EMachines M5305

WHAT'S HOT: A wide-aspect screen and a slim case are highlights of the black-and-silver EMachines M5305. The 15.4-inch display, with a native 1280 by 800 resolution, excels not only as an extrawide work monitor but also as a great after-hours movie screen. DVD action is big and smooth--gone are the black letterbox bands you see on standard notebooks. To accommodate the screen, the notebook itself is also wide, nearly 14 inches across, but it's only 1.5 inches thick and weighs just 6.6 pounds (without the power adapter). The M5305 is also inexpensive for a big-screen notebook, priced at only $1250 at the time we reviewed it.

WHAT'S NOT: The stereo audio is as disappointing as the screen is impressive: Tonal quality is acceptable, but the sound is too weak for you to watch a movie without headphones. In addition, the power adapter is a little difficult to properly seat on the back of the notebook.

WHAT ELSE: Bright blue status LEDs add a bit of dash to the dark case, which features all the expected connections, including a parallel port for older printers and three USB 2.0 ports for the latest peripherals. A FireWire port is not available, however, nor is built-in wireless networking. The businesslike design has a row of six square buttons at the top for controlling volume and launching applications and Web pages.

You can easily reach all the parts, including the hard drive, which you can pull out of the left side when you remove one screw and a cover. The 2.8-hour battery life is typical of the notebooks we test; the DVD-ROM/CD-RW combination drive is fixed, so carrying two batteries at once is not an option. Typing on the M5305's large, perfectly level keyboard is fairly simple, though the keys jiggle a bit.

The touchpad is unusually wide to accommodate a separate vertical scroll area. Documentation includes a nice trifold poster for learning the basics, as well as a slim user manual (lacking an index) that covers the rest. Microsoft Works and Money 2003 come in the box. EMachines provides no electronic manual.

The M5305 earned a score of 109 on our PC WorldBench 4 benchmark. We haven't tested any other notebooks equipped with the 1.8-GHz Athlon XP-M 2200+, but the M5305 certainly has enough power for typical business applications.

UPSHOT: Lack of powerful sound prevents the EMachines M5305 from starring as the perfect after-hours DVD player, but it does offer consumers and small businesses solid performance and the luxury of an extrawide screen for a budget price.