So after a while going laptopless, except for some days last semester so I can do CMPT 470 stuff (borrowed off my dad), I think it’s time to go and buy myself a new laptop for productivity reasons. My main uses for it would be to get development done on it, whether it be Web development like how I work now, or software development. I don’t plan on doing too much graphics stuff (I’m not that great at it) either.

But then again, my requirements for a laptop would be somewhat demanding.

• Really really really good battery life. As an example, the borrowed laptop can run for 4 hours while running off my boot drive, which is the 30 GB drive from my first laptop that I got for free with xubuntu installed. If possible, I’d like to get it up and high as possible…
• Durable. I generally like to make full use of whatever I use and given the fact that a laptop is a portable computer, I find myself using it all over the place, from my desk at home to a couch in the CS common room to the bus. What use is it if you need to be extremely delicate with it?
• Warranty and service that doesn’t toss you all over the place. I just speak from experience with Dell Tech Support. I absolutely hate having to call them just because they don’t really give you a permanent solution to your problem. For example, with my dad’s laptop right now, it’s got a screen issue where the laptop screen just dims itself out. The tech’s fix was to set something in the registry to have it not shut down the screen. Maybe it’s just me and not wanting to just tell the tech to screw off and die and let me return the thing to depot for repair.

Anyone have any recommendations? New laptop preferred.