I'm helping a friend purchase a replacement laptop. She's had a Dell since 2003 and it has some mechanical problems. It's also very heavy and she hates lugging it around.

She would like to have a new laptop, but nothing fancy. We've Decided to go with configurations that are under $800. Dell and HP have many options for this but my question is which brand will give the most satisfaction and last the longest. I don't want her to have to get another laptop in a year or two, she needs something of good quality.

Any suggestions?

It really boils down to personal preference really. If it were me I think i would consider going with Hewlett Packard.

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I'd go for the HP, although if she dislikes carrying a heavy laptop an Asus eeePC would be a solid choice.

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Yep that would be a good choice, but wait for the new one to come out.

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I would say neither HP or Dell. The best laptops are made by Toshiba. I got mine I think 3 years ago and it runs as good as new. The only reason why I need a new computer is because this thing wasn't made to play games on.
You may say 3 years isn't very long and you'd be some what correct but get this. My Dad had a Toshiba that was so old he bought it back in like 1993 or something and only just trashed it because the battery died and he couldn't find a new one. While he hadn't used it since 1999 it would still turn on in may 2007 when I was playing with it. So I would strongly recommend Toshiba for a laptop.

I agree with Mr. Pickles. It all boils down to your preferance. If you want to do some heavy gaming, look into an Alienware, but if your looking for reliability paired with performance, check out the HP Pavilion series. I personally like the Alienware, but its all up to her.

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My brother, father and grandfather all love their HP laptops. All of them have the middle range, non-gaming machines like you're looking at. I think you're friend would be happy with one.

I heard nothing, but good things about HP laptops. Now desktops thats a different story.

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i don't know much about laptops, but in regards to the toshiba laptops i would suggest looking around at reviews on them. the post on them sounds like they would be your best bet if they last over a decade, but you might want to remember computers quality changes significantly throughout the years.

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