Latest business laptops

Dan Ackerman, Senior Editor August 29, 2007

While Lenovo's ThinkPad brand many be the first name that comes to mind when you think about business laptops, there have been plenty of generally impressive stabs at the genre from other vendors recently.

With few exceptions, these systems are designed to balance value and corporate security, so they're generally not going to be the hippest-looking laptops at the coffee shop--but solid construction, along with Trusted Platform Module (TPM) or Centrino Pro features are more important to most business users than flashy paint jobs.

Toshiba's 14-inch Tecra M9 and 13-inch Tecra M8 both offer security features you won't find on comparable consumer laptops, including an accelerometer to protect the hard drive in case of falls. The larger M9 also has a spill-resistant keyboard and conforms to the Centrino Pro platform, which uses Intel's Active Management Technology (AMT) to provide for remote updates and troubleshooting, even when the system is powered down. However, we were completely put off by the bloatware and marketing links that cluttered the desktop--totally unacceptable for a business system.

Fujitsu's LifeBook E8410 has the slick look of a consumer laptop, but adds a smart card reader and a Trusted Platform Module without packing on extra weight--although for raw power, it's still hard to beat the Lenovo ThinkPad T61p, which, while on the expensive side, offers performance on par with enthusiast consumer systems.

HP has been making great strides on its consumer side with design-friendly laptops that stand out from the crowd. On the business side, the HP Compaq 2710p tablet stands out all right, but only because it lacks both an optical drive and a touchpad (we're convinced the preference for laptop pointing sticks is a strictly generational issue. If you're old enough to remember when absolutely everyone had an IBM ThinkPad, then you might be a pointing stick guy, plain and simple).

More universally useful is the ultraportable HP Compaq 2510p--a rare ultraportable that includes biz-friendly features such as hard-drive encryption and Intel's AMT. Pretty much all these business laptops start around $1,500, but if you want to save a few bucks on an office-ready system, HP's Compaq 6910p gives you TPM and a smart-card slot for a little less, even if it's an uninspiring gray box otherwise.