The R500 isn't quite the lightest laptop here, but as it includes a 12in screen and DVD writer, its 1.1kg weight is extraordinary. Build quality isn't as reassuring as we'd like, though. The plastic chassis looks a little cheap in the flesh and the lid, which is just 5mm thick, flexes under pressure.
The screen isn't as bright as the others and its viewing angles are poor. Along with the hopelessly tinny speakers, this isn't a good choice for watching DVDs. However, the screen is transflective, which means its pixels are lit by light shining on the screen as well as by the backlight. This is a great benefit for outdoor use as the screen is less prone to reflections
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and you can turn off the backlight to conserve the battery. Even when using the backlight, which uses low-power LEDs rather than fluorescent tubes, the R500 lasted for over five hours in our light-use test. Charging the battery from flat is slow, though, taking around three hours.
Another reason for the excellent battery life is the use of an ultra-low voltage (ULV) processor, but its 1.2GHz clock speed isn't such great news for performance. The 1GB of RAM is equally conservative, and a score of 93 overall in our Windows benchmarks means this isn't a laptop for intensive tasks. It's perfectly adequate for office software and a bit of light photo editing, though.
Draft-N wireless and Bluetooth are built in, but the lack of a dial-up modem could be a nuisance in hotels without wireless network access. There's a CardBus slot for adding a 3G modem more neatly than via USB, but the slot's recessed location means it might not accommodate cards with a bulky protrusion. If you want an internal 3G modem, you'll need to spend £1,350 on the R500-3G125, which also has a 1.33GHz processor, 2GB of RAM and a 160GB hard disk.
The Portege R500-11B's low weight, great battery life and plentiful features are a winning combination.
