Can't comment on the specific models, but my Sony laptop runs perfectly. When it broke, they fixed it promptly.

I like fruit pies.

or did you specifically want opinions on laptops?

cuz I have an old hp that's barely clinging to life, and no income in the forseeable future to buy a new one, so I haven't been looking.

Yes, their monitors are "beautiful" (and interesting choice of words given your manhood isuses with Apple) but the main problem with Sony, in my experience, is the cheap crappy keyboards and mouse. They just ain't that rugged. If you're going to game with it, get a plug-in keyboard to reduce wear and tear on the laptop keyboard. When it comes to judging the weight of a Sony also consider what "accessories" you are going to have to carry to meet your requirements. The ones that seem heavier may actually be lighter when you add it all up.

The Toshiba may be an ugly little gnome but it's more rugged. Again, I think you shoudl consider IBM if you are going to be doing significant road work.

Jim -

Not going to be doing significant road work, unless by road work, you mean walking to the Starbucks maybe once a week. I don't travel that often. Also, I'll be purchasing a warranty that gives me replacement on everyting for 3 years.

Krakatoa - I like fruit pies too.

I've got 2 laptops one of which I affectionately call 'paperweight' and the other I call 'doorstop'.

I've yet to find a laptop that doesn't have some odd quirk that makes me want to chuck it out the window.

M ost
A pplications
C rash.
I f
N ot,
T he
O perating
S ystem
H as!

You're lucky the Reality Distortion Field is down while Steve is recovering from surgery, or you'd be in trouble, young man!

Serious, I got both Macs and Windows boxes running here, and pretty much all the web surfing is done on Windows, while everything else happens on the Macs.

Not to sound snarky, but avoid Sony. I don't know whose these Toshiba/Sony fans are, but seriously. My vote, inconsequential as it is: Fujitsu or IBM. If you can swing it - the IBM's T42p's screen frickin' rocks. I have a Fujitsu S-series, which is a very nice compromise between size and weight (~4lbs), affordability and features. It is slow, however, so don't diagonalize large matricies on it.

Light weight ultimately should win out, no matter what. Lug an 8lb brick through an airport for the hundreth time, and you'll know what I mean.

Yeah, I got an opinion on VAIO laptops and it ain't good. I'm the fix-it guy for a company, and one of the VP's HAD to have a VAIO laptop even tho everyone else had an IBM ThinkPad. Due to the freaky design of the modem connector at the time (almost certainly fixed by now), the VP would break the connector darn near every time he used it.

VAIO's (at least last year, and this includes the desktops) can only be fixed in one place: Sony in California. So every so often, I'd have to give up a Saturday morning and drive this VP's VAIO to the Sony repair depot in Beltsville (I live in Gaithersburg) so they could ship it to California. You see, the repair depot had to confirm it was broken before Cali would repair it.

Two weeks later, I'd have to drive back to Beltsville on another Saturday morning to pick it up.

As I said, I'm sure the design flaw has been fixed by now, but I've been wary of VAIO's ever since.

Bill,

If you've got the money to spend, go for the high end--you sound like you'll use just about everything it has, and since you don't travel much the weight shouldn't bother you.

I travel three or four times a year, the the laptop comes with me. The weight's a pain (I have an hp), but the little thing's three years old and holding up like a champ.

Ha hah. A pox on all those apple dorks who dissed me in the original thread.

Bad news about Sony is that they have a bad rap for computer support. Hope it all goes well.

The Sony guy said that if I buy the warranty, some dude will come to MY HOUSE to check it out and repair it.

Why not Dell? If you want a decent sized screen and not 9lbs, the Inspiron 8600 would work. Fifteen point four inch (15.4") screen and weighs 6.9lbs.

Inspiron 8600

Expand your horizons.

Get a whitebook based on an Asus M6N with a 15.4" screen, killer graphics card, pick your Pentium M Processor of choice, your RAM size (remember, size does count and the bigger the better) your HDD (I suggest the 7200RPM 80GB Hitachi) your wi-fi (b, g or b/g) and you'll have a slim, good-looking, awesome little beast (they're rugged as hell) with supurb battery life, every coneection type known to man and, well, go see for yourself.

Simply by dropping the Sony and Toshiba names you'll save like 10% - 15% right off the top.

Go to pricewatch.com and do a search on Asus M6N or just go to Asus' website for the specs.

Word.