[cd34]

I think it really depends on what you need it for.

For temporary use, extended battery life, consider something with Centrino. Some of the Toshiba M55x models are fairly nice. I've got an A70 which is a beast, but, it is my primary machine.

I found Toshiba (for the 4th time in 12 years) to have the most bang for the buck. Comparing features versus price, Toshiba came in well under the competition in terms of price versus performance.

IBM's thinkpads are very nice and rugged.

HP and Compaq have a few very nice machines. Dell has pretty good price/performance ratios.

However, you need to figure out:

Are you using this occasionally, sometimes, or a lot. Do you need a lot of battery life or will you usually be near power? Some laptops have firewire, usb, bluetooth, pcmcia, memory stick access, CF cards, etc.

Then, figure out your budget and see if the features are worth the $$.