Laptop recommendations

[Fezzik]

I'm considering a Laptop for business purposes. I would like a decent sized screen with a real keyboard, so I don't want a Notebook size . I'm looking to spend maybe around $500 (Canadian). It doesn't have to be super speedy, I don't plan on playing any games on it.

Any ideas would be great! Also probably want it Windows in case I need to do anything with the desktop too.

[Snowmane]

I don't have any specific recommendations, but I have always had good luck with Toshiba laptops. The only drawback is that the Toshibas aren't very rugged, so you have to take care of them and use a laptop case. My Dell laptops have always had decent performance, are made for business, and have been more rugged in my experience. A friend of mine had a number of issues with HP laptops, so I would recommend avoiding HP.

[thaelis]

I also had big problems with HP. The laptop was damaged on delivery so they sent me a replacement one which was faulty, took me 3-4 months to finally get a refund and then buy a nice shiny Asus laptop which has never had any problems ><

The HP was probably just a one in a million defect, but I guess the thing you remember is the shitty customer service.

[Doubtful]

Asus have a good rep, I would have gone with one of theirs if they didn't have terrible stock flow issues in this country.

[Fezzik]

I saw a MacBook Air in the store today and was rather surprised that even though it's 11", the keyboard seems to be pretty much full sized so my big fingers wouldn't be fumbling all over the place. Passing stuff back and forth from a PC to a Mac, has that all been figured out? (shows you how much I know about Mac's)