[blake9220]

As a computer addict/IT manager, I'll throw in my two cents about buying laptops in general.

First and foremost buy what makes sense for you. If you've used Windows all your life, and haven't had any serious problems, maybe now isn't the time to switch to Mac, and visa versa. I would also say buy slightly above what you think you need. Nothing is worse than hitting the limits of a computer that is only a couple of months old. No matter what you're buying, don't plan on it being upgrade-able as it is a bigger pain than more people will let on. Sure if you've done it a thousand times it's easy, but if that's the case you probably don't need any of the advice in this thread.

Macs are easy to buy. Pic the right combo of screen size, computing power, storage, and call it a day.

PCs are a little more difficult. Tons of options, folding this way that way, touch capable here, touch capable there, etc etc. Find the features that matter to you and don't compromise. Folding and touching are great if you use them. Personally, I don't care for those features and find them some what gimmicky. You know what's not gimmicky? Battery life, build quality, and screen resolution.

On to PC Brands...
My personal loyalty is to Lenovo right now. I used to be a hardcore Dell fan, but their laptops have been coming up short lately. Build quality and performance have taken a heavy hit in my opinion. I've never been a fan of HP as their hardware never seems to last very long for whatever reason. Maybe this has changed recently, but I'm not confident it is. Lenovo is the perfect combo of build quality, price, and compute power. We purchased a few for our Execs at my company an d I loved them so much I bought one for myself.

Not sure there's a point to this big long post, but maybe it'll help someone!