Whoever came up with the term "portable computer" has a lot of explaining to do.

Imagine that you're racing through a busy airport...running to catch the 7:15 a.m. train...scrambling into the backseat of a taxi for a meeting downtown. You've got a briefcase brimming with papers in one hand, a raincoat and garment bag in the other. Add to your load an 8-pound laptop computer -- an object, we should point out, that's as heavy as a newborn, a tad sturdier than a dozen eggs and as bulky as the "Aardvark to Belize" volume of the encyclopedia. And now ask yourself these two very important questions: 1) Where is your plane ticket/train ticket/10 dollar bill for cabfare? and 2) How on earth are you going to get it?

All right, you say, so an 8-pound computer isn't portable. But don't the new, supersleek, ultralight notebooks weigh in at just 5 pounds? That they do -- but you might think twice about buying a slim-jim notebook that won't let you run the software you require because it has no internal CD-ROM drive. Or one that won't let you save your critical 40-page document onto a disk because, well, there's no floppy drive. Sure it's portable, but why buy a computer that doesn't do the whole job?

So, should you forget about buying a laptop altogether? Absolutely not. But before you reach for your credit card, it's worth taking a moment to consider why it is you need a notebook computer in the first place. For most people, that answer has little to do with processing data at a lightning-quick 300 megahertz (MHz) or opening four different spreadsheet programs at once. It's not about the jazziest, speediest and priciest technology out there -- though that's what most laptop ads would have you believe. It's simply about being able to work on the road effectively without having to drag your whole office along on a shoulder strap. Chances are, what you need isn't so much a laptop but a "portable desktop."

With that in mind, we set out to find the notebook computers that could truly earn the title.