<p>I would stay away from Dell's. The problem is that if anything goes wrong, you have to buy replacement parts from Dell itself rather than just going out to a Best Buy or something to replace it - that's what makes Dell unique - they slightly tweak the insides of a computer and make it incompatible with factory parts. Dell's are terrible machines.</p>
<p>Son has a Dell, husband bought it based on the good results we had with desktops. Month before the laptop was 1yr & out of warranty, son began having problems. Of course son waited till the last day, when we were also leaving on vacation. Spent about an hr on the phone w/Dell. Dell decided that laptop needed repair. Dell refused to let us schedule the repair unless we were available the next day. Came back from vacation Monday & called, Tues parts (Motherboard, memory, fan & something else) were received at service center, NUMEROUS calls to Dell were required to get service rep to call and schedule the appt. Parts were replaced yesterday (Thurs). On Tues one customer rep told me the parts had been delivered, the Service rep told me to sit tight for 24-48 hrs. Next AM I called and customer rep told me parts had just been delivered(Wed) and sit tight-I responded with "that's not what I was told yesterday". Customer rep finally was nice and called the contracted service company. Dell had given the contract company the wrong phone #. If I had sat tight--we would probably still be waiting. We had to renew the warranty $300, but I guess that is better than the cost of all the parts and repair. The service tech was at our house from 11:45-2:20. I would have preferred to send son to the Notebook computer shop and try out stuff and buy something that could be repaired down the block from his school.</p>
<p>lamom - that's typical dell procedures. they don't know what they're doing.</p>
<p>Just go with the IBM T series, you wont regret it.</p>
<p>I'd say IBM or HP.</p>
<p>i just bought a Toshiba M45-s65 for $1149.99 - $50 off rebate = 1099.99. plus i got a canon all in one printer for free after rebates (99 - 50 rebate - 40 rebate = free). the specs on the toshiba are pretty good for the money compared to other comparable laptops. pentium m 730 (the new sonoma chipset with 533 fsb.....all the pentium M that end in 5 are 400 fsb and all that end in 0 are 533 fsb fyi), 100 gb 5400rpm HD, 512 mb ram (ddr333....only downside, wish they would have stuck in new ddr2 ram), dual layer dvd writer, 15.4 truebrite screen.....</p>
<p>only downside i would say is pretty bad battery life. i can max out 3 hours and 30 minutes out of my battery in low power mode.</p>
<p>oh and i got it at a local fry's but that price should be available on outpost.com but i dont think you will get the printer deal included.</p>
<p>3 hours is pretty average for small laptops...</p>
<p>3 hours seems around what I'd expect in a desktop replacement size machine. For a smaller laptop, I'd expect ~4-5 hours. Ultralights (like mine) should get in the 6 hours range.</p>
<p>For those considering a Toshiba (especially the M45 series), the M45-S355 is an amazing deal at $1249.99.</p>
<p>My vaio was 4lbs and battery life was ~3hrs, but I think they are known for using a lot of power.</p>
<p>oh really? ok i didnt know laptops zapped through the batterys that fast even if it is a pentium m processor.</p>
<p>well anyways, the toshiba m45-s265 was a pretty good deal</p>
<p>i think the whole m45 series is in fact being sold at discount prices</p>
<p>Large sources of power draw are the screen and any optical drives. For example, trying to watch a dvd on a cross country flight will almost certainly not work out as you expected; copying the dvd to your hard drive and watching the file on the flight will.</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>Yea, things like XBRITE screens sound good, but you can really never afford to keep it at a bright setting because it uses so much power.</p>
<p>Acer Aspire 3000</p>
<p>btw, im looking for an optical mouse/keyboard set......what is the best brand/model out their at an affordable price (under $75). </p>
<p>i was looking at the microsoft wireless optical desktop elite for 49.99 but the keyboard felt funny.</p>
<p>and if i were to buy the key board and mouse seperately then which models should i look for for both</p>
<p>thanks</p>