(MONEY Magazine) – The laptop of luxury

Buying a notebook computer once meant taking a trip down Compromise Lane, past the puny hard drive, tiny screen, cramped keyboard, limited RAM and inferior processor. No more. When it comes to performance and features, today's laptops don't cede anything to their space-hog desktop siblings. In fact, computer makers are bringing innovations to their laptops, not their PCs, and buyers are taking note: As sales of desktops fell in 2000 for the first time ever, according to PC Data, notebook sales increased by 11%. That's why I decided to test out this spring's three hottest new machines: the $2,750 Toshiba Satellite 2805-S402, the $3,600 Sony Vaio PCG-FX190 and the $3,500 Apple Titanium PowerBook G4. With 15-inch liquid crystal display (LCD) screens, DVD or CD-rewritable drives, at least 128MB of RAM and hard drives starting at 20GB, all three can do anything a desktop can do--in a lot less space and with a far sexier look. All are Ethernet ready, so you can hook them up to a high-speed network, and all have one FireWire and two USB ports as well as a 56k internal modem.

True, they're not for the faint of wallet, especially since today you can pay as little as $2,000 for a perfectly good laptop from Dell with similar specs but a slower processor and a smaller monitor--not to mention as little as $1,500 for a similarly equipped PC. But there's something to be said for buying quality. Frankly, these are three of the finest notebooks I've ever tested. Here's why I think you should consider the splurge.

The Game Player: Toshiba Satellite

For the past few years, Toshiba has been the worldwide leader in notebook sales, and this latest model shows why. This Toshiba runs on an 850MHz Pentium III, the fastest notebook processor on the market, and has 128MB of RAM (expandable to 384MB if you outgrow your machine), a 20GB hard drive and an incredibly sharp 15-inch LCD. (For some perspective, consider that a traditional 17-inch PC monitor has less than 16 inches of viewable area.) I found the keyboard comfortable, though I prefer a track pad to Toshiba's point ball.

What really impressed me, though, is the combination DVD/CD-RW drive, which lets you watch movies as well as play and record CDs. The Nvidia GeForce2 Go graphics controller and the crisp Yamaha sound system make this laptop a gamer's delight. I can report that it's fully up to the task of running the graphics-intensive action game Rage of Mages II. At 7.5 pounds, however, it's the heaviest of the bunch, making it more suitable for a buyer who wants a laptop primarily for home, not the road.

The Traveling Theater: Sony Vaio

When Sony introduced its Vaio line of notebooks three years ago, their light weight and good looks made them the toast of the traveling set. Now comes the $3,600 PCG-FX190, a seven-pound notebook with an 850MHz PIII processor, 128MB of RAM (expandable to 512MB), a massive 30GB hard drive and an LCD that, thanks to its thin plastic border, seems larger than its 15-inch size. Add floppy and DVD/CD-RW drives and dual batteries for long trips, and you have a movable multimedia entertainment system. I watched Highlander, the Director's Cut (a guilty pleasure), and it was fantastic. Not HDTV clear, but clear enough so that I didn't have to lean up against the screen to see the action. The movie dialogue and effects sounded great too, thanks to the Intel 3D sound card that provides realistic surround sound.

The Beauty Queen: Apple PowerBook

It's easy to be mesmerized by the slender beauty of Apple's Titanium PowerBook G4. What's most striking is that Apple has changed the screen dimensions. While the other two laptop displays are the standard 12 inches wide by nine inches high (15 inches corner to corner), the G4's screen is 12.5 inches wide by 8.5 inches high (15.2 inches corner to corner). The extra horizontal space comes in handy when you're using Web-page design or video-editing software--both of which often have tool bars along the side.

But the real allure of this 5.3-pound, one-inch-thick notebook lies under the hood. Its 500MHz G4 processor is roughly equivalent to a 750MHz PIII. The $3,500 model I tested came with an astounding 256MB of RAM (upgradeable to 512MB). Because Apple recommends 128MB of RAM to run the new OS X operating system, all that memory is a must. The FireWire port and 30GB hard drive provide enough speed and space to transfer and store home movies.

It's tempting to do nothing but gush about the PowerBook, but I do have one quibble: The first time I loaded a movie, I found that I had to spread the DVD drive's slot open with my fingers to slide the disk out. Apple says that it's not aware of this being a common problem, although I found similar reports about the iMac at www.macfixit.com. Fortunately, I haven't had trouble since.