My HP Omnibook 510 (from the now defunct HP laptop division that was dropped when they merged with Compaq) has given me good service, but the built-in 802.11b wireless basically sucks. It's got short range and the lame driver (which shows no signs of being updated) has a habit of wedging my machine. That and I recently dropped it, causing an ugly but cosmetic-only crack in a corner. Time for something new.

Critical features I have to have:
- 3 pounds or maybe less (sadly, no Apple products fit the bill)
- 3 year comprehensive warranty (to fix it after I abuse it)
- normal pitched keyboard (knocks out many of the cool Japanese models)
- 1GB of RAM
- CompactFlash (either native or via PCMCIA adapter) for my digital camera
- 802.11b/g
- USB 2.0, maybe firewire, definitely Ethernet and modem
- VGA out (for PowerPoint presentations)

Bonus points for bigger hard drives or longer battery life. I don't need any kind of CD/DVD support.

Poking around, the Dell Lattitude X1 comes pretty close. $2231 gets me 1.2GB of RAM and a 60GB disk (is anything larger available that's 8mm thick?). It's got a CF slot. That includes three years of CompleteCare warranty coverage. Could well do the job.

An IBM/Lenovo X41 tablet PC is also an intriguing option. You get a faster CPU and the whole tablet thing, which I guess could be cool for Photoshop use, but it's a little heavier and you end up spending a little more money ($2486) for the same sort of warranty. Plus, you only get a 40GB disk. The fingerprint reader seems like a gimmic.

Edit: you can get a 60GB disk, but only from a reseller. The IBM/Lenovo web site only sells the 40GB model. CDW.com, for one, has some 17 different variants to choose from, but no custom configurator, and no way to know what the specific features are for many of these variants. Very frustrating.

Toshiba has the Portege M200 (tablet) and R200 (notebook) computers. The tablets are 4.4+ pounds, so they're out of the running. The notebooks are much lighter (2.7 or 2.8 pounds), have a magnesium case, and a 60GB disk. To get a configuration similar to the Dell, including warranty, you end up paying $2516, but you get a free Epson Stylus C86 printer and a free Netgear wireless DSL router (after mail-in rebate). I could probably get some use out of the printer, but the router doesn't do much for me.

The Sony Vaio T-Series has a smaller 10.6" screen, although it's apparently very bright. You get integrated EDGE (i.e., high-speed GSM data) and a MemoryStick slot. Not very interesting to me. You get a built-in CD or DVD burner, depending on the model. Don't need it. It's much more expensive than the competition. Probably not the right laptop for me.

HP, so far as I can tell, doesn't offer a single laptop anywhere near three pounds. They'll sell you a ~3 pound tablet PC, but to get it near my specs, it becomes far too expensive.

So, based on what I've seen so far, the competition seems to be between the Dell X1 and the IBM/Lenovo X41.

Meta-observation: each of these vendor web sites is just awful. It's quite difficult to answer even basic questions like "is there a PCMCIA slot?"