Best Types and Brands of Laptops for Travel

Since I started writing while traveling, I've found I've had varying requirements for a laptop to meet my needs. On one hand, I want the lowest priced laptop for hazardous environments where it might not survive the harsh conditions of my travel destination. On the other hand, I want to have the largest amount of battery so that when I attend conferences or classes or get stuck in the airport and there are no available power outlets, I can still use my computer as needed. Another requirement is to have a light weight portable network laptop that contains minimal data so that when I get infected with a virus or suffer with a freebie internet connection messing with my settings, I can deal with the problem later with my real computer. Additionally, I like to have a comfortable, fully equipped laptop that can sit on my lap while I pass hours trapped in a vehicle watching scenery I've seen many times before pass by. I tried a handheld and while I was able to capture and store text data which was my main requirement, I found it very difficult to write many articles tapping on a keyboard with a stylus.

The bottom line is I have requirements for 5 laptops and can justify 2 and most people think me incredibly rich to do so. The downside of having many laptops is you have to maintain them all--keep the software up to date, especially virus scan software, back them up, manage the data so you don't have duplicate copies and store them.

A few laptop accessories make life much more bearable-an Ethernet cable in a pouch, a car power adapter, the lightest weight carrying bag, a traveler surge protector in a pouch and an SD reader in a pouch, many of which are specific to the brand of computer you purchase. One way manufacturers cut weight is by eliminating the internal CD player. The SD readers are mostly unreliable in my experience so using them as your sole source of backing up your data is risky-travelers should consider their preference for internet backup sites, portable disks and a CD RW reader carefully.

Here is the breakdown on the best types of laptops and what they have to offer, variously called thin, light, travel slate, and mini laptops:

HP Pavilion Dmz3 Cost $500-800
Windows 7, 500GB Hard drive, 13.3" screen, 6 cell battery, 4.17 lbs, 5 in 1 memory card reader, wireless, keyboard, webcam

MacBook Air Cost $1500-1800
Mac OS v 10.6 Snow Leopard, 128 GB Hard drive, 12.8" screen, battery up to 5 hours, 3 lbs, USB port, wireless, keyboard, camera

Dell Inspiron Mini 10 Cost $249-399
Windows 7, 280GB Hard drive, 10.1" screen, 3 lbs with largest battery, battery up to 6 hours, 3 in 1 memory card reader, wireless, keyboard, webcam

Palm Pre Webphone PDA Cost $149-?
Palm WebOS, 8GB, 3.1" screen, 4.76 ounces, battery up to 5 hours, wireless, USB, camera, GPS, small keyboard

HP Touch Smart tm2t Cost $900-1300
Windows 7, 500GB Hard Drive, 12.1" screen, 4.72 lbs, battery up to 9.75 hours, 5 in 1 memory card reader, 3 USB ports, wireless, keyboard, webcam

I wanted to include a Sony Viao on this list but their web page is so annoying to use I skipped it.

Coming Soon Ipad

My take on this is the requirements are known and the products quite diverse in meeting the demand. So pick the one that best suits most of the applications.