The Five Smallest Laptops

Bigger isn’t always better – just ask anyone who has to lug their 10lb laptop across London Bridge every day. But when you sacrifice size in a laptop, it doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice performance or quality. It’s also easier to find cheap insurance for smaller models. For practical people looking for a feature-rich laptop that weighs less than a watermelon, here are some of the very best options:

Best for Looks: HP Mini 110-3607sa Netbook

This stylish little laptop is built around a 10.1” screen, and offers all the features you need for day-to-day computing. It includes Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, an SD card slot, three USB ports and an integrated webcam for video calls. With 1GB of RAM – which you can expand to 2 – you shouldn’t expect to do very intensive tasks, but for emails, internet, office documents and photos, you really can’t go wrong.

Best for Features: Sony Vaio Lifestyle PC

Don’t be put off by the diminutive 8” screen – the resolution is excellent and it’s nice and wide, meaning you don’t normally have to scroll left and right to see a complete webpage or document. With Vista and 2GB of RAM it’s fast and powerful, and it has integrated mobile broadband, meaning you can remain connected no matter where you are. The only downside is the model’s puny 2.5-hour battery life,

Best for Under £200: Packard Bell Dot S2 UK/003

Runs Windows 7 standard and comes with a hefty 250GB hard drive. The 10.1” LCD screen is backlight to save power, resulting in an impressive 7 hours of battery time which really makes this laptop stand out. With webcam, wife and 1GB of RAM, it holds its own with most of the other machines in this size range, and you’d need to pay another £80 to find a laptop with a better battery.

Best for Media: Sony Vaio VGN-TZ11MN

This model is not a sleek as the rest of the Vaio range, but it includes a feature that the majority of other small laptops lack – a fully functioning DVD drive that you can even use without booting up Windows. The 11.1” screen has very high resolution and a 16:9 ratio which means your widescreen films will look fabulous. 2GB of RAM and up to six hours of battery life is like the icing on the cake, but it’s the media capacity that really defines this Vaio.

Best for Lottery Winners: MacBook Air

Now in a new model with an 11” screen, this little MacBook weighs less than all of the other laptops in our list. The build quality is amazing – it makes other laptops look like Christmas cracker toys. Performance-wise it’s also in a league of its own, but with a price tag of nearly a grand you’d expect nothing less. Users unfamiliar with Mac OS will also be put off, but if you’ve got readies this is by far the best option on the market.