<p>Most people would be better suited by integrated. I’m a power user who will probably build a separate bleeding edge desktop instead. It’s a heck of a lot more price efficient and having a full workstation is nice.</p>
<p>Dedicated graphics cards in laptops are neat, but they aren’t power efficient and they produce a ton of heat. I’m going to buyt a midrange laptop instead of a heavy duty one; usually, the battery life is better and you don’t have a scorching hot laptop on your lap.</p>
<p>Dell: Low end sucks badly, mid range decent, high end decent. Get the warranty for sure, 3 yrs in home + 3 yrs accidental. Good coupons around graduation, back to school, and X-mas.</p>
<p>HP: Low end isn’t great, midrange pretty good, high end decent.</p>
<p>Lenovo (ThinkPad): Higher priced. Excellent build quality, good preinstalled software and a good amount of driver availability. The laptop case is plain but it takes a beating. 10% discount for IBM stockholders (part of the agreement). They tend to be updated less in favor of stability. Coupons and stockholder discount (as of 03/07, they were still offering discounts to IBM stockholders) that sometimes combine make the pricing easier. Warranty service is supposed to be superb- I’ve heard many stories where damage caused by user negligence were covered for free, even after Lenovo took over (spills in keyboard and such)</p>
<p>Toshiba: Decent budget laptops, absolutely awful (F at the BBB at one point) warranty service.</p>
<p>Sony: Overpriced, poor reliability. Just no.</p>
<p>Apple: Since the switch to intel, a lot more price competitive.</p>
<p>There is no “perfect” PC, but for many users it will come down to Mac OS vs Windows and whether or not the help desk will support them at College.</p>