At $2,200, the ASUS A8H might sting your wallet a little. But if money's no object, it's also available in a leather-clad version for $2,600. Overall,The keyboard is a little hard to master, but the integrated optical drive and 100GB hard drive certainly make it worth considering.

the A8H reminds me a lot of the Toshiba Libretto U100. The systems' footprints are similar, but a closer look reveals that the A8H is significantly larger because of its integrated optical drive. Still, the A8H is pint-sized, at 10.7 by 7.5 by 1.2 inches and only 3.4 pounds. It's even lighter than the Sony VAIO VGN-SZ280, which also has a built-in optical drive but weighs almost a half-pound more. The VGN-SZ280 features a much larger, 13.3-inch XBrite screen; the A8H's screen is 11.1 inches. Still, you can use either system to stay on top of your Netflix subscription.

The A8H's keyboard is not much better than the one on the Libretto. Only 92 percent as large as a standard full-size keyboard, Though you can teach yourself to touch-type over time, be prepared to use the A8H more for play than for work. In the same vein, although I liked the touchpad's responsiveness, the mouse buttons offered some resistance, and the resulting clicking noises could get annoying in a quiet setting. The system lacks integrated wireless WAN, though built-in Verizon EV-DO or Cingular EDGE support would have been nice. If wireless WAN features are a must, you'll find them on both the Lenovo ThinkPad X60s Tablet and the VGN-SZ280.

The A8H's integrated dual-layer DVD burner is a big plus. Not many laptops can brag about having a built-in optical drive and weighing less than 4 pounds . What's more, the 100GB hard drive is substantial for such a small machine. Other notable features include built-in Bluetooth, three USB ports and a FireWire port that are spread out along the sides, and a 4-in-1 card reader that will come in real handy if you have a digital camera or a camcorder.

ASUS surprised me a little with the A8H's processor. I was expecting the machine to have an ultra-low-voltage processor; just not ultra-low-voltage. The L2300 is similar to the slightly higher-clocked, low-voltage 1.6-GHz L2400 CPU found in the ThinkPad X60s. If you want something faster, both the Sony SZ Series and the Lenovo ThinkPads are available with standard-voltage Intel Core Duo processors.

As expected, the A8H uses integrated graphics from Intel, though its 1GB of system RAM helped out nicely on my Adobe Photoshop CS2 tests. The low-voltage processor guarantees pretty good battery life; indeed, the A8H lasted 4 hours 48 minutes in our MobileMark 2005 tests, and with a standard 58-Wh battery, no less. By contrast, the extended 75-Wh battery on the ThinkPad X60s will give you over 7 hours of battery life.