Screen: Notebook screens continue to get bigger and wider, making it possible to view spreadsheets or movies with ease. Most notebook manufacturers offer laptops with 17-inch wide screens at affordable prices even budget shoppers could afford. Frequent business fliers can choose from among the many laptops with screen sizes of 12.1 or 13.3 inches–some of which are wide-screen models.

Battery: Battery life continues to improve. Notebooks using a Core Duo or Core 2 Duo processor averaged roughly 3.5 hours of life per battery and some notebooks can run for up to 7 hours. Sellers sometimes offer supplemental batteries to boost battery life.