How to Choose an Ideal Business Traveling Laptop?
Nov 24 '01
The Bottom Line Does your business usually require you to travel? At the same time you want to catch up with the deadlines while you travel, then a laptop maybe for you.
For many business people, productivity is the key for success. With a laptop it can help the user or buyer achieve some or more of it. But for many, they tend to get frustrated at the possible choices in the market for a new laptop. In this guide, it will show you what to look for in a business laptop. Once you read this, you shouldn’t have too much trouble finding the ideal laptop for your business needs.
What to look for in a business laptop
For many users, the main priority to a business laptop is versatility, reliability and stability.
Size
For many business travelers who carry their laptop for productivity purposes, size and weight are one of their greatest concerns. With most laptops designed for business travel, usually referred as subnotebooks. Usually they can only house nothing more than a hard disk, memory and a battery. They can range from 3 to 4 lbs. and about 1” thick when the laptop is closed. But those laptops are more meant for the frequent fliers. But realize that the notebooks that thick can’t accommodate even a floppy drive or CD-ROM. Keyboards that are integrated into subnotebooks are usually tighter in work area and if the floppy and CD-ROM drives are external, you know how frustrating it is to switch drives and plugging and unplugging the drives off the laptop can be very tedious. But for most laptops designed for business users, the laptop can accommodate a docking station for even more versatility. It usually includes an optical drive (CD ROM, DVD ROM, CD RW or even a DVD/CD RW combo) and/or a floppy disk drive. In addition, it also provides all the necessary connectors like your desktop computer offers.
But for those who are less concerned about the size and weight, then a 2-spindle designed laptop maybe for you. With the 2 spindle designed laptop, they usually have room for a hard drive, memory, battery and a floppy drive or optical drive. The thickness of these laptops usually starts from 5 lbs. and 1.3” thick and with many of the 2-spindle laptops; offer removable drive (usually the optical drive and floppy) are removable. This is usually better for most users, because it provides even more convenience if you need to use a removable drive often. But again, like many subnotebooks that offer only external drives, you have to swap them if you want to use a different drive.
But for those who don’t think that weight and size are a concern, a 3-spindle laptop (so called desktop replacement laptops) maybe just right for you. With the 3 spindle design, the floppy drive, hard disk and optical drives are housed into one laptop, unlike the other designs which can only house either a removable floppy or a removable optical drive or even external drives. Many of these laptops weigh as little as 6 lbs. and provide a thickness of 1.6”. For users of 3 spindle laptops, they usually will notice that it carries a lot of weight and yet it provides even greater versatility to hold all the drives into one unit.
Screen
The screen is an important part of a laptop, especially for the business users. The minimum screen resolution should be rated at XGA (Extended Graphics Array) at a resolution of 1024x768. But the screen size depends on the size of the laptop itself. For most of the ultra thin and ultra light laptops (About 1” Thick and about 3.5 lbs.), the screen is usually not much more than 12” diagonally. But for the Thin and Light or Desktop replacement units, many will at least feature a 13” screen for greater clarity. But for many of the more professional business laptops they tend to offer an SXGA resolution (Super Extended Graphics Array) for even greater clarity for larger screened laptops.
Storage
Storage is important for those who tend to store large files in their laptops, particularly with many that use their laptops for professional applications such as storing photos from their photo album or digital camera. For many, I would at least recommend a 15GB Hard Disk space. With laptop prices plummeting these days, many people can afford upgrading their hard drive to 20GB or even 30GB. I also strongly suggest a floppy disk drive (internal or external) and a CD-ROM. But I do encourage buyers to look for a laptop equipped with DVD ROM. This is because again with plummeting prices of laptops, especially the ones that are equipped with DVD ROM, people can actually watch movies while they travel, listen to music or even load software. Keep in mind though, that DVD-ROM, CD-RW or DVD/CD RW combo drives do drain out batteries. With the CD-RW, you can backup your hard drive, save your business’ income statement, shareholder’s reports or even presentations. With the combo drive, the laptop can become an entertainment centre. It provides users to watch DVD movies, create their own photo album and create their video and audio CDs in addition to backing up their files.
Power, Memory, Price
For many they don’t need the most powerful and fully equipped laptops, but many want to get a laptop for their business yet without breaking their bank.
Budget Buyers
For many business buyers on a budget, they could expect an AMD Duron or Intel Celeron processors of at least 800MHz. The laptop should be equipped with at least 128MB of memory, and the screen size should be at 13”-14.1” with an XGA resolution. Many budget buyers will see more and more laptops priced under $1500 equipped with a DVD ROM, which is a more versatile drive than just a plain CD ROM.
Mainstream Buyers
For those who can spend $1500-$2300, choices are even wider and there are greater choices of processors within this price range. Within this league, I recommend at least a 14” screen with an XGA or SXGA resolution. Many laptops in this price range are starting to be equipped with a combo drive, for even more versatility. But at the same time, there are subnotebooks in this range as well. For the subnotebooks, expect even less power and tighter workspace. For any laptop at this price, I would at least recommend 256MB of memory if you can find one and for the processors, I would recommend at least a 900MHz processor from Intel or AMD.
Power Buyers
For those who crave for power and yet they have plenty of extra room in your budget, you can get a more professional laptop fully equipped. Many of these laptops feature connectors that are rare in many other laptops such as a Firewire Port and some of theses are even equipped with the smart media and/or secure disk media slots for downloading their images captured off the digital camera into their laptop. With those slots, they can even upload MP3 files and have them placed into MP3 players. For the processors do look for speeds of at least 1.1GHz from Intel Pentium 3 or AMD Athlon4. For the price, I would say about $2200 usually would fit in this category.
Connectors
What should a notebook computer user expect for the connectors? Well they should expect at least 2 USB ports, one monitor/projector port, a 56K modem, 10/100 Ethernet card and at least one PS/2 port for either a mouse or keyboard. For expansion, users should expect a capacity of 2 Type I/II PC cards with card bus support and a capacity of one Type III PC card. Most modern notebook computers now have a wireless port, which can be used to transmit files to a wireless enabled unit, such as a printer. With some of the professional notebooks, they can expect an integrated IEEE 1394 port to plug their digital camcorder or digital camera in to upload their images to the notebook computer. With the recently produced Toshiba notebook computers, they even offered a Smart Media slot for flash memory cards for use in digital cameras, MP3 players and many more.
For those who want security in their notebook computers, they should consider a Kensington Lock, which can be purchased separately at your local computer store such as CDW, Best Buy and Circuit City. This is essential, because with many incidents of lost notebook computers due to theft it’s important to protect the information inside your notebook computer along with the hardware, especially if they have confidential files in the notebook computer.
For the video connector, people can expect a video connector that can support 8MB of video memory, very versatile for the regular presentations. The resolution for support varies by manufacturer, so check the pages of the manufacturer before you even buy a notebook computer. For the more professional units, expect at least a 16MB video memory for even greater support in resolution without the sacrifice of colors.
For the connection to the Internet, many can still expect the 56K modem around ideal for downloading at high speed. For many of the more modern consumer notebooks (it used to be reserved for the corporate notebooks) is the 10/100 Ethernet card, for those who want to use their notebook computer for high speed Internet without buying a PC card for that.
Extra
For something extra, you may want to consider a notebook computer that has special keys for the CD player or fast keys for the Internet. These keys are very versatile so that they don’t have to use the cursor to load the particular application such as play a track on the CD and e-mail.
Many notebook computers can handle 2 batteries, for lasting use while you’re not near an electrical outlet. For the battery, do expect a Lithium Ion battery and it should last for about 2 hours from full to empty with normal use. This is ideal, because in case of thunder and lighting, you have still have time to work on your computer, unlike the desktop units which don’t have UPS they will lose their data or possibly even damage their computer.
Operating System
For many business users in a laptop, I recommend the Windows XP (Home or Professional) or Windows 2000. These operating systems offer stability, which can prevent OS collapses during times when processor power is demanding.
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