Dell Inspiron 4150

WHAT'S HOT: This value-priced model's inclusion of dual pointing devices--both a touchpad and an eraserhead--gives typists a welcome choice.

WHAT'S NOT: Aside from offering a video-out port, which is useful for attaching a TV, the 4150 isn't much of a multimedia machine. The mediocre-quality built-in speakers, with grilles on the case sides, could be stronger and richer.

WHAT ELSE: Earning a PC WorldBench 4 score of 98, the 4150's speed was among the best we've seen for a 1.8-GHz Pentium 4-M laptop running Windows XP. A ringer for its predecessor, the Inspiron 4100, the 4150 keeps the line's pleasingly trim and sensible design. The 4150 also inherited good battery life; in our tests it lasted just a couple of minutes shy of 3 hours on one charge.

The components are easily accessible; the hard drive is held in by only one screw on the bottom of the notebook, and both the modular bay and the battery bay are located on the front. You can gain the use of a modular bay for an extra battery or hard disk by passing on the standard floppy drive--which carries a $20 value--and opting instead to pay an extra $10 for an 8MB DiskOnKey USB flash-storage device from M-Systems. DiskOnKey plugs directly into the notebook's USB port and requires no drivers when used with Windows Me or later. Unfortunately, Dell's listed price of $30 for the DiskOnKey (as a stand-alone option, rather than a $10 upgrade from the floppy drive) is rather high--competing USB memory drives start at $30 for twice as much storage.