Recommend me a laptop .

... Need something TOUGH

[Leva]

Okay, my two year old Toshiba is on its last legs. It's been beat to death and has performed far better than I ever expected. I'm hard on laptops. *grin*

I need a tough, cheap, laptop. It does NOT need to be state of the art -- I mostly use it for basic internet access (via an aircard) and word processing and basic website building. I'm not rendering video or playing games more sophisticated than Solitaire on it.

What it does need to be is TOUGH.

It's going to get hauled around in my backpack wherever I go -- my laptop is with me almost 24/7 and I use it on my commute to work and lunches at the day job. I run a web site that needs regular TLC (because of moderated user submissions) so I check it several times a day. It will ride with me, daily, on dirt roads. It'll be exposed to dust and animal hair and weather extremes and all sorts of things laptops hate.

My current laptop has been used so much that the paint's worn off both the keys and the wrist wrest, and the on/off button is looking a bit used. It's on its fourth battery. It probably gets 7-8 hours of use a day.

So -- what laptop brand do you guys think is toughest? Another Toshiba? Something else?

[BillyS]

>>I need a tough, cheap, laptop.

Toughness usually comes from quality. Cheap suggests inferior quality. I don't think you can get both.

[bakedjake]

IBM Thinkpad for sure. I love both the T-series and X-series.

[coopster]

Agree, IBM turns out quality products. Another option to consider may be Panasonic toughbooks.

[bill]

I wasn't too thrilled when my company started buying Panasonic Toughbooks a few years ago. For the same money they could have purchased more well known hardware from Toshiba or Lenovo. I live/work in the hometown of Panasonic and wrote the decision off to some sort of misguided local loyalty. Panasonic makes some great stuff...but laptops?

I treated the things with disdain. I threw them in backpacks with wet clothes from the gym. I packed them in luggage without a protective case. Short of dropping them I wasn't particularly nice to them. Yet a couple years on they work just as well as when we got them. I'm a reluctant convert.