Apple may have dropped 12.1in notebooks from its pro-oriented notebook family, but Toshiba today stepped into the breach to offer an "ultra-portable" Centrino Duo-based machine with just such a display.

The Satellite Pro U200 actually ships with a choice of single- or dual-core processor: either a Core Duo T2400 or a Core Solo T1300. Either configuration comes with 512MB of 533MHz DDR 2 SDRAM and up to 80GB of hard disk storage. The 12.1in, 1,280 x 800 display is driven by the notebook's 945GM chipset, which grabs up to 224MB of main memory for the video buffer. The U200's optical drive is a DVD±R/RW unit.

Pitched at business users, the U200 has a fingerprint sensor for extra security and has both 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi and 10/100Mbps Ethernet on board. Bluetooth 2.0 is part of the package too. There's a water-resistant keyboard and the hard drive's fitted with a motion sensor to minimise the damage of dropage.

The U200 is pre-installed with Windows XP Pro. Available now, it retails for around £939 inc. VAT. And who knows, if England wins the World Cup, you might even get £620 of that back... ®