<p>I am in year 4 with a Fujitsu Lifebook Tablet Laptop - LOVE this laptop and has survived a ton of abuse. Granted it was not cheap but I have been impressed with it’s continued performance. The only glitch now is the battery is useless so it really needs to be plugged in at all times during use but I’m hoping it keeps on plugging for the rest of this year so I can see what’s in the marketplace in the fall for a potential replacement.</p>
<p>‘racinreaver’s’ link shows some intersesting and hopefully objective data on the subject to provide some balance to all of the anecdotes indicated here. It shows Apple and Dell to be almost equal in terms of reliability (17.4% vs 18.3% failure rate in 3 years) and Asus, Toshiba, and Sony more reliable than Apple and HP at the bottom of the heap (25.6%). </p>
<p>This is certainly something to consider when purchasing a laptop. The other metric though is the experience one goes through once it DOES break. Despite being the most reliable statistically, if the Asus breaks, is the ‘fix’ process more painful than if the Apple breaks or the Dell breaks? And the Toshiba, which scores to be more reliable than the Apple, has another recent thread on CC where the OP is less than happy with Toshiba support she’s gotten - to say the least.</p>
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<p>The problem with a three-year survey from 2009 or 2010 is that this period covers the nVidia defect which would have disproportionately affected high-end and high-design laptops more than low-end and thicker form-factor laptops.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone. I’m going to print out this thread to reference this summer before we decide. I’m leaning toward the Macbook Pro, especially if they have the student promotion this summer where Apple throws in an ipod. My husband’s ipod classic battery is dying and he could use a new one (yes, we’ve replaced the batteries before but that is so expensive! 
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<p>That reminds me- the time to buy the college computer is in the summer (not spring months)- this is when the best deals are to be had. Be sure to check with the college’s computer info website for deals and recommendations, as I mentioned earlier, the major can matter.</p>
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<p>You can buy a replacement battery on eBay for about $10 with the tools needed to replace it included. It only takes about 30 minutes to do it; faster if you’re good with your hands.</p>
<p>We bought a Toshiba netbook for our commuting D. It’s light weight, compact, and has a long battery life. We intended to buy a USB CDRom drive for her, but she hasn’t needed it.</p>