The Dead Space Society

My dad is looking to buy a new laptop. I havent researched stuff in a while, and ya'll seem to be in it all the time so I'm asking for your advice.

He wont be doing much with it, taking it out in the Oil Field of E. Texas and logging data on an excel worksheet.

So anyways, what do ya'll recommend? We searched Dells site, came up with:

Intel® Core™ Duo T2050 (1.60GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 533MHz FSB)Genuine Windows® XP Home
15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA Display with TrueLifeâ„¢
1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz, 2 Dimm
120GB 5400rpm SATA Hard Drive edit
8X CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write 256MB ATI MOBILITY™ RADEON® X1400 HyperMemory™ edit
Dell Wireless 1390 802.11b/g Mini Card (54Mbps)
85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
Dell Combo AC/DC Adapter

All came out to a bit over 1K bucks.

Whats the dif in the T2050 proccessor and the T5500 at a 1.66 Mhz, is it worht a 75 buck upgrade?

He's gonna go search Best Buy and those types as well.
I mentioned a hand held also but he is unsure.
Any other options out there besides a laptop and hand held? Is there something in between sizes?

Thanks,
RevT