Best New Business Laptops for 2011 - 2012

What you want in your laptop has everything to do with what you do and where you are on a daily basis. For travelers a lightweight laptop with a long battery life may be more essential than top-of-the-line performance. On the other hand, if you work in graphic design, editing, or need a computer to run heavy duty programming or software, then performance may be crucial to an efficient work day. Here's a few things to look for:

Processor

In 2011 Intel released its all new Sandy Bridge processors and with it came increased performance for both video and processing in everything from budget to high end laptops. If all you need your computer for is Microsoft office, then a laptop with an i3 should be more than fine. On the other hand, if performance is crucial, then you may want to look for an i7 processor with 2 or 4 cores. Those looking for maximum performance may find Asus' gaming laptops to be just the answer to what they're looking for.

Hard disk drive vs. solid state drive?

The trend for most higher-end laptops is to move towards solid state drives. Solid state drives are much faster than hard drives and are more efficient at retrieving and writing data because they have no moving parts. One example that makes this glaringly obvious is your laptop's boot time. Where you may have waited a minute or two before, with a solid state drive now your computer will boot up in under 30 seconds. Some laptops have even been released that boot in 9 seconds.

LED vs. LCD Monitors

LED is a form of backlighting on LCD screens that is up to 40% more energy efficient than standard CCFL backlights. If energy efficiency and battery life is important to you, then look for an LED monitor.

Dedicated Graphics Card

A dedicated graphics card is only important to those who need to run performance intensive software. Intel's improved integrated graphics cards should now be more than enough for the casual business person.