Light & lively laptops

If you want a computer to take on the road, you have more choices than ever this year. You'll find a growing number of small but capable laptops, including a new breed that Intel calls Ultrabooks.

Designed as the Windows counterpart to the Apple MacBook Air, Ultrabooks are super-lightweight and very thin, and they have a long battery life. Most cost about $1,000, less than comparable MacBooks.

One example is the 13-inch Toshiba Portégé Ultrabook Z835-P330, a CR Best Buy at $800. At a featherweight 2.4 pounds, it's the lightest laptop in our Ratings, weighing less than most netbooks. Despite its size it doesn't skimp on performance. But if you do a lot of typing or have large fingers, note that the small keyboard is cramped.

Other Ultrabooks in our Ratings include the 11-inch Asus Zenbook UX21EDH52 Ultrabook, $1,000, and 13-inch Asus ZenBook UX31-RSL8 Ultrabook, $1,100. Both performed pretty much on a par with the MacBooks. The Acer Aspire S3-951-6646 Ultrabook, $900, didn't do quite as well, but it was still judged to be very good overall.

This category of laptop is just getting off the ground. Expect to see many more Ultrabooks introduced in the coming months, possibly even models with larger 14- and 15-inch displays.

With some manufacturers cutting back or discontinuing the production of netbooks, as Dell recently did, Ultrabooks could become the go-to computer for users looking for highly portable models.

See our buying guide to computers for more information.