The New Thin for Notebooks.(introduced by Toshiba Corp. and Lenovo Group Ltd.)

Publication: eWeek

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COPYRIGHT 2006 Ziff Davis Media Inc.

A new wave of lightweight notebooks promises to be more livable for the road warrior, by offering more advanced features and built-in optical drives.

Among them are new entries from Lenovo and Toshiba, each of which announced on May 31 a new business-oriented notebook line built around a 12.1-inch wide screen and an internal optical drive. The new machines each weigh about 4 pounds.

Smaller is usually thought of as better, when it comes to business notebooks. Lightweight machines are easier to tote to meetings and on planes.

But the more diminutive machines--often called ultraportables--have generally forced compromises, including asking buyers to use cramped keyboards and to carry peripherals such as CD-RW drives separately, in addition to selling for higher prices than somewhat larger notebooks.

The two newest machines, however, eliminate many of those drawbacks, observers say.

"Manufacturers...

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