Actually Brian, I'd be interested to hear which ultraportable you ended up getting.
Video performance is certainly the biggest failings with these tiny mahines. Most u/ps have integrated graphics (otherwise known as Intel Graphics Decelerators). But at least some of them have a built-in optical drive:
IBM Thinkpad X31 // Pentium M 1.4-1.6 // 16 MB Rage Mobility // No Optical Drive // 3.7 lbs
Sony TR2A // Pentium M 1.0 // 855 GM Integrated grafx // DVD/CD-RW Drive // 3.09 lbs
Panasonic Toughbook W2 // Pentium M 1.0 // 855 GM Integrated grafx // DVD/CD-RW Drive // 2.9 lbs
Fujitsu Lifebook P5020 // Pentium M 1.0 // 855 GM Integrated grafx // DVD/CD-RW // 3.7 lbs
Toshiba Portege R100 // Pentium M 1.0 // 32 MB Trident XP4M // No Optical Drive // 2.4 lbs
It's a tough call between these candidates. They all involve different sacrifices.
The ultraportable is diametrically opposite to the Desktop Replacement. Instead of adding on every option that you probably don't need, with the ultraportables, you have to pare down your requirements to the bare minimum...
None of the ultraportables suit my workload, but if I were going to pick, I'd probably get the Panasonic Toughbook W2.
We're going to see 1.0 GHz Transmeta Efficeons in the marketplace over the next few months, but I doubt they will even come close to the raw performance of the 900 or 1000 MHz Pentium Ms. Although they would *have* to use an external video card that would almost have to be better than the 855GM (but not by much, if any).
Unless you *really* need need an ultraportable, I think that a thin-and-light would probably be the best choice for portability. And here I think the Thinkpad T41 wins hands-down. And they can be configured with up to 128 MB FireGL Mobility T2 graphics cards...(*cough* sticker shock *cough*)
Thinkpad X31 reviewed on C|Net
