My first HP laptop had all of its heatsink vents and openings on the bottom of the computer. When heatsink fans started breaking, I noticed how much animal hair had got sucked into it. Not only that, but the power pin connector broke a number of times. I'm knowledgeable on computers and how they function but the laptop I need to purchase is strictly going to be for mobile purposes and doing my work while I'm at school.
I work for my school which also requires a laptop (or would be nice not to use the computers I'm working on =P). I'm literally on campus for roughly 9-11 hours of the day. My desktop (that I had built for about $600) would be primarily used for gaming and whatever else I want to use.
My brother had a dell laptop, while the heatsink fans were much better situated, the hinges and chassis kept breaking to pieces. After 5 years of him owning the laptop, the monitor plastic is whacked out, the chassis has both hinges broken, the area around the chassis looks like it has been hit with a hammer, etc... Both him and my sisters laptop are pretty much going into the same fate and it's mainly because the hinge designs on their inspirons.
The main reason I have posted two laptop threads is because I haven't used a laptop in several years yet alone seen a few select dell latitude laptops. I could give a crap about customer support as long as they make it easy to use the warranty if needed. The main things I'm looking for is chassis design (including temperatures, build, quality, etc...) and prices (laptops in price do not equal desktop equivalents and I wouldn't know if it was a good deal). I researched a bit today and found the differences between different processors (like i3, i5, and i7) so I have a pretty good understanding on the parts that I will be getting.
One question I'm still debating, should I go ahead and wait until next generation of processors from Intel? By my understanding, they will have lower power consumption (which to me means less heat) and better integrated graphics (If the HD 3000 wasn't enough for not gaming...). If I don't like the price availability of laptops with newer mobile processors, surely the prices of these laptops with the i3-i7 processors would be less demand right?