Quote:
The best advice I was ever given was figure out what software you want, then choose the machine.



Or, in the case of a laptop, it's also fair game to start with the needs (road warrior / light weight vs. desktop replacement / gaming rig). I'm all about the subnotebook world. I'm currently using a 3.5 pound Lenovo X41 Tablet (~2 years old). It does the job, but I only rarely actually use the tablet functionality. It's not worth the extra pound in weight over the non-tablet versions of the same machine.

If my laptop was consumed in a ball of fire tomorrow, I'd be considering the Lenovo X61 (non-tablet) as well as the swank Sony TZ. The TZ is offered with a 32GB flash disk. In Japan (but not the U.S.), you can order it with the DVD drive replaced with a hard drive. Flash drive + hard drive. That's pretty cool. My hope is that my present laptop survives long enough for the mythical Apple subnotebook to be released. Apple has clearly gone on a "thin is good" campaign -- just have a look at their new keyboards. If they can produce something comparable to the Sony TZ (or even better, to the 1.89 pound Sony G1), then I'd probably be lining up to get one.