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When the first personal computer  became popular in the 1970s, manufacturers had a lofty goal  of producing one that cost less than US$1,000.

The so-called sub-US$1,000 PC eventually become a reality, but only after years of development and price drops.

Today, many models are near the US$1,000 mark, but it's a different story for notebook computers. As recently as last year, there were hardly any notebooks costing less than $10,000.

So I was pretty amazed to come across  a notebook from Stamp selling for less than $5,000.

The list price of the Stamp M360S is $4,980, making it the lowest priced notebook on the market today.

Its specifications won't impress most users, but it should run most common applications fairly well.

The M360S is powered by an Intel Celeron-M 1.2GHz processor, 256MB of DDR RAM and a 40GB hard disk drive. It also comes with a combo drive that can read and write CDs and a sizable 35cm LCD display.

It also comes with an assortment of ports, including a LAN port for  broadband connection, a 56K modem and a PCMCIA card slot if you want to put in a wireless connection, which is not built in.

With these components, the Stamp will run your web browser and word processing software quite well, but  memory-intensive or graphic applications -

such as 3-D games or photo manipulation software  such as Photoshop - might be a struggle.

The M360S isn't intended for  power users, but if  you want a computer primarily for   browsing the internet,  checking your e-mails, listening to music and doing your homework,  it should  more than enough.  So if you are considering buying a computer and want the added convenience of being able to take it with you everywhere you go, then consider  replacing your desktop PC with this laptop.

Sure, you can get a much more powerful desktop PC for the same price, but you won't be going anywhere with  it.

PROS:

costs less than $5,000; big screen; combo drive

CONS:

doesn't use the latest processor; no built-in wireless connection



Low-cost laptop