HP or Dell laptop?

[Shuffler]

Just upgraded to Windows 7 to try it out on one.  Worked flawlessly.

Then they may have changed their ways. I wont buy them and I suggest to friends... stay away from them.

I've built many computer for myself and associates. Never any lappys.

[DES]

I've found both to be decent once the bloatware is removed. I personally have a Dell which I haul with me on motorcycle trips and haven't had any problems.

[68Wooley]

I've found both to be decent once the bloatware is removed. I personally have a Dell which I haul with me on motorcycle trips and haven't had any problems.

Good point - step one with any PC from a major vendor is to do a complete re-install of the OS.

[Bodhi]

Then they may have changed their ways. I wont buy them and I suggest to friends... stay away from them.

I've built many computer for myself and associates. Never any lappys.

I have owned an HP, I thought it was ok, but the service sucked.  My wife used to have a Dell, that thing was a piece of poop.  I stick with what works, and the Sony's.  Their customer service is excellent, the product is superior, and the performance is phenomenal at the price.

I too, build my own computers, but not laptops.

[SKJohn]

A Toshiba, comparatively equiped, will give you more service and less problems than either HP or Dell. We are still using a Toshiba we bought in 2004 before we started RVing full time.

I've been using Toshiba laptops since 1996.  I still have my original one, and the kids still use it occasionally to type reports on, etc. when the other ones in the house are being used.  It's kind of a pain since you gotta plug in the external CD drive, copy the files to a CD, then take them to another computer to print, but it's still working.
I was sold on Toshiba when a student knocked mine off a table onto a hard tiled floor, and nothing broke, and it still worked afterward.  Of the several my wife and I have owned since then, none have given us any problems.  OOps - I take that back.  My wife's did quit working when she spilled a bottle of children's cough syrup into the keyboard - but I really don't think that was the fault of Toshiba.