Dell Latitude D430

At about 3 pounds (1.5kg) this is in the same weight class as a cheap netbook. However unlike a netbook it is a full-featured computer. A high-resolution 1280x800 WVGA screen with a matte finish works great even in direct sunlight. The Intel 64 bit Core 2 Duo dual-core CPU has a lower clock speed than many notebooks to provide great battery life but gives great performance. If you compare it to an Atom or other single core CPU you'll see that it is truly outstanding. When one program gets busy you can switch to another task because it has two CPUs in one chip.

With the extended battery I get about 7 hours of use in "airplane mode." I dim the screen down as low as I care to, turn off the wireless features. I can go from Chicago to London breaking only for meals and the occasional bathroom break and still have power when I arrive. Of course, watching videos or doing things that use a lot of CPU affect battery performance. My work load is more along the lines of editing documents or presentations.

The Latitude line is a business computer. It's not built at all like the Dell or HP *consumer* PCs. Instead of plastic, it's made from magnesium and is very rigid and tough. In a rush there's no fear of slapping the lid shut quickly and tossing it into your bag as you run out the door. Inside the computer, the hard drive has a rubber sleeve that protects it from shock.

The size is glorious. You saw the Mac Book Air commercial where they slip the computer into a manila envolope? This computer is smaller. The keyboard is great though not quite as big as a normal one. The screen can be adjusted back and forth with a great range of motion so works fine when the person in the seat in front of you reclines back or when you need to tilt the screen to allow more people to see it.

The down side is:

You can only expand the computer to 2GB of RAM. Kind of makes having a 64bit CPU useless.
The hard drive is a smaller than usual 1.8" drive, similar to the ones used in iPods. If you shop around for a higher capacity drive you need to get the ZIF socketed 1.8" drive which, last I checked, only goes up to 160GB in capacity.
Business quality graphics. Videos, simple games and all your office programs work fine. Advanced graphics and animations (or some very busy website graphics) will run a little slower.
The screen resolution needs to be considered if you have poor vision. To explain,
12", 13" and 14" computers often come with a screen whose resolution is 1280x800. So to fit that same amount of information on a 12" screen that is visible on a 14" screen the dots that make up the image have to be smaller. You may find you have to make the fonts larger to view it comfortably. The good news is, this is an easy change to make and there are even keyboard shortcuts (ctrl+ in firefox) that you can use to make individual web pages use bigger fonts.

I've had a Latitude D420 and a D430 now. D430's main difference is that it's 64bit. I've loved them both as they've been great travel companions. I've recently replaced my D430 with a 13" macbook pro and am disappointed. The Mac is 2lbs heavier, has a cold metal body and the ports are inconveniently positioned. I should have gotten the Dell Latitude E4300 which is the slightly larger sibling of the E4200 which is the replacement for the D430.