Currently, screens for these models tend to range from a dinky 10.1 inches to an adequate 12.1 inches. As for battery life, you're lucky to squeeze out 2.5 hours. If you desperately require a sturdy but very lightweight laptop for frequent travel, the latest crop of ultralights that weigh between 3.5 and 5 pounds is your best bet. With the extra weight, you can find models that have a hard drive of at least 12 GB, a full-sized keyboard, and a minimum screen size of 12.1 inches. Most, however, still won't include an internal floppy drive because the extra weight isn't worth it to most folks.
Prices range dramatically with ultralights.
With prices dropping, finding room in your company budget for an ultraslim may be less back-breaking than actually having to tote your current laptop around. So you can connect to high speed DSL or cable modem, make sure your laptop includes an Ethernet card, or can have one added later. Some airplanes now allow you to plug in your equipment so you do not need to rely on battery power alone. Check your airline for details. Beware of expensive add-ons.