The Best Laptops for Mobile EntrepreneursDetermine your price range, the importance of style, the features you need and how often you're likely to drop your computer (and from how high). Then choose your weapon from our guide to the best laptops for the mobile entrepreneur.

Buying a laptop to fit your business is officially no longer easy. Previously unimaginable technologies and intense competition have spawned a new generation of business-class portable computers, each vying for a niche in the small-business world.

Touch-enabled devices such as the iPhone and the iPad have blurred the boundaries of what a portable device is--and what it isn't. Ubiquitous 64-bit operating systems like Windows 7 have helped PCs outstrip their Mac cousins in many performance metrics. Low-power LED screens have amped-up battery life and created a new class of smaller, cheaper netbooks. And ruggedized technologies spun out of the defense industry have found their way into ?ber-tough portable PCs. The wave of niche business notebooks is just starting to break. International research firm IDG estimates such notebooks will outsell desktops, controlling a 70 percent share of the PC market by 2012. That means businesses will need oodles of laptop savvy to find value in the market.