Who makes the best laptops...

[TiggyD]

...at the moment. I hear HP are OK at the moment. Any others?

I got an hp pavilion just before Xmas nd I've had nothing but trouble I wouldn't have another. Dell, advent, toshiba, Acer and Samsung are all good from what I know of them. I think most of the time the make doesn't really matter that much just look for good spec rather than brand

I'm with PV - look at the spec, get value for money, generally like any of the brands PV mentions.

Personally I add a full size USB keyboard (+ mouse, sometimes wireless mouse) so I don't need to learn different keyboard layouts for the various laptops I have (2x Tosh, Dell, Acer, HP, Samsung).

Forgot the Gateway, but that's probably not in the running, these days. I'd look for HDMI and possibly USB 3 as part of spec of any new device, HDMI in case you want to watch a film on big TV screen, USB 3 for ability to use faster backup devices in future.

Got ya. Go for specs rather than names. Will go look for an intel i5 or i7 8gb+, with a 15" screen and backlit keyboard. Without the shiny screen I have now.