Elonex's Piranha Pro weighs in at a reasonable 2kg on its own or 3.5kg when attached to the docking station which is supplied as standard. The notebook itself is only 3cm high and when attached to the docking station the whole unit is just over 7cm high.

It performs well - as it should, being powered by a 750MHz Intel Mobile Pentium III chip, backed up by 128MB of main memory. The single spindle in the chassis is used by the 20GB hard disk, while the docking station has the 24-speed CD-ROM and floppy drives installed.

The 13.3-inch TFT screen is clear and bright, and powered by the onboard 8MB ATI Rage Mobility chipset, and both network connectivity and modem are built into the Piranha Pro. Networking is controlled by an Intel-based 10/100Mbps NIC, while the modem is a 56Kbps LT Win modem.

The rear panel of the chassis contains all the usual I/O ports; serial and parallel ports, VGA and an IR port. A single PS/2 port, a single Type II PC-Card slot and a USB port are housed on the side of the chassis. Two audio ports for headphones and microphone are built into the front of the unit and there is a proprietary port for an external drive.

The system reviewed came with Window 2000 pre-installed, but without any software bundle. Microsoft Office 2000 is offered at extra cost.

One of the more powerful systems in this group, the Elonex Piranha Pro is a fast and well-equipped sub-notebook.

Elonex - Piranha Pro price

£1,999 + VAT

Elonex: 020 84522444