It's like the geeked-out version of West Side story. You have netbooks, which simply took the world by storm, bullying bigger laptops into rethinking their game, slashing prices, and taunting others about long battery life. Then CULV laptops rolled into town, snapping their fingers and bragging about how their bigger screens and batteries make them the ones to beat. And somehow, these two groups are rivaling each other and are now running the entire ultraportable scene. Well, that's how I'm portraying it.

If netbooks has taught us anything is that light, inexpensive laptops, with long battery life sell furiously fast. Their small screens and cramped keyboards, however, were and still are their biggest downfalls. AMD tried to address these shortcomings by introducing its Neo processor, a low voltage chip aimed at laptops that were marginally bigger than a netbook, which subsequently gave rise to the HP Pavillion dv2 (1030us). But soon after, Intel came down with the hammer.

CULV, which stands for consumer ultra low voltage, isn't a new technology for Intel. In fact, these processors commanded high premiums two years ago and were found in ultraportables that range upwards of $2,000. With CULV, Intel merely re-branded these processors, created new ones in the process, and began selling them in laptops that are less than an inch thick, average 13-inch widescreens, and don't necessarily include optical drives. Most compelling of all, CULV laptops cost between $600 and $900 and delivered great battery life

The began its aggressive campaign with these two things in mind: Great battery life and cheap prices. And soon everyone else followed. The list of CULV processors are mind numbing and confusing. They vary by brandCore Solo, Pentium, and Core 2 Duomodel number, and the number of processor cores built-in (single or dual core). Performance-wise, they're certainly a step above netbook processors.

On the heels of the Acer Timeline series, other PC makers have toyed with different designs: The uses textures reminiscent of a piece of designer luggage, while both the and employ aluminum metals. The is literally a knock-off of the Apple MacBook Air, as its razor thin frame can also slide into a manila envelope. Other qualities like full size keyboards, HDMI-out ports, and 13-inch widescreens also help broaden their appeal over netbooks.

Great battery life is another quality all CULV laptops can agree on. Of course, they still need a big battery to achieve this. Both the UL30A-A1 and the have big batteries and amassed 7 hours and 10 hours of battery life in our tests, respectively. And all of them cost under $900.

CULV laptops are meant to combine sleek, lightweight design with strong performance and long battery life. Maybe there's one out there with your name on it. Check out some of the most recent models.

Featured in this Roundup:

($775 street)



The UL30A-A1 is an amazing ultra-thin laptop that gives 10 hours of battery life for less than what everyone else is charging.

ASUS UL80Vt-A1 ($823 Street)



The CULV-equipped ASUS UL80Vt-A1 laptop is loaded with lovable features, including switching graphics technology, a huge battery, and a metallic design.

Acer Aspire Timeline AS3810T ($900 street)



An Intel CULV processor and thin metallic frame makes it one of the most battery efficient and stylish ultraportables in the business.

Lenovo IdeaPad U350 ($650 direct)



Lenovo's ultra-thin ultra-low voltage IdeaPad U350 is stylish and cheap; just don't expect it to win any performance races.

Toshiba Satellite T135-S1300 ($600 street)



The T135-S1300 is a well designed, inexpensive CULV laptop with which performance is its only Achilles' Heel

MSI X340 (021US) ($900 Street)



The X340 is a blatant knock-off of the Macbook Air, but it does come with more ports and a removable battery