I'm always surprised when people complain about the weight of a laptop. Even some of my 17" behemoths never bothered me.
It makes me think a better carrying case or a different kind might be more effective than anything else.
It makes me think a better carrying case or a different kind might be more effective than anything else.
And it still has a DVD drive.
Ergonomics are important when you're either sitting in front of a computer or carrying it on your back for 90% of your waking hours.
I like to travel light, so it's nice if my laptop is so light and small that rather than needing a whole bag of its own, it can slip comfortably into a bag I was going to bring with me anyway. Being a cheapskate with high tech standards, my solution was the Asus AS1410 (dual core model). For about $100 more than a netbook, you get a laptop with decent specs that's almost netbook sized, but has a keyboard that doesn't hurt to type on, and a much higher resolution display.
But airports... oh my god. What's perfect on a bike is a nightmare when you're walking, standing, and waiting.
What I'm noticing lately is that most times I haul it with to a meeting or to get some quick work done, I'm not doing much more than browsing, writing emails/notes and chatting with clients. I've been planning on picking up a netbook, probably tomorrow actually, after I spend another hour in best buy writing a test essay on each keyboard while looking for the best one. I've noticed netbooks becoming much more common as a meeting laptop - in the past month I've seen 2 or 3 and kind of fallen in love with them.
They do what you need them to, the battery can last all day and it's super light so I usually just pick it up and hand it to someone rather than sliding my big MBP around.
I'm really looking forward to turning my MacBook Pro into a desktop replacement - though I wish I had known this before I bought it, I would've just picked up a desktop instead. Would've saved a few hundred bucks.