Mistteak - I can only answer for myself. I have always been please with the HP products I have owned, and out of approximately 12 printers over the last 20 years or so, only one has died. The others I have either sold or given away to friends and relatives when I wanted something with a little more speed. Thus five years ago when I wanted a new desktop and didn't want to build one myself, I chose an HP, and then three years ago when I wanted a laptop, again I chose HP. This fall, having converted a new HP Media Center desktop to Vista, I explored the possibility of upgrading my three year old HP laptop to Vista but because of the integrated video chip not having enough power could not do so. I began the investigation into a new desktop and looked, checked out the options on HP.com, went into the stores and put fingers on keyboard, and the change in feel and beauty of the new HP laptops sold me. I ordered the new laptop from HP.com and it was Fedex'd directly from the factory in Singapore to my house.

I have been very please with it, it is the dv9500t, custom configured on HP.com. From looking at the Dell's in the ads, they have also improved the look and feel of their laptops recently. They are all lighter and easier to use. While I am totally pleased with my HP, and by the way, you can configure the HP with two hard drives (it has two bays) and can thus separate OS and Programs from data, I think either is more a matter of personal choice. One of the nice things about the two companies, is they are so competitive, that what ever one does, the other will follow very shortly. We are then the winners.

Take the time to visit the stores (if available) and put fingers, on keyboards. Spend some time on the web sites of the two and familiarize yourself with what is available. You may have to see if a friend or co-worker has one of the Dells, because that one is not available in stores that I am aware of.

One of the major differences in laptops vs your desktop, is that the laptops generally have the glossy screen that some find disturbing at first, expecially if you are looking at an image with a dark background in a brightly lit room. Reflections can be a problem, but once you get used to them, a slight movement of the screen and the reflection is gone. This glossy finish gives the bright colors, a major advantage of Plasma TV's over earlier LCD's. Now you are starting to see them come into play with desktop flat panel monitors and LCD TV's.

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