The U3 offers HDMI and eSATA ports, integrated HSDPA and GPS and features a dual graphics setup. Whether or not you are willing to sacrifice an internal optical drive for these features will determine if this stylish ultraportable is for you.

We truly wanted to love the Asus U1F (1P010E), but its lack of a built-in optical drive and poor graphics chip dampened our ardour. Nevertheless, it remains a handsome choice for business use and web browsing.

A strong, lightweight laptop, the Dell Inspiron 700m has a neat wide-aspect screen. All that mars the notebook is a slightly cramped keyboard, an annoying optical drive button and a short battery life.

The Vostro 1200 is a good choice at a smart price for the travelling business user with good processing power, Wi-Fi connectivity and battery life, despite being let-down by some design issues.

While we love the size and weight of this netbook, its keyboard is very hard to type on due to the non-standard key layout.

Spring for the extra battery (at an extra charge) to add needed life to this otherwise fine and very light travelling companion.

If you're looking for top comfort and full features in an ultraportable, you'll find them all in the XPS M1210.

The Flybook VM's lifting screen is very useful and the unit is comfortable to use overall. It has enough power for typical office applications and even Photoshop, and its screen produced rich colours. We wish it had at least one more USB port and an SD card reader. Apart from that, we think this is a great choice for anyone after a comfortable ultraportable unit.

The tiny Flybook V5 is aimed squarely at the business user. It's very mobile, has 3G capability and it can function as a tablet PC. However, it's a hard-to-use laptop and it's missing some useful tablet features, such as a dedicated button for rotating the screen.

The screen may have a poor viewing angle, but the rest of this portable business option is pleasant to use. The LifeBook P8010 may not be as thin as some of its closest competitors but it's still a very portable unit.

The Fujitsu LifeBook P7120 is an attractive and cleverly designed notebook with all the bells and whistles of some much more expensive models.

The Fujitsu Lifebook U1010 3.5G is a great example of the increasingly popular ultra mobile PCs. It's easily held and is comfortable to use while also being extremely portable. If the size and weight weren't enough to get you excited then the addition of 3.5G HSDPA speeds of up to 7.2Mbps should help.