I´ve been using the Lenovo ThinkPad X300 for over a year. Very happy with it. Great battery life, weighs 1 kg, and the wonderful ThinkPad keyboard.

Here is a review that should be helpful.

lots of Apple supporters here... my HP DV4000 is on its way out and while I'm not exactly in the market for a new laptop I will be forced to buy one sooner rather than later.

I have been considering a Macbook, but not sure if I can be without all the Windows features/programs I'm used to... what is the convincing factor to most to go Apple and justify the price difference over a comparable laptop?

1) Some people really like MacOS X.
2) Some people really like Apple's design.

Not sure what windows features would be missing, but yeah, you're going to all-new 3rd party programs or dealing with emulation/VM/dual boot for stuff you can't replace.

For the basic 13" Macbook, the price difference compared to a comparably equipped commodity PC isn't necessarily that high (although you're locked into some higher end parts that are optional on say, Dell models.) For the Macbook Pros and Macbook Air, the price difference is much, much higher although the design is more distinctive.

I have a 15" macbook pro and I love it. Depending on what sort of work you're doing though will determine whether or not one would truly be beneficial to you. Programs like Parallels and Fusion allow you to run Windows 7, XP, 2000 or Vista. I run 7 on mine and I haven't had any compatibility issues with the PC programs that I have to use. Whether or not that holds true for all programs I couldn't tell you.

My mac does everything I need to plus some. I have been using them since 94 and haven't looked back since. Yes they are more expensive out of the box, but I feel it's more than worth it in form, function, power and beauty. My brother is an engineer for IBM and gets a crazy discount on their products. I am so pleased with macs that i still chose paying the full price for my macbook pro than getting a IBM for almost half off.

I would read up over at notebookforums.com as there are many threads with pictures and detailed owner review for all brands.

But add me to the Asus fanclub. I have the 14.1" model U81A (aka as the Best Buy version) which served me well on my vacation to the UK. It's 4.5 pounds, a dvd read/write drive, and the battery lasts about 5-6 hours with regular surfing the internet.

If you use a laptop for work, be mindful if you VPN to your work's network, as my workplace did not support Macs well and only XP (x86 or x64) or Vista/Win 7 x64.

And, uh, about $2000 properly configured. Yikes. Only SSDs available.

Low cost, low weight, high battery life. Pick two.

I switched from a Windows PC to Apple about a year ago. So what do I do with my Laptop. I write and read Emails, surf the web, watch movies, edit my pictures, write some letters and do some basic spreadsheet calculations. For all of this software is available. Either directly from Apple or from other vendors like Adobe or Microsoft and open source applications. The only application I have to run under a Virtual Windows XP is my taxsoftware which is only available for Windows. But I only need this software once a year. So no problem.

Looking forward to getting the new Lenovo X100E for traveling! Or the LG X300...

Just to reiterate. I run VMWare Fusion on all of my Macs and run a Windows OS on that. The performance is great and it lets me have the best of both worlds. I use the Mac OS for most things, but for the odd program that I dont like in the Mac version, I just start Fusion and run it in there in Windows. I typically put it in full screen mode and have use the Mac windowing system behind it. So I have a PC in one of my screens and click on the screen icon and can zoom back to the Mac screens. Also, I find the Mac tools (free) for accessing Linux/Unix/Solaris servers to be very nice.

Macs are basically real computers, a Unix variant, with a really great windowing environment/user interface, and extremely good build quality.

I second the Asus ul line. I have the Asus ul30a-x5 got 9.5 hours battery life out of it with wifi off and screen brightness set to low. The only problems I have with it are the screen gloss and mouse pad but for the price it is a good travel note/net book.

What about the new Dell Vostro V13, 13.3" screen, 0.65" thick, 3.5 lbs, brushed-aluminum casing, and more importantly starts at $449. It almost seems like a price mistake...

http://www.dell.com/us/en/business/n...13&cs=04&s=bsd

That is the price with Linux, it is a bit more with Windows. But the real issue is the battery life. One of the reviews says 4.5 hours max. That doesnt cut it for me for an ultralight. It is the main limit of my MacBook Air. I want at least 6 or 7 hours of real battery life, preferably more. I get about 8-10 hours on my Asus. That is enough for any flight I might take and enough for a day of meetings to carry it to.

The Linux one and cheaper Windows one also have only single core processors with no option to "buy up" to the dual core. No thanks - that might as well be a netbook, speed-wise.

Once you've got the dual-core processor, not only is the 30Whr battery seeming even more inadequate, your price is up to $649. A shame as it is a nicer bit of design than you normally see from Dell, but the compromises to do it are way too big.

What you need to be careful of is that inexpensive lap tops sometimes come at a price: noisy fans.

When buying a laptop look for a "business" lap top. Dell makes it easy with its small business web site.

+1 After my HP died (well it is still in the shop, after two months), that's what I bought and am using as I type this. I had stayed away from Dell for years after the incidents with battery fires, but presume this issue is taken care of. I do like buying from Dell; very simple to order and configure gear, and stuff ships within 24 hours, for free.
The other thing to think about is wide screen versus standard screen. If you go to a retail outfit like Best Buy, you will pretty much only find wide screen. Wide screen is nice for movies, but a total pain for packing in a back pack. Again, buying a business laptop mitigates that issue.

Unless the fan is noisy.