Performance is where the Vostro 1510 sets itself apart from the crowd. It scored a 520.8 on the Passmark Performance test -- 50% better than the HP Compaq 6735b, and it ran on its battery for 3 hours and 10 minutes -- 50 minutes longer than the Satellite Pro 300D. Its ability to move 15.9Mbit/sec over its Wi-Fi link was middle-of-the-pack, but it stayed connected 120 feet from the router, the farthest in this group of business notebooks.

The system comes with Microsoft's Vista Business Basic, Works Plus and McAfee's Total Security application with a 15-month subscription. Dell backs the system with a one-year warranty; extending that to three years of coverage costs just $80, half the price of some of the others.

Overall, the Vostro 1510 has it all: an enviable profile, light weight, top performance and long battery life, all for $782, the lowest price of the group. It's not perfect, however, because of the absence of Bluetooth and a fingerprint scanner; but add those, and the system sells for $827, still a bargain price. It's as close to a perfect companion for mobile workers on a tight budget as I've seen.

HP Compaq 6735b

HP's Compaq 6735b is a hard notebook to pigeonhole. While it doesn't deliver peak performance, battery life or Bluetooth, it can connect to the latest Wi-Fi networks, has a modem and an old-school serial port as well as the best graphics in the bunch.