A buyer's guide to laptops -- from mighty mites to mobile monsters

Whether you're buying for yourself or outfitting a department, shopping for a laptop today is a double-edged sword. The good news is that there's a huge variety to choose from, all with pros and cons. The bad news is that for many buyers there are just too many choices, leading to frustration and fatigue.

Do you need a netbook or a larger budget system? Will a traditional mainstream machine be OK or do you need a mobile workstation or entertainment notebook? With dozens of seemingly similar systems available, choosing the right one can seem like a task designed for Sisyphus.

I'm here to help by cutting through the marketing hype and pointing you in the right direction toward your ideal notebook. I consulted laptop designers, industry analysts and a few mobile mavens, then boiled down what's available into 11 different notebook types.

Arranged by size, weight and performance, these notebook categories range from 1-pound minimalist ultramobiles to monstrous mobile engineering workstations. They're presented with key features, typical specifications and a range of prices you can expect to pay, as well as reasons to buy or not buy each. To bring this exercise down to earth, each category has a few example models.

The best entry point for buyers is to start by picking the category that makes the most sense for how you work and play. But don't get too caught up in the categories themselves -- they should be treated as rough guides, not destinations. For example, if you're interested in a mainstream system but can't find exactly what you're looking for, try considering if a budget notebook with a few options or maybe even a large netbook would do better to satisfy your needs.

Regardless of what you call them, there's a notebook out there for every buyer and budget. Here's how to find yours.

Ultramobile PCs (UMPCs)
Small and travel-ready, ultramobile PCs (UMPCs) are the Lilliputians of the notebook world. These small wonders are for those who can't live or work without a computer but can't be slowed down with a 5-pound boat anchor.

The smallest of the small, many UMPCs are only about the size of a stack of 5- by 7-inch file cards and weigh just over a pound. They often lack many of the amenities of mobile life we've become accustomed to, with minimal ports for connections, screens that are about half the size of traditional notebooks and barely enough RAM to run Windows XP (and especially Vista) reliably. But it is their Chiclet-size keys that disappoint UMPC users the most. On some systems, even typing a Web address is tough going.

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