I have always suggested Dell for simplicity and reliabilty. However I recently did some research for a client and ended up suggesting Lenovo. They have always been a more buisness suited company while Dell was more for consumers. Good reliability and well built.

Good luck!

 

1 for HP. im using a 5 yr old HP laptop from work to write this. it is still in great shape, only issue is replacing the battery. All the 3 yr old Dells we bought have now started to crumble in your hands. Literally. I can pick this machine up by any corner and carry it around no problem. the old Dells, well, pick a corner and see what pops off.
Never been a thinkpad fan, but at least now they have touchpads. windows reliability is case by case. buy something and reformat only with what you want. havent had a persistent crash in 4 years.
You really cant go wrong either way.
Dave

 

If you go with Dell, go with a latitude. Their business notebooks are much more solid than their Inspiron home notebooks. I have always liked Dell and have rarely had problems with them.

 

I bought my Laptop 3 1/2 years ago. Talking with people I know, the brand to get then was Compaq. So I bought one just as HP bought them. I only hope curent HP's are as good because I have seriosly never had a freeze or a blue screen in that whole time. It is on an average of 10 hours a day over 300 days a year the whole time. My only complaint is that the battery only lasts 30 minutes now. My co-worker has a newer HP, plays graphic-intense games on it, and still loves it.

Dell = they make some good computer, but the amount of junk they put out is high. I've been drafted in the past to fix varios computers and the truly broke ones always seem to be Dell or Gateway.

 

I have a Fujitsu that I bought eight years ago. That Pentium II is still churning. Awful load time by today's standard but I still get to browse the internet, write emails and some photo editing in Photoshop 7.

I've had different laptops and desktops and none of mine ever broke. I don't understand how people "break" their laptops/pcs.

 

In conclusion, pick any brand of laptop, take a good care of it, and you're off to go.

 

You can't go wrong with any of those choices. Most problems you're likely to encounter will have some dependence on how you're using the computer, what software you've installed, etc. It's not like you'll pick the wrong brand and then just suddenly be dead in the water.

The ThinkPad is an awesome machine for business use. It's ridiculously durable and you can drop it, toss it in your luggage, and basically beat the crap out of it and it keeps on ticking. Personally I think it's overkill for home use though since it does go for a premium.

I've currently got a Dell Inspiron at home and it's been great. Got it with Windows XP, took all the preinstalled crapware off it (the one thing that does suck about Dell), and upgraded to Vista and it's as stable and reliable as can be. The case isn't as slim and doesn't seem nearly as durable as the ThinkPad's but that doesn't matter because I'm not doing anything stupid with it. If you punch in one of the coupon codes available online you can get a smoking deal on a Dell.