Gateway M250E

The M250E's black keyboard with easy-to-read white and blue lettering exudes simple elegance, including a stretch (wider than normal) touchpad and a bisected chrome bar that serves as mouse buttons. The M250 is not a very loud laptop, but the audio from the stereo speakers on the front bottom of the notebook (where low rubber feet raise it off the desk) produce pretty good sound quality.

In our speed tests the 2.13-GHz Pentium M 770-equipped M250E performed fairly well, earning a respectable WorldBench 5 score of 82. When it's time to upgrade, the M250E's single open SODIMM slot is easily accessible; so is the hard drive. Both sit behind plates on the bottom of the notebook that are held in place by single screws.

For managing cables on your desktop, Gateway sells a $139 port replicator that plugs into a dedicated port on the left side of the M250E to provide three additional USB 2.0 ports; parallel, serial, FireWire, and 10/100 Ethernet ports; and a VGA port for connecting an external monitor. The included Microsoft Works 8 application bundle will take care of most of your work needs, or you can upgrade to Office Basic Edition for an additional $129. Gateway also bundles pretty good documentation, including a bonus booklet on how to set up a wireless network.

Upshot: Consumers and students with some extra money to spend on a nice little wide screen with fantastic battery life should run, not walk, to the Gateway M250E.

Carla Thornton