Review: Roundup: Mininets

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We may all be computing on the same worldwide cloud, but Japanese mininets are higher fliers. They manage to be even smaller than American models without sacrificing a lick of performance.

1. Sony Vaio P
This little laptop is light (1.4 pounds) but certainly no lightweight. With its 2.0-GHz Intel Atom processor, 256-GB solid-state drive, 8-inch display, onboard webcam, and Bluetooth, the latest Vaio is a tempting proposition. While considerably smaller than a standard-issue Web slinger (9.7 x 4.7 x 0.8 inches), it's definitely the biggest of this bunch. But the factor that really tips the scales in its favor is that you can get it easily in the US.

2. Viliv S5
If pocketability were an Olympic sport, this device would take home the gold. At 6 x 3 x 1 inches, the S5 slides effortlessly into jeans and jacket pockets alike. The 5-inch touchscreen is solid for Web browsing and media viewing, and the 1.33-GHz Atom processor does a decent job of running multiple apps. But with only a virtual keyboard, you might want to postpone your email assault till you're back in the office.

3. Sharp PC-Z1 NetWalker
This petite, Ubuntu-powered 'puter is smaller than a paperback (6.3 x 4.3 x 0.8 inches) and weighs less than your lunch (0.9 pound). It's also fast: Thanks to the ARM Cortex-A8 processor, the NetWalker starts up in three seconds and zips around the open source OS with ease. Unfortunately, typing is painful on the Lilliputian keyboard.

WIRED Vivid video on the 1024 x 600-pixel display. 10-hour battery. Decent optical point mouse.

TIRED Scrunched QWERTY requires hunt-and-peck typing. We know we're supposed to dig the cloud, but only 4 GB of built-in flash memory?! (To be fair, it's expandable to 16 gigs via MicroSD.) Unless you read Japanese, you'll have to install your own Ubuntu build. (Good thing it's free.)

$500, sharpusa.com