Remember when a computer took up an entire room at the office? Even if you don’t, I’m sure you’ve seen the pictures. Both desktops and laptops certainly have come a long way in just a few decades, and still seem to be shrinking every year (for even smaller laptops, check out our “Mini Laptop Computers” post).

We classify a small laptop as one with a screen size between 12 – 14″ and a weight of less than 6 lbs. How else does a small laptop differ from a mini laptop? Well, they have larger hard drives, more memory, internal CD/DVD drives, often dual channel processors, sometimes discreet graphics cards, and they are almost always customizable. The price can therefore vary quite a bit. On our list, the least expensive choice is Dell’s Inspiron 14 at $449 (base configuration) whereas Sony’s VAIO SR with all the top options added will cost you $3,079.

Below are the pink small laptop computers currently on the market:

Asus Eee 1008P
Dell Inspiron 14 (“Promise Pink”)
Dell Studio 14z (“Promise Pink” – click for full specs)
Dell Inspiron 14R
MSI PR200 (“Pink”)
MSI PR210 (“Pink”)
Sony VAIO SR (“Sunset Pink”)
Toshiba Satellite U505-S2925P (Textured “Luxe Pink”)

Since all except the MSIs are customizable, the specs are quite lenghty, so we are just going to list the best and worst for each category. Each come with the Windows Vista Home operating system, and they all offer (except MSI of course) OS upgrade options.

Memory

Best – Base configuration
Dell Studio 14z (3GB2 Shared Dual Channel DDR3 at 1066MHz)

Best – Upgraded
Sony VAIO SR (8GB DDR2-SDRAM (DDR2-800, 4GBx2))

Worst
MSI PR200 and MSI PR210 (2GB DDR2 x 1 (533/667MHz)

Hard Drive

Best – Base configuration
A tie between Dell Studio 14z and Toshiba Satellite U505-S2925P, both with a 250GB3 SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)

Best – Upgraded
Dell Studio 14z (500GB SATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) with Free Fall Sensor)

If you prefer a solid state drive, the Sony VAIO SR is the winner with a 256GB Solid State Drive as an upgrade option.

Worst
MSI PR200 and MSI PR210 (120GB SATA)

Processor

Best – Base configuration
Dell Inspiron 14
Dell Studio 14z
Sony VAIO SR
Toshiba Satellite U505-S2925P
all come with Intel® Pentium™ Dual Core T4200 (2.0GHz/800Mhz FSB/1MB cache)

Best – Upgraded
Sony VAIO SR (Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T9800 (2.93GHz)

Worst
MSI PR200 and MSI PR210 (Intel Centrino 2.0GHz 667 MHz, 2MB cache and AMD Turion®64 X2, TL50, 2.0 GHz, 667MHz, 2MB respectively)

Battery

Best – Base configuration
A tie between Dell Studio 14z and Toshiba Satellite U505-S2925P, both with 6-cell Li-Ions

Best – Upgraded
Toshiba Satellite U505-S2925P (High Capacity 12-cell Li-Ion)

Worst
Hart to tell, since Sony only defines their batteries as “Standard” and “Large”. However, if we go by cells, Dell Inspiron 14 and the two MSIs “win” this category with 4 cell Li-Ions.

Screen Size

No best and worst here, just the facts:
MSI PR200 – 12″
MSI PR210 – 12″
Sony VAIO SR – 13.3″
Toshiba Satellite U505-S2925P – 13.3″
Dell Inspiron 14 – 14″
Dell Studio 14z – 14″

Weight

Lightest
Sony VAIO SR (4.14 lbs)

Heaviest
Dell Inspiron 14 (4.96 lbs)

Size

Smallest
Dell Studio 14z (13.23×9.02×0.79)

Largest
Toshiba Satellite U505-S2925P (12.5×9.08×1.16)

On a side note, the sizes given for the two MSIs have such a wide range that they could have placed as smallest, but the variations are so big that I feel more comfortable giving the Studio 14z that award.

In conclusion:
If you’re looking a small and light laptop, the Studio 14z is a great choice: smallest of them all (in spite of having a 14″ screen) and pretty light as well (4.3 lbs).

If you want the best graphics card, the Toshiba Satellite U505-S2925P is the way to go. True, the base configuration comes with a mainstream Intel GMA 4500M, but you have the option to upgrade to an ATI Mobility Radeon H4570 with 512MB DDR3 (discrete).

As far as looks go, it’s all a matter of taste of course, but I think the Toshiba wins here too. The textured surface adds something a little extra, and I also happen to really like that particular shade of pink.