If you have a big cabin with a big table with an even bigger padded chair at your place of work, you must definitely be the boss! But size does not matter when it comes to personal gadgets, like PMPs (personal music player or multi media player) or cell-phones/PDAs. There, on the contrary, the smaller the better! This is also true for laptops. What is the point of having a 17? laptop that weighs more than 3kg and juts out 4? on either side of your lap? Not only is it cumbersome to work on while travelling (air or road), but it also disturbs co-travellers.

As a big truism goes: good things come in small packages and Indian IT giant HCL seems to have taken it to heart. It recently launched the MiLeap series of sleek, ultra portable, fully functional laptops with seven-inch display screens. At a price point starting from Rs 13,990 and available with both flash-based and disk-based storage versions, with Linux operating system, they offer a full mobile Internet computing experience.

The MiLeap-S that I got for review is a new hard disk (HDD) based model that comes preinstalled with Microsoft Windows XP, starter edition. Weighing just 1.44 kg, the feather-light laptop is designed to resemble a personal organiser (diary) in both shape and size. The appealing top plastic cover is user-changeable, has a well-padded hand grip and a magnetic buckle like any other organiser. To add a dash of glamour, it comes in three attractive colours (rich black, pink and cool blue) to choose from.

As you lift the top panel open, a rather small (800 X 480 resolution) LCD, TFT display panel encrusted in matt-grey bezel with pearl white trimming greets you. The broad duo colour bezel makes the LCD look still smaller, but as you power it on, the bright and sharp colours compensate for the size. Though there is enough space to use a bigger display panel (up to 10 inches), the company has probably provided a smaller screen to keep costs in check.

Two ear-panels comprising inbuilt stereo speakers flank the solid looking hinged-joint on the base panel and keep you entertained. The 77-button (including function keys) keyboard is ergonomically placed just above the round touch pad and two click buttons. Though the keyboard is big for such a small laptop, and palm-rests are well contoured, I found the key buttons a bit hard and springy for my liking. The round touch pad is good and responsive, but a bit grainy.

An RJ-45 ethernet LAN socket, a USB 2 socket, an external microphone-IN jack port and an audio-OUT jack port are placed on the left side of the base panel. The DC-in for charging battery and another USB 2 socket are on the right side. The two vents for the cooling fan are very thoughtfully placed on either side of the base panel for unhindered outflow of hot air. Three tiny holes on the front of the base panel facing the user are the opening for the inbuilt mono microphone.

The MiLeap-S has an Intel Celeron M processor running at 900 MHz for a power plant. A 30GB of hard disk for storing data and 512 MB of DDR-2 RAM gives Mileap a sense of respectability for a laptop in this price range. But I soon realised while reviewing it that to run (even) the striped-down Microsoft Windows XP-starter edition, one needs a little faster processor (with more of L2cache), specially now when everybody is into multi-tasking. But on a Linux OS (operating system) this processor is a ‘Ferrari’. HCL has dispensed with the DVD/CD drive, probably to cut down the weight and the cost, so every time you need to install an application or read a DVD/CD, you’ll have to run for an external drive.

It was a test in patience and all my Sherlock Holmes skills to detect where the SD card slot was. It?s hidden under the top cover, all the way on the rear of the laptop and you have to peal the top cover to access it (bad planning).

MiLeap is not only targetted at price-conscious users, but is an upgrade from the PDA or smartphones for those workaholics who desire to stay connected, hooked and be productive all the time.

The bundled Kaspersky Antivirus 6.0 and Microsoft Works 8.5 Office suite are welcome freebies, particularly in this low-priced device. The claimed battery life of four hours in idle conditions is a bit debatable, but then so are ?idle conditions?.

For an MRP of Rs 16,850, MiLeap is sure a worthy companion.