The Best Ultra Portable Laptops for Travelers

Posted: September 26, 2008

Choosing the correct ultra portable laptop can help you be more productive on a plane, save your back from lugging around a heavy computer, and have a machine that can be your primary machine at both home and on the road.

The first step is to layout the minimum specs for an ultraportable that can meet the demands of travelers:

Processor: Minimum of a 1.3 dual core processor. While you can often find 2.4 dual processors; usually you are giving up something in the process (such as a DVD player) for the machine to fit into the ultra-portable category.

Memory: Minimum of 2gigs

Battery: Rated for 6 hours with the extended battery. Even 6 hours of ’standard computing’ might only be 3-4 hours of video or WI-Fi.

Power: Ability to turn off the Wi-Fi and broadband card and have other energy saving/management software.

Broadband card: Built-in broadband is both faster than an external card and often leaves an external slot open for expansion.

Bluetooth: Ensure that your phone, Bluetooth headset, presenter, mouse, etc can connect to your computer without extra adaptors.

Ports: Minimum of 1 USB (you can always carry a mini-hub), VGA out (for presenters), speaker in/out (for Skype calls or other headset functionality, often can skip this if you have a Bluetooth headset). 7-1 card readers, SD card slot, express card slots, etc are bonuses; but often not mandatory.

Weight: Max 3 pounds (excluding power adaptor and including standard battery)

Screen size: Max 12.1 inch. I will examine a couple of nice 13.3 inch monitors, however, the idea is that you can be in a plane, someone can put their seat all the way back, and you can continue to work. In the majority of plane configurations, with first class often being the exception, if your screen is larger than 12.1 inch, you can’t effectively work.

Docking Station: The system must have a docking station. This allows you to keep your regular monitor, mouse, keyboard, speakers, etc constantly connected to the docking station and then you can just undock the computer when you have to run. No messing with cables when you move from your desk to putting your computer away in its briefcase.

The Ultra Portable Contenders

Sony VGN TZ Series

The Sony TZ series is 11.1 inches of back-saving freedom. I’ve had an older model of this computer for 3 years and it has been an exceptional computer. This is the smallest of the computers in the ultra portable category at just 11.1 inches. You can even work on this computer in a cramped economy seat.

The biggest advantage of this computer is it’s integrated DVD player. With its extended battery life and DVD player, this doubles as a very nice media device for long trips.

The biggest disadvantage is that it maxs at 2 gigs of memory. This is the smallest max memory in my favorite ultraportable category.

The keyboard is 90% of the size of a regular keyboard. It only took me a few days to get use to the small keyboard, and I don’t mind it anymore. However, if you prefer a real size keyboard, you’ll want to pass on this computer.

The main reason why I won’t buy another one is that all Sony broadband cards only have Sprint as an option. I’ve had some bad experiences with most mobile broadband card providers except for Verizon. In fact, on my current Sony TZ, I don’t use the built-in card; I use an external Verizon card.

Overall, this computer falls into the middle price range between the three ultraportables. It starts at $1699; however, when you have it fully configured, it will be more in the $3k range.

Sony customer support has been fairly good. If you want a reliable, very small computer, this is one of your best bets.

Lenovo x200

The Lenovo x200 is the most powerful of the 3 computers in the top ultra portable category. You can have up to a 2.4 dual core processor. It’s also the most configurable:

OS: XP to Vista 64 bit (64 bit OS is necessary for more than 3.5 gigs of memory)
1-4 gigs of memory (1067 MHz)
Up to 320 gig harddrive, or a 64 gig solid state drive.
PAN option
Verizon or AT&T broadband card
12.2 inch screen

Where some users will not like this computer is that it’s TrackPoint only. No touchpad. I had the older model of this computer (the x61, and still a viable option if you want a cheaper ultra portable) and after a couple weeks, I didn’t even look for the touchpad anymore. It was quite odd switching between my x61 and my Sony TZ. I found the TrackPoint more useful for precision work, and the touchpad more useful for general browsing I do wish there was an option to have both. While this will kill the deal for some, the other advantage is it’s full sized keyboard.

You can also have GPS, built-in camera for conferencing, fingerprint reader, lo-jack, etc in this computer.

While this is the best ‘pure power machine’ of our three top ultraportables, it does not have a built-in DVD drive. There is base you can add so you have a DVD drive; however, this will add enough weight to the machine to take it above 3 pounds.

The other huge disadvantage is Lenovo support. I’ve never had good luck with Lenovo support. In fact, the reason I don’t own this machine today is because their presales support is so bad (and rude), along with their huge technical website launch issues (wrong SSD drive upon launch, then no warranty option, then no lo-jack option) than I grew frustrated when trying to buy the highest model (around $4.5k, but there are options well under $2k) that I finally gave up to wait for the new Dell (below). The website is past the technical issues at present, but beware of any Lenovo support you may require.

If you buy this machine, make sure you also buy the slimline AC adapter. I have no idea why this isn’t standard. It is both smaller and lighter than the standard AC adapter.

Overall, the most powerful machine of the ultra portables. If you don’t need a DVD drive (and I went 2 years with my x61 without one) and can live without a touchpad, this is one of the best ultra portables on the market.

Dell e4200

The machine I’m waiting on; the Dell e4200. The reason it hasn’t shipped yet is that Dell is waiting on the latest low voltage Intel processor. As soon as Dell receives those processors, it will be launched into the wild.

This machine has several solid features going for it. First the battery life. I’ve heard that with the extended battery and the new processors you might be able to hit 19 hours of battery life. While that sounds high, I have no doubt that when watching a video (it has an internal DVD player), you could get 6 hours of high-powered computing from this machine with the extended battery.

The next is the weight. At 2.2 lbs, this is the lightest laptop I’ve seen (not including Netbooks, and laptops with so little functionality you can’t use them as your primary machine).

The third is configuration. While the processor is less powerful than the Lenovo, the rest of the options are fantastic:

1-5 gigs of memory (if you break 3, get a 64bit OS)
64 or 128 SSD Drive
Multiple Wi-Fi options
Verizon or competitor cell cards
Smart card reader, fingerprint reader, GPS, etc

For those with exchange, it will have a unique option to not power-up the entire computer, but to instead just connect to exchange without powering on the entire computer.

I’ve had a Dell laptop for 5 years (one of the behemoths that I call a ‘destination machine’ 8 lbs to carry but when you get there you have a fully functional desktop replacement) and have had very little issue with their customer support. I’ve heard stories go both ways on Dell. However, overall they have been one of my favorites (which really isn’t saying that much as I’ve not seen companies with great customer support for those who want to just jump pass the ‘yes my computer is plugged in’ stage). While HP is one of my favorite CS companies, they don’t have a computer that meets these specs for review.

This computer has not shipped yet, but the day it does - I’m ordering one.

The 13.3 inch Contenders

If you want a larger screen for when you reach your destination, and not just one an ultraportable, there are three machines in the marketplace worth examining.

Sony Z Series. Billed as the executives dream, it has some fantastic configuration options. It can get quite expensive starting at $1799; but you get Sony features, some creative graphics options, and a fantastic display.

Lenovo x300. Forget the MacBook Air. This machine is is a travelers dream. It has more functionality and options than most machines in the marketplace. The only thing that kept it back from our ultra portable review is it’s 13.3 inch screen. Due to many of its options, it’s actually less powerful tan the x200 above. That shouldn’t stop you from reading the reviews of why it’s on many editors top-choice list.

The new Dells. The Latitude e line looks to be worthy of consideration. It’s been quite some time since I seriously considered Dells as I had been quite happy with Lenovo’s power and Sony’s media. However, it appears that Dell is once again making a strong foray into business computing.

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Written by Brad Geddes aka eWhisper · Filed Under Blog

Comments

One Response to “The Best Ultra Portable Laptops for Travelers”

richard on October 4th, 2008 1:28 am

there is one more characteristic that i find important
in any laptop to be used on battery power for extended periods
and with multiple batterys (possibly) that you didnt cover is
the availability of external battery chargers
it apears that only the x200 of the 3 you listed has them available

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