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I need a laptop. Recommendations?

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RayB:
I want to finally untether myself from the desk and do Photoshop, web editing and Flash development and maybe low-end Unity on a laptop (+ the usual crap like web surf). I don't care about current PC gaming (eg: if I want to play Skyrim, I'll do it on Xbox)

I'm seeing some amazing prices and specs out there in the typical mainstream stores, but I haven't followed PC hardware in many years, so all the graphics and CPU model names/numbers are meaningless to me.

HP: All I know is the HP Pavillion I had access to 4 or 5 years ago started dieing rather prematurely and had horrible power jack problems that killed it. Battery also died really quick. So now I'm HP-averse.

Acer: Some say it sucks, some say they are great for the price.

Asus: I have always bought Asus motherboards and parts for tower PCs, but how are they for complete consumer products?

Toshiba: They make good TVs... Laptops look nice...  ???

Sony: They make attractive looking laptops. Not sure I want to pay a premium if the hardware quality doesn't match. I don't like paying extra for a name or aesthetics, and I don't really want to support a company that thinks it's ok to install rootkits.

Dell: I heard good and bad things about Dell, but I think that was back in the "bad cap" days that all electronics companies were affected by. I've been recommended a Dell XPS. I'm considering it.

Gateway: They had their heyday 15 years ago. I assume they are crap now.

Apple: I've debated getting a Macbook Pro and having it run both OSX and Windows. This way I can do iOS development. But my Windows software might not run properly (or at all?) and they are expensive.


I've been checking the Windows 7 "rating" they have in "System" and so far the best I found was a 5.4 . My own desktop is rated 5.9. Anything around 5 should be good enough.  FOr screen, I'm not sure if 15" is big enough, but some say the 17" laptops are too big to be practical. Lastly, I need gesture support on the trackpad (too used to my girlfriend's Macbook Air and once you get used to the two-fingered up/down to scroll a page, you just can't go back, just like how I can't live without a mousewheel). I was surprised that most of the laptops at Best Buy did not have this feature, yet the crappy cheap Acer did.

OH, and looking at the Dell XPS options, I'm so tempted to also want touchscreen.

So, any recommendations ?  :)




Xiaou2:
Anything HP sux these days.  Horrible 1yr warranties, and hardware failures up the yinyang.  Everything from power adapter ports issues, to failed components on motherboards.

Acer - from last Ive seen, they usually skimp out on quality... such as a poor quality LCD. This can be very annoying, and not worth the savings.

Toshiba - Boss had gotten a bunch of them a few yrs back for some of our clients... and they have lasted very well for many years.

IBM - Thinkpads are another option.  Ive seen them in the wilds for years without issue.

 No real depth of experience with the others.

gamer2112:
Acer

CCM:
I've had my Toshiba laptop for about 6 years and have never had an issue with it,  I would definitely buy another one. 

Samstag:
I love my thinkpads.  My older one is around 7 years old and still works like it did the first day.  As long as it's a T or X model.  I don't think I'd touch any Lenovo other than those.

I don't know if they do touchpad gesturing.  I disabled mine right away since the trackpoint mouse is so much better than a pad.

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