Intel may have introduced its long-awaited mobile Pentium 4 (or Pentium 4 processor-M, as the chipmaker officially calls it), but some travelers aren't content with a mere 1.7GHz of portable power. So direct vendor WinBook Corp. has introduced two new notebook series, one with the mobile P4 and one with sufficient cooling to accommodate the desktop Pentium 4 at its current peak of 2.2GHz -- and higher speeds planned for the near future.

Positioned as a new standard for corporate portability, the 7.8-pound WinBook N4 combines the mobile Pentium 4 with Intel's 845MP chipset and up to 512MB of memory; Nvidia's GeForce2 Go and 16MB of DDR display memory back a 15-inch, active-matrix display with 1,400 by 1,050 SXGA+ resolution.

A model with a 1.6GHz CPU, 256MB of SDRAM, 30GB hard disk, and DVD-ROM drive is $1,977; stepping up to a 1.7GHz processor, 512MB of memory, 40GB hard disk, DVD/CD-RW combo drive, and Windows XP Professional (instead of Home Edition) raises the price to $2,894.

For a no-compromise desktop replacement, the WinBook J4 pairs Intel's desktop Pentium 4 (with up to 1GB of SDRAM) with ATI's game-blazing Mobile Radeon 7500 graphics accelerator with 64MB of DDR; the 15-inch LCD features 1,400 by 1,050 resolution, with a 1,600 by 1,200 option coming soon. WinBook boasts that the 8.4-pound laptop's thermal design keeps the CPU cooler than on notebooks designed for the mobile P4, so the chip's automatic excess-heat throttling slowdown will rarely if ever occur.

Dual full-duplex DirectSound channels, S/PDIF audio output, and one FireWire plus four USB ports make the J4 a gamer's delight. A system with a 1.6GHz processor, 256MB of memory, 20GB hard disk, DVD, and onboard Ethernet starts at $1,699, while a 2.2GHz speedster with 512MB, a 40GB hard disk, DVD/CD-RW drive, and built-in 802.11b wireless networking is $3,194.