Review of Ultraportable Notebooks Ultraportable notebooks make heavy lifting a thing of the past.

It seems like everyone's trying to slim down these days. But you shouldn't have to work up a sweat when it comes to your mobile computing setup. Hardcore mobile entrepreneurs can take advantage of one of the many ultraportable laptop options on the market.

The compromises aren't as major as they used to be. You still pay a premium to slim down to 4 pounds, but you get plenty of power and features. Hewlett-Packard's Compaq nc4200 Notebook PC shimmies in at 3.9 pounds and features a 40GB hard drive, 512MB RAM, Wi-Fi and a 1.73GHz Pentium M processor, all for $1,599 (all prices street). You'll want to add a CD burner or DVD drive.

Ultraportables do veer away from the overall trend of increasingly large laptop displays. Expect ultraportables to have diagonal measurements between 8.9 inches and 12.1 inches in varying shapes. Dell's $1,998 Latitude X1 makes the most of 12.1 inches with a WXGA aspect ratio (1,280 x 768) that improves multimedia or DVD viewing.