There are a lot of reasons to own a laptop. Or, well, maybe just a lot of variations on the same reason. If you’re buying a laptop you’re buying portability he only question is how much you want. Business users and other travelers frequently on the go might want something like the miniscule Dell Inspiron Mini, but you’re sacrificing a lot of processing power in a unit so tiny.
Gamers and other graphically motivated users might prefer a hulking desktop replacement like the Alienware Area-51 m17x, but that’s not really a machine you’d want to carry around with you on a regular basis. Web workers like designers and editors would probably lean toward the desktop replacements but with a slight priority shift, placing high resolution and comfortable use above graphics and high end performance.
So what are the top 5 laptops for web workers? I’m going to give the Lenovo ThinkPad T400 an honorable mention for being a lightning fast 14 incher with a 1440×900 resolution, but as far as this article is concerned bigger is better and we’ll be sticking to 15nd up.
5. HP Pavilion dv5t
With an optional WSXGA+ display this 15aptop yields a nice looking 1680 x 1050 resolution. This laptop also comes packed with a Core 2 Duo P8400 2.2GHz and, if you want it, a 512MB dedicated video card. Battery life is around 2.5 hours with that option or a little over 3 hours with the integrated graphics. This computer isn’t quite top of the line, but it has an ample resolution for its size and even a decent amount of performance for its $799 price tag.
4. Sony VAIO FW139E/H
This laptop occupies a unique spot in between your average portable and your average desktop replacement. With a 16.4creen it has a native resolution of 1600×900, and that 16×9 aspect ratio is the true ratio for HDTV, if you’re the kind of person that likes to watch TV on your laptop. It has the same processor as the Pavilion above but an extra GB of RAM (3GB). As long as you don’t mind having 6.4lbs on your lap, this laptop stays cool enough to sit there or anywhere else. One downside - the battery life is just fair though. Still, it offers reasonable portability for a laptop that packs a solid punch. You can pick up one of these up today for $1099.
3. Asus M70SA-X2
Onto the true desktop replacements ith a 17.1creen and a weight of 8.4 lbs, this is a large laptop. But Asus isn’t wasting space. With a resolution of 1920×1200 you’ll be able to see whatever you need to. And with a Core 2 Duo T9300 2.5GHz processor, 4GB RAM, and 1TB (yes, TB) of hard disk space you’ll be able to do things quickly and without worrying about space. Oh, and did we mention the 1GB dedicated ATI graphics card and the Blu-ray drive? The keyboard is full sized too (number pad and all). All in all, this hefty machine gets a lot of jobs done and would be fantastic for any web worker. With the specs we mentioned it could run you as much as $2399. There’s a $1299 version available too, but one of the things you downgrade is the resolution.
2. Lenovo W700
To call this laptop massive would be an understatement. With Intel Extreme Quad-Core processors, 8GB RAM, a 1GB nVidia Quadro M3700 and up to 960GB of 5400rpm hard disk space (up to 600GB at 7200rpm), this laptop is a veritable beast. While you don’t have to max out all the features like this (and to be honest, I don’t know very many people who could afford to do it anyway), one way or another this laptop is going to have the power you need to do whatever you want for years to come. The 17.1creen has a resolution of 1920×1200, and it comes with all the typical bells and whistles (Blu-ray, tons of ports etc.) along with an built in color calibrator and Wacom digitizer, which are both fantastic design tools. It has a full keyboard, of course. The downsides of this laptop are obvious t’s extremely large and extremely expensive. The basic version will cost $2978, where the maxed out version could surpass $5000. It should be noted however that despite being quite large, the basic version’s weight is only 8.3lbs shade lighter than the Asus.
1. Macbook Pro
We all knew it had to end here. Macbooks have long been the sought after notebook for designers and web editors everywhere, and although there are some interesting options out there now this is probably still anybody’s #1. Performance is smooth, the battery life is long, and Leopard is not only easy to use but useful. The 15 incher has a 1440×900 resolution and the 17odel can upgrade to a 1920×1200. Macbooks have never been cheap, but if you’re comparing them to the Asus or the Lenovo above you’ll find the $1999 (15and $2799 (17to be comparable prices for much more portable units (5.4lbs and 6.8 lbs, respectively). It has some slight downgrades from those two (ie: up to 512MB GPU instead of a 1GB), but if designing is your primary aim you won’t miss it. The Macbook Pro remains an excellent f not the excellent hoice for web workers everywhere.
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