Top 15 Notebook PCs

Can't decide whether you like the eraserhead or the touchpad better? Two new Dells join the Top 15 this month, and both have dual pointing devices. The $2625 Latitude C810, fourth on the power chart, can accommodate a pair of optical drives too, for easy copying of files between a DVD-ROM drive and a CD-RW drive. The $2396 Latitude C610, Dell's latest conservative business machine, snags second place on the value list. It's slender, but it squeezes almost 4 hours out of one battery charge.

The only other newcomer to the chart is HP's home-oriented Pavilion N5445, at number five on the value list. For $1649, you get a laptop with a 1.06-GHz Pentium III-M SpeedStep processor and a DVD-ROM/CD-RW combination drive.

The new $1799 ChemBook 8600 has both a fingerprint scanner for security and a dial similar to the Jog Dials on Sony's VAIO laptops. Though it has interesting features, the ChemBook also has some drawbacks that prevented it from making the chart. For instance, if the notebook's DVD-ROM drive is using the modular bay, you must turn the notebook off completely to attach the floppy drive.

The $1199 Micro Express NP7120, a metallic-skinned portable, is impressively equipped for the money, but anemic performance numbers spoiled its shot at the chart. This month we also looked at WinBook's new X2 ($2399), the follow-on to the company's thin and light X1. The X2 manages to pack a bigger hard drive and a new TV-out port without increasing its 5.3-pound weight. But it still lacks some standard features, such as a modular bay, found in rivals like the IBM ThinkPad T23 and the Acer TravelMate 600 series.