Well, I wouldn't be using it for work at work. I'm thinking of taking it along so I can more easily work on my WIP during my lunch hour.

Are there relatively lightweight options that aren't the tiny ones? I want something self-contained, you know? I feel like attaching it to a different keyboard and screen would be kinda unwieldy for a computer I'm planning to haul back and forth between the living room couch, my bed, and maybe the deck on nice days.

Macbook Air is one of the super lightweight ones. I know Lenovo also makes the X300 system which is quite lightweight. I believe both are on the order of 4 lbs. and they have full size keyboards.

Well, I wouldn't be using it for work at work. I'm thinking of taking it along so I can more easily work on my WIP during my lunch hour.

For that, the tiny ones really are perfect -- they're about the size of a trade paperback, and you can easily toss one in your bag for lunchtime without the extra weight and hassle. I'll also note that the keyboard isn't an issue at all for a number of ultra-portable users I know, and is for others; no way to know until you feel it out. The screen is more of an issue than the keyboard, I think.

On the other hand, your weekend use pattern suggests something in the 12-13" range -- I'm as biased as ND, of course, but I'd also suggest looking at a MacBook if that's the size you really need. What's your tradeoff point? In other words, is portability for weekdays and traveling more or less important than having something that's all in one unit?

My lust for the MacBook air is massive. Like mass of Jupiter massive.

The tiny ones all have USB ports you can attach a keyboard of your choice to. The one thing that would worry me about those is spending a lot of time with that tiny screen. You can plug in a full size screen at home. But if you will be doing a lot of composing on the road, I'd worry about serious lost productivity.

Yeah, for me plugging in a screen and keyboard (and having the desk set up to do so) pretty much negates the value as a laptop.

If it's not your primary home computer, I think the tiny screen on the little ones would be workable for lunch/transit work times, and the portability factor would be huge. If it is primary, I'd definitely go a bit bigger.

Well, the MacBook and the X300 are both WAY over what I'd budgeted for this, even with my UW employee discount for the Mac.

I'd say one unit is more important than portability. If it comes down to it, I can write on my lunch hours in a Google Doc and paste it into the Official WIP in the evening. I can deal with the weight for road trips. I guess there just isn't a laptop that's both light and a good size for constant use under $1500 yet, and that's kinda the ceiling on what I want to pay. I'd actually hoped to go a good bit lower, given that I'm not planning to use it for gaming or anything like that.

I should probably go to an actual physical store and try out a few options to see how they look and feel.

The MacBook is $999 at academic pricing -- not to be confused with the MB Air (or the MB Pro). I think ND was just getting into "Mmmm... Donuts" mode with his Air lust.

DH is suggesting a Dell Inspiron 1525. Not great everyday portability, but fine for going to conferences and vacations, and it's more the price I had in mind, especially given that Dell also gives a UW employee discount.

My lust for the MacBook air is massive. Like mass of Jupiter massive.

Yeah, right there with you. I was *just* looking at the MacBook Air on the Apple site. Good lord, that's a pretty machine.

The MacBook is $999 at academic pricing -- not to be confused with the MB Air

Yeah, it was the Air I was looking at and going, "OMG, not paying $2000+ for my web-and-Word machine!"