Fair response depending upon what you do with it. I can present directly on my laptop (which I've done several times) plus I need to integrate SAS with Excel processing (1000s of sheets), SQL Server, EG, etc. and therefore the speed is crucial. As a consultant, processing speed directly equates to dollars so it is justifiable (plus a tax write-off).

I agree with everything you say David just presenting alternatives if, in fact, it is your desktop on the road. I don't view mine as a laptop but my mobile desktop. My wife uses an ultra-light and that matches the email, powerpoint, small Excel tasks. I've recommended she get a similar compact laptop on her next purchase. Depends upon the use IMO.

Alan

Alan Churchill Savian "Bridging SAS and Microsoft Technologies" www.savian.net

-----Original Message----- From: SAS(r) Discussion [mailto:SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of David Neal Sent: Friday, January 06, 2006 2:53 PM To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU Subject: Re: Somewhat off-topic SAS-in-laptop

Rogerio,

This seems to be a fairly regular question on SAS-L and everyone seems to tend toward the "more power is better" philosophy. This is fine, and I even follow it religiously when I'm looking for a laptop to REPLACE my desktop, BUT, if you are really only going to be dealing with small datasets/test code in SAS, a few office documents and maybe some R, I'd recommend a small lightweight machine. I have one that runs just over 4lbs with the battery and is almost perfect for working just about anywhere--and lugging to "remote" locations (maybe this is less of an issue in the lower 48). The entire laptop is slightly over an inch thick and the dimensions are just a little bit bigger than a sheet of paper. The main drawback is that the screen is too small to try to run a presentation directly on the laptop. Which shouldn't matter if you plan on presenting using a lcd projector.

My main philosophy is that small, light, and lots of ram trumps bulky, heavy, and high powered if all you are going to do with it is check email, run powerpoint and tweak small pieces of SAS code.

David Neal

-----Original Message----- From: SAS(r) Discussion [mailto:SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Alan Churchill Sent: Friday, January 06, 2006 3:21 AM To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU Subject: Re: Somewhat off-topic SAS-in-laptop

It's big and heavy but it is great. Battery life sucks but you'll understand when you see the display on this one:

http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/cmod.to?seg=SMB&coid=-29488&sel=0&rcid=- 26367&ccid=1291041

Just as fast as my desktop and worth every penny. Every time I use it in public, people stop and say that it is the best (and biggest) screen they have ever seen on a laptop.

Even if you use something less, look at Toshiba. Other suggestions:

Pentium M 1GB RAM Toshiba's Tru-Brite display is the best out there.

Alan

Alan Churchill Savian "Bridging SAS and Microsoft Technologies" www.savian.net

-----Original Message----- From: SAS(r) Discussion [mailto:SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Rogerio Porto Sent: Friday, January 06, 2006 5:05 AM To: SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU Subject: Somewhat off-topic SAS-in-laptop

Hi SAS-in-laptop users.

Sorry for the somewhat off-topic but I've to decide on buying some laptop that's going to be used mainly for statistical consulting (i.e. liltle statistical SAS analisys, presentations, webmail etc). I'm not going to use it for games or videos, just work :-)

I've searched old SAS-L posts and the conclusions at then (2003) was:

not recommended: - Compaq (bad repair services); - AMD, Celeron; - Centrino (heavy and suck batteries); - Arm Computer;

recommended: - IBM (good repair services); - Intel Pentium 4; - Toshiba (good hardware reputation).

I'm going to use SAS for Windows, R and MS Office. Although SAS will be used, it will be used for program adjustments, trial codes and analysis with small datasets 'cause the main analysis will be made in my desktop.

Are those advices still good advices? Are there any others? How about the relation RAM vs Clock vs HD to maximize performance? Wich mobile technology? What video display? ...

TIA,

Rogerio.