I also have a Dell Precision M90 (the laptop that the HP replaced) and it was a piece of junk. Keyboard went first, followed by CD/DVD drive and the hard drive started persistently overheating.
The company I work for uses M90s very heavily, including for travel. The only problem we have seen is battery life and weight and one charging power supply starting to go bad (which was replaced very quickly). Maybe because it was purchased as a corporation, that we got notebooks that were better constructed. I do know that several companies that had support with Dell complained when Dell decided to outsource support to India. The Corporate I.T. folks were getting tired of dealing with people reading from scripts and wanted people on the other end with real knowledge (no needing to tell I.T. people how to power cycle their machines etc). The end result is that support on corporate purchases is done in the United States, not India. Suffice it to say, I buy my personal notebooks through the company I work for. I don’t need to have to work through phone support telling me how to power cycle my machine..
It was mentioned that one of the kids may bring the notebook to school. I would almost suggest 2 notebooks because of the breakage factor and the possibility of unknown software being added (wouldn’t want to put a critical machine at risk). I would avoid the large 15″ or larger screened notebooks (unless the kid is older than 16) because of the weight. I would also avoid the ‘Home’ version of Windows like the plague. The professional versions have better access control over accounts.
I agree with the comments on Apple. Nice.. but.. In addition, if you are going to play computer games or software from other vendors, your selection under Apple is going to be smaller.
