What laptop computer would you recommend for me?

Based on my bitter experiences with a Toshiba Equium P200 Core Duo, and your wish to run movies, my advice would be to go for a laptop with at least a 'Core2Duo' processor (NOT Core Duo)! alternatively, check C2Duo equivalent AMD CPU's.

Check also to see if the Ram is upgradeable, Toshiba's aren't, as they fit max ram anyway - many vendors now go up to 6Gb Ram or leave room for add on strips!

Absolutely 100% Essential is a Dedicated Graphics card of at least 250Mb- avoid like the plague any pc's that have shared graphics memory no matter how impressive the figures may read - you'll regret shortcuts on this one piece of hardware bitterly - and you can't add them afterwards!

Go for the largest hard drive your budget will run to, or better still, a model with two drives installed.

Drives fill up quick, and if you've only one drive it'll be a pain to upgrade it unless of course you have a good external drive for back-ups.

Toshiba's have two drive bays, but if only one hard drive is fitted, the connectors are left off the second bay making it useless - you can't buy the connectors!

Most Laptops now have WiFi, Lan, internal modems, firewire etc, so they shouldn't be an issue.

I wouldn't get too swayed either by models sporting blu-ray DVD players, there's a premium to pay for that, but I'm not a fan anyway.

You could check for internal card readers and webcams etc, as they're useful touches not installed on all models.

I would recommend you read lots of reviews and compare models and spec's within your budget, you'll soon cut the wheat from the chaff and decide just what you want and narrow down the model range.

Toshiba's are damned well built, reliable and Very nice to use, but the total lack of any chance of upgrades is a killer if you get the spec's wrong - which is a deadly combination when Vista is installed by default!!

I'd also look for deals which include an upgrade to Windows 7 - or a 'Downgrade' to XP - avoid Vista like the plague unless the spec is Very Very good, because you won't be enjoying movies on it otherwise.

Windows 7 will be available from around October anyway, and vendors are already rolling out deals to include the upgrade.

Hope you find a good deal!

Try gettin the toshiba stattilite l305 series. It a good laptop. It has impressive speakers good display (15.4) and 4 gigs RAM and also 320 gig harddrive. One speaclie thing about it is that i supportes all wireless signals. And it only weighs 5.3 pounds and you can get it for around $400..

Dell pc's are flawlessly excellent for what they are designed to do, and that is to do paintings and university similar duties. I are not able to remark on their studio notebooks or gaming ones, however I've heard not anything however well matters. And so far as who is the exceptional, it is typically alternative. I've used Dell's, HP's, Compaqs, Toshiba's, IBM's, and they have all performed their jobs rather good. Just seem for the most cost effective one in you are fee variety with the exceptional constituents. That's what I do.

Dell Studio 15.

I would get a sony vaio