Heavy-hitting Featherweights

Ultraportable notebooks, aka thin-and-lights, are to standard laptops what bantamweights are to sumo wrestlers. At about an inch thick when closed and weighing as little as 2.6 pounds without peripherals, ultras ride the cutting edge of portability. Of course, you have to make some compromises when using a thin-and-light notebook--most don't have built-in optical drives, and some leave off legacy ports. Today's models, however, are smaller and pack more powerful components into their slim cases than ever before, and although they're not budget fare, they've come down considerably in price.

We took a close look at five thin-and-light models from Compaq, Fujitsu, IBM, Sharp, and Toshiba. After evaluating each notebook's price, weight, battery life, and other features, we picked IBM's ThinkPad X23 as our Best Buy. For $2979, the X23 offers a 12.1-inch screen, a 30GB hard drive, and a keyboard almost as easy to type on as a full-size laptop's.

Many currently available thin-and-light notebooks come equipped with integrated 802.11b wireless (or Wi-Fi) hardware, which lets them access networks and the Net without jacking in--as long as you are near a public Internet access point. The ThinkPad, Toshiba Portégé 2000, and Fujitsu LifeBook B Series offer integrated 802.11b, with antennas and radio cards built into the case. The other models that we looked at, Compaq's Evo N200 and Sharp's PC-UM10M, require PC Card adapters that incorporate both the antenna and the receiver.

If your office is installing a wireless LAN or you happen to frequent any of the handful of airports or hotels that are equipped with wireless, then opting for 802.11b could be a smart choice. See the sidebar " Going Wireless."