Best Laptops for Freelance Writers

So you freelance for a living, and you discover that sitting only at your desk, tapping away at your desktop for hours on end is both uncomfortable and boring. The only way to escape the monotony of the stationary desktop is to pick up a notebook and pen. But this is inefficient if you have a large amount of articles to write, as it takes far longer to write an article in longhand, and then you have to spend the time transcribing it, too.

The solution is a laptop computer. But, as you soon discover, there are so many options available in the laptop market that all the research and 'hunting' for the right kind is frustrating. Not only do you have to choose the right kind of brand, but you also have to decide on hard drive capacity, RAM, memory size, etc. Where do you start?

The first thing to do is look at your budget. It's a waste of time to look at a computer with a 100 gig hard drive if you can't afford more that a 60. If this computer is going to be your main workstation for years to come, and is going to be used very often, I suggest not purchasing a computer until you have a $1000 dollars to spend on it. If this just isn't possible, less is fine also, but in the long run you will be happy that you spent a little more.

Now take a look at your needs. Do you primarily write articles, or do you perform other kinds of freelancing? Graphic designers, comic artists, video authors, etc. have different needs than writers. This article is going to assume that you are a freelance writer. If you are not, these laptops will still work for you; you should just consider increased hard drive and memory size, and be sure that it can run the software you will need.

Next look at size; will you primarily be using this laptop around your house/workstation/office? If so, than a small size isn't so necessary, as you will only be moving it a few times. However, if you are on the go frequently, you wish to write outside, or you will take this computer to conferences/interviews, size is a very important issue. The computers I list are going to be small. I personally feel that a laptop should be small; I just hate lugging around a large laptop.