Small Business: Take it with you
You probably already use a desktop, but today's full-featured laptops make a handy addition to any startup–especially if you'll be traveling anytime soon. You might want to feel the wind in your hair, heed the call of the open road or see a laptop warming the airplane tray table in front of you. Whether you need to fly to exotic locales, attend a trade show in Cincinnati or just trundle down to your local Wi-Fi-equipped coffee shop, a notebook computer is your ticket to computing on the go. A laptop can increase your flexibility and productivity–and when you're working to grow your business, you need as much of both of those as you can get.
Seeing the Lightweight
Expect to spend anywhere from $800 to $2,500 for a new notebook–a range that covers everything from bulked-up widescreen models to tiny units that will slip effortlessly into your briefcase. To narrow your choices, first consider just how far you'll range on a regular basis and what you'll need to take with you application-wise.
If you travel a lot but don't log too many hours computing on the road, you'll find the ultraportability of an ultraportable well worth its somewhat higher price tag, says Corey Gunn, manager of the mobility category at CDW, a Vernon Hills, Illinois-based technology products and solutions provider. Toshiba's Portege R200, for example, runs about $2,100 (all prices street), quite a bit above the entry-level price tags of standard 6- to 8-pound laptops. But you get a 12.1-inch screen, built-in Wi-Fi, a finger-print reader for security and a three-year warranty, all squeezed into a 2.68-pound package measuring less than an inch thick.
"You pay a premium for something that portable and with the latest and greatest technology," concludes Gunn.
Desktop-replacement notebooks are at the opposite end of the spectrum. They are cheaper but heftier-8 pounds plus-and usually fully loaded. Many have screen sizes that rival your desktop LCD. The downside is that you don't want to haul one of these through an airport terminal or try to open it on a tray table. But if your itinerary usually includes travel from office to office or office to home office, they aren't so bad. The 7.7-pound Gateway M680X comes with a substantial 17-inch display, integrated Wi-Fi and a cutting-edge double-layer DVD writer. It starts at about $1,500, but boost the memory to 1,024MB, upgrade to Windows XP Professional and go for the ultrabright display, and you'll land at $1,765.
There is a compromise-a thin-and-light notebook. The Dell Latitude D510, for example, starts at just $779 and weighs a little over 5 pounds. A more fully featured version runs about $1,300 and includes an extended warranty and Windows XP Pro. It's the kind of portable most likely to be found among a traveling businessperson's luggage.
There is also another class of notebook. Tablet PCs haven't hit the mainstream with a vengeance, but they are an intriguing alternative to standard notebooks. They come in two types: slate and convertible. Slate tablets appeal to users in specialty areas that essentially need a very portable digital writing device. The $2,349 slate-style Fujitsu Stylistic ST5020 comes with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and an integrated fingerprint reader. The easy-to-carry package weighs 3.5 pounds. Convertibles have a wider appeal. "A convertible tablet is more of a mainstream notebook with tablet functionality," says Gunn. The Hewlett-Packard Compaq tc4200 Tablet PC is a good example of the convertible genre. Starting at $1,599, it features a 12.1-inch screen and a three-year warranty, and weighs a very reasonable 4.6 pounds. Cutting-edge technology fans, crea-tive entrepreneurs, and those who just can't pass up the notebook-and-pen functionality should check into tablet PCs.
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