I have compiled a list of the top 15 ultraportable laptops, based on page views here at Ultraportable Laptops and Notebooks. Page views aren’t the most accurate way to gauge what the best laptop is, however they do reflect the amount of interest, and in this case I used both page views of the laptop pages as well as news stories. It covers October (when we moved to the small-laptops.com domain) through the end of December, 2005, however based on what I’ve read over the past year or so, and the amount of press certain laptops have received, I feel it’s probably fairly accurate – it includes a mix of both older laptops that were refreshed last year as well as new models, and it covered the holiday season when many people decide to upgrade. Where there were varying models between regions, I’ve taken that into account (namely with the Sony VAIOs).
If you would like to vote on what laptop you think was the top laptop of 2005, on the right hand side of the website is a poll – you can either choose one already listed or add your own.
The first choice on the list, the Fujitsu LifeBook P1510D (Tablet) has garnered an impressive amount of publicity (including PC World giving it their 2006 PC World Innovations Award for notebooks this past week). This is one of the most talked about “convertibles” – laptops with Tablet PC functionality or Tablet PCs with physical keyboards – however you want to look at it. It’s convertability, small size (8.9-inch display) and the Ultra Low Voltage (ULV) Pentium M powering it osl
The second on the list, the Dell Inspiron 700M, is also not a suprise – it’s one of the cheapest widescreen ultraportables available from one of the larger manufacturers, and it has generated a lot of user satisfaction.
The third, the Sony VAIO VGN-TX690P, has also had a lot of buzz going, seeing as how it’s one of the lightest and smallest ultraportables that still retains a decent-sized keyboard (11.1-inch widescreen display with a Carbon Fiber chassis).
The fourth, the Lenovo ThinkPad X41 (Tablet) – again not a surprise. When Lenovo announced they were adding a Tablet PC version to the highly-respected ThinkPad line that they had recently acquired from IBM, it was one of those watershed moments for Tablet PCs – many analysts and websites cited that as a turning point for Tablet PCs.
The fifth was a bit of a surprise – the Flybook V3 (Tablet), but in retrospect, this convertible, similar in size and proccesor to the Fujitsu P1510D, was one of the more stylish of the ultraportables around, as well as being built on a second or third-generation platform.
Statistics
* Tablet Functionality: Five were Tablet PCs or had Tablet/Touchscreen functionality (including three out of the top five).
* Manufacturers: Acer had the most on the list with three, followed by Averatec, Fujitsu, Dell, Lenovo, and Sony with two apiece.
* Display: Nine had 12.1-inch displays, with the rest evenly divided (two apiece) between 8.9-inch, 10.6-inch, and 11.1-inch displays.
* Widescreen: Ten had widescreen displays.
* CPU: 14 Intel, 1 AMD/Sempron.
* CPU – Intel: 7 Ultra Low Voltage (ULV) Pentium M, 4 “Regular” Pentium M, 2 “Low Voltage” Pentium M, 1 Celeron.
* Optical Drives: Ten had internal optical drives.
The List
1) Fujitsu LifeBook P1510D (Tablet)
2) Dell Inspiron 700M
3) Sony VAIO VGN-TX690P
4) Lenovo ThinkPad X41 (Tablet)
5) Flybook V3 (Tablet)
6) Fujitsu LifeBook P7120
7) Acer TravelMate C204 (Tablet)
8 ) Acer TravelMate TM3002WTCi
9) Averatec 1050
10) Sony VAIO VGN TX670P
11) Acer TravelMate C203 (Tablet)
12) Averatec 3700
13) Lenovo ThinkPad X41
14) ASUS W5A
15) Dell Latitude X1