Gateway 200 933MHz

WHAT ELSE: Otherwise nicely equipped for an ultraportable, the matte-silver 200 features a set of cutting-edge legacy-light connections. Located mostly on the notebook's left side, they include headphone and microphone jacks, one PC Card slot, network and modem jacks, a FireWire port, and one of two USB 1.1 ports. (The second USB port sits on the right along with the monitor connection.)

The 200's battery occupies the back of the notebook. The standard power pack lasted 2.7 hours in our tests--a tad shorter than the average of 3 hours for similarly configured Pentium III-M notebooks, but relatively good for an ultraportable. A convenient exterior gauge estimates the power remaining. Gateway sells a more powerful replacement battery for $149 that should last up to 7 hours, according to the company. Swapping batteries is a snap--just slide two releases on the bottom and tug to disconnect the battery from the back of the notebook.

The 200's light-gray keyboard is easy to read despite its pale white and baby-blue lettering. It also suffers from the usual ultraportable tradeoffs: chiclet-size function keys, some doubled-up keys, and a Tab key no larger than an alphanumeric key. But overall, the layout is comfortable, with hard, shallow typing action and a Delete key perched in the upper right, where it's easy to hit. One lone reprogrammable Internet shortcut button sits above the keyboard.

Directly beneath the keyboard's touchpad and two stiff mouse buttons are two small outlets for the notebook's stereo speakers. Although eye-catching for their unusual placement, the duo produces the same low and tinny sound that usually emanates from one speaker. You get another set of stereo speakers on the docking station, but they're just as weak. The docking station also adds two more USB 1.1 ports (for a total of four), another FireWire port (for a total of two), a S/PDIF port, and serial, parallel, and PS/2 connections. The docking station goes on and off with little effort; to remove it, you press a button located on the front between the two drive bays, then use oversized levers on either side to pop the notebook off. The releases for the docking station's two modular bays are on the top of the slice, but since the bays don't accept any other devices (such as a Zip drive), you shouldn't have to remove the notebook very often, if ever, to swap drives.

A solid performer for a notebook using a 933-MHz Pentium III-M processor, the Gateway 200 tallied a PC WorldBench 4 score of 92. Gateway provides its always-excellent user's manual, thick with detailed photos and bonus sections on Windows, the Internet, wireless networks, and troubleshooting. Beyond some very generic information in the Windows Help and Support Center, the 200 has no electronic documentation.

UPSHOT: In the expensive world of ultraportables, Gateway's 200 is an almost-too-good-to-be-true find: a 3-pound notebook with a decked-out docking station for a reasonable price.