I have a 6 year old Dell laptop that still works just fine. Upgraded an even older desktop recently, so the laptop pretty much sits aside unless I'm traveling now, but still there when I need it!

I never had any customer support issues, but that's because I never called them . I'm also willing to do my research and tear stuff apart (literally and digitally) to fix it too, so that has helped me out quite a bit.

My brother got a new Toshiba to take to college with him last year, and my parents recently got one as well. Both have worked well for them and had no issues (or they would have called me I'm sure!). As was said, internally the components are pretty darn comparable from one brand to the next, so most of the preference comes down to support.

My desktop is a custom made beast with no support, so here's hoping I never have an issue with it that I can't handle!

We actually own 3 HP laptops right now. my wife uses hers for her bookkeeping business. One had a problem with one of the hard drives when it was less than a year old. support was great and shipped me a new hard drive and got it back up and working in no time.

The others have been fine, but i am a bit techy, so i keep them up to date with updates, backups and regular dumping of old files.

I took Consumer Reports advice and got the Toshiba Portege! I'm so excited!

Do NOT get a Gateway; POS tablet lasted just about 2 years before it carpped out. Arrrrggggggghhhhhhhhh.

Not even Alienware can make a laptop capable of running good online games. A family member learned that the hard way.

Not to mention that the brand itself is a bit of a joke. I recommend against anyone getting a computer from Best Buy or most retail stores. Go to the maker's websites and buy them direct. The stores really make their hunks of junk sound fancy and tack an extra 20% or more on for a computer you could easily find online much cheaper. But, they have the benefit of many people still being scared to try to pick out their own computer, so they'll continue selling just fine I'm sure.

I purchased my HP laptop just under 3 years ago. I have never had a problem with it, never had to call customer service, no complaints whatsoever. It's even been dropped twice with no breakage or problems of any kind. Very happy, satisfied customer. We also have two HP desktops at home and I'm looking into purchasing a few HP laptops for our Board of Directors as well.

The *only* thing I would have done differently is purchase the smaller size screen. I went with the 17" screen, which is wonderful and easy on my eyes, but the size difference really does translate to heavier weight for lugging around.

The short answer to that is no.

While you can plug USB devices into Android tablets, at this time it's unlikely that you will be able to find Android drivers for an optical drive. I understand that there are some homemade drivers out there for a few devices. But apparently they are not working very well at this time.

Thank

There goes my answer to the lack of storage issue on the fire.

Cloud storage is good but if you can only access it while near a hotspot and do not wish to add to my cellphone bill.

Well, there's always the Wi-Drive Kingston just recently announced compatibility with the Kindle Fire. It's a hard drive (16 or 32gb) that connects via WiFi.

I agree with Bimmer, you should go with a MacBook Pro

Was that an ipad?

I thought I recommended the Mac!