...buying a laptop

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I have a Toshiba. I like it and I also have a USB Numeric keypad for it. The only problem is the Toshiba batteries are not that good. I replaced my two with ones from BTI and I get a lot more battery life. Newegg.com has user reviews on most brands it sells. I think they sell everything but Dell.

Go with Lenovo, Asus or hand-built. A bit more expensive $600-$900 for Entry-Level. However it will last you longing than a Compaq Presario you bought at office depot for $299.

I think you are referring to HP's consumer line. I agree, they do suck, but I think their enterprise grade notebook line (the ones labeled HP Compaq ncxxxx or dcxxxx) are much better from what I know. They can have like a five year lifecycle, which is unheard of in these days. They are expensive, to say the least.

I seem to fix a lot of those at work for them being such high end comps...

Oh, and don't you even THINK about touching a Gateway! In one week alone we've had three come in with dead screens/dead boards... it's crazy since we usually see about 30 comps a week... thats a massive amount of the same brand. We see a lot of Toshibas for the AC jack, but thats not a huge problem except that it's pricey, no comp damage. We see tons of HPs with mobo damage cause of overheating, and lots of Sony's where the wires for the screen get chomped by the hinges. Compaqs are HPs... Asus has done well, not much trouble with them. But avoid their netbooks cause the screens are pathetically small.

15.4" with keypad!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6834220393

You get alot for what you pay for with Asus. I have never owned one but they seem pretty good. That one has a good video card too!

Depends, if you're going to use it as a PC and you have to move from house to house, or you're going to carry it around everywhere.
I think you want the first type : choose an Acer, with a big screen and a lot of features, you won't be disappointed .
Most of them have keypad.

If you're going to be using the laptop away from home, at school/uni or whatever, I would look closely into power/battery life. CPU saving features are a good idea. Ideal accessory would be a spare battery.

The numbers on the main keys are activated with the Num Lock ley on the keyboard, this is why Windows XP (that I remember at least) will always deactivate it in case of laptop, otherwise during typing you'll get numbers instead.

Try and be aware of what will eat power, such as high end processors, video, and high speed hard drives.

a warning on acers,avoid them if support/after care service is wanted/needed-it's useless,at least it is here anyway.

recommend toshibas-but not really the entry level equiums,they are good LTs-they are extremely solid,have dropped this one a few times with no damage,though they don't take meltdown damage,great minimal layout,but the silver paint starts to wear off in the wrist areas less than a year of use,same as the mouse buttons becoming quite bad less than a year later [this is probably due to being a constant user],and they cannot have their memory upgraded [there's two gb of ram in them,not sure if there's a higher spec than that] if have got the money-go for a higher end toshiba-these are so well built.

and remember to buy a laptop bag,or skin at the least,they're rarely sold with them.
laptop bags can be on the shoulder,or rucksack,or in the hand type.
it depends what self would like,but for comfort reasons,am recommend rucksack type as it puts the weight out across shoulders and back evenly,there is a lot of weight in laptops-especially when carrying them for a while,the shoulder bags put all the weight on one side and can cause all sorts of problems.
Am have a targus shoulder bag and a Blacks ruck sack from Blacks [the outdoors shop] -the rucksack has got a strong padded back on it,big padded comfort things to attach around middle,and a laptop is easily fitted in with other stuff,but would recommend using a skin with one of those.

Also,something else to recommend-if are using it in public places,get a laptop lock-these fit in the kensington slot,most laptops have got a k slot,wrap the cable around something that cannot be lifted easily,and lock,it stops dive in laptop stealing,it mashes the plastic around the lock edge a little,but nothing major.
they sell these locks in poundland in the UK [thats where am got one].