WinBook says its new W500 Series laptops are as much as 12 percent cheaper than comparable notebooks from the likes of Dell and Gateway, but don't sacrifice features along the way. Even the $1,000 WinBook W515 comes with 512MB of DDR333, an 80GB hard drive, DVD±RW drive, and Intel's Pro/Wireless 2915 802.11a/b/g WiFi controller.

Both the W515 -- which uses Intel's Pentium M 725 (1.6GHz) processor -- and WinBook W535 -- which steps up to a Pentium M 740 (1.73GHz) -- are 6.1-pound, pewter-finished portables with 15.4-inch-diagonal widescreen (1,280 by 800) displays backed by Intel's 915 video chipset. In addition to its faster CPU, the $1,300 model W535 offers a 100GB hard disk and Windows XP Professional instead of Home Edition. Six USB 2.0 plus Ethernet and modem ports; VGA, DVI, and S-Video output; and a 3-in-1 flash-card reader are standard on both notebooks.