The cool thing is, you don't have to sacrifice performance when you buy a laptop anymore. The new ones can pretty much align the satellites in space right from your home office.

To be honest, though, my computing needs are pretty simple. I'm pretty much just using email and word processing. So it makes sense to try to save a few bucks and get a budget notebook.

When I bought a computer for school, you were basically purchasing a typewriter on steroids with the ability to connect to the internet ... maybe. Things are a lot fancier now.