I'm mostly looking for it for school, /some/ gaming, and then jsut o rdinary internet stuff, and possibly music recording.

MSI Wind: MSI Wind With 6-Cell Battery Now Available

and the touch-screen mod..
Acer Aspire One and MSI Wind hacks: Adding a touchscreen

If you don't need to run Windows based games, I'd recommend a Macbook. I've bought one three weeks ago and did some comparing with Windows systems, and found that while there are some cheaper Windows laptops, all of them have disadvantages, compared to the Macbook -- like shorter battery time, they aren't optimized for saving energy, they are bigger, they are louder and so on.

So Mac is not more expensive than a Windows laptop with similar specifications. Another problem with Windows machines is that you'll never know exactly what you're buying. I heard so many horrible stories from people who bought Windows laptops, like one part was broken, but could not be replaced due to incompatibilities, or new parts slowed down the system, no warranty, horrible service hotlines and so on.

With a Mac, you at least know what you are buying, because every computer is exactly the same, optimized hardware, optimized software, and -- which of course is a matter of taste -- Mac OS is visually and stylistically much more appealing than clumsy Windows, which will pop up these horrible speech bubbles all the time. Also, Mac's service is great.

You should also know that since Mac is using Intel processors, you can also install Windows as second system on Mac PCs, or Linux. So using a Mac would not even necessarily keep you from playing Windows games.

I've had Asus and Dell. I had fewer issues with my Dell.

That's the big problem to me.

PCs are highly customizable which is a massive advantage if you're building a computer for a specific purpose.

I agree when it comes to desktops. But when it's about laptops, I'd say this is a disadvantage. There are extreme compatibility issues all the time, and many parts are not designed for low energy consumption.

..well, since Apple switched to x86, they're really using the exact same cards as anyone else. The same goes for wifi, sound, processors, bridges, etc. Because the components are cheaper, and work better than in- house special orders.. But I assume they will give you support if something breaks down, and that it should be easy to fit the laptop with the parts, and so on. ..or then again, maybe not. If you have to send it in somewhere so you won't void the warranty. And can't really open the laptop without special tools anyway.. Dell gives you that kind of service too.

In any case: basically - if you can't wait for a few years until a more lightweight laptop/MID turns up with a different architecture - some sort of RISC, or a SOC solution of some sort exploiting parallelism to save a significant amout of clock- cycles, and power for the mainboard and peripherals - .. that might be years, I guess... even if Nvidia has actually made one of those already with their Tegra chip.... then buy one of the smaller laptops with an intel Atom setup. It won't be able to cut&paste videos as if you were seeing the carefully sized and cached examples in the Apple demonstrations. But it's more than enough for anything that doesn't involve...er.. production of movies while you're waiting for the elevator, and so on.

A Sony Vaio or a Mac

Read the thread instead of spamming. Not only will people not hate you, but you'll be much better off.

I to have had bad experiences with Gateway and wouldnt recommend them to my worst enemies. Dell and I have a relationship that is nothing more than "Meh".

however HP; I have had some pretty good experiences. The laptop I got my dad is an HP, aside from having to get Vista, I've yet to have any complaints about it.

My absolute best advice if you have to have a laptop would be to go with a Sony vaio if at all possible. Great laptop, I've got 2 myself; one that has been working great since 2004 and still goes through regular use every day and another I just bought early this year for my fiance. The best part about Sony is they have a wonderful technical service system, some people arent a fan of 'em but I really am. When my first laptop had issues, they paid for all the shipping and the bug was under the warranty, it was fixed and back in my hands in about 2 weeks.