If you or your colleagues find yourselves walking around the office with one shoulder slumped down below the other, you may suffer from financial advisor’s droop (FAD).

The cause? Invariably, it’s the 3.2-kilogram, overpowered laptop computer you lug around with you. The effect? Well, let’s just say that you’re carrying around more than one microchip on your shoulder. The solution? A hardware upgrade.

Today’s laptops don’t need to be the heavy, 15- or 17-inch behemoths that we’re used to. Thanks to modern hardware design, manufacturers can pack an awful lot into something the weight of a paperback book.

I’m writing this on a 1.3-kg, 13-inch Apple Inc. MacBook Air, with no moving parts (not even a hard drive). It’s light and highly functional, with roughly the same performance as the 2-kg, 13-inch MacBook Pro. Windows users have even more choice.

Smart PC users tailor their computer equipment to their work (or play). Hard-core gamers who also want portability, for example, will demand a state-of-the-art, custom-built PC from the likes of Dell Inc. -owned Alienware Corp. or Canada’s home-grown firm, Voodoo Computers Inc. (now owned by Hewlett Packard Co.). These PCs’ powerful graphics systems can crunch as many polygons as the latest games can throw at them, but they’re often so bulky that they also serve another use: as heavy, blunt instruments to be deployed in a street fight.

Financial advisors are rarely doing video or intensive photo work. You are using spreadsheets and some standard reporting templates. Maybe you watch an interview with a top advisor on IE:TV while in the coffee shop between client meetings. You you can do all of those things and more on an ultralight notebook such as the Dell Vostro V13 or LG Corp. ’s T380 unit.

The advantage of these types of computers is twofold: not only are they light, for financial advisors who are invariably on the move meeting clients, but these stylish devices can also be attractive talking points for clients.

What should you consider when buying such a device?

Given the driver here — slimline, mobile computing — size and weight are likely to be the most important elements of your purchase decision. Microsoft Corp. released its ultramobile PC (UMPC) project, known as Origami, a few years ago — and then watched it disappear into the void, leaving a few niche devices. That is a shame, as the devices were light and highly portable. However, they have been largely superseded by tablet devices which, although great for presentations and consuming data, aren’t great candidates for serious content production, either.@page_break@Depending on the amount of typing you’re going to do, you’ll want a unit with a real keyboard as close to full size as possible, and a display that will support a decent PowerPoint presentation or a readable financial spreadsheet (depending on your client-presentation style).

Netbooks, which are devices with screens ranging from five to 12 inches, are the next option beyond UMPCs and tablets. They have blurred into the ultrathin laptop category at their top end. They are generally defined by their reliance on Intel Corp.’ s Atom, a low-power, single-core processor designed to balance battery life and performance.

However, netbooks (which often rely on the functionally limited Windows 7 Starter Edition platform) have been criticized for their relatively sluggish performance. As a user who might have multiple applications and browser tabs open at once, you’ll want something to support your workload without grinding to a halt.

Next up are the ultrathin and light laptop PCs. These devices offer the power and the portability of a netbook, with battery life that leaves most conventional laptops standing still. Models in this category start at around $500, and can range up to $1,800 (including taxes) for fully-loaded elite models. Lenovo Group Ltd.’ s X Series, for example, starts at $519 in Canada for the 11.6-inch x 100e, based on the Advanced Micro Devices Inc. processor. Its brother, the 12.1-inch X201, starts at $1,169.

Find the difference between these two and you’ll pinpoint the other features that will inform your purchase. The higher-end model features solid-state storage, for example, which is not only more reliable but is also faster, and can save battery life. Other advantages include more internal memory and, critically, a faster processor. The X201 features a state-of-the-art Intel i7 processor, designed for computational heavy lifting. However, many models will come with the lighter-weight Intel i3 chips, or processors built by rival AMD.

The other thing to consider is removable storage. For the most part, ultrathin laptops are designed to operate without an optical drive, although many come with removable models. The occasional device, such as Toshiba Corp.’ s Portege A600, features a built-in optical drive, but the trade-off here is in either weight or, in the Toshiba’s case, price: the unit costs $1,700, which edges you further toward traditional desktop territory.

Clearly, the high end of one mobile computing category begins to blend into the low end of the next. Ultimately, your purchase will depend on the mix of computing criteria that fits your working style.

I chose battery life, portability, speed and good, old-fashioned style because I tend to work in multiple locations each day, not all of which have power outlets handy.

Whichever style of unit you choose, make sure your computer fits your shoulder bag — and let’s work together to make FAD a thing of the past. IE