Sharp Actius MP30 Notebook (1.6GHz Transmeta Efficeon TM8800, 512MB, 40GB, DVD/CD-RW, Windows XP, 10.4

The MP30 performs one other neat trick: It functions as a USB hard drive. Using Sharp's built-in DirectHD technology and a bundled, proprietary USB cable, you can view the laptop's contents on another PC. The MP30 shows up as a drive letter in the host PC's Windows Explorer; just drag and drop files between them just as you would with any other external storage device.

The well-designed MP30 has all the connections you'll need for work. The only major omissions are a video-out port (for using a TV as a monitor) and a parallel port. The only significant problem we encountered was with the optical drive: Its drive tray occasionally wouldn't stay shut, forcing us to push it in repeatedly. The 10.4-inch LCD looks sharp.

The keyboard, which features a petite silver-skinned touchpad, felt a little cramped and shallow with its 17mm key pitch and 1.7mm keystroke (compared with a full-size laptop's 19mm key pitch and 3mm keystroke). Some important functions, such as Page Up and Page Down, require combination keystrokes. On the bright side, however, the all-important <Ctrl> and <Delete> keys are located in opposite corners for quick access. Overall, the layout is good enough to support touch typing after some practice.

The MP30 managed e-mail, word processing, and basic spreadsheet and graphics work reasonably well, but its WorldBench 5 score was among the worst registered by an ultraportable notebook. Equipped with a 1.6-GHz Transmeta Efficeon TM8800 processor, the MP30 earned a WorldBench 5 score of 50. Laptops we've tested with a more mainstream ultraportable processor, the 1.1-GHz Pentium ultra-low-voltage chip, earned a score of 56 on average; that's about 12 percent faster. An IBM ThinkPad x40 equipped with a 1.2-GHz Pentium M low-voltage chip earned a score of 55, about 10 percent faster.

The entire ultraportable class is slow compared with full-size laptops carrying Intel's fastest mobile chip to date, the 2-GHz Pentium M. Those laptops have earned scores as high as 92 in our tests, indicating that they're nearly twice as fast as the MP30. The rear-mounted battery lasted 3 hours on one charge.

Like many ultraportables, the MP30 limits users' upgrade options. The 40GB hard drive is not user accessible, and the only memory slot is located in a compartment on the bottom of the notebook.

Upshot: The Sharp Actius MP30 is for people who prefer low price, high style, and small size to pure performance.

Carla Thornton