These days, $1000 lands you a pretty well rounded budget laptop. You can easily get 2GB of memory, 120GB or more of hard disk space, 802.11b/g wireless networking, and dedicated multimedia shortcut keys that let you watch DVDs or view documents without booting into Windows. The Acer and Dell laptops in our list even sported HDMI connections, extras we didn't expect at this price point. See the next slide for our Best Buy.
1. Designer Looks: HP Pavilion dv2660se
The $900 HP Pavilion dv2660se offers strictly middling performance, but its exceptional battery life and a great design make it our winning laptop under $1000. The notebook's WorldBench 6 score of 67 is significantly lower than the high-eighties marks of some portables with the latest mobile chips, but it's not bad for a budget machine. Though the 14.1-inch, 1280-by-800-pixel screen could be a tad brighter, it's easy enough to read. Nice extras include a bundled copy of Microsoft Works 8.5, and the ability to play a CD or DVD without first launching Windows. The dv2660se also has upgrade potential thanks to a side connection (one that all Pavilion laptops have) for HP's xb3000 Notebook Expansion Base.
2. Got Game: Acer Aspire 5920-6954
Except for business applications, which it lacks, the $999, 7.2-pound Aspire 5920-6954 has just about everything that price-conscious home-office buyers could ask for. It includes a 250GB hard drive and both an HDMI port and an HD DVD reader. It also has a subwoofer for better-than-average sound and a handy volume wheel. The terrific keyboard boasts loads of useful shortcut buttons, including one to play music or movies without first launching Windows. This is also the only sub-$1000 laptop here with a dedicated graphics chip: an nVidia GeForce 8600M GS with 256MB of memory. The Aspire posted a solid WorldBench 6 score of 70 (the second best in this group), and its battery life was average at 3.8 hours.
3. Built to Order: Dell Inspiron 1525
Like the excellent HP Pavilion dv2600se, this $999, 15.4-inch Dell has lots of entertainment features: an instant-on button, a Webcam, and even dual headphone jacks. The 1525's MediaDirect button also lets you view your calendar, contacts, and PowerPoint presentations--without booting into Windows. Our test model paired 2GB of memory and a 2-GHz Core 2 Duo T7250 CPU to produce a WorldBench 6 score of 78; that's 17 percent faster than the average score of 65 posted by the five models in this slide show. With the battery upgraded from the standard four-cell to a six-cell ($15 extra), our unit lasted just over 4 hours on a charge. Though you get only basic integrated graphics, the Inspiron 1525 does include an HDMI connection for HDTVs. And an important difference between this and most other inexpensive laptops: You can customize it down to the smallest detail--even the lid color--before finally clicking the 'Buy Now' button.
