Line of Business
Ultimate guide to buying the perfect laptop for business
Gone are the days when it was simple to buy a laptop. Now you must choose amongst a barrage of categories and brands. From ultramobiles to mainstream notebooks, from the Dell Adamo to the Toshiba Satellite, we take you step-by-step the whole process of making the right purchase. Get the most value for your money and be happy with your portable of choice.6/2/2009 5:00:00 AM By: Brian Nadel
Whether you're buying for yourself or outfitting a department, shopping for a laptop today is a double-edged sword. The good news is that there's a huge variety to choose from, all with pros and cons. The bad news is that for many buyers there are just too many choices, leading to frustration and fatigue.
Do you need a netbook or a larger budget system? Will a traditional mainstream machine be OK or do you need a mobile workstation or entertainment notebook? With dozens of seemingly similar systems available, choosing the right one can seem like a task designed for Sisyphus.
I'm here to help by cutting through the marketing hype and pointing you in the right direction toward your ideal notebook. I consulted laptop designers, industry analysts and a few mobile mavens, then boiled down what's available into 11 different notebook types.
Arranged by size, weight and performance, these notebook categories range from 1-pound minimalist ultramobiles to monstrous mobile engineering workstations. They're presented with key features, typical specifications and a range of prices you can expect to pay, as well as reasons to buy or not buy each. To bring this exercise down to earth, each category has a few example models.
The best entry point for buyers is to start by picking the category that makes the most sense for how you work and play. But don't get too caught up in the categories themselves -- they should be treated as rough guides, not destinations. For example, if you're interested in a mainstream system but can't find exactly what you're looking for, try considering if a budget notebook with a few options or maybe even a large netbook would do better to satisfy your needs.
Regardless of what you call them, there's a notebook out there for every buyer and budget. Here's how to find yours.
Ultramobile PCs (UMPCs)
Small and travel-ready, ultramobile PCs (UMPCs) are the Lilliputians of the notebook world. These small wonders are for those who can't live or work without a computer but can't be slowed down with a 5-pound boat anchor.
The smallest of the small, many UMPCs are only about the size of a stack of 5- by 7-inch file cards and weigh just over a pound. They often lack many of the amenities of mobile life we've become accustomed to, with minimal ports for connections, screens that are about half the size of traditional notebooks and barely enough RAM to run Windows XP (and especially Vista) reliably. But it is their Chiclet-size keys that disappoint UMPC users the most. On some systems, even typing a Web address is tough going.
While clamshell designs with hinged-lid displays still dominate the category, new formats are starting to appear. Take Samsung's Q1 Ultra, which has a tablet shape with a miniscule keyboard that's split on either side of the screen. Other new designs mimic cell phones, with keyboards that slide out from the case.
Typically used by salespeople and those who service high-tech gear on the go, these machines handle the day-to-day routine of scheduling appointments, parts ordering, staying in touch and accessing corporate data. In other words, for many, the UMPC is a constant digital companion and career lifeline. Super-mobility is the operative concept here, and many UMPCs have optional GPS navigation receivers and can access 3G cell phone networks for always-on data.
But all this miniaturization comes at a high price. Despite being cramped and underpowered, UMPCs don't come cheap. At between $1,000 and $2,000, they sell for the price of three budget machines and cost more per pound than any other type of notebook. Still, they're so small that they go places the others can't.
Netbooks
The runaway sales hit of 2008 (and possibly 2009), netbooks are an entirely new species of the mobile ecosystem that do something once considered impossible. By providing minimal processing power and viewing space in an economical package, netbooks can be inexpensive without being thick and heavy.
Asus's Eee PC started it all off as the first commercial netbook, but was quickly joined by Acer's Aspire One, HP's Mini models, and Sony's Vaio P series. It seems that every time I look around there's another netbook on the market. In other words, shop carefully.
Netbooks, whose screens range from 7 to 10 inches, are perfect as a person's second or third computer for home, travel or student use. With downsized keyboards, screens and ambitions, netbooks often leave you waiting for apps to open or tasks to complete. They won't win any awards for performance, but some provide more than five hours of battery life.
To cut the price tag to the absolute minimum, some systems, such as the entry-level EeePC 2G Surf, come with a small amount of flash memory storage and a Linux operating system by default rather than a larger hard drive and Windows. While you won't be able to use all the Windows-based applications you're accustomed to on these machines, you will be able to view, work on and save most of your files, such as images, videos and Microsoft Office documents, with included or downloadable Linux-based programs.
While early netbooks came with just 4 or 8GB of flash storage, newer models have larger capacities. The Sony Vaio P, for instance, includes a 128MB SSD or a 60GB hard drive.
The least expensive netbooks start at about $300, but newer "premium" models can rise to over $1,000. Because they might have trouble standing up to daily use and abuse, you might consider getting an extended warranty for any netbook; note, however, that this can add 50 percent to the price tag, making it less of a bargain.
On the other hand, if you subscribe to an online 3G data service, you might be able to find a provider that will chip in a couple of hundred dollars. You'll be obligated to pay about $60 a month for two years for the service, but if you want go-anywhere data, it makes for one of the notebook world's best bargains.
Ultraslim
It's funny, but ultraslim notebooks are defined more by what they do without than by what is included. To thin the machines down to their positively anorexic profiles, some notebook designers have cut out as much bone and muscle as fat, potentially reducing the system's usefulness on the road.
Still, because of their razor-thin profiles, these are the executive status symbols of our time. When you're carrying a beauty like the Apple MacBook Air, the Dell Adamo, or the Lenovo ThinkPad X301, those making due with a lesser model can only look up with PC envy.
Rather than the tiny screens and cramped keyboards offered by UMPCs and netbooks, this class delivers grown-up displays of 12.1 to 13.4 inches and full-size (or close to it) keyboards. With low-voltage processors, which consume less energy than most CPUs, they have just enough power for most everyday tasks. This type of machine is really meant for reviewing the work of others, doing some Web work, pounding out hundreds of e-mails a day and occasionally giving a presentation.
With jaw-dropping looks and the fastest processor in its class, the MacBook Air is the notebook to beat in this category. But it offers less than meets the eye because some of its parts -- like its battery and hard drive -- can't be easily upgraded or swapped. Plus, it lacks an optical drive and has just one USB port, and connecting to a wired network or an external monitor (other than Apple's own monitors that support the Mini DisplayPort connector) requires an adapter. This makes it less than road-ready.
Rather than a hard drive, ultraslims can be outfitted with a 32, 64, or 128GB SSD for saving files; models with a 256GB SSD should be available later this year. This solid state storage is much less fragile than a hard drive and can increase an ultraslim system's performance, but it can also add $800 or more to the system's already pricey bottom line.
Thin and light
From the start, the thin and light category has suffered from something of an identity crisis. That's because there are many notebooks on the market that are thinner and lighter, but the tag stuck. Today, it defines the minimum computer needed for the majority of mobile workers.
Smaller and significantly more mobile than traditional mainstream laptops, yet larger and more economical than the ultraslim class of notebooks, each thin and light design has a different way of balancing size, weight, power and cost. Systems ranging from Fujitsu's LifeBook S6520 to Toshiba's Satellite U405 all weigh about four pounds and have been designed to meet the needs of those who live on the road.
Page Navigation 1) Netbooks a popular choice for price and mobility factors. - Page 1
2) Tablet PCs provide best of both worlds - the pen and the keyboard. - Page 2
3) Mainstream notebooks are mobile stand-ins for the desktop PC. - Page 3
