as someone who bought many notebooks/laptops over the last 13-14 years.. i would recommend Averatech and IBM.

Averatechs are great in prices, packed with features and very well built. Excellent value and great portability. I don't understand why people lug around those huge laptops with 17+ inch wide screens.. totally defeats the idea of portability.

IBMs.. probably the most solid and durable but pricey and likely wont have every feature you need like the Averatechs do.

Apple notebooks..whatever they are called.. blech. Won't waste my time talking about those.

Avoid compaqs and dells. They are bad news.. HP..marginally better but not much.

My dream notebook would be an Averatech with the technology HP uses to instantly play DVD w/o booting up (forget what they call it).