Picking the perfect ultraportable laptop

Dan Ackerman, Senior Editor August 7, 2007

Ultraportables generally have 11- or 12-inch screens and weigh in at less than four pounds--perfect for lugging around all day or hanging at the local coffee shop with. This has clearly been the summer of the ultraportable, with a generous handful of exciting new systems generating heavy buzz. But with all these new choices, which one is right for you?

We loved pretty much everything about Sony's 11.1-inch VAIO TZ150, which is less than an inch thick and weighs under three pounds. Well, everything except the $2,299 starting price and somewhat sluggish performance (which we were able to improve by uninstalling a bunch of junkware).

A bit larger than the Sony, and with a bigger 12.1-inch screen, the Toshiba Portege R500 was actually slightly lighter and thinner. Sadly, the Sony and Toshiba ultraportables range from $2,000 to $3,000. Both also offer excellent battery life, which is perhaps the most important thing for computing on the go.

Averatec makes a handful of ultraportable systems that offer surprisingly good value for the money. You'll sacrifice the sub-one-inch designs and some battery life, but the company's 11.1-inch Averatec 1579 is $1,299, while the 12.1-inch, AMD-powered 2371 starts at $899, making it the cheapest current ultraportable we can think of.

HP also has a pretty good new ultraportable, the HP Compaq 2510p, from HP's corporate line. It's still around $2,000 or more for a decent configuration, and the battery life is poor, but it adds security-friendly features such as hard-drive encryption.