Unlike other ultra-portables that require an external CD drive or a docking station, the X1 comes equipped with a top-loading DVD drive, which sits between the keyboard and the display.

The design looks impressive, but it pushes the keyboard to the bottom edge of the notebook, which might make it uncomfortable for some users, since it offers no place to rest your palms as you type.

Also, the design forces Samsung to remove the touch pad that acts as the mouse for most notebooks on the market today.

Instead, Samsung offers a trackball-like sensor as a mouse.

The X1 is powered by an Intel Pentium M735 processor running at 1.2 GHz; 512 MB of DDR2 RAM; a 60GB hard disk drive; and an ATI X300 graphics card with 128 MB of memory.

The Intel chip isn't the most powerful available, but it seems that Samsung chose a slower chip to help preserve the battery life of the X1, which claims to be an impressive 13.5 hours - or double that of most conventional notebooks.

In addition to its computing capabilities, Samsung has introduced some clever innovations.

Portable media player capabilities have been integrated into the X1, enabling you to play music and media files from the hard disk drive without booting up the computer's operating system. This means you can use the X1 as your MP3 player without having to worry about opening it up and waiting for Microsoft Windows to load.

The X1 sells for about $14,380.

PROS: super slim; ability to play music without booting up the operating system

CONS: no touch pad; awkward keyboard placement