> the "special experience" is hardware reliability and ease of maintenance, which is why I typically buy either Dell or Lenovo and avoid HP like the plague. I

> the "special experience" is hardware reliability and ease of maintenance, which is why I typically buy either Dell or Lenovo and avoid HP like the plague. I have the same priorities, but how do you know which vendor's hardware is more reliable? All we have is anecdotal experiences. FWIW my experience is that HP's business product lines are most reliable, and Dell's business lines have relatively many quality issues. The HP Elite laptops have exceptional serviceability (better than any I've seen -- find a video and just look at how the laptop case opens for service) and tech support. > I'm sure I'm not alone (though probably part of a minority of shoppers). Consumers buy on price, but the priorities of business IT departments are similar to yours: reliability, serviceability, and support; the costs of downtime and skilled labor for repairs far exceed the savings from buying cheap machines. Each vendor sells consumer (e.g., Dell Inspiron), and business (e.g., Dell Latitude) product lines. Maybe try shopping the products they sell to corporate IT; those match your priorites. They cost more, but you get what you pay for.