The Acer TravelMate 8000 is a little heavy, but if you don't travel often, it's hard to beat this 6.6-pound portable. It comes loaded with a 15-inch display; an ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 graphics chip; a fast 60GB, 7,200-rpm hard drive; Bluetooth connectivity; 802.11g wireless; and even a dual-format DVD-RW burner.

The TravelMate has a full set of ports: four USB 2.0, one FireWire, one VGA, and one S-Video, plus an audio line-in jack. It's also the only notebook in our roundup with DVI-I. Security-conscious organizations will like the smart-card feature, which limits access to the system. We're not completely sold on Acer's ergonomic keyboard: The keys are arranged in a slight curve, resembling a smile, and it takes some getting used to.

Thanks to its high-end components, the TravelMate turned in the best Business Winstone score (22.2). Its BatteryMark score was also impressive, at 5 hours 12 minutes.

Acer doesn't have many options for fleet buyers, but it does offer a port replicator ($99) that works with most of the TravelMate line, including the tablet. The AC adapter is compatible with fewer models in the line. Acer also offers the same OS image across all its products.

The TravelMate may not be ideal for some big IT programs that want lots of choices, but for small businesses and individuals, it's a robust bargain.