So I hear arguments back and forth both for and against both HP & Toshiba. Interesting.

I think I'll stick to a Dell then... I really must say I haven't had an issue with it.

I've already got an external hard-drive for my current laptop, but still think about 80GB for my internal harddrive would be nice.

Processor, I guess I'll stick with the Duo.

Screen size... I'm not sure at the moment.

I don't want/need an ultra-light laptop, because although I will be taking it places occassionally, mostly I sit at a desk and use it. So something relatively sturdy (like my current beast, which I still love... *pats laptop*) but not too heavy would be nice.

I've never had to call Dell for any service stuff, because I've got a lot of computer people as friends, and can solve some of my own minor problems (like viruses).

I do have questions about Vista though... has anyone ever run the OS without the fancy graphics, like the guy who was giving me computer advice said could be done? (Turning off transparent windows and the like)? Is there compatibility of programs on Vista with XP? (Looking at Word, and browsers... I use Mozilla Firefox).

How many USB ports come nowadays standard on a laptop? I've only got 2. (I got a USB hub already), but just curious?

Whats a good battery life? How does one keep the battery life fairly constant? My laptop only holds a charge for about 2 hours nowadays (when not plugged in).

Anything else I'm forgetting?

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For reference's sake, here are the specifications for my current laptop:

-Dell Inspiron 1150
-Windows XP Home Edition 2002
-Service Pack 2

-Mobile Intel(R) Pentium (R) 4
-CPU 2.80 GHz
-512MB RAM

- C:/ drive total size - 33.7GB

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