Laptop Suggestions

I'm not sure how many people actually come in the Technology subforum, but I'll give this a shot. If someone finds this thread, thank youuu.

Anyway, I'm taking my laptop to Best Buy on Monday to be sent away because I'm finally done with it. I have a 3 year warranty that runs out next February, so it's still under warranty. It's a Toshiba Satellite M305.

This is what's up with it:

1) It slid off the couch a few months ago and broke the right hinge (I just discovered that was the problem a few days ago..). Anyway, since that, the screen has been wonky and if I move around on the couch or if someone else does, it flashes black a bunch. If I adjust the screen, it usually goes back to normal. Yesterday, the back piece of the hinge broke off, so the inside of that hinge is exposed and it makes this loud click noise when I close it from the half that is attached to the screen hitting the outside of the hinge. Does that make sense?

2) When the little hinge piece fell off, I found out that when my laptop is open, half of the seam at the bottom of the screen is just open.. Yeah, not cool.

3) My friend broke off my space bar in December. I've had it fall off before, but it snapped back on and was fine. Nope. It's broken. It has a little hook that it'll stay on, but if I type too much (I'm in college and on a forum..of course I type all the time..) or move the laptop, it falls off and is a pain in the neck to get to stay right again. Part of the B key is broke off too from the space bar being broken too, but it stays on for the most part.

4) Today the internet decided it didn't want to connect anymore. (I'm on my bf's laptop while he's at work). I've reset the router and all that jazz. Nothing. It just keeps telling me something's wrong with the router. Nothing has happened to my bf's Dell..

Basically, I'm really annoyed with it. When my mom and I got the laptops (she had the same one), the guy at Best Buy said before the warranty is up, to "accidentally" drop it and return it. My younger brother got mad last year and threw my mom's into a wall. Destroyed it. They sent it off and she was told the warranty would cover a computer with the same specs and whatnot.

I'm tempted to "drop" mine to make sure it dies.. I have everything on my laptop on my external hard drive.

Anyway, the purpose of this thread:
Does anyone have any brand suggestions for laptops? I didn't mind this Toshiba, but I don't really do any gaming or use it for anything more than trolling the internet and writing papers.

Honestly, if all you're doing is just trolling the internet and writing papers than any ordinary laptop will do. The prices have come down so much over the years that any $399-$499 laptop will be comparable in quality to one another. You can spend more but it's kind of pointless if you don't need the power. For the most part the battery life will be the same, hard drive size, screen size, etc.

HP make great laptops, as do Dell. If you purchased a laptop directly from Dell you can order accidental damage insurance and they are great to work with. A friend of mine dropped her laptop and they sent her a better one within two weeks.

I'm not familiar with the Toshiba/BestBuy warranties but I would hold off on dropping the laptop in case they don't cover that sort of damage despite it working for your Mom's laptop. I've done something similar to what you're thinking of but instead I used static discharged into the exposed components where you upgrade the RAM/Hard Drive under the laptop. The laptop wouldn't turn on and I told them it randomly died. :]

Samsung makes good brands and durable. We had a dell, and it wasn't worth anything for us. I didn't like my hp either. Toshiba is also good. If you tend to drop it a lot like you say you do, then samsung will do fine.

Thanks! Dells are good computers..I just don't like them that much. They're very touchy. I've never used an HP or a Samsung. I liked my Toshiba. I can just have them send it away to decide the extent of its damage, then find out what I can do about it. I can always go to Best Buy and look at what they have.

As for the warranties, I looked up my laptop on Toshiba's website and each laptop has a 3 year manufacturer's warranty for technical problems. If I remember correctly, the Best Buy warranty covers any quick tech problems and whatever you may do to give it a slow, painful death. :P

While Dell usually sucks, I really like my PC. It's a Dell Studio Touchscreen, Windows 7, intel CORE i3.

I have a netbook [in the shop now...dropped =/] and I love it ! Its sooo small and convinient to carry around and I don't use it for anything but writing papers and forums either.

First off, the newer series of Dell's laptops are not as good as their past models, my fiance got one less than a year ago, and it had a dead pixel, overheating CPU and RAM within 2 months, and Dell refused to take it back for warranty- never sent out a return label/refused to pay for it to get returned.
HP is pretty good however, known to have CD drive issues, as well as speaker malfunctions that you need to send in for service.

If you are willing to check out a company that has not been mentioned above, check out these guys. I will admit, I am very biased about them.
http://lenovo.com/us/en/#ss
Cannot say enough good things, I have had my business class laptop for 2 years now, and never had ANY issues with it.
(Lenovo; Formerly IBM, when IBM went down, they moved into their secondary company name. So, reliable business computers from the simplest to the extreme<touchscreen slide outs on a laptop>).

Secondly, if Lenovo doesn't have what you are looking for, check into Sony Vaio's or Asus laptops. Both have very reliable notebooks for work, school, and gaming.

Agreed! I forgot about Lenovo but they are pretty much the standard for a lot of big name businesses. Their laptops are great - real work horses, not sure of pricing in the states, but definitely one of the better brands out there worth considering. No idea on the warranty though. (I still think Dell has the better warranty out of all companies...)

Because they break more

My friend has a Lenovo. I've used it once I think. I'll have to check out Best Buy and see if they have any. I've only been to the one here once because my computer had a corrupted file that wouldn't let me go online and would crash the whole thing. That was resolved. I think part of my warranty includes bringing it in for repair 3 times and they replace it. If I take it in this time, it'll be the 2nd or 3rd time.. I want to say the 3rd. Can't remember though, I'll have to talk to them on Monday when I take it in.

I really only have 1 requirement: It has to have a matte keyboard. My Toshiba doesn't and it is the bane of my existence. My fingers stick to it if my hands get warm and it looks filthy all the time when it's just fingerprints.