Laptop Dancing

A plane trip is one of the few occasions when you can spend uninterrupted quality time with your computer. No phones, no spur-of-the-moment meetings. Just the chance to focus. And because the airplane now doubles as an office, it's also a great place to procrastinate. Who's to say you can't slip the director's cut of Blade Runner into your DVD-ROM drive? The best portable computers can put the business of a Fortune 500 company in your lap one minute and a cinema, arcade or alien battlefield the next. In fact, with lightning-fast processors, crystal-clear screens, giant hard drives, speedy network and modem connections and surprisingly good stereo sound, new-generation notebooks rival the best desktop machines. Yet, buying one still means deciding how much weight you want to carry (anything more than five pounds can get heavy fast). Do you need a big screen or a compact case? Wading through the thousands of configurations from dozens of manufacturers can be a huge time suck. Because time is what your machine is supposed to save, we've selected the top four notebook computers on the market (plus a few runners-up). Those that made the cut were judged on everything from performance to ease of use to tech support to portability. The good news: Power differences among the winners are insignificant; they're all major workhorses and play horses—complete with DVD-ROM drives and 56kbps modems. And all the respective manufacturers make troubleshooting painless with toll-free customer-support lines that offer just the right amount of hand-holding. These are the similarities. But each computer also has unique features that have earned it a spot in our ranking, which we detail here and highlight (along with important technical specs) in the accompanying chart. It's a sure bet that if you choose any one of the four notebooks we've selected, you'll want to book extra flying time just to allow yourself to get better acquainted.

The brawny and the beautiful

Apple PowerBook G3 (300 MHz DVD) ($3700): Apple nearly died two years ago, but its new PowerBook G3 notebooks prove resurrections can be moving experiences. The world's fastest portable computer, the PowerBook gets its speed from the IBM/Motorola PowerPC chip. It sports a jumbo 14.1-inch screen that's as bright as a TV set, which is great for presentations and even better for movies. Apple built in a DVD drive (all of the top four machines we review here have them). A touch-pad control device makes getting around easy (compared to the tedious pointing sticks on some of the competition). And while the PowerBook G3 is ideally suited to those in Apple's niche—designers, publishers, musicians, website builders and users of big video files—it's possible to have a Windows-based PC at the office and effectively take the PowerBook on the road. Apple's operating system makes swapping files between Windows and Mac machines easy, while the reverse (opening Mac-created documents on a PC) is not true. Further, you can purchase programs, such as SoftWindows, that let you run PC games and application software on the Mac. Of course, as with many notebooks, application software is sold separately, thus jacking up the cost of the notebook by hundreds of dollars. Still, the PowerBook G3 is an impressive piece of equipment. And with its cool rubbery black case, it's a supremely hip accessory that will generate envious stares.

IBM ThinkPad 770Z ($5100): IBM offers Windows users the best cure for Apple envy with its ThinkPad 770Z. It, too, has a large screen (13.7 inches), probably the best on any notebook, and audio pumped from the small speakers is surprisingly full and bright. But the best feature of the ThinkPad 770Z is its keyboard, with keys nearly the size of those on a standard desktop model, all ergonomically arranged to avert the digital gymnastics other notebook makers require of busy hands. The best machines in the Windows universe run on Mobile Intel Pentium II chips, and this one is no exception. Powered by the 366 MHz processor, the ThinkPad 770Z can handle even the most taxing multimedia chores, including running DVD movies smoothly rather than in the herky-jerky, often grainy fashion common on less powerful machines. At almost eight pounds, the machine is a real backbreaker over the long haul, and its large size won't let you work comfortably on a coach-class tray table. But if you want the most muscle, you have to bulk up. A warning: The ThinkPad 770Z, as with all the machines covered here, promises more battery life than it usually delivers. Fast chips, bright screens, big sound and quick drives gobble up more power than a Death Valley air conditioner. Don't expect more than two hours of power if you insist on running multimedia without external juice—no matter what the manual states.

Honorable Mentions: The Compaq Armada 7400 and the Toshiba Satellite 4080XCDT match most of the features (concluded on page 160)Laptops(continued from page 126) of the ThinkPad 770Z (with adequate though less awesome screens, and no DVD on the Satellite) but for a lot less money, at about $3200 to start.

Lean and mean

Gateway Solo 3100XL ($3150): Gateway calls its Solo 3100XL the Fire Ant. Like its namesake, this notebook is compact, light and uncompromising. Weighing in at 5.2 pounds, it's about as long and wide as a piece of notebook paper and only slightly thicker than an average issue of Playboy. Its 12.1-inch screen may seem small, but it's the biggest one in a machine this size. Powered by a 366 MHz processor, the Fire Ant runs faster than most other computers with the same brain. So how does Gateway keep the computer's weight down? By building in just one slot for removable disks and letting you choose to fill it with either a CD-ROM drive or the more expensive DVD drive. Another trade-off in choosing lightweight computers is that you have to hook up a variety of separate pieces—speakers, floppy drives, CD-ROM and DVD spinners—to make them as functional as their bigger kin. Besides being easy to forget when packing, most of these add-on devices seem too flimsy for travel. Fortunately, the Fire Ant is more self-contained than any other small notebook. That the floppy drive is separate (it attaches to the machine's parallel port) is no big deal for Net savvy guys, for files can be easily transferred over online networks.

Compaq Presario 1900-366 ($3050): Although it is slightly heftier than the Gateway Fire Ant, Compaq's Presario 1900-366 sports another inch of screen and better speakers. It also comes with a small wedge-shaped detachable docking station that fits under the back of the computer and gives it all the drives and ports you'd find on a good desktop computer. Shed the wedge and the 1900-366 drops to five pounds. The Compaq has a touch pad as its pointing device, which (as we mentioned) is a big improvement over the temperamental and sometimes hard to control pointing sticks in the middle of the keyboards of the other machines. Another thoughtful innovation: Compaq has built special keys into the keyboard that make accessing and navigating the Internet one-button operations, including one that instantly opens your e-mail.

Honorable Mention: Sony's VAIO C1 PictureBook (about $2300) doesn't have as much muscle as the competition, but it packs a terrific one-touch punch. Built into the computer's lid is a camera that can shoot digital still photos or record up to 60 seconds of video. The lens flips from back to front so you can capture your own image or whatever stands before you. Although the PictureBook is minute, the keyboard is an acquired taste. This computer is so small—2.5 pounds and an 8.9-inch screen—that it will tempt you to steal state secrets.

Where & How to buy on page 166.