Digital Trends

HP wants you to know that you don't have to spend big money to get a 15.4-inch LCD screen and Vista in a notebook.

There's no denying that a portion of the notebook-using population is all about cramming as much processing, storage, and graphics power (and, um, heat emission) into as small a package as possible—or having the latest Santa Rosa design—but there's also a (dare we say larger) portion of the notebook-using population who just needs to get basic computing tasks accomplished while on the go, and doesn't want to have a heart attack if, for instance, a beloved portable should get bumped off the edge of a table and fid itself in a thousand bright, shiny pieces all over the floor.

These days, going for an inexpensive notebook computer doesn't necessarily mean foregoing all the creature comforts, though, and Hewlett-Packard hopes to win over a few converts with its new budget-minded HP 530 notebook series. the new 530s take the place of the 510 toward the low end of HPs PC offerings, and sport a 15.4 inch LCD display, 512 MB of RAM, an 80 GB hard drive, and integrated 802.11b/g Wi-Fi wireless networking.

The $549 model features an 1.46 Ghz Intel Celeron processor on a 533 MHz frontside bus with 1 MB of L2 cache, a DVD/CD-RW combo drive, and Windows Vista Home Basic. (We know computing enthusiasts won't find that very exciting—but just imagine what your grandmother might think!). Stepping up to the $699 model will get you a 1.6 Ghz Core Duo T2050 processor with 2 MB of L2 cache, a DVD±RW double layer DVD burner, and Windows Vista Business. Again, not something you'd bring as a big gun to a LAN party, but more than enouh to keep up with the office rumor mill while you're sipping a latte at a Wi-Fi hotspot.