In search of the ultimate digital nomad notebook, part 2

NEW YORK, NEW YORK -- My trusty old Dell served me well on extended adventures, from the jungles of Guatemala to the islands of the Mediterranean. Now I'm looking to replace it with the ultimate digital nomad notebook that will accompany me on future trips.

In Part 1 of this series, I looked at "freak" notebooks that don't really fit into neat categories. This week, I consider Big Screen Blu-Ray notebooks. 

The process of buying a notebook is always an exercise in trade-offs. Full, desktop replacement functionality or thin and light? Rugged or inexpensive? Maximum screen or maximum battery life? Since I bought my previous notebook, the world has changed in four ways that affect those trade-offs:

1. Netbooks. The amazing new world of cheap netbooks has emerged. Now, we digital nomads can and should carry two devices: a full-size laptop and a tiny netbook. Our main notebooks don't have to be small enough to fit on a coach airline tray table anymore. We can use netbooks instead. To me, the fact that netbooks are so cheap may reduce the requirement for ruggedized systems. Now, when I take a notebook hiking or put it at risk, I can leave my main notebook back at the hotel and take the $400 netbook.

2. High-def. In the past year or two, high-definition has gone mainstream. As of last week, YouTube and even Facebook now support high-def video. Blu-Ray has come into its own. And some laptops support these changes with Blu-Ray drives, cinematic aspect-ratio displays and gaming-quality graphics cards.

3. Miscellaneous advancements. In fact, the last couple of years has been very productive for the introduction of really great new features. Fingerprint security and other security solutions are more mainstream. Instant on is now available in some notebooks. And HP, Dell and others are boosting battery life well beyond the double-digit hour range. The variety of notebook options has never been better.

4. Bad economy. Now that the global economy is cratering, low cost is more important than ever. The days when people feel comfortable spending $4 thousand or $5 thousand dollars on a notebook are over.

Everyone's needs vary. Some digital nomads travel mostly domestically and spend all their quality notebook time in airplanes, airports, hotels, coffee shops and at home. Others travel internationally, or live abroad for months at a time.

I fall into both categories. I do a lot of standard "road warrior" business travel within the U.S., but also spend several months each year traveling abroad. As I mentioned in the first installment of this series, my newest requirement is high-def video. I bought a Sony CX12 camcorder, and want to compile, edit, process and view my high-definition videos. That's why I'm particularly intrigued by a new category of laptop that I call Big Screen Blu-Ray notebooks.

This amazing new category includes laptops with full-size keyboards, whopping 18.4-inch displays that have the high-def aspect ratio of 16:9, rather than the notebook standard 16:10. Compared with a conventional 17-inch display, they're a little shorter top-to-bottom, and a lot wider side-to-side. Pop in a Blu-Ray movie, and they display it in the movie-theater aspect radio in mind-blowing clarity and image quality.

In this category, I'm considering three notebooks: The HP HDX 18t Premium series, the Sony VAIO AW series, and the Acer Aspire 8930G.

All these notebooks sport stunning 18.4-inch screens, full-size keyboards, Intel Core 2 Duo Processors, NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT graphics cards, great sound systems, Blu-Ray players and fingerprint readers for security.

On the downside, they all weigh between 8 and 9 pounds and, of course, take up a lot of space in your laptop bag.

They're far less expensive than I would have guessed. All can be had for $1,400 and up, although you probably won't want to spend less than $1,600.

I like to think of these laptops as desktop replacements that also replace a home theater system. Their superior sound, Blu-Ray players and TV tuners let you truly use these laptops for all your screen entertainment needs. This is particularly nice for Digital nomads who travel abroad. It's great living in a third-world country, and still be able to watch movies in stunning first-world high definition and listen to high-quality music.

Of the three systems, the HP appears at present to be the best overall value, with -- surprisingly -- the Sony VAIO coming very close. The Acer is relatively pricey.

From a style point of view, the VAIO is vastly superior, with elegant industrial design and MacBook Pro style keys. The HP is painted like a Winnebago from the 70s, and has a cheesy HP logo on the lid that lights up like an Apple notebook.

Without testing any of these systems (this is a blog post, not a review), I'd be inclined to buy the Sony. But we've still got quite a few systems to look at before my purchase decision.

But let's hear from you! Do you find the Blu-Ray, 18.4-inch notebook category compelling?