Gateway's M210 notebooks are the company's thin and light widescreen portable computers. Starting at $849, the M210 weighs just over five pounds, but still offers a 14.1-inch widescreen TFT display. You can get an Ultrabright version of that display for an additional $19, giving you a brighter image for movies or just working on the desktop.

Processor power starts with only a 1.3GHz Celeron M processor, although you can step up to a 1.5GHz Pentium M CPU for $159. There's also only 256MB of memory at baseline--most users will want to make the $79 jump up to 512MB to avoid multitasking slowdowns. (The higher-end M210XL starts out with a 1.7GHz Pentium M CPU and 512MB of memory, but it also has a $1,300 sticker price.)

A good amount of room for the average notebook user, 40 MB, is available at the starting price. You can beef that up to 60GB for $39, to 80GB for $69, or max it out at 100GB for $159.

The default optical drive is only a plain CD-ROM at the budget price, so if you want to play DVDs or burn to disks, you'll have to upgrade. A combo 24X/10X/24X CD-RW and DVD-ROM drive is only $30 over baseline, while an 8X DVD+/-RW drive is $80 and lets you burn to DVD.

There's no floppy drive on the M210 line, but there is a 4-in-1 media card reader for plugging in flash memory cards from your PDA or digital camera. A modem, network interface, and 802.11b/g wireless card are all integrated, letting you connect to the Internet in a myriad of ways.

The integrated graphics share memory with the main system RAM, so the M210 series isn't great for gaming. But you do get Microsoft Works 8.0, a basic office suite, so you can get some work done on the road. If you rely on Microsoft Office, you can upgrade to the Basic Edition of Microsoft Office 2003 (which includes Word, Excel, and Outlook) for $130.

While you may be tempted to upgrade, Gateway's M210 series of thin and light notebooks is still a great deal, and these systems are easy on the eyes and on the back when carrying them.

Pros: Widescreen display, light and thin
Cons: 90-day limited warranty

Warranty
90-day limited