I'm not looking for a new laptop I'm just curious what you think since I haven't kept up w/ laptop refreshes and the other day a friend asked me for advice and I realized I couldn't really think of that many current models

By general purpose I mean not geared towards any particular use (i.e. not a "gaming laptop" or netbook or "ultraportable") -- although it could be possible that a laptop designed for a particular use is also or instead turns out to be the best general purpose laptop. Most relevant criteria are "snappiness" (combination of proc and HDD/SSD performance, but moreso how it feels than strictly quantitative comparison), battery life, screen quality, portability/weight, durability, aesthetics, OS if it's a Mac, and the completely subjective, fuzzy, and vaguely defined "feel" or "experience" in using it. Price and bang-for-buck are secondary criteria.

I have a couple votes, although since I'm basing this off of only laptops that I've actually used I'm leaving out a lot of potentials:

• Thinkpad X201
• Thinkpad T410s
• MacBook Pro 13
• Dell Latitude Z (mainly because it looks and feels cool <_<)

For general use I love the 13" Macbook/Pro. That is if you're willing to pay the Apple tax. OS X is definitely nicest as far as laptops go. Much better suspend support, touchpad gestures are fast and smooth, and long battery life.

Thinkpad T510

At work we issue Dell E6000 series laptops. They're great for what you mentioned - general use. They are very rugged and have strong skeleton. The Latitudes were used as the carcass for the military spec notebooks. Nothing in particular is amazing, but they're an all around great machine, at a very reasonable price.

Again, these are issued as work machines, so they won't be playing games or editing video - there are other, more specific choices for those endeavors.

Dell E6000 is basically a Thinkpad.

To answer your question, IMO, the cheapest one you can find. I walked into the electronics store a few years ago and did just that. It's worked out great for me (it's years old and I still use it all the time without issue).

100% agreement.

Not to mention relatively high resale value, and long life.

This, or a Precision if you need something with a little more horsepower.

Macbook Pro 13, without a doubt.

This. I don't know what you do for a living but you may also want to verify whether or not your employer offers you a discount w/ any laptop manufacturers. My previous employer offered a discount & I ended up getting $80-$100 off of my iMac.

DO NOT WANT INDEED.

Seriously worth it for the trackpad and unibody alone. I haven't used a laptop I have enjoyed more.

Yeah, fantastic unibody that bends and warps if you drop it.

I've owned three laptops and their performance under dropping has never been an issue.

Mainly because I am really careful around expensive things.

Thankfully I haven't once dropped this fat ass XPS laptop

Not this crap again. If you're dropping it hard enough to warp the metal you'd be doing serious damage to any other laptop too, and probably shouldn't be getting one.

Aluminum holds up over time much better, unlike the plastic casing everything else uses which wears down under stress and cracks like crazy over years of ownership.

Plus, with the lapple, you would look sooooooooo cool and trendy.

And only Macs are made with metal bodies. Not like you can get other laptops made of magnesium or aluminum or anything.

Yeah, so instead of a little scuff in the plastic, you get a dent in the aluminum.

Agreed. I've had to replace cosmetic parts on virtually every manufacturer that I've come in contact w/ (dozens & dozens). It doesn't even matter how high-end it is. Plastic tends to not cover up for bad design like aluminum does. Take the Sony Vaio AX series as an example. The LCD panel is so heavy that it causes stress fractures in the bottom housing (which is a ***** to replace), the rear LCD housing, the LCD bezel/mask & that's if you're lucky enough to get it fixed before the hinge screws lose their heads & the entire LCD assembly comes crashing down & possibly cracking your LCD panel. There are hundreds of issues like this w/ every manufacturer out there, including Durabooks. Aluminum cases have their own issues but tend to mask design flaws that would otherwise end up exceeding the value of your unit when it comes to replacement parts (thus causing either an exchange if you're lucky enough to have a warranty & thousands of dollars out of pocket if you're not). Many warranties don't cover the replacement of cosmetic parts because the manufacturers (e.g: Sony) are slow to admit that said issues (regardless of how many users are affected) are design flaws (they'd much rather blame you). Apple doesn't have the only aluminum cases available but they're certainly amongst the best out there.

When did cracked plastic suddenly become just a "scuff"? Hurf.

Back in the 20s when plastic became flexible.

Let's try this: you drop a stapler from 18" onto aluminum, and I'll drop one onto plastic, and we'll see which one is worse for the wear.

Let me show you all the laptops I've seen and then I'll care about your irrelevant test.

This isn't about drop tests. This is about the laptop literally falling apart over time.

My almost 2 year old MBP is in way worse shape (mainly cause the "shine" has rubbed off the aluminum where you'd rest your palm and it looks hideous) than my 1.5 year old Precision M4400. And of course I like the M4400 a lot more too.

My laptop is 5 years old. It does have a crack in the plastic. Q.E.D.

I guess you guys don't take care of your crap. I've had my laptop since highschool (read: 2001) and it doesn't have any cracks. In fact, the only laptop I know of that has a crack is my dads VAIO, which is crappy anyway, and he doesn't take care of (think "sat on it"). [bi-QED]

I take very good care of my stuff. All of the laptops I've owned since 2004 when I got my first one are all in good shape still, the worst actually being the MBP just because of the shiny paint rubbed off from normal use that I mentioned. But yeah, if you haven't realized, I hate that laptop. Only one I've ever really regretted buying.

Yes CM, I'm sure it must be exasperating to have the reality distortion field pierced so often.

Plastic + magnesium alloy =
Magnetically stamped aluminum = cheap and shiny

Magnesium alloy + ??? = ?

What good is an alloy if there's nothing but crap covering it after a few years?

Must be exasperating to live in that bubble, Jon`C.

magnesium alloy + a flexible plastic (meaning a material that has shape memory)

you know, something that is not malleable and reactive.

Apparently flexible plastic that fails over time or loses its flexibility. Wanna keep going in a circle?

I have a ten year old lifebook, it's in prime condition except for the fact that the screws rusted and fell out.

My laptop isn't a mac and it's got a metal body.

I guess I must imagining typing this reply because my laptop does not exist.

Sarcasm...

Besides the sarcasm most of them suck

Aluminum is a malleable, conductive, reactive metal that simultaneously fails over time and instantly when anything bad happens. It's at 2 3/4 on the mohs scale (it can be scratched by gypsum,) its thermal conductivity is comparable to copper, and it's the second most malleable metal after gold. Like gold, it's literally one of the worst possible materials to make a laptop out of.

Sorry you got ripped off, CM.

Then I guess the plastic is just that much worse, eh? So much worse, in fact, that's commonly observed! Like I said, want to keep going in circles?

There are advantages & disadvantages to using both aluminum & plastic. I think that the advantages of aluminum outweigh the disadvantages.