Tiny and Tough

At less than three pounds and only 1.7 -inches thick, Panasonic breaks the accessory mold by somehow squeezing an internal DVD ROM/CDRW in to this ruggedized ultra portable laptop. Thanks to the new smaller chip sets, size really doesn’t matter with the new generation ultra portables. The Toughbook CF-W2 is loaded with a 900MHz Pentium M with Centrino integrated wireless, 256MB of RAM, a 40GB Hard Drive and super bright 12 –inch XGA screen. Decent battery life, a SD card and USB 2.0 slot round out this featherweight that can take on most any heavyweight laptop. $2250; www.panasonic.com/toughbook