i've been using the same laptop for about 3 years now. was an old sony vaio, which i liked for what it was, but wasn't cheap when i bought it, that's for sure. i think i paid 1900 when i got it, and for laptops under 5 pounds with over 6 hours of battery life, it was one of few choices back then.
unfortunately i dropped it and broke the side of the case open about a month ago and while it still works, i was getting tired of taking it out to the shop to blow the dust out with my compressor, so i figured i'd get a new one.
turns out i had trouble spending 700 dollars on a new HP, which is pretty much superior in every way to my old one in terms of ruggedness, keyboard, screen brightness, etc. i wound up getting one from the mid grade business class (probook) line. even the high end line was only around a thousand.
guess recessions aren't all bad, huh?