Amy, here's the deal <ggg>. The Dell Inspiron 700m is a bit heavier than you want, it weighs 4.1 lbs with it's small battery, add a half pound or so for the 8 cell battery. Dell's lightest laptop is the X1, it weighs 2.5 lbs with it's SMALL battery, again it will be a bit over 3lbs if you buy the larger battery. The Dell Latitude D410 begins at 3.8 lbs with it's smaller battery, it goes to over 4 with the larger one. The 700m and X1 are widescreen models that have smallish keyboards, and the X1 has no PC Card slot, in case you need that. The Thinkpad X41 begins at 2.7lbs with it's 4 cell battery, 3.2 with the 8 cell, that gives you almost 6 hours of runtime. The Thinkpad also has by far the BEST keyboard, and is a comprehensive system as you can attach a second battery to it's base, which will give you 10 hours of runtime if you need it. This laptop also can be purchased with a base that has additional ports and a slot for an optical drive. As I recall, the Thinkpad also had the best service ratings in the most recent PC mag survey I read. You get comprehensive recovery tools written by IBM called 'Thinkvantage' that are very useful. Personally, I really like the IBM/Lenovo small machines. Panasonic (Toughbook W4) also makes a VERY light laptop with a 12" screen and built in optical drive that weighs 2.8lbs, has a magnesium case, and claims almost 6 hours of battery life. The Sony laptops have very small keyboards, pretty crappy warranties, and are very expensive, but they look nice <ggg>.
Best regards,
John |
