Ultraportables

Ultraportables are very light laptops (usually from 2.5 to 3.5 lb) and of small size (11-12"). They use faster processors than netbooks, have more memory and hard drives of larger capacities and, in some cases, they even have an optical drive. All theses features make them more expensive than netbooks. They are good for the basic tasks on the move (Internet, working with text, listening to music, watching movies). They are less powerful than regular laptops, but more than netbooks. If you need something cheaper, have a look to the netbook section.

Connectivity: if you want to be connected to the Net you have to keep in mind a few things:

• All of them have WiFi, but sometimes it is hard to find a WiFi zone to connect to.
• If you can connect to Internet with your cell phone, in some cases you can use it as a modem for your netbook (sometimes via Bluetooth).
• An alternative are USB wireless modems, that are offered by most phone carriers. A few netbooks have an internal modem: look for the feature WWAN, in some cases stated as mobile broadband, HSDPA modem, 3G mdem...).

Movies and games:

• Most ultraportables use the integrated graphics card Intel GMA 4500MHD, that is enough to play movies, even in HD.
• Old games can run well at low details, but netbooks with Nvidia ION graphics offer better performance in most games.
• To play modern games an ultraportable with ATI or Nvidia graphics is a bit better, but not much.

Core i7 laptops