Datasheet

 A fingerprint reader to add a highly personalized form of security to the

 A larger battery for extended usage

 A 1

⁄2"-thick box that weighs about 6 pounds

Since this book’s first edition, the price of this highly capable road warrior has

remained about the same, but has improved in many important ways. The CPU

now has two processors and they’re faster than ever; the installed RAM has

gone up six- or eightfold; the hard disk has doubled or tripled in size; and bells

and whistles include the webcam, the fingerprint reader, and a DVD burner. Oh,

and the weight has dropped by a few pounds.

If you’re determined to spend even more, you can pay as much as $3,000 for an

“extreme” machine that comes with the latest and fastest CPU, the most capable

graphics and audio subsytems, extra RAM, a larger hard drive, and other tweaks,

bells, and whistles.

Lightweight champ

For some users, you (or your laptop) can never be too light. And there’s a lot to

be said for such machines; just ask a chiropractor or physical therapist who’s

treated sore shoulders, stiff necks, and twisted knees from travelers. A few

pounds can make a great deal of difference over the course of a week-long trip.

There has to be a tradeoff, of course, and it begins with a smaller screen and a

lighter, slightly less capacious battery. Some users may also find the overall

shrunken dimensions of a laptop are as small as they want to go; many light-

weight models have reduced-size keyboards and pointing devices. Expect to pay

about $1,500 to $2,000 for a little gem like this:

 An Intel Centrino Duo or equivalent CPU

 An integrated graphics chipset that shares the system memory

 A screen size of about 12 inches

 1GB to 2GB of RAM

 A DVD read/write combination drive

 A mid-size hard drive, perhaps about 120GB to 200GB in capacity

 A good complement of I/O facilities including perhaps a pair of USB ports, a

FireWire port, S-video output, an ExpressCard slot, a built-in Ethernet port,

and a built-in WiFi transceiver

 A 1-inch box that weighs about 2.44 pounds

In 2008, Apple introduced a nifty little device called the MacBook Air, which

shoehorns a 13.3-inch display, a keyboard, and a solid-state 64GB “drive” into a

Diving into Laptop Types and Models 13

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