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11.6in sub-notebooks
Mini-laptops for the weight-averse
Acer Aspire Timeline 1810TZ
The 1810TZ was, for a long while, Reg Hardware's choice of 11.6in notebook, offering a level of performance in excess of rival machines thanks to its dual-core Pentium SU4100 CPU and their single-core offerings. But it's long in the tooth now, and soon to be replaced - though it's widely available, especially in its pricey Special Edition form. I'd give it consideration, however, if you're after a long battery life. It managed well over four hours in the Reg Hardware test, which means more than eight hours in the real world - and when I've disabled Wi-Fi and dimmed the screen, I've seen Windows 7 report more than 11 hours' runtime available.
Reg Rating 70%
Price £429
More Info Acer
Asus Eee PC 1215N
Asus' sub-notebook is unique among those gathered here for a number of reasons. It has a 12.1in screen - only slightly larger than the average - and an Atom processor: the 1.8GHz D525. It also incorporates Nvidia's Ion 2 chipset, enabling it to support HDMI output and the customary 1366 x 768 display. It also has a pair of USB 3.0 ports, and Bluetooth 3.0.
If the features list doesn't impress, its graphics performance will. It's well ahead of anything else here, graphically, though its dual-core CPU won't match AMD or Intel's notebook-class chips. And, in this class of machine, CPU is more important than GPU.
Reg Rating 80%
Price £429
More Info Asus