What laptop do you use?

Am waiting on my second Dell.... First one has been going strong for nearly five years, but is somewhat sluggish at startup and has developed a inch-wide stripe on the side where half the pixels are out.
Dell's EPP plan sent me an email the other day where (i am ashamed for this) Oprah's Friends could get 30 percent off this laptop. So I got one -- i5-450 processor, 6 GB memory, 720p screen, 500 GB hard drive (my current one is 80G)... oh, peacock blue cover instead of pink, thank you.
Found a coupon for $100 off and with a three-year advanced warranty, paid 866 including tax. Also got a deal on a 1.5 TB storage drive and got both for about 950.
And yeah, Dell's customer support sucks. The robots in Bangalore have no common sense, just the company line thanking you for your patience, and you can't get anyone in the US on the phone. But have really never had a major problem with one -- knock on wood.

 

HP notebook

 

If you can afford a Mac, great, but I think the newer 12" netbooks hit the sweet spot for portability and functionality, and price. I bought a factory refurbished Samsung NC20 netbook about a year ago for about $330 and couldn't be happier. It has a 12" screen with a higher resolution screen than the 10" netbooks, and a 97 percent keyboard that is comfortable typing on for hours. Other companies make 12" netbooks, but I try to stick with Samsung whenever possible. Korea is pretty much the new Japan when it comes to electronics (even cars), and Samsung is the best of the bunch.
I know there are many loyal HP customers, but the company is in serious decline. I actually had a great experience with an HP laptop that I got about eight years ago, but the next one I got about 3 1/2 years ago was a piece of crap. I went through two motherboards in 2 1/2 years. I thought it was a fluke at first, but I googled the model number and "motherboard" and found tons of other people out there with similar complaints. A Square Trade warranty survey reported that HP has the worst reliability rating (25 percent hardware failure rate within three years). Predictably, Apple has the best (10 percent within three years).

 

A Mac can be the right computer for the right person. If you can afford to drop the money on both the laptop and the warranty program, then you are going to get a high-performance, relatively worry-free laptop. If I can drop $1,500+ without blinking and I just want to ship it back to the manufacturer if there's a problem, then a Mac would be my choice.

 

My sister just got the Toshiba Satellite that TSP linked to...same deal at Best Buy.
Might be heading out to get myself one of those this week.

 

Acer that I bought at Office Depot before spring training 2009. Laptop itself has worked loike a champ, Vista on other hand has given me - and our tech guys - fits at times.

I can listen to music - Pandora which comes in handy in noisy media centers - write, e-mail, send stories and photos snapped with iPhone into office without the box breaking a sweat.

Doesn't everyone covet a Mac Book? We've got an iMac desktop at home, my wife uses it more than I do for photos, movies, etc. It's our second one. First one saw HD fail, logic board fail twice in five years but we went back to Mac, with Apple Care.

Sorry for getting long winded

mark

 

For filing on the road, I use an HP Mini. It's small and easy to carry, and it has a built-in air card so I don't have to go scrambling for a Panera afterward. The keyboard is pretty decent, too.

 

HP Notebook here. I've had it for nearly two years and it's worked pretty well. I have both Works Word Processor and Notepad, which comes in handy since one works better with AOL than with yahoo.

 

I ended up purchasing a new laptop over the summer and checked out just about everything out there except Apple, because our system doesn't work well with it.

I suggest you take a long look at at Dell Inspiron - the 15 series. It's almost as if they were made for writers and the keyboards are very comfortable to use.

I ended up paying extra and getting one with extra memory and a faster processor, but there are numerous options.

 

I love my Macbook, but I'd probably be just about as happy with something that costs about $500. The first laptop I ever got was a Sony VAIO and it worked perfect for a couple of years, which given how much I use my laptop is about all I can expect to get out of one.

 

Laptop loyalty seems to be today what car loyalty was in my dad's day ... e.g. we are an HP household ... we've purchased four HPs over time, and expect to get another (for Mrs. Dan the 9th) next year ... I have two of them on my desk at home, the newer (purchased last year), goes with me on gigs ... and I never, ever, purchase the warranty program ... in fact, those are my first words to the sales clerk ("Don't ask me, because I will walk out right now and you lose the sale"). ... My credit card co. warranty's items purchased with it ...

 

My work MacBook is three years old and a piece of shit. I wouldn't recommend them for anyone who needs to do work in the unexpected and sometimes less than ideal places we have to file from. It could just be I have a lemon (and since it's through work, I can't send it to Apple and have them beat it up for me), but I've had more problems with that beast than I have with all my other computers combined.

If all you want is cheap, netbooks are the key ($300 range). I got a new Dell mid-level laptop (Studio; the entry level is Inspiron) for $700 last winter a good chunk of bells and whistles and have had no problems for it, though it mostly lives at my house. My last Dell lasted five years before the hard drive started to die, and they sent me a new one free. But some people have had problems with Dell in the past.

You can find a good entry-level laptop for$500 if you want something a bit more substantial than a netbook.