You are here: ZDNet.co.uk > Reviews > Hardware > Notebooks

Mobile devices Toolkit

Ultralight notebooks for your business

Christopher Null CNET

Published: 18 May 2004

A few grams here, a few grams there. After a while, it adds up to a real pain in the shoulder. Like boxers, notebooks come in a range of weight classes, from 1kg or less to more than 4.5kg. And while it may be tempting to get a larger notebook that seemingly offers more performance for the price, trust us on this -- if you plan to commute with a notebook or spend any time on the road, there are only two types of business notebooks you should consider: ultraportables and thin-and-lights.

Business travellers should consider sub-2kg ultaportables, or 2-3kg 'thin and light' notebooks.

The key specifications for any business trave ller choosing a notebook are weight and size. The smallest notebooks, known as ultraportables, generally weigh 2kg or less. They also tend to be less than 2.5cm thick. Thin-and-lights, despite the name, are slightly thicker and heavier, generally weighing from 2kg to 3kg. But they are still very travel-friendly and offer the performance and the features of much larger notebooks, which explains their popularity in business.

The coming of Centrino

The most significant development in this category was the arrival in March 2003 of Intel's Centrino technology. Although integrated wireless gets all the press, the Intel Pentium M processor and its supporting chipset are the real boon for ultraportables and thin-and-lights. Generally, the better the performance, the less battery life you get. The Pentium M delivers excellent performance, yet many models also last around five hours in our tests -- a few with extended batteries come tantalisingly close to lasting a full eight-hour workday. The bottom line is: if you're buying a notebook in one of these classes, start with a Pentium M processor.

Intel's Pentium M processor – particularly the new Dothan part (above), delivers excellent performance, yet remains a power-frugal device.

Size and weight also determine other features to some extent, although that's beginning to change. At one time, you had to settle for a hefty desktop replacement to get the latest and greatest hardware. Now you can find thin-and-lights with memory measured in gigabytes, huge hard drives, cutting-edge graphics and combination CD/DVD burners that all but eliminate the need for the second optical drive found in larger mainstream and desktop-replacement systems.

Doing without drives

The smaller ultraportables, however, still lag in terms of performance and features. For example, they typically lack an internal CD or DVD drive, relying instead on a separate media slice -- a docking unit that you leave behind on the desk most of the time. This was once a big drawback, but nowadays we use fast wireless and Ethernet networks to exchange large files regularly, while occasional tasks that require an optical drive -- such as backing up your hard drive or burning a music mix to a CD -- can be done easily at a desk. At the same time, we're beginning to see ultraportables that manage to include an optical drive, such as Sony's hot VAIO PCG-TR series.

Sony's ultraportable VAIO PCG-TR series combines sub-2kg weight with a built-in optical drive.

No single configuration will be right for every business user, but for most, we recommend a thin-and-light with one of the slower Pentium M processors (you'll save a little money without giving up much performance), 256MB of memory, a 20GB hard drive, a 14.1in. display, an internal combination CD-RW/DVD drive, plus integrated wired and wireless networking. If you want to shed a little weight, you can opt instead for an ultraportable with a media slice.

The price of portability

Unfortunately, thin-and-lights tend to be pricey, so if your budget is tight or you don't travel often, you can get by with a slightly larger mainstream or value system. Getting a quality notebook still means spending between £750 and £1,500, and the sky's the limit from there, with some well-featured Intel Centrino-based systems costing closer to £2,000.

As with desktops, when you are buying several, your best bet is to stick with a single vendor and product line. Some corporate notebooks, such as Dell's Latitude and IBM's ThinkPad ranges, use the same components across most or all of the line, which means that you can use the same drives, docking stations and port replicators, and AC adapters with any system -- a big advantage in business. Finally, we recommend that you invest in spare or extended batteries for employees who regularly travel abroad.

Product	Date	Editors' Rating	Readers' Rating
Panasonic Toughbook CF-R1	[04 Mar 2003]	7.7	8.3
JVC Mini Note MP-XP7210	[31 Jul 2002]	6.8	9.0
Sharp Actius MV1214	[04 Nov 2003]	7.8	8.5
Sony VAIO PCG-TR1MP	[10 Sep 2003]	8.2	8.2
Toshiba Portégé A100	[04 May 2004]	8.0	10.0
Dell Latitude D505	[17 Feb 2004]	7.6	7.4
Acer TravelMate 291LCi	[06 Feb 2004]	7.8	9.1
Apple 15in. PowerBook G4	[06 Nov 2003]	8.4	8.5
Product	Date	Editors' Rating	Readers' Rating

Did you find this article useful?
27 out of 52 people found this useful

Post a comment

Full Talkback thread

0 comments

What to Buy

Fully equipped: the mobile professional

Do you spend a lot of your working life out of the office? If so, check out our selection of the best kit to take out on the road.

Mobile devices: a buyer's guide

Businesses going mobile need to consider whether to buy notebooks, handhelds, smartphones or other mobile devices. Then there's the various wireless connectivity options, and the extra management burden on the IT department. We take a look at some of these issues.

Buyer's Guide: smartphones for business

Want to work on the move but don't want to lug a laptop? You'll need a smartphone of some kind that lets you do email, open business documents and browse the web, among other things. Here are ten recent contenders.

Buyer's Guide: Santa Rosa notebooks

Which is our current favourite Intel Santa Rosa notebook? Check our Buyer's Guide to find out — and keep checking back to see if it changes.

View all Buyer's Guides

Featured Talkback

Put simply, what is the compelling reason to pay ~$200 extra for an Eee with Windows XP? A Windows Eee won't come with any useful applications and you'll have to buy anti-virus software to boot. The truth about low cost computing is that nobody really cares whether the machine is running Windows or Linux as long as its cheap, its easy to use and it works.