Small and light laptops

When you have to lug your work around with you, a feature-rich laptop that weighs a tonne is not quite what you need, is it? The MacBook Air, which fits comfortably in a business envelope, is more the thing, although there are complaints that its anorexic looks mean that it comes without a DVD writer, Ethernet and FireWire ports.

But if you’re looking for an extremely slim, lightweight laptop, the Air is a great option. If you want a laptop that does everything but make coffee, and is lightweight to boot, there are still several options open to you.We take a look at some of the ultra-light, if not ultra-slim, laptops available today.

MAC AIR

It weighs 1.3 kg, comes with 2 GB of memory, 80 GB hard drive, and is Wi-Fi and Bluetooth-enabled. MacBook Air measures an unprecedented 0.16 inches at its thinnest point, and has a 13.3-inch LEDbacklit widescreen display, a full-size and backlit keyboard, a built-in video camera and a spacious trackpad with multi-touch gesture support so users can pinch, rotate and swipe. But there is no optical drive or Ethernet port. Rs 1 lakh (expected)

 

TOSHIBA PORTEGE R100

Weighing in at 1.1 kg (1.4 kg with a second battery installed), this is an ultra-thin and ultra-light laptop. There’s no optical drive and the machine does not have a Bluetooth adaptor. It does come with wireless LAN and secure digital card slots, and a 12.1-inch screen as well as a second battery. It also comes with an in-built mono speaker, headphone and microphone jacks. Rs 80,000

HCL MILEAP Y SERIES

It’s small, light and cheap.What more can you possibly ask from a subnotebook? Weighing approximately 960 gm, this notebook is powered by an Intel A110 processor, and comes with 1 GB RAM, two USB ports, in-built webcam and stereo speakers, wireless and Bluetooth, 7-inch swivel LCD touchscreen, touch pad mouse with scroll, stylus and 80 GB hard drive. Rs 30,000

FUJITSU LIFEBOOK S2210

The LifeBook S2210 is on the small end of the thin-and-light spectrum. It weighs around 1.7 kg (without the AC adapter), and comes with three USB 2.0 jacks, a mini FireWire jack, headphone and microphone jacks, a Type I/II PC card slot, a media card reader, a fingerprint reader, and VGA and S-video outputs. It’s wireless and Bluetoothenabled, comes with a DVD burner and a media card reader. Rs 42,000

COMPAQ NC2400

This easily qualifies as an ultralight, despite the fact that it’s got an integrated CD/DVD drive (which is also a CD burner).The case measures 11.1 inches wide, 8.3 inches deep and 1.2 inches thick, and weighs in at 1.6 kg with the six-cell battery. With a built-in fingerprint sensor and an embedded trusted platform module chip that handles data encryption, security on the NC2400 is strong. Rs 90,000

SONY VAIO TZ27GN

The VAIO TZ is an 11.1-inch wide mobile notebook that weighs a little over 1 kg. Powered by an Intel Centrino Duo processor, it’s wireless and Bluetooth-enabled, and comes with an in-built camera, speakers and microphone, DVD writer and a fingerprint sensor. Plus, the machine is tough, with a lid and corners made of multi-layered carbon. Rs 1 lakh

DELL LATITUDE D430

Weighing around 1.4 kg, this sub-notebook comes with Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, up to 2GB total memory, WXGA display (1280 x 800 resolution), parallel ATA drive with password protection, as WLAN and internal Bluetooth. You also get a docking connector, three USB ports, integrated microphone, DVD writer, integrated smart card reader, and optional fingerprint reader. Rs 95,000