Battery life: While running an Internet radio station via Wi-Fi with the audio set to three quarters of full volume, I used Passmark's Battery Monitor software to chart the battery's capacity as each system was run down and to save the time at which it shut down.

Wi-Fi: Using a Linksys WRT54GS router and the , I measured each notebook's wireless throughput with a Dell server via a Wi-Fi wireless link at 15 feet. The test ran for one minute, and the average data movement was recorded.

Next, I started up an Internet radio station and walked away from the Wi-Fi router with the notebook in hand. I measured the spot farthest from the router where it remained connected.

Corporate Work: Using a wireless link, I played an online PowerPoint presentation with video and opened a complicated 2.5MB Acrobat file. Finally, I collected and sent e-mail using Gmail and either Outlook or Windows Mail, depending on what came with the system.

Conclusions