Laptops on the Cutting Edge

Technology, for better or worse, is integral to the contemporary life. Computers are the foundation for almost every aspect of our daily lives. As such, it will no longer do to rely solely on the desktop computer to keep us in the loop. We cannot root ourselves in the office nor can we hermit ourselves at home. Conversely, unchaining ourselves from computers is not productive. Thus, the laptop makes only too much sense in this crazy techno-reliant world.

Business Sensible
DELL Inspiron 9200

Turn heads at the next board meeting when you slam down your Inspiron 9200 on the table and flip the 17” widescreen display up. No more squinting at those charts and graphs. PowerPoint presentations will be fluid and stutter free when you max out the 2GB’s worth of PC 2700 memory. For those times when you have to deliver an even bigger presentation, the Inspiron 9200 comes with 128MB ATI Mobility Radeon 9700 graphics technology, which will provide the performance to run entertainment applications and edit video or digital photography.

Take your laptop with you when you’re out and about and stay connected via Centrino Mobile Technology wherever wireless connectivity is available. For those worried about battery life, the Inspiron 9200 comes installed with a Pentium M processor, which requires less power to operate and generates less heat, which in turn requires less power to cool. The base model is a little thin on the productivity software—WordPerfect is the only standard application—but at a starting retail price of $1484, the DELL Inspiron 9200 will still leave you enough cash for a software suite.

The Bulldog
IBM ThinkPad T Series

ThinkPads have been popular for several years due to their solid construction and lightweight design. They start at a modest 4.5 pounds. The T Series is no different. It comes with a Pentium M Processor with Centrino Mobile Technology. The base model has a respectable display of 14.1” and sports a 32MB ATI Mobility Radeon 7500, but you probably won’t be using this notebook for presentations or graphics intensive applications. The T Series comes with Windows XP Professional as the standard operating system and also has a handy keyboard light located at the top of the display in case you have to work in low light conditions—like those pesky slideshow seminars.

The biggest selling point to the T Series, however, is data security. Standard on the T Series is the IBM Active Protection System, which continuously monitors your notebook for a fall or any kind of forceful movement. When the system detects such an instance, it will stop the hard drive so that minimal damage to data is done. Additionally, select T Series models offer an easier way to remember passwords by providing fingerprint readers. Wasted hours calling the Help Desk for password resets will be a thing of the past. The base model T Series retails at $1429. Kick in another $200 for the fingerprint reader.

Gamer’s Envy
Alienware Area-51m 7700

To the PC gamer, a computer is the equivalent of a muscle car and having the most powerful gaming rig is requisite for maintaining the respect of other PC gamers at LAN parties. Before recently, if you wanted to challenge other gamers, the only solution was to drag your desktop around with you, because notebooks just didn’t have the power to compete. Alienware, however, has created a laptop to answer this challenge.

The Area-51m 7700 is billed as the first mobile desktop. The base model starts with a Pentium 4 3.0GHz processor. Standard memory is DDR2 PC4200, expandable to 2GB. Graphics are handled by a 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Go graphics processor, also utilizing DDR2 memory. The graphics power will display wonderfully on the jaw dropping 20.1” display with a 16ms refresh rate. Lastly, you’ll enjoy the sound of your gaming experience, as well, with the four speakers and an integrated subwoofer. The Area-51m 7700 has the same power as most high end desktops and almost all the amenities.

This powerhouse in gaming goodness, however, does come with a price tag almost as hefty as the 12.5 pound notebook. The base model starts at $2269 and any gamer will still want to upgrade the base RAM, at least. So, for the gamer with no spending cap, looking for the ultimate in gaming mobility, choose the Area-51m 7700.

Editor-in-Chief/Publisher

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