HP/Compaq quality has suffered over recent years, due to price competition and manufacturing quality control. The brunt of their bad reputation comes from the higher number of consumers that are buying up the $500 systems at the big box retailers and pondering why their power supplies and switches don't last a year. As for laptops, I've found their products to be "so-so" neither terribly bad or excitingly good. Sony Vaios tend to be feature laden, slim and sexy, but overpriced and ergonomic disasters. Although they're not very exciting, I've had the best experiences with IBM Thinkpads.