WHAT'S HOT: The Celeron-750-equipped Z1 turned in solid performance in our speed tests. With a PC WorldBench 4 score of 83, it's nearly as fast as some Pentium III notebooks, at less than one-third the cost. For longer battery life or more storage, you can swap out the Z1's CD-ROM drive for a supplemental lithium ion battery or a SuperDisk drive.

WHAT'S NOT: The Z1 lacks an integrated network adapter; so if you want to hook up to a network, you'll have to keep track of a sometimes loose PC Card. And whereas most competing vendors offer around-the-clock telephone support, WinBook works the phone lines only 13 hours on weekdays and 7 hours on Saturday.

WHAT ELSE: It's not flashy, but the Z1's design is sensible overall. The 12X-24X CD-ROM drive, the main battery, and the 10GB hard drive all pop out of the front via easy-to-slide levers on the bottom. Useful icons stamped on the bottom clearly label the contents of all the bays, including the modem compartment. Only the top edge of the screen, which overlaps the front of the case, seems vulnerable. Like its higher-end siblings in the WinBook stable, the Z1 is no multimedia wonder: Sound is so-so, and the notebook lacks extras that many others now include, such as dedicated audio controls. On the other hand, we liked the quiet, comfortable keyboard. The Z1 comes bundled with WinBook's thick ring-bound manual, which is informative and nicely done except for its difficult-to-use index. Battery life was average, at 3 minutes shy of 3 hours.

UPSHOT: Though you do get a 15.1-inch screen with this Celeron-750 model for less than $1500, the rest is a tad disappointing. Competing notebooks from Dell and Gateway at this price often offer DVD-ROM drives, built-in network connections, and faster processors, as well as a better support package.

SUMMARY

WinBook Z1 Celeron-750 PC WorldBench 4 score of 83, Celeron-750, 128MB of SDRAM, 128KB of L2 cache, Windows 2000 Professional, 14.1-inch active-matrix screen, ATI Rage Mobility M128 graphics with 16MB of SDRAM, 10GB hard drive, 12X-24X CD-ROM drive, built-in V.90 modem, touchpad pointing device, 8.3-pound weight (including AC adapter and phone cord). Three-year parts and labor warranty; free, unlimited toll-free technical support for 13 hours daily on weekdays and for 7 hours on Saturday. $1496 800/965-9349 www.winbook.com