Whenever I review a laptop computer, I think about the trade-offs that the designers had to make to ensure that the system is light enough to be truly portable, yet have the guts to make the system worth using.

With the C-120x convertible notebook computer, Gateway engineers have put together a very usable, durable system that can go almost anywhere and has extra touches that make it stand out.

As a convertible notebook, the C-120x is a standard PC laptop with keyboard that can turn it into a Tablet PC so you can use a stylus (included) to handwrite on the screen. The Tablet PC capability is powered by Windows Vista and makes it possible to create sketches or enter text. The software will recognize the text and turn it into standard ASCII characters (so they look typewritten and work well in typical applications, such as word processors and spreadsheets).

Any time you have an external, nonattached device such as a stylus, you risk losing it. But the C-120x can tell whether your stylus is properly parked in its pen garage on the side of the system -- so when you turn off the system, it alerts you if it's missing, thereby decreasing the risk of loss.

Even if you don't want to use the stylus, though, you can get utility from the touch screen, because it also allows you to use your fingertips to control the cursor and pull up menus -- so in many cases you don't even need the stylus. When you touch the screen with your finger, you see a ghosted image of an old two-button mouse, and you can drag your finger around the screen to move it -- or tap it to use the buttons.

As in previous versions of Tablet PC, the onscreen character recognition is pretty accurate and can be corrected easily. If you're a proficient typist, you probably won't want to write everything by hand, but the handwriting capability will be helpful to take meeting notes and in other applications that you'll discover as you use it. The C-120x comes with Microsoft OneNote, which will ease your note-taking tasks.

One of the most compelling attributes of the C-120x is its weight. At 4.5 lbs., it is among the easiest to carry convertible systems I have used. That weight even includes an integrated CD-RW/DVD combo drive -- so you don't have to carry a separate drive. Its bright 12.1-inch display and integrated graphics card work with the latest Windows graphics technology, so you can run Windows Vista and take advantage of its cool, high-end "glass" interface.

The biggest weakness that I found is the 6-in-1 flash card reader. Although it's fast and takes up very little space on the system, it doesn't allow you to insert Compact Flash (CF) or xD type cards. So if your camera uses either of these types of cards, you'll have to connect your camera to the C-120x by USB to transfer your photos to your laptop. Not a major problem, but noticeable.

I also found that my configuration with 1 GB can be pretty slow when using multiple memory-intensive applications -- although that's probably related to the way Windows Vista sucks up memory. Configuring your C-120x with 2GB or 4GB should eliminate the problem. For most people, Windows Vista would work better with 2 GB or more anyway.

The C-120x has a biometric fingerprint reader/scroll control and can be configured with your choice of processor, hard drive and battery. Base price is $1,250 at gateway.com.