HP Compaq EVO N600C

WHAT'S HOT: The Evo N600c weighs just 5.2 pounds (not including the AC adapter or an extra-cost USB floppy drive). It sports Compaq's MultiPort bay in the lid, which in our review unit held an optional, futuristic-looking silver 802.11b wireless module.

You get both eraserhead and touchpad pointing devices, each with its own set of baby-blue mouse buttons. The removable optical drive (a DVD-ROM/CD-RW combination model in our test unit) can be swapped for a Zip 250 drive, an LS-120 (SuperDisk) drive, a second battery, or a second hard drive.

WHAT'S NOT: At $2799, the N600c costs more than other similarly configured notebooks--such as the Dell Inspiron 4100, which has the same processor, memory, and screen size, but costs $2149. Two small screws hold in the panel covering the N600c's memory sockets, and you can remove them only with a Torx screwdriver, which few people have lying around.

Using a 1.2-GHz/800-MHz Pentium III-M CPU and running Windows XP Professional, the Evo N600c fell behind similarly configured laptops in our performance testing; it earned a PC WorldBench 4 score of 97, compared with scores of 113 and 107 for IBM and Dell notebooks, respectively.

WHAT ELSE: Aside from its conspicuous wireless module, the N600c plays it straight in the looks department, with a square black case and a black keyboard with plain white lettering.

For a medium-weight, one-bay laptop, it comes well equipped, offering all standard connections, easy typing (including four shortcut buttons), a composite video-out port, decent sound, volume-control buttons on the front, and accessible components (such as an easy-to-remove hard drive). Battery life is on-the-nose average at a little over 3 hours.

Compaq provides print documentation to help you when you're getting started or troubleshooting, but leaves the detailed stuff to an Acrobat-format user manual on CD-ROM.

UPSHOT: Although nicely equipped for office workers who need an 802.11b wireless-equipped laptop they can share, the Evo N600c seems a tad overpriced, even for a 1.2-GHz/800-MHz Pentium III-M model with a combination drive.

SUMMARY

Compaq Evo N600c PC WorldBench 4 score of 97, 1.2-GHz/800-MHz Pentium III-M CPU, 256MB of RAM, 512MB L2 cache, Windows XP Professional, 14.1-inch active-matrix screen, ATI Radeon Mobility M6 graphics chip with 32MB of DDR SDRAM, 30GB hard drive, 8X DVD-ROM and 8X/8X/24X CD-RW combination drive, built-in V.90 modem and network adapter, touchpad and eraserhead pointing devices, 6.7 pounds (including AC adapter and phone cord). Three-year parts warranty, one-year labor warranty, free 24-hour toll-free technical support. $2799 800/345-1518 www.compaq.com