Please help me pick a laptop

[SAF]

My budget is $900-$1200. I've decided to go with Centrino technology and I also want a "Cristal clear" technology 15" screen. Don't need top performance, but want at least 1.5GHz Pentium M or better. Reliability, weight and battery life are obviously important. Please recomment me a laptop. I've been researching it for weeks but still cannot make a pick. Please help.

[mikeki]

Are you debating between a few?

I love my Dell 8600. My dad loves his HP. I know people that swear by IBMs and others that won't buy anything but Toshibas. There are a ton of good laptops out there.

What features / laptops are you considering?

[Sangiovese]

The "crystal clear" type screen limits what will be available in your price range.

The two best screens (in my opinion) are Fujitsu's "Crystal View" and HP's "Brightview."

Unfortunately, I don't think you're going to find a Crystal View Fujitsu in your price range. A C2300 series lifebook is going to be the closest, and it comes in at $1400, which is a full 2 bills over your budget :( (I did see it for $1199 at ecost.com but they get hammered on reseller ratings, with lots of people claiming that they advertise items as in stock, and then have them backordered... with a rating that low, I wouldn't buy from them.)

That leaves the HP Brightview. You can customize a DV4000 series on the HP website and squeak in just under 1200. (centrino 730 (1.6 ghz), 512 ram, 60 gb hdd, etc...)

I haven't personally owned a HP laptop, but have heard they are reliable.

Another choice might be Dell with their new "UltraSharp" screens. I haven't seen one of those screens so I can't comment on how they would compare to the Crystal View or Brightview. Assuming that the screen is comparable, it would probably be a good choice as well. You can put together a nice inspirion 6000 within your budget (even after adding the extra cash on for the Ultrasharp screen), and I have owned two Dell laptops in the past and both performed extremely well. The only question here is if the screen would be on par with what I think you're looking for based on your post.

[SAF]

Thanks for responding. Special thanks to Sangiovese for a very informative reply, I really appreciate you taking time and going through all the options. Unfortunately, I think you are right saying that "crystal clear" type screen limits what will be available in my price range. So, after another week of searching I decided to increase the budget to $1400. Several on-line reviews and reliability reports from "Consumer Reports" convinced me to go with Toshiba. Unfortunately, I could not find a preassembled Toshiba from an on-line retailer that would have all the features that I wanted. So, I ordered one from Toshiba website and now I'm thinking that I overpaid quite a bit by doing so. Here is what I ordered:

Tecra A4, 15.4" Wide "True bright" screen, Centrino, 1.6GHz, 512Mb RAM (1 Stick), 40 Gb HDD, 12-cell Li battery

after taxes and shipping charges I paid $1400 for it. Am I getting screwed? I don't get Toshiba pricing, models with practically identical characteristics including weight and size can be up to $200 apart.

[mikeki]

Toshiba makes a great laptop and if you got what you wanted in your budget, then you didn't get screwed. That said, they are a premium laptop meaning they aren't the least expensive. If I wasn't such a tight SOB, I'd have a toshiba instead of a Dell. :)