That's in part, because it is a trick, since it has netbook guts and Sony's asking you to pay $1300 for it. But, in your hand, it makes you question how skinny is too skinny, how much weightlessness (1.6 pounds of it, to be precise) is an asset before it approaches nothingness. (The fatty VGA port very nearly destroys the illusion, though.) The effect, still, is remarkable, at least at first touch.

Sturdiness? It borders on feeling fragile, but never quite crosses that line. When you try to bend it, you definitely feel like there's a breaking point that won't require a ton of additional force on your part.

The keyboard layout is around 90 percent of full sized which is why it feels a little cramped, but I typed better than I expected, honestly, even with its tiny ticky-tacky keys that fit the fingertips of a small child. The multitouch trackpad only supports zoom gestures—no two-finger scrolling—which are janky at best, at least inside of Internet Exploder. (Sub-question: Why can't PC makers do a decent multitouch trackpad?)

Considering it's a got 2GHz Atom chip, notching it a 2.4 Windows system rating on the one I messed with, it moved pretty decently, more nimbly than I'd have expected, even with Windows Media Center. This is mostly because of Windows 7 I suspect—with Vista it probably would've been tortuous.

Knowing that it's running Atom inside, when it's wrapped in feats of material and sensory goodness, definitely creates a sense of ambiguity, like Sony's repeating the Vaio P all over again. Like it's special effects. Except that it seems like it sorta kinda works this time, which is the actually weird part.

Aside from a few from MSI, all of these ultraportables are from ODMs, meaning they're waiting for a larger company to snap them up and rebrand them (they're ready to go to market now, so you could start seeing them very soon). But they're all working prototypes and all very svelte and usable, with a focus on affordability. Sure, my 2009 MacBook Pro is very nearly as thin as a lot of these laptops, but it also cost twice as much. My favorite has to be the little white 10-incher with the blue flower design.

Occupying that perennially awkward space between a smartphone and a netbook, the mbook M1, like the Viliv S5, packs standard netbook components into a teeny space while remaining too large to be pocketable. It's a nice enough design, and the price is fair, but the sacrifices made to keep the gadget small are sure to annoy owners. Everything's been miniaturized: The headphone jack is a 2.5mm rather than the standard 3.5mm, and it includes only a mini-USB port, so you'll need an adapter for both audio and hardware input. Even the expansion slot has been miniaturized from the cheap and ubiquitous SDHC to micro-SDHC. The 16GB version will run you $599, and doubling your storage will cost an extra $150.

It includes the standard Windows XP, Intel Atom 1.33MHz proc, a 16/32GB SSD, and 512MB of memory, with a 4.8" WVGA touchscreen at a reasonable 1024x600 resolution. In short, it's just about exactly the same guts as the Viliv S5, except with a keyboard and without the standard-size ports. Tiny, yes, but if you're not already pro-MID, the mbook M1 isn't going to convince you. [Dynamism]

The Toshiba Dynabook SS-RX2, anchored with a Core 2 Duo proc, is less than 25mm thick and weighs less than 2.5 pounds. Disappointingly, it's Japan-only for now, but we all hope it'll make its way Stateside eventually. Get ready to cough up the green when it does; it costs over $4,400 USD at the moment due to the prohibitively high (around $1,500) cost of that huge SSD. But this baby, packed with Windows 7, might just be our dream ultraportable. [Product Page via Gizmodo Japan]

The big news is the adoption of Via's C7-M chip, with clock speeds between 400MHz and 1GHz, that'll add new possibilities like HD decoding and surround sound. But that's not the end of the upgrades.

XO-1's memory should get a bump to 1GB, and its storage will get pushed to 4GB or even 8GB as an option. The upgrade, which is being referred to as the XO-1.5 rather than a totally new model, should start shipping in late August. [OLPC News]

References to an Adamo 9 and a Studio One 22 were found in Dell's support documents, right next to the Adamo 13 and the Studio 1909 respectively. So in case the only thing stopping you from drooling over either of these offerings was the size, more choices may appear in the very near future. [Engadget]

The two big chipmakers seem to think so. CNET's sources at CES told them that the processor, which will be priced above the Atom but below the pricey ULV Core 2 Duos found in ultraportables and current thin laptops like the MacBook Air and Voodoo Envy 133, are "going to enable notebooks that are less than one inch (25mm) thick," but that don't cost as much as the aforementioned computers. The performance level will be commensurate with the price, give or take: significantly more powerful than the Atom, but by no means a flagship processor.

Details are scarce for the time being, but the processor seems to have an identical mission as AMD's Neo: create an entirely category of laptop, designed like an ultraportable, but priced between a netbook and a notebook. Does anyone need this, or want this? HP's 12-inch DV2 is the first of its kind, and by definition these new ultrathin laptops won't deviate much from its precedents. If it doesn't get your juices flowing, it's doubtful that any of these new bridge machines will. [CNET via Engadget]

They're so tight lipped with details, they wouldn't even answer a question asking what class of laptops this falls under (see: luxury product). We don't know much about the laptop so far, but the Model had no problem holding it up with one hand, so I'd assume it's pretty light. Dell also said something about using high quality materials in the design, and I'm guessing this thing is going to be super expensive. Anyways, here it is, the first look at the Adamo, Dell's Answer to the Macbook Air and Voodoo Envy 133.

The processor is called the Athlon Neo, and it's based on the previously-leaked Yukon platform. Compared to AMD's current offerings, it is an evolutionary step: It's smaller, media-oriented, and bundled with the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3410 video hardware, theoretically allowing for a reasonably un-crippled user experience. But the evolution is incremental, and this is by no mean an Atom equivalent. Nor is it intended to be.

AMD boasts that the Neo will easily drive full 1080p video, something that even nicely-screened netbooks simply don't need. That's because the Neo is intended for "ultrathin" notebooks, which the company claims will live comfortably between the low-end netbooks (remember the company's snide "race to the bottom" comment?) and high-priced ultraportables.

HP was the first company to announce a Neo not-netbook, and it does indeed sit between a mini-note and an ultraportable (More on this here). It remains to be seen if that niche, which is being aggressively promoted as an entirely new class of laptop, will amount to anything more than needless moniker for a loose collection of confused products. [AMD]

If you've got a Mini 9 you'd like to load OS X onto, hit up the link for, not quite step-by-step instructions, but probably enough to get the job done. [UneasySilence]

If you're willing to stretch your browser and translators to the ends of the Earth, you might be interested in something like the Sungjut TangoX, a mini-notebook with a touchscreen, modular Skype phone and DVI out. Or maybe you'd prefer the Raon Digital Everun Notebook, which is only 1.6lbs and packs an AMD Turion dual core processor instead of an Atom or Via.

Either way, it's a convenient chart to keep your head straight. Hit the link to check it out in full. [Liliputing]

MSI went from 6 to 3-cells in hopes of getting to market faster, but the batteries have become a bottleneck...I apologize for the delays and can only ask you and your readers for your continued patience.

For anyone who preordered the Wind, the new estimated ship date is July 7. And you'll be receiving a free overnight shipping upgrade, for what that's worth. Thanks everyone!

TOSHIBA LAUNCHES WORLD’S FIRST LAPTOP WITH 128GB SOLID STATE DRIVE

Portégé R500-S5007V Measures 0.77-inches Thin and Weighs 2.4 Pounds Making it One of the Thinnest and Lightest Laptops

IRVINE, Calif. (June 17, 2008) – Toshiba’s Digital Products Division, today announced the addition of a 128GB solid state drive (SSD)1 into the innovative Portégé laptop series. Toshiba’s 2.4 pound2 Portégé R500-S5007V is the world’s lightest laptop with a 128GB SSD and DVD SuperMulti drive and one of the world’s thinnest with a SSD and DVD SuperMulti drive.
“With seven world’s first technologies the Portégé R500 series has served as a technology launching pad and redefined the ultraportable marketplace with its world’s first technologies and ‘green’ attributes, such as a transreflective LED backlit indoor/outdoor viewing display, the industry’s highest rated EPEAT Gold laptop and Energy Star 4.0 compliance,” said Jeff Barney, general manager and vice president, Digital Products Division, Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc. “First to incorporate a 128GB solid state drive is another major accomplishment for Toshiba and illustrates how the company is committed to delivering solutions that meet the needs of our customers.”
Utilizing the industry’s largest solid state drive capacity of 128GB, Toshiba’s
Portégé R500-S5007V provides ample storage space for carrying critical company data
and sensitive personal data while traveling. With no moving parts, SSD technology
provides customers with an enhanced level of reliability, durability and system
responsiveness.
To provide added convenience and on-the-go productivity, the Portégé R500 series was the world’s first laptop to ship with a 7mm DVD SuperMulti drive. The built-in optical drive reduces the Portégé R500-S5007V’s travel weight by providing users with an all-in-one solution, eliminating the bulk and inconvenience of carrying additional drives and cables.
For enhanced outdoor viewing, the Portégé R500 series incorporates the world’s first widescreen 12.1-inch transreflective LED backlit display, a feature that embraces the variety of lighting scenarios in which laptop computers are used including direct sunlight. Indoors, the LED backlit display produces an image rich in color saturation and superb quality. Outdoors, the transreflective screen lets the sun’s light pass through and reflects it out to bring the images on the display to life so users can switch off the LED backlighting off while outdoors and decrease overall battery consumption. This feature also makes the Toshiba Portégé R500 series an ideal choice for environmentally conscious users. This innovative display technology also enables users to expand their mobile computing boundaries beyond the traditional four walls of their office, home or local coffee shop to include locations with direct sunlight.
Measuring as thin as 0.77-inches, the Portégé R500 series uses Toshiba’s proprietary High Density Mounting Technology process to enable dual-sided motherboard component mounting. This innovative technology produces a motherboard that is one-third the size of a mainstream 15.4-inch notebook’s motherboard, while still providing users the same functionality.
The more than eight hours of battery life3 of the Portégé R500-S5007V gives users a full work day of normal computing on a single charge. To achieve this extended computing life, Toshiba subjected key system components to meticulous energy efficiency evaluation. Key Portégé R500-S5007V components use low power consumption technology including both the 128GB SSD and an ultra low voltage processor.
For executive durability and security, the Portégé R500-S5007V incorporates Toshiba’s EasyGuard™ Technology4 including advanced encryption, multiple level passwords and a fingerprint reader. These innovative features help prevent theft, and protect against unauthorized access to the users system, helping keep confidential information secure. In terms of data protection, the elimination of all mechanical moving parts from the hard drive Toshiba has designed a machine that further enhances the level of reliability and durability.
Additional information about Toshiba’s EasyGuard Technology is available at
www.easyguard.toshiba.com
The Portégé R500-S5007V Recommended Configuration (MSRP $2,999)5
• Genuine Windows Vista™ Business (32-bit version)
o Downgrade media for Genuine Windows XP Professional
• Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor U77006
o 1.33GHz, 2MB L2, 533MHz FSB with 64 bit
• 2048 PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM8
• 128GB Serial ATA solid state drive1
• 12.1-inch diagonal widescreen high brightness display
o 1280 x 800 (WXGA) – Transreflective backlit LED
• Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 9509
• 7mm, 8xDVD-SuperMulti (+/-R Single Layer) drive supporting 9 formats
• Intel® Wireless Wi-Fi Link 4965AGN10
• Intel® PRO/1000 - 10/100/1000 Ethernet
• Bluetooth® 2.0 + EDR
• 3-Year Standard Limited Warranty11

Complete product specifications for all models within the Portégé R500 Series are available at www.explore.toshiba.com/laptops/portege/R500. The Portégé R500 Series is available with a three-year standard, limited warranty11, which includes carry-in support at Authorized Service Providers throughout the country; or customers may utilize any of the 4,460 UPS Stores and Mail Boxes Etc. locations nationwide for packaging and delivery of the product to a centralized depot for prompt turnaround service. Customers can also choose to upgrade the notebooks’ service plans, including up to four years of extended warranty coverage.
All new Toshiba notebooks are RoHS-compatible12, effectively reducing the environmental impact by restricting the use of lead, mercury and certain other hazardous substances. Beginning in the third Quarter of 2008, Toshiba will offer a computer trade-in and recycling program for all manufacturer’s PCs to reduce environmental impact and promote efficient utilization of resources. To learn more about this free PC recycling program or to find out how to recycle other consumer electronic products, please visit: www.toshiba.eztradein.com/toshiba.

[Toshiba ]