What is the smallest laptop computer?

It seems that everyday, there's a new tiny laptop making waves in the industry, which is great news if you're after extreme mobility. But the definition of the term "small" can mean a number of things when it comes to laptops, from a minuscule screen to an ultra-thin chassis. Read on this article to find the "smallest" laptops available today.

Asus Eee PC

Asus leads the way in netbooks with its first Eee PCs. These small notebooks had screens of between eight and ten inches, low specifications and ran open source, lightweight Linux-based operating systems. Netbooks have flourished since then, and Asus still leads the way with most other manufacturers, including Packard Bell and Acer, following suit. Now, there are many available with all having roughly the same specifications, a 10.1-inch screen, a tiny keyboard, no optical drive and relatively low specs, all of which help keep the overall price tag low. What netbooks lack in processing power, they make up for battery life. Typical examples now boast battery lives of eight hours plus.

Sony Vaio P series

The Sony Vaio P series gets a special mention among all the UMPC, or ultra mobile PC offerings on the market. These are among the best truly small laptops available when you weigh specifications against size. The tiny eight inch screen has a typically high resolution among the higher-end examples. The VGN-P11Z/W has a 1600x768 widescreen UWXGA display. Under the hood, there's a 1.33 Ghz Intel Atom Z520, fast by netbook standards, backed up by 2GB of RAM. The 60GB HDD exceeds the capacity of the SSDs used in netbooks. However, all this comes at a price. The higher-end Sony Vaio Ps, such as the example given here, can be at least twice as expensive as a netbook.

Apple MacBook Air

Small doesn't have to refer only to the screen size. The Apple MacBook Air is one of the thinnest, if not the thinnest, laptop available today at just 1.7cm. This also makes it one of the most lightweight laptops at 1.06kg for the 11-inch version, and 1.32kg for the 13-inch one. It's flash storage has a transfer speed well in excess of those traditional HDDs, so much that a MacBook Air can beat a MacBook Pro for speed in all everyday tasks.

UMPCs and tablets

UMPC is a blanket term used to describe any device with a screen size of between five and seven inches, regardless of what operating system it uses or whether it has a keyboard or not. These are among the smallest laptops available, but they tend to be specialist in nature. For example, some run Linux-based OS, while the touchscreen tablets usually run Android, an OS designed for smartphones.