Man with Laptop

If starting or running a home business you probably need  a computer. I strongly recommend that you get a laptop instead of a desktop computer for the following reasons:

1. A laptop isn’t much more expensive then a desktop when you factor in the monitor and extras like a webcam.
2. Frequently at home you may not always have a permanent location for your office, or you may need to temporarily relocate your office (when your office is being vacuumed, to watch the kids. etc)
3. If the kids are having a birthday party (or something else disruptive is going on) and you have a critical proposal to get out, you can just take the laptop somewhere else to work.
4. You really should have separate computer for work since you don’t want your spouse’s ‘free’ apps on your business computer
5. Its nice to have your own computer  to take to presentations and customer meetings.

While having a laptop is nice, trying to buy one can be very confusing, while I’m not going to make any specific recommendations, I would like to give you some guidelines.

1. Small, cheap and powerful– Pick any two. Laptops are compromises, so you need to understand that you cannot ‘have it all’. For must home office systems I would recommend that you sacrifice size/weight for value and power (Unless you travel a lot)
2. Don’t confuse a notebook or laptop with a netbook,  netbooks are not desktop replacements.  See my related post on Netbooks
3. Buy a dual-core Processor, not a single-core processor.
4. Get 3GB memory or, if you can afford it  4GB of memory
5. Get a 260 GB hard drive
6. If at all possible get a built in webcam.
7. Spring for 802.11/b/g/n card (N is new but its probably going to be the new standard, it’s much faster)
8. Make sure it has a DVD-RW drive.
9. If you are comparing systems, more USB ports are better then less.
10. Stick to a brand name.

You should be able to get a laptop with these specs for under $800. Make sure you shop on the Internet, at electronics, and office supply warehouses. Sometimes the in-the-store deals are better than the Internet.
Also, at this point Windows 7 will be out in about 3 weeks (around October 22) so wait for for it, before you buy if at all possible. (If not make sure the version of Vista you get has a free upgrade to Windows 7