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Laptops<br />
Ultraportables<br />
Smartphones are wising up, and thin-and-light notebooks are shedding<br />
ounces while gaining muscle. But ultraportables (those around 4 pounds)<br />
remain the lightest way to run Windows with a full keyboard. —C.N.<br />
EDITORS’<br />
PICK<br />
ASUS U1F-1P016E<br />
$2,099 • usa.asus.com<br />
Barely registering on the scale at a scant 2.7 pounds, the Asus U1F<br />
is the lightest laptop we tested. It’s also one of the most gorgeous<br />
out there, with finishing worthy of a Jag: ultraglossy 10-step paint job,<br />
leather palm rests, and subtle metal trim. Performance is less of a<br />
thrill: Its last-gen Core Duo CPU had the lowest benchmark scores.<br />
WIRED Four USB ports—unheard of in this category. Excellent<br />
battery life. Relatively affordable. Lighter than the last Harry Potter<br />
novel. Integrated webcam and ExpressCard slot. Drooly design.<br />
TIRED Stiff, hard-to-push trackpad buttons. Needs CPU upgrade<br />
to boost performance. No wireless WAN option.<br />
HP Compaq 2710p<br />
$2,478 • hp.com<br />
The 2710p tablet PC adds handwriting features to your laptop<br />
without piling on weight. Benchmarks were impressive, but its little<br />
touches were the most endearing: The webcam has buttons for<br />
macro and standard modes and, like the Lenovo ThinkPad, the<br />
keyboard can be illuminated by a pop-out light on the LCD. Cute.<br />
WIRED Wireless WAN through AT&T, Verizon, or Vodafone. LED<br />
backlighting makes for a much brighter display than most tablets.<br />
Brushed-metal palm rest stays cool and looks good.<br />
TIRED Two USB ports, on opposite sides. No touchpad. Heavy,<br />
jutting screen hinge makes the PC prone to tipping backward.<br />
Lenovo ThinkPad X61 Tablet<br />
$2,170 • lenovo.com<br />
Don’t let its relative heft mislead you: At heart, the X61 really is an<br />
ultraportable. The culprit is the gargantuan battery, which weighs<br />
a full pound. The included X6 UltraBase blends with the machine<br />
seamlessly, adding four more USB ports, legacy connectors, an optical<br />
drive and, unfortunately, 2 pounds.<br />
WIRED Three USB ports on base unit. Nice display for a tablet. Best<br />
overall performance in its category and great specs, including a 160-<br />
GB hard drive—double that of competitors. AT&T or Verizon WWAN.<br />
TIRED No touchpad. Heavy once you add all the bells and whistles.<br />
LCD uses outdated 4:3 aspect ratio.<br />
Sony Vaio VGN-TX750P<br />
$2,300 • sonystyle.com<br />
Sony’s TX is surprisingly ergonomic for a machine less than an inch<br />
thick. Better still, it’s the only ultraportable we tested with an optical<br />
drive built in, rather than just in the dock. Chugging along for more<br />
than four hours, its battery life was the champ in our roundup.<br />
WIRED The lightest way to watch DVDs when you’re not working.<br />
AT&T wireless WAN included. Handy, easy-to-reach media controls.<br />
Front-mounted audio ports and controls.<br />
TIRED Just two USB ports. Only half a gig of RAM. Optical drive and<br />
cooling fan are noisy (though the extra-loud speakers compensate).<br />
Don’t even think of gaming with it; couldn’t finish Quake 4 test.<br />
WIRED TEST<br />
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