Bargain Laptop for Multimedia Mavens

Would you sacrifice a little notebook battery life and portability for a lot of multimedia muscle? Try Toshiba's Satellite 5005-S504. Packed with 512MB of SDRAM, a 30GB hard drive, GeForce2 Go graphics with 16MB of RAM, and built-in slots for Secure Digital and SmartMedia cards, it's an excellent value at $1999.

The Satellite's slate-blue metallic case features a tiny LCD on the front edge that provides status information and other data even when the lid is shut. The 15-inch active-matrix display and the audio (from built-in Harman/Kardon speakers and subwoofer) are terrific for a notebook.

Longtime Toshiba fans may bemoan the lack of an eraserhead pointing stick. In place of it, there's a rather small touchpad. And Toshiba used a 1.1-GHz desktop Pentium III CPU, which costs far less than a mobile PIII of comparable clock speed. The notebook's PC WorldBench 4 score of 95, though among the fastest we have seen for a portable, was identical to that of a Compaq Presario 1720 equipped with a 1-GHz Pentium III-M CPU and only 256MB of RAM. Like most notebooks that use desktop chips, the Satellite turned in mediocre battery life--1 hour, 47 minutes in our tests.

Though desktop chips usually run hotter than mobile CPUs, my shipping unit was not any warmer during testing than other recent notebooks I've tried. The battery life and 7.1-pound weight make the Satellite less suitable for frequent travelers. But if you're looking for an affordable multimedia desktop replacement, the unit may be just right.

SUMMARY

Toshiba Satellite 5005-S504 Snazzy-looking multimedia desktop replacement at a good price, but too heavy and short on battery life for travelers List: $1999