Hopefully we will start seeing cheaper notebooks without the cost of performance very soon. You might remember previous stories on ECS and HP planning sub $600 notebooks (http://www.techspot.com/vb/showthread.php?threadid=4669&highlight=notebook), now eMachines is announcing its return to the laptop market with the 6.5-pound M5305 (http://news.com.com/2100-1044_3-1000059.html?tag=fd_top) which boasts a 15.4-inch wide-screen monitor and an Athlon XP-M 2200+ processor.

While the notebook is expected to sell for around $1200, it's not a bad deal considering wide-screen monitors have been a characteristic only seen in more expensive models.