To call HP’s 2560p an “ultraportable” is pushing it. It has a slightly smaller footprint than the Toshiba R830, with a screen size of 12.5 inches, but it’s heavier by more than a pound. With its power brick, you’re looking at more than five pounds, including a battery that protrudes a full inch from the back of the notebook’s body. This is no dainty package. Of course, it feels like a machine that can take its licks. HP likes to point out that the notebook is designed and tested to meet Mil-Spec standards for drops, temperature shock, and altitude changes, among other stressors. Nestled within the 2560p’s island keyboard is a pointing stick (a la Lenovo’s ThinkPads), which, along with an additional set of right and left mouse buttons below the spacebar, lets you control the cursor without moving your hands from the keys. It’s a nice feature for folks who roll that way, but if you’re partial to using a touchpad, you might resent how the additional mouse buttons encroach on the pad’s surface area. We also found horizontal and vertical scrolling on the touchpad to be erratic.