I'm about to get a laptop too.....everyone I talk to says get a Toshiba. Why? Someone tell me a little bit more about it. Consumer reports says Dell is the best. Someone fill me in.

My mother in law has a Sony and she had the screen go out. She called Sony and they wouldn't fix it. Basically said sorry! I can't remember what the reason was but luckily she bought it at Best Buy and bought the extended on it. They will replace with a new unit. So they did. It has been a couple of months now and she hasn't had any problems yet.

The Toshiba is probably one of the better laptops that you can buy "off the shelf" at the popular electronics stores (Best Buy, Circuit City). Dell and Gateway are harder to get, but are better machines.

Dee

ETA: My fave ever laptop was an Acer though.

I am actually INCREDIBLY happy with Dell right now and strongly suggest their extended service plans to anyone who buys one.

They picked up my computer Tuesday afternoon. About 10 minutes ago, it was delivered back to my door. The hinges were pretty much busted when I sent it in, as well as the screen being blue, etc. It now has new hinges and a new cover, and they fixed the bug with my BIOS, and the screen is no longer blueish!

YEAH FOR DELL! Less than 48 hour turn around time!

PROBLEMS WITH TOSHIBAS (listen up craig):

-high 'DOA' and high incidences of returns for endemic/out of box problems
-traditionally poor customer support
-poorly constructed - lots of the "five days past warranty"-type damage
-lots of proprietary hardware - difficult and expensive to fix

That said - they're cheap, and you can get them fixed anywhere on the planet b/c of BestBuy and CompUSA . . .

Depending on what you're looking for, it's hard to recommend anything specific, but higher rankings go to Dell, Sony, and Gateway (although still riding past successes - not so solid any more) . . . Sager was clearly the best laptop company, but I believe Dell bought them out for the marketshare, so that blows.

I completely agree about Toshibas. Mine decided to turn itself off whenever it wanted, conveniently in the middle of my papers, right after the return policy was over. Tech support wouldn't do anything about it because they said it was up to the store, and the store said it was past the time I could trade it in. I ended up having to sweet talk a manager into taking it back because it wasn't usable. I ended up getting my HP that night, and I still love it three years later. I've had friends have similar problems with Toshibas, too. I'd definitely stay away.