HP Pavilion N5445

WHAT'S HOT: The Pavilion N5445, a handsome consumer laptop--with a bluish-gray case, a silver lid, and black hinges--sports strong stereo speakers and glow-in-the-dark audio controls. Buttons on the front let you play, pause, and eject audio CDs, all without requiring the notebook itself to be on. When you press other buttons, an LCD panel shows the remaining track time, the date, or the percentage of notebook battery life left. Headphones conveniently plug into the front. All we'd ask for is a mute button and a volume toggle that doesn't require repeated pressing.

When it's time to get to work, four programmable shortcut buttons above the keyboard launch favorite files, applications, or Web sites. Typists prone to accidentally repositioning the cursor will like the N5445's pad lock, a button that disables the touchpad. Unlike the Pavilion N5430, a lower-priced sibling we reviewed several months ago, the N5445 turned in above-average battery life: 3 hours, 35 minutes (as opposed to less than 2 hours for the N5430).

WHAT'S NOT: The N5445 is a tad heavy, at 8.6 pounds including the AC adapter, and you'll have to ship the entire notebook to a service center for hard drive upgrades or for repairs. HP could also be more generous with support--the company cuts off telephone support (a toll call) after only 90 days, and covers parts and labor for one year.

WHAT ELSE: The optical drive (a DVD-ROM/CD-RW combination drive in our review unit) and the floppy drive are fixed, and cannot be swapped for other devices. Most of the connections reside on the back, including two USB ports and two nice extras for DVD movie or digital video editing buffs: a video-out port for using a TV as a monitor and an IEEE 1394 port for high-speed downloads from digital camcorders. The keyboard felt a little shallow, but it's nicely laid out, with generously sized command keys and a separate scroll toggle located between the mouse buttons.

The N5445 comes with Microsoft Works, several 3D games, and excellent electronic documentation, including a useful reference guide. The N5445's PC WorldBench 4 score of 94 is a tad lower than what we would expect from a 1.06-GHz/733-MHz Pentium III-M system with 256MB of RAM.

UPSHOT: Consumers and small businesses in the market for a workaday laptop capable of after-hours fun will enjoy this nicely priced entry from HP. Downsides are the brief vendor support and the lack of major business applications.

SUMMARY

HP Pavilion N5445 PC WorldBench 4 score of 94, 1.06-GHz/733-MHz Pentium III-M CPU, 256MB of SDRAM, 512KB L2 cache, Windows XP Home, 15-inch active-matrix screen, Intel 830MG graphics using main memory, 20GB hard drive, 8X DVD-ROM and 8X/4X/24X CD-RW combination drive, built-in V.90 modem and network adapter, touchpad pointing device, 8.6 pounds (including AC adapter and phone cord). One-year parts and labor warranty, free 24-hour toll-call technical support limited to 90 days. $1649 800/752-0900 www.hp.com