pounds), or add a second battery ($179), an LS-120 drive ($100), or a second hard drive up to 10GB ($599).

WHAT'S NOT: The $3649 Versa LX is expensive, even for a notebook with a 10GB hard drive and 128MB of memory.

WHAT ELSE: Even at its lightest, the Versa LX weighs two pounds more than NEC's super-thin SX notebook. In return, you get a built-in floppy drive. Versa notebooks are handsome, with silver accents and charcoal-colored bottoms. They have comfortable touchpad-equipped keyboards, above-average built-in sound, and battery charge indicators located handily on the outside of the case. This Versa LX comes with a 14.1-inch screen and one TV-out port for sending images to a television screen. It performs about the same as similarly-configured Pentium II-400s we've tested. The 2.4-hour battery life is only so-so.

BEST USE: Companies already standardized on NEC's corporate laptops may want the Versa LX for executives who need more storage or prefer the convenience of a built-in floppy drive. Otherwise, you can find Pentium II-400s with bigger screens and larger hard drives for less money, such as Micron's $2799 TransPort NX.

SUMMARY

$3649

SUMMARY

888/632-8701 www.nec-computers.com