LAST week Lenovo entered the ‘netbook’ space with its IdeaPad S10, exactly a week after Asus launched two new variants of the EeePc. The EeePc—the “three Es” are an abbreviation of the Asus advertising slogan for the device: “Easy to learn, easy to work, easy to play”—is a computer designed for portability and easy Web access. This sub-notebook’s portability stem from its light weight. At just over a kilo, and a screen measuring around 13”, these notebooks don’t strain your back like normal laptops and notebooks that tend to weigh upwards of two kilograms.

These three new netbooks have joined the ranks of the Apple Macbook Air, HCL MiLeap and the XO, as computers that have successfully trimmed down their fat, enabling users to create documents, check mail, surf the web and even create short video clips on the move.

Electronics are notoriously anorexic with new devices tending to be lighter, faster and more reliable. But these sub-notebooks have lower processing power, though what it has is sufficient for most on-the-go work. Unlike their forefathers, most of these sub-notebooks—with the exception of those with capacities of 80 GB and more—have been able to remove one of the most important and obese components of the computer: the hard disk.

The hard disk, the memory of the computer, is the place where all your documents, music, video and even the operating system are stored. Without it, the computer wouldn’t know what to do after being switched on and would be restricted to being a very powerful calculator.

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