Dell's Vostro V130 business laptop offers a lot more bang for your buck than its predecessor, the Vostro V13, when it comes to performance and it now also includes a handy digital video output. It's well worth a look if you want an ultraportable laptop that's inexpensive, easy to type on and also quite well built. It runs an Intel Core i5 ultra-low-voltage CPU and it has decent grunt for office work and multimedia tasks, but it tends to run a little warm and its sealed battery design is also a drawback.

Apple's previous MacBook Air]], an ultraportable laptop designed primarily for travelling, was widely criticised for its high price and lack of features. Apple has responded with an upgraded version of the MacBook Air; like most Apple products, it once again features a superb design that is marvellously thin and light, but it now comes with fast, flash-based storage, a full size keyboard and trackpad, and a claimed standby battery life of up to 30 hours.

With the aim of bringing down the price of laptops, Intel on Monday launched a family of low-power processors for thin and light machines that could be more affordable than conventional laptops.

Some laptop makers are trying to outdo each other with colorful, personalized laptop designs, but analysts say the trend is unlikely to take off and that price and size remain the top priorities for buyers.

An Apple executive on Wednesday lashed out against netbooks, calling the small and light laptops unusable.

Advanced Micro Devices hopes to undercut prices of expensive ultraportable laptops with mobile chips it is expected to introduce this week.

Microsoft has demonstrated its Windows 7 operating system (OS) on an Asus Eee PC featuring just 1GB of RAM and a 16GB solid-state drive.

Whether you're buying for yourself or outfitting a department, shopping for a laptop today is a double-edged sword. The good news is that there's a huge variety to choose from, all with pros and cons. The bad news is that for many buyers there are just too many choices, leading to frustration and fatigue.

For some users, the new generation of ultraportable notebooks comes close to embodying the Holy Grail for road warriors. Their laptop-like keyboards make them more usable for typing tasks than smart phones, but they are lighter and cheaper than traditional laptops. The original Asus Eee PC, for instance, cost about US$400 and weighed about two pounds when it was introduced last October.