| Every day, lighter and smaller laptops are hitting the | | | | the hawk eyesight sometimes required to see a tiny |
| market. These ultra-mobile models may be easy on | | | | screen. |
| the shoulders, but it's important to still weigh your | | | | Many ultra-mobile PCs and small laptops are also |
| options before purchasing. Sometimes you have to | | | | coming with a new feature; touch screens. Much like a |
| sacrifice power for portability. Where can you make | | | | PDA, they include a pen to hand write notes on the |
| sacrifices and what's essential? | | | | screen, but will also boast either an on-screen |
| An ultra portable laptop is usually defined as being | | | | keyboard or a detachable portable keyboard. This |
| under five pounds, but the quality of these models | | | | design is more tablet like and the screens are often |
| cover a wide range and price points go from just over | | | | even smaller. |
| five hundred dollars to a few thousand. You also need | | | | The other crucial factor you want to look at when |
| to consider battery life and, of course, performance. | | | | purchasing an ultra portable laptop is battery life. Why |
| If you just need to pull up an office document like a | | | | get a computer that you can back pack into the |
| spreadsheet or get online to check your email, then | | | | mountains if you're only going to get an hour of battery |
| you might be looking at a hyper portable laptop, or | | | | life out of it? Many of the new ultra portable models |
| subnotebook. These weigh less than 2 pounds and | | | | put a lot of emphasis on battery life and battery |
| have shed all the bells and whistles to do so. There | | | | weight. Not only could it be a deal breaker for you, but |
| are no optical drives; so no DVD or CD drives, smaller | | | | it also affects the price significantly. |
| keyboards, and smaller screens. | | | | Overall, the choice to go lighter and smaller is up to |
| For most of these hyper portable computers, the | | | | you. If your constantly lugging around what feels like a |
| processing and memory power is comparable to a | | | | 12-pound brick and your shoulders are starting to pay |
| desktop made just a couple of years ago. This should | | | | the price, then maybe ultra-portable might be for you. |
| suit most users fine, unless they want to play games | | | | But, if you're the kind of user that likes to play |
| or edit video. Where you're going to be making big | | | | high-graphic games, play with video, or run heavy duty |
| decisions is size and functionality. Not everyone can | | | | software, you may need a system with full power |
| type on a miniature keyboard and not everyone has | | | | functionality. |