I used to carry around a Sony Vaio PCG505TR laptop. It was something like a P2/300MHZ with about 32mb of ram, and in the 3 pound range. One very nice thing about it was the battery charger...which wrapped around the adapter to store nicely. However, service on the units would take 7+ days, and you would have to send it back to Sony. I found the small keyboard on the unit difficult for extensive typing. Note this model is a couple years old, so I don't know if the new ultra-slim Vaio has a better keyboard.

Next I got a Dell Latitude LS. This model also is discontinued now. It was a P3/450MHZ w/128mb of ram. It had both an internal modem and ethernet card, and a pretty nice keyboard for an ultraslim laptop. It was slightly larger, ever so slightly, than the Sony but more durable.

Just 2 days ago, I got a Dell Latitude L400 (replacement to LS). It is essentially like the LS, but has a different color and type of logo. It is a P3/700MHZ with Intel speed step, 256mb of ram, and 20gb hard drive. It uses all the same parts as the LS. All drives are external, and I am not crazy about the drive cable, etc...but that is a small complaint. Also the charger does not have a way of folding into itself like the Vaio. It has 1 pcmcia slot, ethernet/modem, video output, 1 ps/2 socket, 1 usb port, and one port for the drive cable. Also a port on the bottom for the docking station. It has a DVD/cd-RW combo drive as well. The drive cable port is a bit awckward, but I usually do not need drives when traveling. Battery life on the LS/L400 is pretty good as well, 2 hours plus. Our company was standardized on the Sony Vaio because one of the executives liked it, but now 95% of people are getting Dell L400's, and a few Dell C600 and C800. We are a 100% Dell shop re desktop/servers. The C600 has an integrated drive bay, but weights more like 5 pounds. The C800 is a lot heavier, but has two drive bays. Also LS/L400 do not have serial ports, but you can easily buy a USB/serial converter. The integrated modem and ethernet jacks are nice, I love hotles that have high speed access. In literally an hour or so, I am going to play around with the Spring PCS Wirless aircard modem. It is a PC card device that lets you connect to the internet without running a cable to your cell phone. Hope it will be good for downloading mail at the gate, etc. It uses software from
www.bluekite.com
to optimize the connection. They "
claim" that is has the feel of a 56k connection, even though it really connects at like 19.2. I will do a report on it in a bit once I play with it. Am also looking into getting a WIFI 802.11? pc card and possibly setting up a wireless network.