what laptop do you suggest?

light, durable and easy to connect

[walkman]

need a laptop. I love Vaios, but they might be too fancy. I need it to be durable, lightweight and able to connect to as many things as possible.

what do you suggest?

[Macguru]

>>I need it to be durable, lightweight and able to connect to as many things as possible.

Here is a no brainer [apple.com], but you can have a second opinion [apple.com] if you like.

[walkman]

comments by people that incorporate the name "apple" or "mac" in their nickname will be ignored ;).

Just kidding...but I use windows and need to be able to synchronize a few things. I should've said windows, my bad.

[monkeythumpa]

My Sony 505 is still running strong after 6 years of use, 4 continents and an upgrade to XP. It is the 333 Mhz Celeron that could and did. I should get a faster one but I am riding this pony until it breaks a leg. My next laptop will be a Sony ultralight laptop.

[encyclo]

I use windows

So you still need either this [apple.com] or this [apple.com], but with a copy of this [microsoft.com] installed. And I don't have "mac" in my nick either ;)

[walkman]

I'm the sony site and it's horrible. I can't see the flash with IE (javascript error because of settings), and it crashes firefox. At least they have a fancy site :)

[walkman]

Ok, it's eithger a Sony (I feel they should be punished for having a stupid design) or Apple.

why should I buy apple? At least 95% of the work done on this laptop, will be online. Also, iBook or PowerBook? Nothing major as I said, just online

[encyclo]

Apple are good because of the beautiful hardware, the G5 processor, and apparently the OS isn't too bad either. Other than that, I don't know about Sony, but Toshiba used to make excellent laptops a few years ago - I don't know if they're still good but they're worth checking out. I particularly liked borrowing a friend's IBM Thinkpad recently too - very sleek...

[walkman]

"IBM Thinkpad"

Lenovo Thinkpad :)

[foxtunes]

If you like Vaios and are looking for something ultraportable you could wait until Sony release their T2 next month.

Acer are knocking out some good laptops of late, the Travelmate 3000 [laptopical.com] has just won a red dot design award and would fit nicely in the lightweight category you're looking for.

A great new Thinkpad is the X41, weighs only 2 and a half pounds, and has a built in finger print reader.

Toshiba notebooks are also worth a look. My Toshiba P10 has never let me down, and has one of the crispest screens I've ever seen on a laptop. A bit of a knee-breaker though.

A tiny alternative is the Libretto U100 [laptopical.com] - Weighs around 2 pounds.

[monkeythumpa]

Apple and Sony are the best, but you are paying a premium for the name brand. Usually I buy generic but this Sony I have has been such a good laptop that they have some brand loyalty.

[walkman]

what shoud I look for, in order to take advantage of Wifis, hot spots at hotels, college campus, airports etc....with as little setup as possible.

[monkeythumpa]

You will want a laptop with built in 802.11 G Wireless browsing will eat up your battery so try to get one with an integrated card.

[techrealm]

if you were one of my employees' I woud get you a VAIO. You would complain about battery life and capabilities... I would then laugh quietly, while typing out my reply on my 12in powerbook with 1.25 gig of ram, bluetooth, and wireless.

Then add Virtual PC and a USB sync cable for the iPAQ 6315 and you would have one nice mobile platform. The only thing I havent been able to do is do a usb rom upgrade for my iPAQ. This works great for everything UNLESS (of course there's an unless) you are a windows video game developer... Then your kind of on your own there :-)

[walkman]

the "problem" with Mac is that I have a LOT of programs that I already paid for and use on my desktop. Like CuteFTP, Photoshop, MS Office, secure telnet, etc., etc.. and I just want to be able to copy them to the laptop and work right away.

[cyberair]

I run most of my daily operations from a Toshiba M35 and it is perfect for everything I want to do. Thin, the wide screen gives me ample space to work, its power and performance have been excellent, and it has a reasonable 60gb hd.

[fiu88]

hp/acer/gateway----amd64

[Blackie]

FS Lifebook P7010 :-)

[werty]

At work I have an IBM thinkpad T42 and the thing is great. It is rock solid, both in construction and performance. It has more than enough power, and the battery lasts about 3 hrs while using wifi.

My home laptop is a emachine, and it is a good machine, but lacks the construction quality that the IBM has. My next hom emachine will be an IBM for sure. I love the thing. Strong, lightweight and can take a bump or two.