I would strongly recommend a TabletPC from HP, Dell, or Lenovo. HP offers a very good line of tablets. The main reasons I would suggest a tablet over a standard notebook are that they are small and light as well as offering touchscreen which allows you to write directly on the screen. This works great for taking quick notes or filling out contracts and showing them to your client before you print anything out. Great choice IMO.

I would run...RUN from an HP laptop.

I have an HP Tablet PC and within 6 months I had to replace the motherboard, heatsink, fan, and cpu. HP told me that I had two options - 1) send it in for 2 weeks for them to do it or 2) they would send me the parts and I could do it myself, but it would void my warranty. I can't NOT have my computer for 2 weeks so I had them send me the parts and had a local guru swap'em out for me. Voided my warranty, and a month later my wi-fi stopped working and 3 months later my computer is on the fritz again (blue screens...lovely...).

Go through Realtor Benefits and you can get a smokin deal on a Lenovo laptop. Me, I'm building a desktop powerhouse instead. 99% of the time my laptop is sitting on my desk anyway and when I'm at the office I can access it remotely.

Good luck!

Linda, you don't need to go to that length, but you will need to buy an XP license. talk to a local tech for details.

Just FYI - I just ordered a new laptop after much much MUCH research.

I went with www.powernotebooks.com (ask for Don - he was awesome). I spent just over $1,500 and got a smokin' computer.

I don't work for them, I don't get a spiff, I'm just passing on relevant information and relaying my experience with'em so far. Once it's finished being built and gets to me (free 2nd day air shipping...should be here early/mid next week)) I'll chime in again and give a more definitive yea or nea.

I saw TabletPC in fry's yesterday manufactured by HP and Fujitsu. My favorite is Fujitsu, very solid laptop. I'm still wondering if TabletPC is worth buying.

I used to buy laptops with the fastest processor and load it up with a ton of
goodies on it, never used half of them but still wanted them.

the laptop weighed 9.5 lbs! and ran super hot, it fried the video card. I sent it in and it took 3 1/2 months to get it fixed
had it for a month same problem, another month to get it fixed, worked for a week and back it went.
being fed up with that laptop.
I went onto dell site bought a laptop for $1100 with 2 year on site warranty, this means they come to your home or office and repair the laptop.
I used it once and the came up the next day to fix it at my office and were done in about an hour!

a couple of weeks ago I saw that they (dell) have laptop for $639 with a 3 year onsite warranty included!
those of you looking to buy a dell I highly reccomend the onsite warranty- and it's next business day.
you do have to troubleshoot on the phone or through some program that's installed on the computer first. But after the last laptop warranty fiasco I had, dells warranty service is excellent.

as far as the criteria for the next laptop purchase.
Middle of the road processor, 4 gig ram, at least 160 gb HD,
wifi and bluetooth cd/dvd burner with a 3 year onsite warranty.
I like a big screen and I don't mind carrying it around.
no tv tuner, no dual layer blue ray dvd burner
no big name graphics card with a lot of RAM (more Heat)
the built in intel graphics card is just fine (unless your gaming)
oh yeah It's got to have a vga out port for that second monitor and XP.
Mac's are supposedly great and Mac owners swear by them, but windows/pc's dominate the Market.
I was at a seminar and one of the guest speakers said "I'd show you but my Mac can't log into the system- ie., incompatable.
Just my .02

My Dell Vostro 1000 was under $500. Had it a year and have used it a LOT. It's still fast and doesn't run too hot. Only issue is the battery is worthless.

I love it. I would definitely go with Dell again. I don't have a whole lot of stuff on it - I want to put paintshop pro on but am afraid of hogging resources and slowing it down. I have Paintshop on my old laptop (Compaq something or other) and it's like working with a hibernating turtle.

Ok - got my new laptop a few weeks ago from http://www.powernotebooks.com - here's my review thus far.

For $1,500 this thing absolutely screams. It's fast as heck, does everything I want it to do, doesn't run very hot (efficient processor, good heat-sink & fans) and I can't say enough about the service they provide.

It arrived on time, and the day after I got it the motherboard died (anyone who works with computers knows this stuff happens every now and then...even after the company burned it in for 24 hours).

Believe it or not, this is where the company really shined.

I called them, said "hey - my computer broke"...the next morning they built me a new one, overnighted it to me and asked me to just send the old one back (pre-paid) in the box the new one came in. Find me another company that will do that...I haven't seen it. And at $1,500 this one came with a 3-year warranty like that.

Most companies will send you a box, have you send your laptop in, take a week to try and fix it, and maybe send it back with some refurb parts in it (along with a disclaimer that they might wipe your hard drive). This company built me a brand spankin new one and overnighted it to me and all I had to do was call'em (and I swapped out the hard drive between the two computers so all my software & files were still fully installed as I had left them).

As far as I'm concerned, that's going way above and beyond with regards to service. AND the computer is faster than almost anything else out there. Dell, HP, Lenovo, Gateway, et all don't even offer the processor that this one has (Intel P9600). The only companies that do are Toshiba and Acer in their $3,000+ gaming laptops.

So - what'd I get for $1,500?



and they also included free 2nd day air shipping to get it to me.

I was originally going to go with Windows Vista x64 to take advantage of the 4GB of RAM - but the salesperson (Don (also the owner of the company)) advised me against it for the time being. Why?

While Vista can use the full 4GB - it uses up 2GB of it just to run. Which leaves me with 2GB of useable memory...XP can only recognize 3GB, but only uses 500MB to run...leaving me with 2.5 GB left and when Windows7 comes out and has a service pack or two, I'll upgrade to that, install more RAM (once the price drops) and drop in some Turbo Memory (XP doesn't recognize it, but the laptop is pre-fitted for it) to really speed things up. (Turbo Memory keeps your favorite applications in RAM memory - so instead of photoshop taking 20-30 seconds to load up (10 seconds with this laptop - just checked), it'll take 2).

Anyway - I'm a happy camper. If you're spending that kinda dough - I haven't found anything that can touch this computer.

I have the little Acer and what I like about it is it has a tracking device built in if it is stolen. When you first set it up you put a password and if it is stolen and they call and try to get the password saying they lost it they have to produce the information and they can't.
I also have a HP Pavillion I carried around that is excellent but heavy. Now I use the Acer only to take with me, it fits in my purse. I also have an older Dell laptop. I like all three very much. I really love the small Acer and I believe Dell now has a small one. I can transfer anything from the Acer to my HP when I get home or at the office making it perfect.

Up date my cheap $399 Dell inspiron is still going strong. It has xp not window 98 as I said earlier in this post. I just bought a new battery from a place in Richmond BC over the net for $80 and just upgraded the ram $50 from Dell. This machine has been dropped off decks, slid off car seats, left in coffee shops, gone sailing, flown across the country, dragged on 100 plus agent tours, pulled out in countless clients homes and never let me down. Other agent I know have gone through various machines and are always having problems. Buy the Dell this one has survived three years of my abuse and hard use.

A small suggestion if your looking to buy a Dell is check the Dell Outlet store and search for coupons. Most of the outlet stuff Dell sells are computers people receive and and during shipment they got a small scratch and want a replacement or they simply return them because they do not want it anymore. Although you can't customize them it will definitely save you some money.

As for laptops, I'm thinking about getting a Macbook Pro, not for the aesthetics -- I've wanted a Mac for awhile just haven't made the splurge.