Sharp SHARP ACTIUS PC-AV18P NOTEBOOK ATHLON1800+ 40GB CD-RW&DVD 802.11B (Sharp-PCAV18P)

The Sharp Actius AV18P is the antidote to lightweight Wi-Fi notebooks that cost a mint. The black-and-silver 1.1-inch-thick unit weighs just 5.1 pounds, including a DVD/CD-ROM combination drive and a power adapter, and its price ($1499) covers built-in Wi-Fi networking.

The AV18P's other features are somewhat limited, however. Its 40GB hard drive isn't user-upgradable; the optical drive bay, though modular, does not accommodate other types of devices, such as secondary hard drives or batteries; and adding productivity applications costs extra. The notebook does includes FireWire and TV-out ports, but there's only one built-in speaker, which produces low, tinny sound when playing music and DVD sound tracks.

The AV18P turned in disappointing performance for a 1.4-GHz Mobile Athlon XP-M 1800+ notebook with 256MB of RAM, earning a PC WorldBench 4 score of just 95. Still, it's plenty fast for mainstream applications. Its RAM capacity tops out at 768MB--far below the 2GB maximum of some notebooks, but enough for most uses. In our battery tests, the AV18P lasted a respectable 2.9 hours. An optional secondary $199 power pack mounts on the bottom and can stretch total battery life to almost 6 hours, according to the vendor.

The AV18P's keyboard lacks standard extras such as a scrolling rocker and quick-launch buttons, and its travel feels a tad shallow. The layout is sensible, however, and the keys are large enough to support touch typing after a short adjustment time.

The PC-AV18P comes with only one print manual, but it tells you everything you need to know about the notebook.

Upshot: If you can live with its small keyboard and weak audio, the Actius AV18P is a good thin-and-light notebook for the price.

Carla Thornton