I have an IBM Thinkpad T43 with a 1.86gHz Centrino, 60gig HD, 2 gigs of ram (512 mB stock), DVD/CD combo burner, etc. I picked it because the Thinkpads are rugged little laptops (metal hinges and magnesium top case) and the Thinkpad has the awesome pencil-eraser mouse nub in the middle of the keyboard. Another great feature is the LED light at the top of the scfreen that illuminates the keyboard - which I found by accident after a few weeks. It has active shock detection that shuts don the HD instantly. It also has biometric security- you have to swipe a finger over a fingerprint reader to access the computer on power-up, after it is closed, or after it hibernates.
I paid +/- $1250 for it, NIB from
www.overstock.com with free shipping. It arrived in 36 hours.
It has built-in wireless I can use when available, but I have a Sprint Mobile Broadband card that I use everywhere else. I have NEVER been anywhere I couldn't connect.
I use Google maps and/or Google earth for navigation, but I think I will buy a Garmin GPS USB antenna/software set-up for a real-time 15" scrolling map. Of course then I would have to get a RAM mount for it.
Also, a tip to those who use EVDO cars like the Sprint- Get a Wilson dual-band cellular mirror-mount antenna and adaptor for the external jack. It's a little Star-Treky with the radials or what not, but I get 6 bars of signal everywhere now it seems, and it speeds up the conection greatly. I got 1166 down speed yesterday at my yard, whereas I usualy ranged between 450-850 down beforehand.
It's good enough to feed my Warcraft addiction lately.
-p.