Lenovo ThinkPad T42 2378 (Pentium M 735 1.7 GHz, 512 MB RAM, 40 GB HDD)

Pros: It is light, sturdy, fast, and powerfull

Cons: Slightly more expensive for similar configuration (compared to Dell Latitude and HP Nc series)

Summary: I took a long time researching before I bought my notebook. I read everything on Cnet as well as numerous other review sites, read consumer digest, asked two of my uncles (ones a computer programmer, the other a computer enginneer) for advice and though there are many decent notebooks out there, the IBM T-42 simply takes the crown. It is clearly built to last, with a strong (I believe its a carbon polimer) case, and metal hinges. The quality is also emminantly noticable in the keyboard which is better than on any other notebook I have ever seen. The quality is also underlined by the manner in which IBM stands behind its products, offering standard three year warranty, with next business day onsite upgrades at low cost. Which by the way I am happy I got because after about two months my computer crashed and wouldnt turn on at all, I called, we arranged a time and the next day a guy was there to fix it. He had all the possible replacement components right there with him so when it turned out to be the motherboard, he quickly replaced it (I even got a free upgrade from 32 to 64 mb video card for the inconvenience which was overall negligible, I believe I couldnt use my computer for less that 18 hours) and after he fixed it he tested it and I was on my way again. GREAT SERVICE. And I haven't had an problems since. Also the components in it are of a superior quality. For example some people think that the 2 dimm 266mhz 512 mb ram built into the Dell Latitude 800 is comperable to IBM's 1 dimm 333mhz 512 ram built into the Thinkpads, its not. The IBM ram performs better and is easily upgradeable, whereas the Dell is less so. The same is true for most of the components, they are simply of a better quality. So when you are looking at the prices for various levels of specifications, you have to compare apples for apples, and its actually difficult to do so, because Dell and HP dont offer the superior 333mhz ram, wheras IBM doenst mess with the inferior 266mhz ram. IBM makes a superior product and backs it with superior service. And all that for a marginal increase in price (especially when you buy with the slightly less configurable but much cheaper Express program). The Thinkpad T42 is in my (well informed) opinion the best thin-and-light notebook on the market today, with superior quality, performance and support.