laptops and business travellers

No matter how adept they might be at typing on a BlackBerry, there are times when business travellers require much greater computing power at their fingertips. Finding the right laptop for adventures outside the office is a balancing act that requires attention to a number of important factors.

Unfortunately, these factors can often work against one another. Travel laptops must be small and lightweight but durable enough to withstand the abuse they are sure to encounter on the road -- everything from dropped bags to spilled coffee. They must have powerful processors capable of supporting heavy workloads while not squandering valuable battery life when electrical outlets are unavailable. Most importantly, they must be built with security in mind, so valuable data isn't vulnerable to corruption or theft.

While it would be nice to find a laptop that can fulfill each of these requirements, it's likely that a consumer will have to settle for just a few at a time. The search for the right business travel laptop should start by weighing the importance of four primary factors -- performance, durability, longevity and security.

Obviously, the needs of a business-class passenger on a cross-country flight will be different from those of a contractor overseeing a construction site. The former will prefer a laptop that has the longest battery life, the latter a heavy-duty notebook resistant to damage from dust and debris. The one feature everyone requires, however, is performance.

It's no fun to have to struggle with sluggish performance when all you want to do is get things done. If you value speed and power above all else, you're going to want a laptop equipped with a powerful processor. Both the Lenovo ThinkPad SL400 and the Asus P30A notebooks are outfitted with Intel Core 2 Duo processors -- burly, high-powered CPUs that can blaze through difficult tasks. They are also excellent options for those looking to take a multimedia show on the road, with high-definition features that will add spark to any presentation.

The downside is that the SL400 is relatively heavy, weighing 5.5 pounds. The P30A weighs only 3.3 pounds. In exchange for the lighter load, the P30A user must settle for a slightly slower processor powered by a four-cell battery.

Durability comes in many forms, not all of them what you may expect. Consider the Sony Vaio Z series notebooks. At a mere 3.4 pounds, these sleek, portable laptops are very lightweight. The attractive design of the Z series might lead one to believe that Sony chose style over strength, but that's not the case. The Z series laptops are encased in carbon-fiber and aluminum armour, which protects the display and body from scratches or impacts. They also contain Sony's G-Sensor shock protection, which detects sharp or sudden movements and locks the hard disk so its moving parts aren't damaged while in use. You could also do away with the hard-disk drive altogether and opt for a solid-state drive, which uses no moving parts. The Z series notebooks are all-around winners, but they don't come cheap. The base model starts at nearly US$1,800 and any upgrades will drive the price up further.