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Home > Laptop
Types > Lightweight Laptops
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Lightweight Laptops
A laptop is a small, portable computer, small enough that to
sit on one's lap. Laptops computers are more frequently called
notebook computers, though technically laptops are somewhat
smaller in size than notebooks.
An extremely lightweight personal computer, a small compact
portable computer typically weigh less than 5 pounds and are
small enough to fit easily in a briefcase for those users who
are constantly on the move. Aside from size and portability,
the main difference between a notebook computer and a personal
computer is the display screen, Laptop computers are bit larger
than notebooks.
Lightweight laptops come with battery packs that enable you
to run them without plugging them in. However, the batteries
need to be recharged every few hours.
The core audiences of the lightweight laptop category are business
travelers, students and professionals on the move.
Very good performance is offered by a lightweight laptop equipped
with both Intel's Pentium M and AMD's Athlon XP-M mobile processors.
They generally range From 1.5 to 2 GHz, and RAM. In these systems
varies from 256MB to 512MB. If you want 4 hours or more of battery
life on a charge, however, Pentium M is the way to go.
Lightweight laptops don't have a lot of space for motherboards
and other components. Most lightweights sport 14-inch displays,
which is good enough for viewing everything from e-mail and
Web pages to Word and Excel documents. The good news is that
an increasing number of lightweight laptop systems feature 15-
or 15.4-inch widescreens for those who want more space for everything,
From DVD playback to video editing.
In this class of laptops Wi-Fi is pretty much expected so users
can connect to wireless networks at home, on the road or at
work. Today, 802.11g is standard, but 802.11a/g is available
on some laptops for those who want to be able to connect at
faster speeds on the more privileged 5GHz band.
Obviously, you will not find in a lightweight laptop as many
as in desktop replacements, but three or four USB 2.0 ports
can often be encountered, for connecting all sorts of peripherals
and in many cases a FireWire port, which is great for importing
video from a digital camcorder.
Video support is better in these systems than in ultraportables.
A 60 GB hard disk drive in an ultra small laptop is considered
high-capacity. Intel's Extreme Graphics chip, which is found
often in this category, delivers fine movie playback but only
decent gameplay.
The
pros:
- Fine performance without the bulk, offer built-in or
external connections for, additional monitors , CD-ROMs,
DVD-ROMs, modems.
- Extended battery life
- Light enough for the road , small enough to take aboard
air transport as 'carry-on' luggage.
- Full-sized keyboards
The cons:
- Not as powerful as desktop replacements.
- 14-inch screens may prove too small for some.
Cost Higher then a normal PC due to the cost of building mini
components.
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