My husband and I are THINKING of buying a laptop with our tax money. What one would you guys recommend??

Depends on what you intend to use it for. I have an HP notebook and it's great overall, but I use Linux as my primary OS and my sound card isnt compatible. =(

I hear a lot of good things about Toshiba (been thinking about replacing mine with one, in fact), and a friend of mine had a Think Pad that he really likes, if that helps!

HAHA! I wouldnt recomend a laptop because when they break they cost so much to get fixed, my Toshiba (the one i use now) was £500 then I broke the screen (they are so fragile) which cost me £250 to be fixed then the plug the charger slots into (the laptop) broke, which was £98 to have fixed AND THEN the charger broke which cost another £50, then that broke and i had to pay £5 to have that fixed. I which i had of brought a P.C rather than a laptop. This has cost a fortune and if it ever breaks again i'm not going to get it fixed!!! IT runs perfectly though, i'm not overly keen on windows vista but i'm use to it now and it's not so bad. I have a Toshiba satalite L300D or something lol.

However, I do like the fact that i can bloop anywhere in my house and in the summer - the garden!

My husband got me a Gateway M-Series that I absolutely love for Christmas (it was approximately $650). My laptop before this one was also a Gateway that he got me two Christmases ago (I'm convinced he got me this one just so he could have my old one, lol) and I love the Gateway. It's never given me any issues. This one is brushed metal inside, comes in all kinds of colors (not like thats important, but ya know, it is.. mine's pink;-D), has an Intel Pentium Dual Core processor, Vista (of course), 111 GB of space, wide screen, built in 1.3 Megapixel Webcam, etc. I've ran 15 tabs of Internet, Photoshop, and a media player and not had any issues with it getting slow or having trouble multitasking.

I've got a Dell Inspiron 1525 and I can do everything I want except play Sims 2. lol. I LOVE it.

I love my new Toshiba, I have owned Dell & HP. I would never use anything but a Toshiba now.

We have 3 Sony Vaios in my house and we love all of them. ^_^ They work amazing, look great and last a long time. ^_^

I'm going on year four with my Sony Vaio! It has served me well.

I absolutely love mine. ^_^ Me and my family don't buy other brands, if we're buying PC. Ngl, I'd love a Mac. ^_^

I have an HP Pavilion notebook. The best thing about my laptop is that the battery will last for a good solid 4-5 hours. I normally leave it plugged in though.

I have had a Gateway for over two years. I like it. I bought it because it was the cheapest one at Best Buy. It's not fancy, but I like it. Before that I had a Dell that was expensive, and it stopped working after two years due to a structural problem. The jack (or whatever, I don't know what it's called because I'm not a computer expert) where you connect the AC adapter to the computer became loose and shaky, and eventually it wouldn't recharge anymore.

I had a HP Pavilion which I loved, it was an entertainment laptop so it had a HD screen, I miss it :(, now I have a dell, I prefer the HP as it is generally easier to use especially as the touch pad on my dell does my head in, plus it has vista, I think if I put it on XP I would like it just as much as my dell, when people say vista is good they are talking out of their arses! On my laptop it deletes random programmes all the time.

Thank you guys for all the advice. We were pricing them last night and it's not going to cost as much as we were expecting :)

Although judging by the comments maybe I'm just clumsy when it comes to laptops. My ACER Laptop i had for three months and the motherboard blew and tripped the whole circuit board or something.. I think I'm just really unlucky?

Our college got Acer laptops, had them for about two months as they were shite.

my acer has lasted 5 months and it is horrible i will replace it with my tax money and am getting a real brand

I have a Dell Studio 17 which i love! my hubby has the Dell Inspiron 1725. I had before i have now the Dell Inspiron 1525. Was nice but i wanted a bigger screen after using my hubby's.

Despite what others say, I've had an ACER for almost three years and have had no issues with it. It's starting to crap out on me now, but like I said, I've had it for almost three years and have lugged it to school and back and forth from my boyfriend's house.

I've got a Macbook and I love it...my friend has a Toshiba and she says they're awesome. Sooo it's really what you're willing to pay and what you need in a laptop. If you're getting one just because you need a computer of some sort, get a PC. Easier to fix when they crap out on you and generally have more space.

I JUST (as in yesterday) got a Dell Inspiron 1420. So far I like it, but I've only had it a day lol. Before that I had a gateway and that did the trick for about 4 years.

Dells are good laptops. If you go with the extended warranty it helps alot. They also have great warranty, that if anything breaks they send you a empty box, you put your laptop in it, send it away and it gets fixed.

My Dell died on me after 3 years. Yes I could always get it fixed but I'm the idiot who didn't go with the extended warranty!

I used to have a Toshiba, I loved it, but the plug in for the charger broke, thank god for warranty, then after that I was mugged on my way home. Now I have an Acer, and I would never use anything else. It is amazing to me.

This is the one me and my husband are looking at getting. We have an Acer for a year now and the screen is starting to mess up and the graphics drive. It's a chipset and they aren't worth at shit.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp;jsessionid=30KXSNHOQ0GNHKC4D3KFAGA?skuId=9166323&type=product&id=1218041149114