But some minor niggles did show up in IT Week Labs tests. Floppy disk ejection from the 1.44in drive was difficult, requiring a firm press to eject the disk. The keyboard is laid out nicely and has a mylar lining to improve resistance to spills. The E500's Business Winstone 99 benchmark score of 36.6 is close to that of similarly equipped desktop systems, such as Gateway's 800MHz E3400, and it is almost 40 percent better than an earlier incarnation of the E500 with a 600MHz mobile Intel Pentium III processor, 64MB and running Windows NT4.0. It is possible to have three batteries fitted at once.
Usability is improved by the four quick-access keys.
An external monitor can be driven at 1600x1200 at 75Hz. Our review system had one faulty pixel, but Compaq says it is committed to good customer relations, so it would probably fix this free of charge. The E500 comes with both Windows 2000 SP1 and NT 4.0 SP6, although the first time the unit is switched on the user must choose which to install. We installed Windows 2000 on our review system. If a change to another operating system is required, the user needs a new licence.