Sub-notebooks, or ultra-portables, or whatever you want to call them, are as varied in their way as full-sized notebooks. There are, however, certain generalities to which the majority tends to conform: two-spindle design, sub-2kg weight, 12.1-inch screen, overpriced.

Once the Sharp Actius MV1214 emerged from its packing, it was immediately clear that physically it was very much one of the gang. It actually weighs 1.9kg, rising to 2.15kg when you add in the power supply, and it's a classic subnote design. As usual, the floppy drive has been turfed out for want of space, so you get a 40GB hard disk (actually a Fujitsu MHT2040AT, a 4,200 rpm ATA-100 drive that's a bit faster than average), and a removable optical drive in a bay in the right side of the case.

This Matsushita (Panasonic) OEM unit does the DVD/CD-RW combo trick, which is an obvious plus, and delivers 24x CD-R/RW, 8x DVD play and 24x CD play. Sharp doesn't make a floppy drive for this model, either internal or external, but there are plenty of affordable third-party external USB drives around if you want one.

The Actius is put together from a mix of plastic and magnesium alloy, with alloy pressings used for the base and for the lid surface, effectively sealing everything away in a metal sandwich when the lid is closed. As well as protecting the more delicate components, the metal pressings help radiate away excess heat generated by the processor. The process is fairly even, so although the bottom of the notebook gets warm, it never crosses the line into hot.

As usual, a number of ports have gone in the name of progress. You are left with two USB connectors, a VGA output for an external monitor, FireWire, audio I/O and a little proprietary connector. This turned out to be in effect a third USB 2.0 connection, specifically for connecting to another PC. The idea is that you use the cable and software provided to synchronise selected files and folders with another machine, and even access the Actius's hard disk directly from the host. This should fit in quite well with the way many people use subnotes as an adjunct to a desktop PC.

This is a Centrino notebook, so 802.11b WiFi comes as part of the deal, along with the usual 10/100 Base-TX networking, but for some reason the 56Kbps modem comes as a PC Card rather than being integrated into the motherboard. If you use the modem, it sits in the notebook's single Type II PC Card slot, so a few potential buyers with a need for this slot might have a problem here.

Like the notional majority of subnotes we mentioned at the beginning, the Sharp has a 12.1-inch TFT screen, which operates at 1024 x 768 resolution. This results in smallish text, but everything's still reasonably readable and the screen itself is fairly bright. It's powered by an integrated Intel Extreme Graphics 2 GPU (part of the i855GM motherboard chipset), which means a shared memory architecture and lacklustre 3D performance. With 256MB of PC2100 DDR SDRAM to start with, you won't notice the few megabytes the GPU appropriates, and while decent 3D performance would be nice, it's not essential on a business tool.

While we were using the Actius, we came to the conclusion that the keyboard would have been easier if it was a little larger overall. It isn't disastrously undersized, but it does feel slightly packed in, and it also suffers from the curse of the relegated functions. In other words, if you want PgUp, PgDn, Home or End, you have to remember to hold down the Fn key first. While we're having a grumble, we also felt the lack of a scroll button on the touchpad; there hasn't been much innovation in this area for a while except for the introduction of this feature, and it's definitely worth having.

The Actius quickly made up for its slight ergonomic shortcomings when in use. First, it's really quite fast, small footprint notwithstanding. The Centrino motherboard and Pentium-M combination clearly does its stuff, and the fast Fujitsu hard disk oils the wheels. Second, there's the battery life. The pack doesn't offer huge capacity - it's rated at 3,600mAh - but it keeps the notebook going for a good four hours of continuous use. If even this isn't enough, Sharp will be offering a supplementary battery which clips onto the base, but unfortunately, none were available in the UK when we reviewed the machine.

So far the Actius has fallen in quite neatly with the profile we suggested for the typical subnote, leaving only the matter of price to be considered. To be fair, the VAT-inclusive £1,299 you will pay for it isn't by any means outrageous, but it's still a premium compared to a similarly specified A4 format portable. If Sharp could see its way clear to edging the price nearer to £1,000, it would make all the difference.

The Actius M1214 is small but quite tough, and both reasonably fast and blessed with decent battery life. Even so, Sharp needs to get the detail of the ergonomics dead right to ensure that the Actius stands out from some strong competition in this sector of the market.