Mini-notebooks have got to be one of the most "neck-snap" inducing items a person can carry onto a plane for a long flight. Passengers' heads whip around and look slack jawed as you not only power up the unit free from an external battery, but the drool really drips in high volumes when they see the true-blue Win98 splash screen appear in perfect color.

This isn't one of those limited MS "Jupiter" devices running the handicapped Windows CE, this is the real McCoy baby.

In the Soyo PW9801 mini-notebook we're talking about a 233MHz CPU, up to 128MB of SDRAM, two fully functional USB ports, two internal PCMCIA slots, an 8.4" TFT color panel display, up to 5GB of internal HD space, external CRT video support, full parallel and serial ports, two stereo speakers, and even a dedicated SoundBlaster card for audio.

Not bad eh?

When you factor in the dimensions of the unit it seems an amazing testament of the 90s that so much can fit in so little….

Weight: 3.2lbs
Length: 9.4"
Width: 7"
Height: 1.6" (closed)

To get a feel for the size and weight of this notebook, go grab the last hardcover book you bought off the shelf. If the book is 1.6" thick while closed, and is the standard industry size for width and length (like a Stephen King or Michael Crichton book) then you're looking and holding the equivalent sized item to the Soyo PW9801.

Amazing.

Lets look at some more details regarding the diminutive unit, including its spec sheet.