The Acer Travelmate 8481T-6440 ($995 street) laptop is very similar to the crop of luxuriously thin ultraportables that have surfaced of late, except it targets small businesses. You can say it's similar to an ultrabook, with its thin metal-clad frame, low-voltage Core i5 processor, and 11 hours of battery life. Ultrabook or not, this laptop is great all-around, and it supplants the Dell Vostro 3350 ($741 direct, 4 stars) as the new Editors' Choice in our small business category.

Design
At first glance, the matte black finish is mundane, and it attracts fingerprints and smudges like a magnet to steel. The aluminum underneath the shabby finish, though, will have you looking at the design in a whole new light. The metal feels cool to the touch and feels great when it's cradled in your arms, as the top and bottom of the laptop made of aluminum. Like the Dell Vostro V131 ($799.99 direct, 4 stars) and Lenovo ThinkPad X1 ($1,499 direct, 3.5 stars), it measures less than an inch thick; the Samsung Series 9 ($1,650 list, 4 stars) and Apple MacBook Air 13-inch (Thunderbolt) ($1,299 direct, 4 stars) are even thinner. Its 3.9-pound frame might seem heavy compared with the aforementioned laptops, but the big 87WH battery bulging from its back and a 14-inch widescreen are worth the added weight.

Like the Gateway ID47H02u ($699.99 list, 4 stars), Acer squeezed a 14-inch widescreen into a 13-inch frame. There's very little bezel surrounding the display, giving it a home-theater look and something users wouldn't expect from a small business laptop. In contrast, the Dell 3350 and Lenovo X1 have similar-size frames, but house 13-inch widescreens. The size and appearance of the screen helps it stand out among its peers, though the 1,366-by-768 is boilerplate. The HP ProBook 6465b ($730 direct, 4 stars), for instance, uses a higher 1,600-by-900 resolution on its 14-inch screen.

The 8481T-6440's keyboard is borrowed from Acer's Aspire Consumer line: big chiclet-style keys that appear as if they're floating off of the foundation. The typing experience isn't nearly as superb as that of the Lenovo X1 and Dell V131, but it'll please most typists. Its touchpad is slightly bigger than that of the Dell 3350, but what makes the whole navigating experience great are the soft, responsive mouse buttons. Overall, Acer assembled a solid user experience in the 8481T-6440.

Features
The 8481T-6440 is luxuriously thin because it omits an internal DVD burner, unlike the thicker Dell 3350. Its feature set isn't as anemic as that of the MacBook Air 13-inch and Samsung Series 9 either, as it comes with more USB ports (4 of them, compared with two on the MacBook Air), an Ethernet jack, and VGA port. Two of the USB ports are USB 3.0, and one of them is a combo ESATA port. There's a full-size HDMI port, and media card reader in the front bezel. The 320GB hard drive capacity is smaller than the 500GB drives found in the Dell V131 and HP 6465b, although performance won't be impacted because it spins as fast they do (7,200rpm).

In addition to Wi-Fi 802.11n and Bluetooth, the 8481T-6440 is equipped with Wireless Display 2 (WiDi 2.0), which, like HDMI and DisplayPort, transmits video and audio, but without the pesky wires. You will need the Netgear HD Push2TV receiver, though, a $99 option sold through major computer retailers.

Performance
In terms of processing muscle, the 8481T-6440 won't out-lift the Dell V131, HP 6465b, and Dell 3350. It uses a similar low voltage processor—an Intel Core i5-2557M—found in the MacBook Air 13-inch and Samsung Series 9. Though it isn't the best candidate to tackle hardcore video and photo editing jobs or compile huge databases, it can handle many common tasks with ease. That said, its Cinebench R11.5 (1.64) and Handbrake (2:56) scores were considerably slower than the Dell 3350 (2.56 on Cinebench; 2:33 on Handbrake) and Lenovo X1 (2.85 on Cinebench; 2:25 on Handbrake). It also took several more minutes to complete Photoshop CS5 (6:54) than the Dell V131 (4:21). Keep in mind that the 8481T-6440 can still run heavy-duty applications without crashing to halt, albeit at a slower pace. It also can't run 3D-intensive games as well as the HP 6465b, which uses a more potent AMD graphics chip.

If your travel demands are grueling, it's worth losing a few steps in speeds if it means gaining several hours in battery life. To that end, the payoff is huge when you pair its low-voltage processor with an enormous 87WH battery. The battery is so big that it lifts the laptop up from the back by two inches. It's the biggest battery among its peers, certainly bigger than the Dell 3350 (80WH), Dell V131 (65WH), HP 6465b (55WH), and Lenovo X1 (36WH). Consequently, its battery score on MobileMark 2007 (11 hours 1 minute) is tops in the group. By comparison, the Dell 3350, which came in second, scored 9:32, while the Lenovo X1 (3:10) and HP 6465b (5:02) weren't nearly as impressive.

The Acer Travelmate 8481T-6440 may not have enough speed to power past its peers, but there's enough of it to get some serious work done in a small business environment. What little it gave up in horsepower, it gains back with a sleek, ultrabook-like design (its low-voltage processor requires fewer clunky cooling fans) and over 11 hours of battery life. And those qualities, to a professional who's constantly on the road, are more important than bragging rights in speed tests, which is why it's our Editors' Choice for small business laptops.

BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS
Check out the test scores for the Acer Travelmate 8481T-6440

COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the Acer Travelmate 8481T-6440 with several other laptops side by side.