Having decided to forego the usual Xmas presents this year, my boyfriend and I decided to go in on a laptop together.

I am an avid online shopper and do price/feature comparisons on everything I buy. When I started investigating laptops, I had to weigh features I needed vs what I wanted. Then I found a description of the HP N5425. This notebook has a 20GB hard drive, 256MB RAM, DVD/CD Burner Combo, PCMCIA slots, 2 USB ports, serial & parallel, PS/2, comes loaded with XP and has a very fast Athlon 4 processor. This laptop has everything I want for a low price. Plus, HP has a $100 rebate through February 2002.

The only downside I found was the weight. I think it is around 7lbs. For me, this is not an issue because I'll mostly be using it at home.

After doing price comparison online, I found that Best Buy and Circuit City had very good prices. Most of the online retailers include the rebate in their price, so make sure you find out whether you are being quoted the before or after rebate price.

I've had this laptop for over a week now and it has been perfect. No lockups, even after I've loaded a ton of software onto it. I've used it to watch DVDs in my bedroom (it has video and audio out that I hooked into the RCA ports on my VCR). We also installed a Linksys Wireless PC Card, so I can access our cable modem internet connection. It works like a charm! I haven't even booted up my old monstrous desktop computer since I got this sweetie.

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 1299
Operating System: Windows
Processor: AMD Athlon (K7)
Processor speed: 801-900
Screen Size: 14
RAM: 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 13-20