Prostar's PS1282 looks as if the guys over at Pimp My Ride got their hands on a drab gray ultraportable and went to town. It has an automotive-class blue metallic paint job for the lid, sporting a silver lid ornament that has Prostar's orange logo right in the middle. There's also a glossy widescreen display to punch up your DVDs and an integrated Web cam. Fortunately, the beauty of this 4.8-pound machine is more than skin deep.

For an ultraportable, the PS1282 features a lot of high-powered parts. There's a 2-GHz Pentium M processor and a relatively large 60GB hard drive spinning at a blazing 7,200 rpm. Just as important is the more than 4 hours of battery life. At $1,995, the Prostar isn't cheap, but this hot rod of a system gets the job done while turning more than a few heads.

Like the vast majority of ultraportable notebooks, the PS1282 comes with a 12.1-inch display. What makes this screen stand out is its reflective finish, which makes DVDs and pictures come alive with brilliant color and lots of contrast. It also causes unwanted reflections when you're working in programs like Word. The screen's viewing angle is also pretty narrow, and we had to tilt the display back more than we wanted to on a crowded airplane to see text clearly.

Above the display is a tiny camera, which captures dim but acceptable JPEG images, as well as video. While other manufacturers have dropped cameras from their designs, this feature can come in handy for Web-based videoconferences or chats, or for, say, practicing a pitch on the eve of a presentation.

Otherwise, the design of the Prostar is fairly standard. The Ethernet and modem, two USB 2.0 ports, and PC Card slot line the right side of the system, with the VGA connection and DVD/CD-RW combo drive on the left side. Up front there's the mic and headphone jack, plus an infrared window for transferring files to and from PDAs and certain cell phones.

Unfortunately, the PS1282 omits a FireWire port, which could be used to import video from a digital camcorder. While this particular configuration lacks a DVD burner for making home videos, it is available as an option, so we're a little confused as to why FireWire was left off. Not as significant a problem is the lack of a memory card slot; you could always plug a memory card reader into the PC Card slot.

In spite of its small footprint, this ultraportable doesn't exhibit a lot of the compromises that plague other machines in this class. The relatively spacious keyboard has just enough depth to keep you typing quickly and error-free, although we wish Prostar would have deleted the Windows key next to the right Shift key so the latter could be bigger. Meanwhile, the touchpad has a rubbery feel to it for easy cursor navigation, plus there's a backlit blue scroll button that kicks the PS1282's hipness up yet another notch.

Performance-wise, the PS1282 was inconsistent. The system's MobileMark score of 119 is surprisingly low for a notebook with a 2-GHz processor. We had no trouble with everyday productivity applications, but heavy multitaskers might want to think twice. Gamers will probably also want to shy away from this laptop, although the 3DMark score of 2278 means you should at least be able to give year-old 3D games a whirl.

The Prostar's biggest strength, other than its looks, is its endurance. The PS1282 lasted well past 4 hours, which means you could easily get though a movie and some work on a cross-country flight. You'll get a little bit more battery life with the Wi-Fi radio turned off, but you'll need to right-click on the network icon in your system tray to do it; this notebook doesn't come with a switch or button for the radio.

Overall, the Prostar PS1282 performs fine for a long time and looks cool doing it. If you have the cash, and are willing to gamble with daytime-only tech support, you'll be rewarded with a system that's anything but boring.