Originally Posted by
mixture
Toshiba is a good choice of brand by the way (at least their business range, I haven't looked at or used the range they target at consumers... of course there's nothing stopping you buying a business model ! ). So you're looking in the right place.
Oh crap no! Sorry to rain on your parade but in my experience Toshiba have been THE worst brand for laptops in the last 3-4 years. I have lost count of the ones we've had to send back due to hardware issues.
Anyway, I will give you the wisdom I always give anyone who asks about 'what's a good laptop':
1) After ascertaining that they're not wearing a black rollneck jumper*, I send them down to Currys/John Lewis/etc to play around with their laptops
2) I ask them to identify the intel i3/i5/i7-based laptops, choose one they like the look of, and get them to spend 5 minutes typing on it and using the trackpad. This is because the keyboard and mouse on a laptop is the one thing you can't change, and if you can't get along with it then you're buying something that'll annoy you for the next few years.
3) Once they have found a likely candidate, they should note down the model number, dodge the spotty sales-weenie, and head for the exit.
4) They should then go home and order the same laptop online, from the cheapest reputable supplier.
Of course, I would only recommend they choose one of: Dell/HP/Lenovo/Asus/Acer for laptops anyway....but what would I know, i've only been involved in the procurement of over 40,000 of them in my career
Hope that helps.
Mike.
(*this is a sure sign that they're one of those hipster-types who buy a Mac just because it was forged from the buttocks of Lord Jobs, and no other brand of device would do, because they are of course a brand-whore).