Laptop experts

[evldave]

Originally Posted by f5fstop

Laptop is primarily for surfing the web, answering emails, and some small spread sheets from time-to-time. Also use it to access GM-Dealerworld for working on vehicles and answering questions on this site a lot of times.
I also use it when traveling for downloaded digital files from my D70 to clear the memory chips. But I do very little in Photoshop on the laptop.
Scanning of slides and processing of all digital photos in Photoshop and then printing of digital prints are done on my desktop which is an Intel 3.4 (3.6?), with 4-gigs of DDR-2 RAM.
However, for surfing the web, you can't beat sitting in the recliner.

This is pretty much exactly what I use my current laptop for, adding in porn (while sitting in the recliner watching porn on the TV). I also haul it on road trips and use it for mapping/navigation while out camping. Don't know your price range, but this is what I've been looking at:

HP D8135 (or any of the 81xx line) if you want bigger screen and monster HD space (up to 240GB now I think).

HP 5100 series if you don't care about the HD space (go w/the AMD processesor). This is pretty much what I've settled on for a couple of reasons. First, it's lots of stuff for a relatively cheap price (numerous discounts available if you look a lot). Second, it's HP, and my current Compaq laptop has lasted through A LOT (drops, melted case froma candle, years of offroad driving, trip up the daulton highway in Alaska, beer spills, porn, etc) and I'm very happy with it's durability. Third, I can get it cheapest at BestBuy, which means I'm not f'ing around with repair problems - spend the extra $$ for the superwarranty and anywhere you are you can take it in. I'm not usually a fan of chainstores, but it's nice for situations like this.

Others I've looked at and why I'm going away from them:

Dell (various models) - too expensive for the features, maybe better build quality, looks better (if you care), but you can get some serious discounts on the HP if you shop around (and little on the dell - it only becomes price-comparible when they have their discounts and it's really not close).

Toshiba - Japanese, 'nuf said

Acer - ditto

Alienware - kick butt, but too much $$ since I also have a desktop for all the serious stuff.

Gateway - a late comer, haven't really done much research, might be worth a look.

...and I think that's the list of American-made laptops. A few $$ or features here and there aren't worth it for me to go overseas, and the build quality on electronics nowadays is so homogenous it's not like a yugo/bmw, more like a bmw/mercedes.

My 2 cents, take it for what it's worth...