HP Pavilion ze5300

WHAT ELSE: The case, dark-gray and silver, is user friendly. You'll have no trouble accessing the hard drive, which you can pull out the front of the case after you remove three safety screws. A multitude of shortcut buttons provide convenience; one on the front lets you switch off the built-in 802.11b wireless system to save battery life, and five programmable quick-launch buttons above the keyboard save time. A touchpad lock--a popular feature on HP portables--disables the cursor for hassle-free typing.

Though we haven't tested any identically configured notebooks with which we can compare it, the Ze5300 is not a stellar performer, given its hardware. Achieving a PC WorldBench 4 score of 108, the 2.8-GHz Pentium 4-equipped Ze5300 landed behind a similarly configured Amax Elite 6033D that posted a score of 115. Both of these notebooks used desktop CPUs, but the Ze5300's score was more comparable to the average score of 109 that we recorded for systems running 2.4-GHz Pentium 4-M processors.

The Ze5300 has a docking station port on the bottom for attaching to HP's $150 F4811B port replicator, which provides a gaggle of connections, including USB 2.0, serial, parallel, VGA, S-Video, and PS/2 ports, plus an ethernet LAN pass-through port.

UPSHOT: The use of a desktop processor keeps costs down, allowing HP to fit in high-end features such as a DVD burner and a 15-inch screen for under $2000. The trade-off, however, is slightly lower performance and scant battery life.