[Rob]

At work, we only buy Dell for laptops. Various configurations, but they've all been sturdy, even the Inspiron range which were supposed to be for the less industrious user, yet daily use over the years has failed to break any. I got the longer life battery for my Inspiron 2600. I can get well over 4 hours from it if I'm just doing stuff like browsing, and that's with a core duo type CPU.

The Viao is a great looking laptop, but you are paying for that branding. What is more important, functions, or looks?

edit: Oops the 2600 was the old model - two of those are still going strong (apart from a dud battery) after 6 years. I've currently got a 6400