Fujitsu has consistently pushed the envelope with its ultraportables and preached the importance of integrating optical drives into these tiny units. The Fujitsu LifeBook P7230 ($1,799 list) continues that tradition. It joins the ranks of the Sony VAIO-VGN-TXN15P and the Panasonic Toughbook CF-W5 as the only ultraportable below 3 pounds to integrate optical drives. Fujitsu does a great job of providing useful features. But the trouble with miniaturization is that you can end up sacrificing critical elements. The P7230, which has an undersized keyboard and runs slowly, is no exception.

Fujitsu has historically kept its P7000 series business casual, usually clad in black. This time around, they sent me a white version, a color intended to cater to the consumer crowd. I like the change. The P7230's housing is made of magnesium alloy. Its screen-protecting lid, like that of the Sony VAIO VGN-TXN15P is paper-thin. This makes me a bit nervous about screen protection. I'd recommend securing it with a heavily padded travel bag. In contrast, the semi-rugged Panasonic Toughbook CF-W5's has a thick layer of magnesium alloy protecting its screen. The P7230 weighs only 2.9 pounds, hardly noticeable in a travel bag. The Panasonic weighs exactly the same, and the Sony is lighter by a hair, at 2.8 pounds.

The P7230's keyboard, 92 percent of full size, falls in between Sony's 90 percent and Panasonic's full-size keyboards. Typing with it will take some practice and plenty of patience. It's bearable if you're just composing e-mail or Web surfing. But typing a review, as I did, for example, becomes an arduous task. Your viewing space will seem diminished, too: The P7230's 10.6-inch screen is the smallest of the three (the Sony's screen is 11.1 inches and the Panasonic's is 12.1 inches). Luckily, the brightness of the P7230's screen makes up for its smaller size.

The P7230 joins the Panasonic and Sony ultraportables in an elite group with which you'll never have to carry an external optical drive. The built-in DVD burner gives you the flexibility of burning and accessing files on an optical disc. Best of all, the P7230's optical drive is modular. This means you can swap it out for an extra battery or hard drive. The system also has a FireWire port and two USB ports. The 4-in-1 card reader (SD, xD, MS, MS Pro) eliminates yet another USB external device and is perfect for those who travel with a digital camera. The addition of a TPM module gives business users the ability to encrypt valuable data, and the fingerprint reader provides an alternate means of logging into Microsoft Windows and online accounts. Fujitsu is still reluctant to integrate a cellular modem, mainly because many of its clients aren't demanding it. The Sony and Panasonic ultraportables offer modems from Cingular, Sprint, and Verizon.

The P7230's innards, unfortunately, aren't as powerful as its design. But this limitation (shared by both the CF-W5 and TXN15P) is understandable, given the size and weight constraints. In these super-light systems, you start off with an ultralow-voltage processor, such as the P7230's Intel Core Solo U1400, that's really only good for word processing and Internet work. Such a lightweight processor makes RAM all the more important; at least the P7230 packs a full 1GB worth to offset the requirements of Windows Vista Business. I recommend getting 2GB when you order the system. It'll be worth the added expense once you start amassing various files and applications onto the computer. Hard-drive speed is an issue, too. Systems in this weight class are limited to using a 1.8-inch hard drive, which spins at only 4,200 rpm. The alternative would be a 2.5-inch drive (5,400 rpm), which is found in slightly heavier systems such as the Lenovo ThinkPad X60 (Vista) our Editors' Choice for ultraportables. Last, battery life is your best friend when you outfit your system with low-power components. The P7230's 62-Wh battery got us 3 hours 10 minutes when we ran it down using a DVD. You can add a modular battery that will put you in the 5-hour range. (We got these results by playing a movie continuously until the battery ran down; restricting yourself to lighter applications can extend the battery life.) The system's performance on video-encoding tests and Adobe Photoshop scripts is on a par with the Sony VAIO VGN-TXN15P's. CineBench tests are not applicable because the system does not have a dual-core processor.

Fujitsu has done its best to squeeze as many features as it could into the P7230's 2.9-pound frame. The Fujitsu LifeBook P7230 is less expensive than either the Sony VAIO TXN15P or the Panasonic Toughbook CF-W5. But if I had to choose from among the three it would be the Panasonic, which gives you everything the Fujitsu has, plus a more durable chassis, a bigger screen, cellular modem options, and a full-size keyboard. Those things should be factored into your buying decision.

Benchmark Test Results
Check out the Fujitsu LifeBook P7230's test scores.