We've had good luck with a couple of Acers (netbook & laptop) - not as solid-feeling as Lenovos, but for lower-budget machines, I've had no real complaints. You know, except for the one about "if I could afford a 4-figure laptop right now, I'd get a Mac".

My list is down to Toshibas and Sonys. Make sure you check the sonystyle outlet if you're into refurbs. The SO will still buy Lenovo.

I've had good luck with Toshiba in the past.

Sony and Toshiba are my two preferred Windows-based laptop manufacturers.

IOW, I am Liese. (Woot!)

I went with an Acer Aspire. Fry's was matching online prices, so they matched NewEgg's $549 for a 15.6" quad core model. I hadn't fully processed that phones, tablets and laptops are the same price. My sister will be pretty happy with her new puppy. I can't wait to open it and set it up. Whoot whoot!

They did have some pretty good prices for Sonys, for the record. But the Acer was the lightest for the price.

I had pretty good luck with a Toshiba. I haven't owned my Lenovo Thinkpad for all that long, but I'm really liking it so far. The Thinkpad was inexpensive, put it doesn't feel cheap which is nice (also it has a nub mouse, big plus for me). My wife has an HP (Compaq) that works well, but we have a very bad experience with HP customer support so they are off my list for all future purchases. Also she runs it plugged in all the time, while I never run my Lenovo plugged in (8+ hours battery life!)

Work computer is a fancy-pants HP that works fine, but it spends almost all its time in a docking station. (Also has a nub mouse).

On impulse, I asked my father if he wanted me to pick him up a laptop too. His current computer is 7 or so years old, and it's not standing up to the tasks we're asking of it today, and it's dog slow. He said yes.

I got to Best Buy, and there was a Samsung with a *gorgeous* screen for $500, and I thought, my sister will kill me if I get my father a nicer cheaper computer. But the salesperson assured me that the one I've gotten sis is better for video processing, even playback, and that's her main usage of it, so we should be good. No family feuds there.

So I need to set them both up over the next couple days.

Both laptops look to have 5 hour battery lives. What I can't work out is why my Macbook pro thinks it has a THREE hour battery life. DIdn't I pay for more than that? Motherfucker.

While I was at Fry's, I picked u[ a D-Link wireless range extender, and I can't work out why! I could have picked up a wired/wireless hub for the same cost, and just plugged it in at the further reaches of the wired network at the family home. So that goes back to the store. No point giving up a wired port for the same price, as long as the network is still extended at a decent speed.

Help! We bought Sara an iTouch for her birthday, but reconditioned and like new. It arrived today (yay!) but there are no instructions with it. What the hell do I do? Just plug it in to my laptop? I wanted to set it up with some songs and charge it for her before she opens it.

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Duh. Thank you, le nubian!