Re: [A/S] traveling with a notebook computer

["Oliver Filippi" <ofilippi@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Regarding PC portable computers (laptops),

My son is a professional computer consultant who carries a laptop with him
to help service his clients.

If you are going to get a laptop, and travel with it, you should choose a
rugged one.  Many laptops use components (particularly the mechanical ones -
disk drives etc.) which cannot hold up to the normal "banging around" that a
laptop is subject to. If they use fragile proprietary components for
compactness and light weight  you are in for expensive repairs once the
warranty runs out.  At today's prices, this often means trashing an
otherwise mostly functioning unit. (for a disk or CD drive replacement).

Far and away, the most rugged are the high end IBM and Toshiba models.  Dell
is pretty good, and a good value.  Sony is also fairly rugged.  Stay away
from HP and Compaq.

You are much better off spending your money on reliability than the latest
in high performance.  (Getting a relable model with a little less
specsmanship, than a barnburner on paper which doesn't work in normal use.)

Oliver Filippi