Small Laptop Computers, Ultra Portable Laptops

Some 14 inch laptops (and almost every small laptop with a display under 14 inches) weighs between 2.5 and 5 pounds.


These are called ultra portable notebook computers. The smallest laptop class, 6 to 11 inch displays, were almost entirely powered by Intel Atom processors and described as a netbooks or mini laptops. Now, the new low level AMD Fusion processors, the C or E series, power some of these. The small AMD powered computers are better than the Intel Atom powered machines in some ways. Generally the graphics are significantly better, and some of the processors themselves are faster.

Some of the 11 inch and almost all of the 12 to 14 inch small notebook computers are powered by mainstream processors mostly the equivalent of the old ULV classification. A small notebook computer this size will usually fall into the bare bones or entry level groups I have for the standard best laptop computers. The ultra books that Intel is encouraging will fall into this group in the smaller screen sizes. The Macbook Air also falls into this class.

You pay a premium for the smaller, lighter computer especially if you want any sort of decent performance. At Dell USA, where they appear to be on sale, it costs you about $75 to go from the 15 inch to the 13 inch display with everything else the same. Generally the price increase is $100 or more. Upper end computers aren't readily available. There is too little room in the case to deal with the heat from a really good draphics card.

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