Ideas for new laptop?

I'm considering buying a new laptop, as mine has developed an annoying fault where the mouse cursor moves itself to random places on the screen when I'm trying to type.

I'd like one that's got a good, big screen (wide screen if possible), multi-media (DVD, CD burner and decent sound), good quality and if it looks cool, then even better. Decent battery life is a requirement too. One that also doesn't get so hot it burns your legs would be good too!

I've always liked Dell, and Sony and Toshiba seem to do decent ones too, although I've never used one so have no idea what they're like.

Any recommendations?

You can also turn the sensitivity down from the control panel.

Dell.

They've just released a load of new laptops. Go for a latitude, rather than an inspiron. Better, classier.

Mouse pointer - have you got the Synaptics or Alps software loaded? Most of the touchpads do this (it picks up your hand when it brushes it) but the software can make it ignore inputs while you're typing.

We've bought lots of Dells at work and they've been great, and I bought my own Inspiron 8100 about 18 months ago. Worth a look through the Dell outlet (as-new refurbs) too, mine was very cheap though there. I'd have no worries getting another.

The indian first-line support sucks, but they have an email service now and you can get most things done (including getting an engineer out to fix something) without waiting on hold for ages. They also have one of the best online support sites going, so most things you can sort out yourself.

Inspiron vs Latitude; the latter tend to be more conservatively-specced and they'll keep making a model for longer (at least a year) to keep things stable for businesses. The hardware itself is much the same; many of the I and L system board are the same, just with different BIOS flashed on.

Click through the Dell ad on here before you buy and help Ted afford another week's bread and water.

Avoid Sony - they make some beautiful kit but the warranty and support are dire and they fall apart after 18 months. Also they simply won't release drivers or software for an OS newer than what it shipped with. Complete pain to get parts for as well.

Toshiba seem pretty good, decent rep for reliability and good worldwide warranty. Haven't had much direct experience of them though.

IBM are apparently superb and the laptops I've (briefly) used have seemed real quality bits of kit, even the ones 3-4 years old felt very solid. VERY expensive though and conservatively specced unless you're spending £3000+.

For decent battery life and cool running, it has to be a Pentium-M these days (aka Centrino, which refers to a combination of the Intel CPU, chipset and wireless LAN card). Ignore the speeds, they're far more efficient than the Pentium 4, both in terms of performance and power requirements.

Unless your company are paying for it swerve laptops like the plague.

Thanks everyone.

I've tried cleaning the touchpad, and while I initially thought it was because I'm brushing against it, it actually do it when my hands are no where near the pad.

So far, the Dell Inspiron 8500 looks like the best option, but I'll try to stick with mine a bit longer as I've got plenty of other ways to spend the £2k that a decent spec'd one will cost!

Try Novatech:
www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/Notebooks.html

Excellent value for money and loads of connectivity - USB 2, Firewire etc... big screens, DVD/CDRW Combo Drives..

bought one myself and am very pleased..

Tivster

Have a look on e-bay for a Dell M50. A bit chunky, but it's got some serious performance and a superb 1600*1200 UXGA screen. I picked up an M50 with a 2.4Ghz P4-M, 512MB RAM, 60GB HD, Wifi,ethernet CD-RW/DVD for £1,500 quid. Brand new, 3yr warranty. I've seen a 1.8GHz model go for about £900 in the last week.

Powerful enough that I don't need a workstation.