Readers of my blog will recall my recent post regarding Dell laptop computers.
See http://inkarlslab.blogspot.com/2010/12/why-i-wont-buy-dell-laptop-pc.html.
I need a laptop for graduate school and have been looking at HP and Acer laptops at my local big box stores. Fortunately I did some research on those before making a decision.
The following two articles might be of interest to those who are shopping for a laptop PC.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/211402/reliability_and_service_laptops.html
http://www.pcworld.com/article/211074-2/the_tech_brands_you_can_trust.html
Hope this information is of use to someone out there.