For obvious reasons, the laptop has distinct advantages over a standard desktop computer. In the recent years, mobile computing technology has made great strides in processing power, battery life, and all-around portability. Gone are the days of those clunky lunch box laptops that had eight inch screens and battery lives shorter than your morning commute to work. The lithium-ion battery technology alone has in my opinion become most responsible for the great advances in laptop portability and other power hungry mobile devices like cell phones and PDA’s with its extremely high energy capacities and very light weight. Processing power has also been on the steady increase and has always been climbing at the same rate as desktop CPU’s but just about a year behind in adoption and transformation to laptop form. Combine these advances with wireless networking technology, DVD drives, the explosion of LCD flat panel process improvements, and amazing hard drive storage density breakthroughs and you have yourself a personal computing revolution.

So, when shopping for a new laptop, ask yourself what you will be doing with it, where you will be doing it, and how much you are willing to spend. The answers to those three questions will give you a very good idea as to which one to buy. Today's fastest laptops feature dual core processors although most people do not require this extreme processing power. Typical web surfing, email and office applications require minimal processing power so if you’re an average user, you can get away with a lower-end model typically in the $800-$1000 range. If you are a mobile professional type that does business on the road quite often, look for smaller screens like 13.3 or 14.1 inch dimensions and also look for a sturdy solid build. This will give you a smaller laptop by drastically cutting down weight while increasing battery run-time. You may also want to go with the faster dual core processor for these. These laptops can range up to around $2000. Also, test out the keyboard to make sure it has the right size and feel. Of course other features are important most especially wireless network adapters and DVD drives which now come standard on just about every laptop sold, but make sure they are included in the configuration. Also keep in mind that getting a less powerful laptop will mean increased battery life, typically in the 4-5 hour range. Also as a good rule of thumb, make sure you request at least 1 GB of memory.

As with any large purchase, similar to buying a car, good research will pay off. You’ll become an informed shopper, and you will be able to make a solid decision as to which laptop fits your needs best. To make the best decision, one must weigh price to performance, portability, and have an overall good idea of what they will be doing with their new micro-sized computing machine.