It's well-suited to road warriors thanks to its light weight and built-in 3G module, but it's still not the perfect laptop. If you're going to go for the R500, opt for a solid-state drive instead of a conventional hard drive.

This VAIO is stylish and redefines the meaning of the term ultra-portable. We wouldn't recommend it if you are just looking for a notebook, but if portability is your number one concern, then you can't go past the VGN-TX27GP.

The Sony VAIO VGN-G811GN/B is a very nice option for people who expect to be on the road a lot. The battery life is good and for such a small unit it's nice to see an internal optical drive.

The VAIO is an excellent option for anyone after an ultraportable with good performance, solid battery life and an excellent design.

The ThinkPad X61 is well-built and very portable, which makes it suitable for the road warrior. However, it doesn't ship with an optical drive.

If you consider battery life and light weight the most important laptop criteria, give the LifeBook P7010 a close look. You could probably live with this 1.5-kilogram unit's less-than-perfect keyboard and screen.

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

It's very difficult to criticise the Lenovo ThinkPad X301 without sounding like a nitpicker. This is a fantastic and well-engineered notebook that has plenty of features and looks very attractive. The only substantial issues are the high price tag, the lower than average battery life and the problematic latch.

An ultralight tablet PC that is a little weak on character recognition, and too high on price.