I bought this baby *pats chasis* in April. I spent a very long to researching over summer (off-season, obviously!) and looked at many options. I wanted it for uni (so my usage is mainly the net, MS Word, MS Powerpoint, music, RL2). Because I take it to class everyday, I was looking for something with a solid-state hard-drive (so it doesn't get affected by knocks too much, and so it starts up quite rapidly), something of strong construction (preferably metal), something reasonably powerful, and something fairly portable (13-inch and light). Oh, and it had to be below $2000..preferably less than $1500 - I'm a student after all!
- I was initially thinking a Mac: I liked OS X and thought their quality was pretty good, but eventually decided against it because of compatibility issues and the 'Mac-Tax' - the one I was looking at was going to cost about $2400.
- I considered Dell - they're not too bad. I used to have a budget Dell which I bought about 3 years ago, but it aged pretty quickly..but did the job for the price I spose. The issue I also had with the new Dell meeting my requirements was the cost - you pay a 'Dell-Tax' (for the ability to customise, I assume), the one I wanted was going to cost about $2200.
- I looked at Sony too - their Vaio range is meant to be some of the best quality laptops out there, but nothing really fitted my bill perfectly...except the Z-series, which was going to be over $3000 :crazy::crazy:
- I ultimately was leaning towards getting an Asus - their products are meant to be very good, and of good quality. Their prices are quite reasonable too - the one I wanted was going to cost about $1700. Apparently their components are better than those shoved into the typical budget brands. I would have bought the Asus, but I fell in love with the one I eventually bought, which was a little cheaper too...but if it weren't for that, Asus would've been the one.
- I ended up buying a HP dm3 (1033tx model) from Harvey Norman. It fitted what I wanted perfectly, and does everything I need. The quality is very good too, I haven't had a problem with it at all...well, only after I removed all the HP crapware. I'd heard bad things about HP before, but I'm very pleased with it - nothing's gone wrong yet, and would recommend HP to anyone. Oh and with a bit of bargaining, got it for $1445
Anyway, back to the question
For good quality, from what I've heard, there's tiers of quality.
Outstanding quality: Apple, Sony
Good quality: Asus, HP, Toshiba, MSI
Reasonable: Dell
Ones to avoid: Acer, Compaq