Don't overlook Toshiba's in the laptop market. I have had mine for 3 years now, and I have been thoroughly impressed.
Although my next computer will be a mac, I have had toshiba's laptops for years and they are better then any other pc I've ever had.
I'm on a Toshiba laptop right now. Just got it a few months ago and so far, so good. Previously I was using a refurbished Compaq laptop I bought really cheap from Costco. The thing was pretty spiffy back in it's day but now, many years later, it's it's about as spiffy as a '75 Maverick. I still use it daily even tho' it no longer will function unless it's on it's AC lifeline and even then it has to be sitting just right or it will turn off. (I certainly have beat up on it. Taken it on many trips, left in the hot truck, cold truck... etc.) It's been a good laptop. I also have a HP desktop and a super archaic Gateway. The HP is about 5-6 years old and has some issues but given it's age, I can't complain. I've asked a lot of it. The Gateway has to be at least 15 years old and does only one trick so it's not really comparable to today's puters.... but it has been running almost every day for all these years... so that's kind of impressive. I had Sony desktop and it was my shortest lived computer. I think I was just unlucky with that one.
Dell laptops used to have SERIOUS battery life issues, atleast the old ones did with age. I don't know if that has changed any.
