Before we look at the 5 laptops, think about what's important in a good travel laptop. Obviously, the weight of the laptop must be light - very light if possible. What's more, the battery life must be long and the laptop must be able to pack in the maximum number of features into a compact frame. That's quite a tall order - so a laptop that meets these requirements should be something of an engineering wonder. And believe me, each of the laptops I'm about to describe are wonders in their own right.

The Apple MacBook Air took the world by storm earlier this year by being THE thinnest laptop on earth. If you go to the Apple website, they will show the MacBook Air's profile as just a thin slice of metal. Very attractive, very sleek and uber-cool. If you want the ultimate in portability, the Apple MacBook Air travel laptop should definitely be in your shopping list. Watch out though - the model comes with only 1 USB port.
 

The Apple MacBook Air

This is the travel laptop I'm using to type this article! Beautiful in design, yet packing in all the features of a powerhouse computing machine. The keyboard on the X61 is a full-sized keyboard, but yet it fits in an extremely small frame. The screen size is only 12 inches, with a maximum resolution of 1024 x 768. That might turn away some customers, but in my opinion, that resolution perfectly fine for a 12 inch screen. One thing to watch out for is the lack of an in-built DVD drive.

The Lenovo Thinkpad X61

The Fujitsu LifeBook P7320 is a wonderful choice if you're looking for the best travel laptop. This model is sleek, light and weighs a mere 3 pounds. There's also a built-in DVD burner and all the trappings of a solid travel laptop. Perhaps the only downside is the smaller 10.6 inch widescreen display - which reduces the weight but makes viewing documents more difficult. Still, it is on the whole a very good buy.

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Toshiba was the first company to produce an extremely thin laptop and it continues to shine with this model which includes an integrated DVD burner. If you're in the market for a thin and portable travel laptop, this model should be on your shopping list as well.

This travel laptop is not as thin and light as some of the others but it provides a huge 250MB hard drive, the new Intel Core 2 Duo processor, a wireless wide area networking and uninterrupted connectivity from anywhere in the world. On the whole, I'd still recommend it as a good buy.

The Sony VAIO VGN-SZ750N/C

Hopefully, this article has shown you 5 of the best travel laptops out in the market. Remember, if you are looking for lightweight, ultraportable machines - the models above will not disappoint. Although you might pay a slight premium in price for the portable design, I believe it is worth every cent.