In comes another new laptop...the third I've switched in the last 3 months. This time it is a Dell Latitude D630. The decision to go Dell took a fair amount of market research. I was looking for a laptop that could tick of the most boxes on my requirement list :

- Business class laptop
- 14" 1440x900 screen
- Good build quality, especially the hinges, which have been a total pain in the past
- Card reader
- Serial port
- PCMCIA slot for my Tata Indicom data card
- Works with Linux
- Large capacity battery (8 - 9 cell)
- I am not too fussy about the weight. 2 kg'ish will do.

The obvious choices were :
- Lenovo Thinkpad T61. Did not get bought because it only sells with a 1280x800 display in India. No options.
- Toshiba Tecra M9. This one met all my requirements. It is really expensive and the Support sucks. Really bad !
- Dell's Latitude D630 came close..except that it does not have a card reader.

I had to choose from the lot and decided in favour of the Dell. Support is great and I can make do with a USB card reader. I wonder why it it still so hard to find a laptop that does it all (discounting the home use segment laptops which do do it all...but for the build quality and PCMCIA card slot).