Had a very similar model before it was robbed. Great laptop!!

Once you go Mac, you never go back. Bought myself and the missus a Macbook Pro each last year and they've been superb.

Yikes! Both pretty ropey brands in my experience. If you want a Windows 7 laptop, check out the Acers (they're the world's best selling laptop brand for a reason) or the Dells. Lenovos are good too.

Too late !!

As for Lenovo... I get them from work. I'm on my fourth in four years and awaiting my fifth.

Two had the screens die... one hard drive kaput, one motherboard died. The one I have now is two chopped together T43's that powers off if I press the keys too hard.

Currently I have 16 laptops, most under the bed.

It’s partly an obsession, partly because it’s a tool of my trade. Tax deductible anyway.

I lose them (Dell C600 in a BKK bar), stand on them( sony Vio) they catch fire (Toshiba A70), they fry power connectors (Compaq and another Toshiba) they die like flies.

Others just fall behind in the power race – I still have a lovely Dell Latitude that works fine, but cant support SQL Server 2008.

Best laptop I have ever owned is a Compaq Armada v300, indestructible and still works.

I do have a military spec one – an older Amrel Rocky/Warrior – you can drive a car over it. Sadly its CPU is too slow these days, and its under the bed.

http://www.amrel.com/rugged-computer...d-notebook.asp

Good job on the warranty

Sods law says that the Tosh will now work absolutely faultlessly for three years

...and therefore keep the pumpkins happy

Apparently the chickens on Farmville "look brilliant" on the new screen.

lol - we just retired 40 Thinkpads at work - all in perfect working condition, but just not quick enough any more. In fact I got two of 'em myself since they were going free.

Most of the office are on Acers now. Great laptops. Not compared to a Macbook Pro of course - but you know, alright.

Up until about 3 years ago I worked as the Notebooks Product Manager at a distributor (ie: we supplied nearly all laptops to most retailers and IT companies for resale). We would generally see approx 5,000 laptops of various brands going through our hands every month.

I personally found that the best way to judge a brand on their product is not spec, as most of them are pretty much the same these days, the differences are extremely minimal, but by the after sales service coupled with likeliness of the unit to fail in the first place.

We had Acer, Lenovo (previous to that IBM), HP, Apple, Toshiba, Asus, Sony, Samsung (before they exited the market), LG (also before they exited the market), Fujitsu, Panasonic Toughbooks. So pretty much all of the major channel players bar Dell of course as back then they only went direct.

By far the most amount of returns under the DOA procedure was Acer, followed by Asus, Sony, Samsung and LG. Acer averaged for a few years double digit percentages on DOA returns (which is quite amazing!!!!). Toshiba, HP and Fujitsu had by far the least.
For those that did not classify as DOAs we would receive a lot of complaints (due to manufacturers returns policy) and those were mostly targeted at Acer and Asus. Acer just had really poor customer service while Asus suffered from the fact that they had no Australian based service depts therefore you were sometimes waiting upto 8 weeks as the unit would need to be sent back to Taiwan.

In terms of if something goes wrong with your machine and you somehow need to get it fixed, by far the best brands are HP and Toshiba, they have the best service network set up around the country and have some pretty impressive turn around guarantees if you take out those options.

The other reason I would also go with HP or Toshiba is their proprietry software gadgets that come with their laptops as standard work really well, unlike your Dells, Acers or Asus'. The main reason that Dell and Acer sell more laptops than anyone else around the world is simply down to one thing, price and price alone. You pay for what you get at the end of the day and I think like anything if you want something reliable you need to pay for it.

I should add a footnote to my previous post, in that bottom of the range Toshibas and HPs are just as bad as the bottom of the range Acers, Dells and Asus' as most of the time they are actually all made in the same factories and just rebadged. Once you start buying machines from about $1,000 upwards of the Toshibas and HPs you are buying their premium stuff and that's when the differentiators I listed start to kick in

Thanks for that. Nice to know I seem to made a reasonable choice.

I just bought a HP i5 notebook yesterday, and so far ticks all the boxes. I wanted an integrated hd digital tv tuner ( so I can use in my campervan ) , and HP was the only one that came with a remote control..2 actually, 1 for use at home, and 1 that stows in the notebook. Works a treat, although probably does way more than I actually need. This is my 3rd HP, all no problems, also had a Toshiba, ok I suppose, and tried a mac book a while ago, I must be one of the only people that was not impressed

For anyone considering buying a macbook, be aware that rumour has it that new i5 and i7 processor ones are due out very shortly.

no doubt they'll come at a price but it also means you should be able to get a good deal on a core 2 duo model too.

J

Theres a big difference between a Macbook & a Macbook Pro