Accented by a shiny black lid and real leather wrist rest, the $2199 (as of April 11, 2007) Asus U1F puts the "ultra" in ultraportable. The lightest Windows Vista laptop we've seen, it weighs 2.4 pounds, no heavier than a teacup Chihuahua. The thin case offers a surprisingly full set of connections, including built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless communications. You could use the bright screen to find your way out of a cave, and the battery lasts for more than 6 hours on one charge. These are good qualities for an all-day, on-the-go laptop to possess. But can you type on it?
All of the keys look big enough and are in the right places--but alas, the right <Shift> key sits on the right side instead of left side of the up arrow key, dooming touch typists to jump up a line in the document every time the try to use their right hand to capitalize a letter.
Astonishingly bright and easy to view indoors or out, the U1F's LED-backlit screen measures 11.1 inches, making it a little easier to read than the 10.6-inch LED-backlit display of the Fujitsu LifeBook P7230. The U1F also has the edge over the P7230 in performance and battery life. Though equipped with a slower processor (a 1.06-GHz Core Duo U2400), the U1F parlayed its 1536MB of memory into a WorldBench 6 Beta 2 score of 39, about 17 percent higher than the P7230's score of 32.
Since the U1F has no internal bay, you'll have to pack an external drive if you plan on playing a disc while on the road.
The U1F doesn't want for ports, slots, or connections: The thin case sports an SD slot, two USB ports, a FireWire port, a Wi-Fi switch, network and modem jacks and a spring-loaded ExpressCard slot on the right. A third USB port sits on the left of the case, alongside a monitor port and basic audio ports (including headphones and microphone ports). The laptop even has a basic integrated 1.3-megapixel Webcam and a small fingerprint reader window that worked fine.
The U1F has a sturdy case, and its 4200-rpm 80GB hard drive is shock-mounted on foam railings. To upgrade the RAM you'll have to throw away a 1GB chunk of existing memory--the entire amount available in the small bottom compartment (an additional 512MB is built into the motherboard), but at least you have the option to expand the amount of system memory.
This ultraportable has lots of appeal: lightest weight, most stylish exterior, 6-hour battery life, and a good screen. But sluggish performance and the absence of a built-in optical drive hold it back.
Carla Thornton