[CyndiM]

Well my beloved desktop computer has finally died. This morning the dreaded hard drive clicking started. I'm thinking about replacing it with a laptop I can plug into my monitor for desk work but bring with me when I'm on the road.

I've done some review reading (all morning) and I'm leaning toward the Toshiba Portege. Now I need real world advice.

Do you have a laptop you love? What and why? Alternately, do you or have you had one you hated? Same details would be helpful.
Anyone switch from a desktop to a laptop and regret it?

One other thing - I know Mac users love their computers. I live with one so I've heard all about them I am a PC person though so only looking for PC reviews. Thanks!

[sontaikle]

I perused Google a bit and the Toshiba Portege has some decent reviews. It looks like a nice laptop.

I'm both a Mac and PC person (total overall geek!) and I've had good experiences with Dell laptops and a bad experience with a Toshiba one.

My Toshiba laptop I got in 2004, so this info probably isn't relevant at this point. It just died on me too fast (after six months) and I made the mistake of getting it at Best Buy so I got screwed over. Don't buy it from Best Buy. You STILL get screwed over.

I got a Dell XPS back in 2006 and it still runs great. It was a 12" laptop so it was the smallest around (this was before netbooks) and very light. The warranty on it was great too. My brother got a Dell netbook about a year and a half ago and he loves it.

I switched from a desktop to a laptop and I would never go back. Laptops are just so much more versatile and portable and if you still want that desktop experience, you can do that! Occasionally I'll plug my macbook into my monitor, attach a keyboard and mouse and have a desktop computer.

Having a laptop has made college and now working much, much easier than it would have been otherwise.

My brother is a different story. While he loves his netbook, he would rather have a desktop computer. However, he's a computer science major and therefore enjoys building and tinkering with computers a laptop is certainly not for him.

[SweetPeach3388]

I'm a Mac person, but I will leave that aside.

My college computer (graduated last year) was a Dell Latitude and it was absolutely the worst computer I have ever owned. It was constantly crashing and caused so much frustration.

As for Toshiba, I have heard mixed reviews.

One thing I recommend is make sure that you check it out in person first (not just order it online because it looks good). You want to make sure you really like it!

[CanadianCutie]

I have a desktop and a laptop. The laptop is a lifesaver for sure. I bought a dell xps with i7 core. I was limited in my choices, since I wanted one with a graphics card to handle fairly recent games. I travel a lot, and the laptop had to be good enough to play the games my fiance and I like to play.

[XLMuffnTop]

My household has three desktops, two pc laptops and two Macbook pros.

The PC Laptops are an HP and a Dell. The HP (don't remember what model of the top of my head) I really didn't like. Any software issues aside, which are more of an OS gripe, the thing was just made cheaply inside and out. The case is literally falling apart, the mousepad is either overly sensitive or doesn't work at all, keys either don't work or pop off. It's just frustrating and I'm fairly easy on laptops. It has been relegated to my four year old son.

My Dell is several years old but I got a refurbished Dell Studio 1737. These are the big honkin' 17 inchers. I wouldn't recommend one this big as it can be heavy to travel around a lot with. Since upgrading from Vista to Windows 7 I've been very happy with it. It runs very well for the age, never had any problems with the hardware, case, software or anything else. Like all out-of-the-box computers you have to spend a bit getting the preloaded bloat off but yeah. Overall pretty solid.

It's my opinion for the price, reliability, durability and availability (that's a lot of ilities!) Dell is likely the better option.

[juliana77]

I love having a laptop-only household. (Oh, I forgot, we do have a "media pc" hooked up to the tv. But not a traditional desktop.) My main computer is an 11" Acer - a little bigger than a true netbook but still small enough to travel with. It has no cd drive, but I have an external USB one. I see this as a plus because I only rarely use it, and am not stuck lugging it around.

My son uses an old Dell laptop that I bought refurbished from their online outlet about 6-7 years ago. I had to replace the battery and upgrade the memory last year but it is still running like a champ.

If you are mostly using it for web surfing, email, word processing - anything on the market will fit your needs. If you are doing anything graphics intensive (gaming or serious photo or video editing) then you need to be more careful. Check the specs on any software you use. Enjoy!

[Dagny18]

I'll give you another perspective...
I have an Acer. Two actually. I liked my first one so much I got the second.
However, when I had problems with my new Acer, even before warranty was up I called the service #. It was less than a year old.
The people at customer service had accents...maybe middle Eastern? But anyways that made it hard to understand them but I tried. I kept telling them how my screen would flicker in and out. It didn't happen every day. It might go a day or two and then be so bad I couldn't use the computer for a few minutes. But I knew it was happening!
They tried to convince me it was my battery. I told them it could not be. I usually keep it plugged in, use it unplugged only during exercise.
They tried to convince me I had a virus. I told them no. I even took it to a shop and they hooked it up to an outside monitor that didn't flicker when my computer flickered.
It had to be hardware, not software.
So could I send it back to be fixed? It was under warranty right?
They fought, would not give me an address or way to send it back. It took my mom to get on the phone and argue with the lady to finally get an address and me an email to let me send it to them.
But then we decided to have a local shop fix it even though we had to pay.

If I were picking a laptop, I would also take into consideration the company's customer service...because that was no fun!

[Andynoo]

I have always had an HP, and i just recently got my new HP pavilion dv6 laptop, it has the new icore7 processor, 6gig ram, 1trig harddrive and runs all my building design programs without a hitch. never had problems with it and my last hp i had for more than 6 years and nothing ever went wrong with it, i only got a new one because of the building design programs that wouldnt run on the older model because of its age. Im an HP fan, you cant go wrong there. have a look at the HP Pavilion range, they have a ones to suite different needs and they are priced really really reasonably, i got mine at a bargain compared to the toshiba which didnt have the capability of the HP but had the same price tag... my friend bought the toshiba a few weeks later and it doesnt run the programs we use like my hp does.