"What I'd really like is something with the price of the Asus, the keyboard of the HP, and Windows XP for speed and broad software compatibility."

So says Glenn Reynolds, in his review of the Asus 900 mini notebook (which he generally likes).

When I'm on the road or when the power's out, I use a Dell 700M (a machine Glenn recommended, BTW) which is a lot smaller than most laptops. I still use it and love it .However, these new mini laptops are even smaller; the size and weight of a slim book. The biggest problem I'd have using one is that I can't stand having to use the tiny keyboards that seem an inextricable part of these machines.

How might they get around the keyboard problem? There are several portable keyboards which fold in half:

Or even into "fourths":

I don't think it would be an impossible engineering feat to design a mini laptop with a keyboard that folds out, perhaps on each side. That way, the thing would still be as small and as convenient to carry as a book, yet capable of delivering the type of performance we've come to expect of "real" laptops.