3. Compact, With Connections

The mini-v is small but not especially slim; it’s nearly an inch and a half thick, just under 9” wide and 7.5” deep thanks to the 6-cell battery, making it the size of a large paperback book. The battery sticks out a long way, but it does make the mini-v quite comfortable to hold in tablet mode, because you have something to grip; it brings the weight up to two and a half pounds, as well. This is so much less than the average notebook that your bag won’t feel weighed down, but you might not want to hold it in one hand for a long time.

There’s a Kensington lock on each side of the case. Vye did produce a handle to fit between these, although it doesn’t fit with the extended battery; instead, the slip-case that comes with the mini-v has a small handle that you can carry it with (as well as a pocket in which to keep a larger stylus). The left side of the case has the power connector, an Ethernet and USB port hidden behind a cover with a rubberized hinge, a full-size VGA port (so you don’t need to carry an extra adapter) and the power switch. You have to depress the button to slide this; it seems a little fiddly at first, but should stop the mini-v from turning on accidentally in your bag.

The VGA port on the mini-v doesn’t need an adapter, as is often the case on very small laptops. Across the front of the case are a full set of indicator lights, the volume control, headphone and microphone sockets and a physical wireless switch. When you’re saving power-or traveling on planes-a physical switch means you can be sure the radio is off before you power up.

The mini-v S37 has a physical Wi-Fi switch and volume control.

The left hand side of the case has a second USB port, an SD slot that also reads Memory Stick and MMC cards and a Compact Flash slot.

Twin memory card slots make the mini-v more flexible.

Having both memory slots means you could use the mini-v to offload photos from any digital camera on the road-some digital SLRs capture onto both SD and CF at once. It doesn’t really substitute for a PC Card or Express Card slot, though, because there are only a handful of Compact Flash peripherals. At the same time, this means there aren’t any compelling extras like GPS or 3G to bump up the price and run down the battery. However, with Bluetooth and two USB ports, you can add on most peripherals anyway.

The BlueSoleil software bundled with the mini-v also lets you use a Bluetooth headset to make and receive Skype and VOIP calls, which is useful on the move.

Underneath the case is a standard SO-DIMM slot if you want to add extra memory, which you may well want to do, as Vista benefits from having 2 GB.

The memory slot underneath the mini-v S37 is covered with non-slip felt.