A very good (unbiased) review site for laptops is http://www.notebookreview.com . Very thorough and subjective reviews. They test battery life, performance, report the screen quality, keyboard quality, etc., etc.
Also, the best place to ask this question is here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/forumdisplay.php?f=16
But I've been researching laptops for months now, and I could probably answer your question, although you'd have to give a little more info on what you want to use the laptops for. There are literally hundreds of laptops out there, all with very different purposes (pros and cons).
For example what balance of portability / power do you want? Is screen size important? Or do you want to carry the laptops around at all? How much battery life do you need? How heavy is too heavy? Is screen quality important to you? Etc., etc.
Personally I'm looking forward to the upcoming Sony Vaio SR and Sony Vaio Z (although they're not even officially announced yet, but they should be in about 7 days I think), but you may not be interested in the thin-and-light (yet powerful) category. I learned my lesson long ago when I bought a big 17", 10 pound HP laptop - and if you're new to laptops I hope you don't make the same mistake I did. Lighter is always better, because if you compromise in this area you'll regret it in the future when you find you're nice expensive laptop is nothing but a compact (and soon outdated) desktop computer.
But anyway, if you give some more details it will be easier to narrow the 100+ popular laptops down.
Very good all-around laptop, excellent keyboard, very good reliability / durability, average weight (for the size), ~average battery life, although somewhat below average screen unfortunately.
Also, the best place to ask this question is here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/forumdisplay.php?f=16
But I've been researching laptops for months now, and I could probably answer your question, although you'd have to give a little more info on what you want to use the laptops for. There are literally hundreds of laptops out there, all with very different purposes (pros and cons).
For example what balance of portability / power do you want? Is screen size important? Or do you want to carry the laptops around at all? How much battery life do you need? How heavy is too heavy? Is screen quality important to you? Etc., etc.
Personally I'm looking forward to the upcoming Sony Vaio SR and Sony Vaio Z (although they're not even officially announced yet, but they should be in about 7 days I think), but you may not be interested in the thin-and-light (yet powerful) category. I learned my lesson long ago when I bought a big 17", 10 pound HP laptop - and if you're new to laptops I hope you don't make the same mistake I did. Lighter is always better, because if you compromise in this area you'll regret it in the future when you find you're nice expensive laptop is nothing but a compact (and soon outdated) desktop computer.
But anyway, if you give some more details it will be easier to narrow the 100+ popular laptops down.
Lenovo T61.
Very good all-around laptop, excellent keyboard, very good reliability / durability, average weight (for the size), ~average battery life, although somewhat below average screen unfortunately.