Compaq today displayed its upcoming Evo notebook, weighing around 3lbs and offering up to eight hours of battery life.

Hungry hacks descended on the press lunch at TechX in New York to watch Compaq VP of desktops and portables Ken Willet show off the Evo N200.

The laptop, based on the Intel's promised Ultra Low Voltage mobile PIII chip, weighs 2.5 Ilbs including its internal Lithium-Ion battery - which offers three hours of use between recharges. It also has an extra external battery, which adds half a pound of weight and the extra battery life.

The 0.8 inch thick machine has both wireless and wired online connection. It has a 10.4-inch XGA TFT screen, 128MB of memory, 20GB hard drive and supports upcoming Bluetooth PC card options. It runs Windows 2000, but an XP version will be deveoped after the XP launch, Willet said.

In order to demonstrate its sleek proportions, Willet produced an eight-by-eleven-inch envelope in front of the lunching audience, saying the "mini notebook" was small enough to be sent through the mail.

Next on stage was Intel VP of mobile products Mike Spindler. He said Intel was focused on a "shift to mobility", adding that the P4 range of chips should be available for notebooks in the first half of next year (following the P4 move to 0.13 Micron technology).

The Evo N200's price tag remains a mystery: all Willett would reveal was that the laptop would be "sub $2,000". The machine will start shipping worldwide this autumn. ®