Averatec 3150P Notebook Computer

WHAT'S HOT: The $1025, silver-tone Averatec 3150P is small and lightweight, yet surprisingly easy to type on. It weighs 4.5 pounds (not including the power adapter), but its squarish case is relatively deep at 9.7 inches (only about an inch less than the width), so it has room for a keyboard that's more comfortable than what ultraportables usually have. The long and skinny keys look a little odd, but the extra length makes them easier to press than the Chiclet-size keys on other small notebooks. The keyboard feels shallow--typical for the class--but it's solid and boasts a fine layout, except for an extrasmall backspace key.

The oval mouse and scrolling buttons work well in conjunction with the large touchpad. The 3150P has built-in 802.11b Wi-Fi wireless networking, with a handy on/off switch on the left side above the PC Card slot. A DVD-ROM/CD-RW combination drive is fixed on the right side.

WHAT'S NOT: The 30GB hard drive is not meant to be user accessible. To reach it you must remove multiple screws and the entire base of notebook--and doing so will void your warranty, according to the company. (Averatec doesn't provide an upgrade service.) System memory, on the other hand, is easy to access. A base 128MB of RAM is part of the motherboard, and a single expansion slot sits on the bottom of the motherboard under a panel held by two screws. With only one slot, however, you may have to discard older RAM in order to upgrade.

WHAT ELSE: Peripheral connections are basic, with three USB 2.0 ports on the right side of the slim case and an external monitor port on the left. The modem connection is an XJack-style pop-out, which offers the advantage of a built-in cover but the disadvantage of being easy to snag on something and break.

The bar-shaped battery, which forms the back of the unit, pops off easily. But Averatec doesn't offer a high-capacity replacement--usually an option for this type of notebook. Fortunately, the 3150P ran a near-average 2.8 hours in our battery test, a fairly impressive score for an ultraportable notebook. The 3150P, equipped with a 1.4-GHz Athlon XP-M 1600+, also did well in our performance tests, earning a PC WorldBench 4 score of 94; it has more than enough power for the e-mail, Web surfing, and document work that veterans of the road typically do.

We liked the bright 12.1-inch screen (with a native resolution of 1024 by 768) and the convenient volume-control thumbwheel on the front of the notebook. However, the speakers mounted on the wrist rest sounded faint.

Documentation is merely sufficient for getting by. The only print material included is the one-sheet Quick Start Guide. The installed Acrobat (Portable Document Format) manual is more detailed, but the table of contents has neither page numbers nor hyperlinks, so looking for information requires a lot of tedious scrolling.

UPSHOT: Lightweight, easy to type on (albeit with practice necessary for pressing the backspace key), and sufficiently swift, the Averatec 3150P is a good, inexpensive option for frugal travelers.