I need some laptop recommendations/advise please?

You can't go wrong with a Lenovo. If you have the cash to spend, go with a Thinkpad. The 14inch T410 and T410s are very nice laptops. Very sturdy, cool running, and built like tanks.

It really depends on what you need from your laptop.

Back in the spring of 2006 I purchased a 14" 5lb Toshiba Satellite M105 and it worked amazingly through my first 3 years of college. During this time I used it for mostly for word processing, music, and photography. It only began to act up once my virus protection expired and it was attacked. This was in the summer of 2009, nevertheless I couldn't afford a new laptop and kept using it for a semester of online classes. It's only real problems were keyboard and start up related, so as long as I left it plugged in and used the onscreen keyboard, it was usable...just a bit annoying. But I stress, these issues were related to a virus. Toshiba makes great laptops and they aren't too expensive.

A few months ago I began looking at new laptops since I had a bit of extra money. I found one Toshiba for around $350 that seemed perfect---and it was, but with one massive exception: the speakers were cheap. Since I listen to a lot of music on my laptop, I had to return it. I exchanged (and paid a little more) it for the perfect student laptop: a 13" 3lb red Toshiba Satellite T135D (about $450). The one major drawback to this model (which is the smallest full computer system available without being a netbook) is it has no disc drive. But you can purchase external disk drives for around $80. This isn't too much of a problem for me since I'm keeping my old laptop for music storage, but it is a bit of a drawback if you need a disk drive to install programs. However it does have a media card slot and a few USB outlets, so no worries there. But I highly recommend this model for anyone who needs a lightweight laptop. It runs beautifully and it's a Toshiba, I've never heard anyone complain about a Toshiba. I own 2 Toshiba laptops, my grandparents have a Toshiba laptop, even several of my friends have Toshiba laptops :P

I would stay away from and HP laptop. My fiend works for HP and still uses DELL laptops. If I were you, I would recommend looking at the Small Business sections or different companies...they hide their best (and inexpensive) laptops for businesses, even though the public can buy them.

So, I would recommend the IdeaPad out of those two, but I recommend that you look at the vostro laptops dell has to offer. they offer the best "bang for buck" and are very reliable. (Aluminum coated!)

Happy Buying!

I have heard some good things about Lenova.

Dell laptops are okay but they are too noisy for me.

I have an HP laptop which I am happy with.

I also have a notebook made by Compaq -- a Christmas present from my wife. -- It is wonderful, but it is just a notebook.

Unless there is a reason why you need to have windows running on your comp (translation software, whatever) I would never buy a laptop running windows...I have to use them at work (ok proper pcs not laptops) but we spend sooo much on anti-virus licences etc, it's a nightmare, apart from that I'd just constantly worry about going on the net with it. (we also spend a small fortune on it-people to come around and reassure my boss-she's even more paranoid than me, well it's her business so she would be :))

For a little more (not sure how much in dollars - and you'd probably spend that on anti-virus software anyway...) you can get a mac and it won't lose it's value in the same way. Apparently I could sell my laptop now and still get a third of what I paid after 3 years (I paid extra cos it's a black macbook and they're still in demand).

I dunno probably not the advice you were hoping for but I've never had a problem with it, I know people who buy a new one every year and when they sell it on it's worthless. I know some people use software that just isn't compatible with mac, but if you don't have to, I'd def recommend it.

I would recommend the hp if you do much traveling. They travel extremely well and I use mine in moving vehicles on an almost daily basis with little to no drop in functionality.

I personally despise dell computers, they can't be upgraded without violating the service plan dell slaps on them.

I came here to tell you, stay away from hP. I'm using one right now, but it stuffed up months after purchase. Luckily it was still under warranty but i had to send it to them heaps of times because their service was krap, and they didn't know how to fix the problem. I've heard Macs are really good, but so so bright on the money side.. Good luck

Lenovo is actually fairly decent.

It depends on what you plan to do with you computer. Though unless you are using it for gaming [most of the best games run on Windows, sadly], I'd suggest getting one that runs on Linux.

http://www.linuxcertified.com/linux_laptops.html

Get the most expensive one, them show it off. lol. just get what you think is best. Choose wisely