2008 is shaping up to be a big travel year and I’m dreading lugging my Dell 8.2 pounder around (not to mention it’s old and sucky) so it’s time to shop for something lighter. I have a good laptop backpack but even with that I notice my back gets really sore if I lug it around for a conference day. However I like to live blog sessions so I like to have the laptop available. Some conferences, like SES, do an amazing job of providing computers in press room and in lobbies, but it’s still best to have one on hand at all times. Hmmm – I really should look into Treo keyboard interfaces as well.
Mark Kyrnin at About.com had a nice little article that helped, especially this breakdown of relative size and weight for the various notebook and laptop classifications (not sure where he got those):
Ultraportable: <11″ x <10″ x <1.3″ @ <4 pounds
Thin and light: 11-14″ x <11″ x 1-1.5″ @ 5-7 poundsDesktop Replacement: >15″ x >11″ x >1.5″ @ 7+ pounds
Luggables: >18” x >13” x >1.5” @ 12+ pounds
Looks like I’ll be OK with a “thin and light” in the lower weight range.
Hey Joe, Look into Solid State Disk drives for your new laptop. I am testing SSDs in a couple of Dell models and the increased read/write performance along with increased battery life (went from about 3:20 to 4:50 with the standard cheap battery) make them well worth consideration … even with the price premium.
Just my $0.02
thx PoliTech – sounds excellent…