New ultraportable laptops

Ultraportable notebooks continue to impress me, making advancements in features that make me forget about their heavier brothers on the "normal" notebook front. Here are two of the latest I've had the joy of testing recently:

The scoop: Gateway E-100M, starts at $1,400, from Gateway.

To continue reading, register here and become an Insider. You'll get free access to premium content from CIO, Computerworld, CSO, InfoWorld, and Network World. See more Insider content or sign in.

Ultraportable notebooks continue to impress me, making advancements in features that make me forget about their heavier brothers on the "normal" notebook front. Here are two of the latest I've had the joy of testing recently:

The scoop: Gateway E-100M, starts at $1,400, from Gateway.

Click to see: Gateway E-100M

What it is: Gateway's return to the ultraportable space is the impressive E-100M series, designed with enough features to make any techie happy, but thin and light enough to ease the load on your mobile workers. Features include an Intel Core Solo processor (1.2GHz), 512MB of system memory, a 40GB hard drive, six-in-one media card reader, one Type II PC card slot, two USB 2.0 ports, VGA out port, IEEE 1394 and Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 card. The notebook features a 12.1-inch widescreen display (1,280-by-800-pixel maximum resolution), integrated stereo speakers and integrated Gigabit Ethernet port. Bluetooth wireless and 802.11a/b/g wireless LAN support add connection options.

Why it's cool: The sleek black design (with really cool blue backlights) appeals to the visual senses, but the real strength is the E-100M's lightness (3.15 pounds with the three-cell battery). The full-sized keyboard was easier to type on than the Fujitsu notebook, and the price was impressive for an ultraportable.

Some caveats: There's no integrated optical drive, so to install programs from a CD-ROM or to watch a DVD, an optional USB drive is required ($200), which also takes away one of the two USB ports. The thin notebook also gets very hot, making some sort of notebook cooling system required.

Grade: 4.5 stars (out of five)