The company's site says "Mobile Theater," not "Media Center PC"; shoppers need to be clear that the new Averatec 6200 runs Windows XP Home Edition, not Media Center Edition 2004, and doesn't have a TV tuner for watching or DVD burner for recording shows.

What the $1,250 notebook does have is the ability to play movies or music without booting Windows at all: Buttons on its front edge, on either side of a small backlit minute-counter LCD like that of a VCR, let you use the Athlon XP-M 2400+ computer as a personal DVD or CD player. So does a diminutive remote control shaped to store in the system's PC Card slot.

You don't get symphonic sound from the usual tiny, tinny laptop speakers, but you get an eminently DVD-worthy wide-aspect-ratio (1,280 by 800 resolution), 15.4-inch display. What's more, Averatec boasts that you can watch three 90-minute movies on one charge of the battery -- and, upsetting all precedent of notebook vendors' battery-life claims, you can: We didn't make it all the way through our third DVD, since we did a lot of replaying and jumping around in scenes or chapters, but we watched flicks for four hours and 40 minutes before a beeping alarm drowned out the dialogue.

The DVD experience had some frustrations: While the remote lets you play, pause, jump forward or backward by chapter or by a few seconds, or shift into fast forward or reverse, we couldn't find a way to get back to a DVD's main menu without stopping and restarting altogether. Worse, our test unit alternately obeyed and ignored the remote -- maybe the business-card-sized controller's button battery lacks the oomph of a regular TV or Media Center remote's AAs, or maybe it was just finicky about aiming and pushing buttons properly, but it swung between working perfectly and taking a dozen tries to register a button press.

But for simply watching, as opposed to getting fancy with, a DVD, the 6200 makes a pleasant plane-ride partner -- a laptop alternative to the airline's pay-per-view flick, then a capable laptop PC for typing a few e-mails, with 802.11g wireless connectivity to send 'em when you land.

Bulky But Not Heavy

We should note that your airplane seatmates won't have to listen to your film of choice, since microphone and headphone jacks are found on the Averatec's front edge, next to the LCD and volume up/down, play/pause, previous/next track, stop/eject, control menu, and power buttons for the DVD/CD player.

The PC Card/remote control slot is on the right, as are S-Video, VGA, and two USB 2.0 ports and a ventilation opening -- the 6200 gets noticeably warm during a day's lap work. Two more USB ports share the system's left side with modem and Ethernet ports and the LiteOn DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive; as with most middleweight and slimline notebooks nowadays, there is no floppy drive.

At 10 by 14 by 1.2 inches, the notebook didn't fit into our briefcase's laptop compartment, but at an even 6 pounds it was no burden in our gym bag. The AC adapter weighs just under 1 pound.