TECHNOLOGY SPECTATOR: Business laptops reloaded

Seemingly cornered by the release of the Apple iPad, Macbook Air and Google Chromebook, business laptops are making a comeback with a new generation of slimmed-down, feature-rich - even stylish - offerings.

Technology Spectator

Business laptops are boring, clunky, cumbersome to carry, dull in design, always behind the cutting edge of consumer technology, even out of date as a concept – end of story.

Or so I thought until I looked at a new generation of slimmed-down, feature-rich – even stylish – business-oriented notebooks that may change common perceptions of the category and widen their appeal.

That would represent quite a shift. My own impressions are scarred by my current four-year-old Dell, which was fine when new but now seems antediluvian with its dull, square display, lap-singeing, overheating base and battery life expectancy of little more than an hour.

I am ashamed to take it to press conferences for fear of pitying glances from blogger technorati around me with their MacBooks and iPads. Indeed, even people with heavy data demands in terms of text and visuals – often business users – are finding that they can function almost as well using netbooks, tablets or even smartphones as on a laptop – and enjoy the kudos, too.