Laptop, which one???

[shooter2]

Good Morning all and I hope everyone had a great Christmas.

I was gifted with a really nice software package that I think I want to have on a laptop as well as my desk. So naturally, I turn here where I can usually find a lot of expertise and knowledge a a wide variety of subjects. I've never had a laptop and am wide open to suggestions.

I "think" I want something at about 1.5 GHZ+ (Pentium processor) at least an 80 GB hard drive and 1 GB of memory. Do I want or need wide screen? Good battery life would seem to be an advantage. Reliability is important and I've heard good things about Toshiba, but not so good about Gateway. No knowledge of other brands at all. I probably want a number of USB ports.

So, what should I look for? What brands do you like or dislike? Personal experience counts. Let 'er rip...

[SharpsShooter]

I have a Dell. Good solid machine.

[Oldfeller]

I use a Dell laptop at work and own and use HP laptops at home. Realizing that the features do change from machine to machine, I am bugged by the fact you can't turn off the Dell touch pad system when using a separate mouse (if you get sloppy typing and accidentally touch the touch pad - oops, you just issued instructions to the machine accidentally). With an HP you have the option right above the touchpad to turn it off completely (or back on again) with great ease of use & convience. Dell does offer the little IBM rubber eraser mouse in the middle of the keyboard, but I never got addicted to those particular device so it is of no benefit to me, personally. Just another thing to avoid touching accidentally while typing.

Both machines are rock solid and have had no performance issues for my use. In my dept, several Dell laptops have died due to keyboard, motherboard and hard drive failures, but that does not mean an equivalent number of HPs would not have had similar issues (operator dropping and coffee splashing issues). People are the biggest problems with laptops.

Now, the good side of HP -- Hp laptops go on sale a Circuit City and Best Buy and Staples and Office Max all the time. Occasionally, VERY MUCH on sale. Dells don't do that to that degree, ever.

HP also has support and drivers and all going all the way back to their first machines all available on line. HP and Dell and Toshiba are the sole laptop survivors of a very tough game of competitive evolution, so they will be pretty much functionally equivalent. Hp, then Dell, then Toshiba is my order of brand preference.

I can't recommend the namebranded (no-name mgf stuff) like Gateway for a laptop -- who knows if the original mgf. -- whoever he is -- is going to be around 4-5 years from now? This advice comes from somebody who just tried to get new drivers to install on Grandma's no-name handmedown cheapie laptop (crashed, died, had to put the old sound-card drivers back to get it to limp as well as it was doing before).

Drivers are a big issue with a pending MAJOR operating system upgrade looming on the horizon -- do you want a set of drivers that will actually work for your laptop if/when you decide to switch over?

Buy a name brand laptop ...

Last recommendation: buy it stuffed with more memory than you really think you will need -- putting memory in a laptop can be a CAPITAL major pain in the ass, they can stick it under the keyboard and under the hard drive, etc. etc.

[versifier]

Another thing to keep in mind about laptops when you live where winter happens is that their displays cannot take being frozen - leave it in the car overnight and you have an expensive repair that most warranties will not cover. This has happened twice to friends of mine, one set a bad example unknowing, but the other knew better and just forgot. Both were personal machines and both had to pay through the nose - the repair techs said it was a very common (and no doubt lucrative) problem.