Voodoo HP Voodoo Envy 152

The M:152 is light for a power laptop at 6.9 pounds, and it offers several outstanding features, such as a rewritable DVD drive. The 15.4-inch, 1680-by-1050-pixel screen is extra-bright, and the keyboard boasts a touch-sensitive panel that launches common applications at the tap of a finger.

For people who like to jazz it up, the M:152 is available in 22 different colors ranging from conservative dark hues to shades like our unit's Bacalou Red ($660 extra). Tattoos--lid logos, such as unicorns or flowers--cost several hundred dollars more. (Ours came with the Voodoo Classic, which looks like some sort of family crest.) The four coats of hand-mixed automobile paint (according to the Voodoo site) give the notebook exterior a hard, shiny die-cast feel like that of a Matchbox car, and the finish makes some of the stamped words and icons hard to read.

The bottom line for well-heeled gamers: Unless you need the HP Voodoo Envy M:152's appealing weight and battery life, you might want to think twice about spending your dollars on this laptop and instead opt for a heavier but faster gaming portable such as the desktop-quad-core-equipped Eurocom D900C Phantom-X.

--Carla Thornton