What's more important to you: portability or screen res?

[asiafish]

I just came back from a 5-day conference where I had to walk around with all my belongings on numerous occasions. Thank goodness my laptop for this trip was my Sony X Series, the world's lightest laptop ever. I actually needed to do lots of typing on this trip, so slate tablets wouldn't have worked well. At 1.41 lbs, it's about as light as most slate tablets anyway; in fact, it's actually silghtly lighter than the 3rd-gen iPad. Yes, it was a pain to have only 1366x768 of screen estate, but for 5 days it was tolerable.

I think my entire backpack weighed only 8 pounds or so, which included all my clothes, toiletries and everything else.

Not the Atom processor model, is it? That would not do, even with OS X.

[DaKKS]

I've gotten used to low res screens so they don't bother me any more. Weight however, does. At first I was carrying around my Asus X72JR (17.3 inch), then when the SSD died i started using my work rig, a Toughbook CF-29. Which isn't that horrible considering it only has a 13.3 inch screen, but the weight, dear god... I pretty sure that thing gave me permanent back pain. Finally settled on my 15 inch T42. Which now doubles as my everyday laptop and work rig. Spent over five times its value on the bloody thing (and I'm still planning upgrades) so I'm not giving it up any time soon.

[asiafish]

I'm with Pianowizard, light is right. 11" and 1366X768 is actually just fine most of the time, especially now that I've become familiar with all of the swipe gestures and full-screen mode in the latest two versions of OS X. Not sure if Windows has equivalents, but most likely it does (I duplicated the pinning to sides and max size from Windows 7 in OS X using a utility called Cinch).

[RealBlackStuff]

@DaKKS:
I sent you a PM with an interesting upgrade option for your T42.

[DaKKS]

@DaKKS:
I sent you a PM with an interesting upgrade option for your T42.

Got it. Replied.

[pianowizard]

THAT is traveling light. What is the battery life in the 1.4 lb configuration? That sounds like a better machine than my 11" Air, but I do need OS X....Not the Atom processor model, is it? That would not do, even with OS X.

Battery life is about 2 hours in the 1.4-lb configuration, i.e. without the extra sheet battery. But yes, it uses Atom, which makes this laptop quite slow. If I expect to need performance on a trip, I would grab my 2.23-lb Latitude E4200 instead. As far as I know, the E4200 remains the lightest "normal" laptop ever made.

[asiafish]

Battery life is about 2 hours in the 1.4-lb configuration, i.e. without the extra sheet battery. But yes, it uses Atom, which makes this laptop quite slow. If I expect to need performance on a trip, I would grab my 2.23-lb Latitude E4200 instead. As far as I know, the E4200 remains the lightest "normal" laptop ever made.

I'll take the Air over the E4200 any day. Five hour battery life at 2.3 lbs and OS X is an unbeatable combination. I might tolerate doing without my CRM application (Mac only) to cut that weight in half, but not for an Atom processor or 2 hour battery life.

[pianowizard]

I'll take the Air over the E4200 any day. Five hour battery life at 2.3 lbs and OS X is an unbeatable combination. I might tolerate doing without my CRM application (Mac only) to cut that weight in half, but not for an Atom processor or 2 hour battery life.

Seems to me you got the Sony X Series and the E4200 mixed up. The E4200 uses Core2 Duo, not Atom, and it's much faster than the Sony X which is really a luxury netbook. With the extended battery, my E4200 still weighs only 2.58 lbs and the battery would last for nearly 6 hours. And BTW, your MBA weighs 2.38 lbs, so if you want to round it to the nearest decimal, it should be 2.4 lbs, not 2.3 lbs. How heavy is your AC adapter? I haven't weighed the one for my E4200 but it's very darn small and light.