Updated September 21, 2005

When shopping for laptops, you usually have to make a trade-off of some kind: give up on truly mobile computing in exchange for better performance or accept a smaller display and keyboard in exchange for lightweight portability. But thin-and-lights gracefully straddle the middle of these two extremes, offering powerful mobile processors that race through everyday office tasks in a portable 4- to 6-pound case. You can also expect to find functional 12- to 14-inch displays, combo CD-RW/DVD drives, all the standard ports, and wireless networking capabilities. Here are the latest thin-and-light laptops we've reviewed.

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