Over the past few days I have been conducting an increasingly less hypothetical search for a new laptop. My present system (CMK5-M) has served me well for almost 6 years and I feel that it may be time to consider a system that is more compatible with my present activities and that will serve my needs for another 5-6 years.

I have considered quite a few things including screen size, battery capacity, weight and whether the monitor is or isn’t touch sensitive. I began the search looking for tablet PCs, just because I think they are cool. I have found that there is a shrinking population of such devices. I also concluded that most of their displays are too small for what I’m looking for. I think touch is cool, but if I want a 12.1″ monitor, I’ll get another netbook.

I have been seeking performance in a new laptop, I have been using Visual Studio quite a bit lately and it would be nice to be able to not have to run a Remote Desktop connection to use it. Also, I’m looking for a system that I can call home, currently my data is scattered between two servers and I don’t really feel that any system I have presently is personal to me. In addition to performance, I need power. Some modern laptops feature battery lives less than 2 hours, to me that is unacceptable. The point of me having a laptop is to be able to take it places and use it away from the desk. I have run across some decent systems, but all of them have some fatal flaw. I saw a nice HP touch laptop, but the monitor was much too small, there are the Dell systems (Inspiron 15 primarily), but I wasn’t motivated by what I saw (aesthetically or in my geek hard-on). I was about to give up earlier when I decided to take a look at NewEgg for laptops. I ran across the most wonderful Toshiba, but unfortunately it lacks the battery power I really want (looking for above 4 hours, 8 is better), but then I ran across that laptop’s big brother. It was the same model, just different features (including a 64GB SSD and a 500GB SATA HDD), but noticed it had a battery with twice the capacity, so the geek hard-on is back, and I am giving heavy consideration to that Toshiba (A505-S6985), with an add-on 12 cell battery, which should make it a kick-ass system that will run for 6 hours or more without fail.

If a new system is selected, it will be designated CMK7-M, the mobile counterpart to my present desktop, CMK7.