Many computer vendors offer lightweight notebooks, usually called ultraportables, that weigh 3 pounds or less—ideal for students and frequent business travelers.

So what’s the catch? Frequently, an ultraportable has a smallish keyboard that can make typing uncomfortable; a smallish screen (12.1 inches or less) that will have you scrolling and/or squinting; smallish hard drives (you won’t often find an ultraportable with a hard drive larger than 60GB); and so on. Also, some ultraportables don’t include built-in optical drives. And ultraportables can be expensive.

When shopping for an ultraportable,ibm laptop battery, don’t rely on the weight as listed by the vendor. Most computer sellers don’t include an AC adapter or other essential accessories in the notebook’s weight. PC World notebook tests, however, list a notebook’s minimum and average weight; the average weight includes accessories.

If light weight and a compact size are high priorities for you,IBM thinkpad t40 battery , take a look at the following notebooks. All earned a PCW score of Good and have a minimum weight of less than 3 pounds.

• When you’re in the library or an airport lounge, you can’t count on having a wall socket available to charge your notebook. That’s why it pays to get a notebook with a long battery life.

  Many notebooks today offer multiple battery options. When configuring a notebook online, you may be given a choice between, say, a four-cell, six-cell, thinkpad t41 battery, or nine-cell battery. Generally speaking, the more cells, the longer a battery will hold a charge—and the more cells a battery has, the larger and heavier it will be. There’s a lot more to battery life than the size of the battery, however. Different notebooks manage power differently. Your optimum solution should include a visit to our Notebook chart, where you can compare lab-tested battery performance.

  In addition, some notebooks can run off two batteries,thinkpad t42 battery , further extending your work time. Usually, the additional battery slips into a modular bay that can hold either a second battery or an optical drive (such as a DVD burner), but not both at the same time.

  If long battery life is important to you, here are some thinkpad r40 battery to consider:

• Two previously mentioned models provide awesome battery life. In our tests the Lenovo ThinkPad X60s lasted 8 hours and 21 minutes on an eight-cell thinkpad r32 battery, and the Fujitsu LifeBook P7120 lasted an impressive 6 hours, 26 minutes on a single six-cell battery. When a second six-cell battery is installed in the LifeBook’s modular bay, the estimated operation time is nearly 13 hours.
• With a 12-cell thinkpad r60 battery, the HP Pavilion dv5000t lasted 7 hours and 7 minutes on one charge. The notebook earned a PCW rating of Good;