We sell/recommend Toshiba and Lenovo (only) for good reasons and 20 years of IT experience is not going to be explained easily but here is a start:
People use laptops of various brands such as Compaq, Lenovo, and Toshiba. However, many people think that the laptop company itself manufactures the laptop they are using. However, it is not true that laptop companies manufacture laptops. The truth is the laptop companies buy laptops from Original Design Manufacturers (ODM) and market them under their company name.
In a real sense, the true manufactures of laptops are Original Design Manufacturers (ODM). A few exceptions like Apple and Sony manufacture their own laptops, but in my experience both brands have proven to be of a lower quality, this got so bad that Apple stopped doing their own thing and switched to using Intel based hardware http://www.apple.com/intel/
ODMs are the real manufacturers of laptop, as they design, cast and assemble the main unit of a laptop. The main units of a notebook computer include the motherboard, display and shell or outside casing. Some examples of ODMs are Mitac, Clevo, Compal, and Quanta. Generally, people are unaware of these companies. However, people use their products under the name of a recognised brand computer company.
This said Quanta Computer Incorporated is a Taiwan-based manufacturer of notebook computers and other electronic hardware. It is the largest manufacturer of notebook computers in the world. Its customers include ACER, Alienware, Apple Inc., Cisco, Compaq, Dell, Fujitsu, Gateway, Gericom, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo, Maxdata, MPC, Sharp Corporation, Siemens AG, Sony, Sun Microsystems, and Toshiba.
So basically they are all made in the same factory...
The key difference in product quality comes down to specifications sent to the ODM (e.g. Quanta) and quality of the operating system build. Toshiba and IBM (now sold under the brand Lenovo) have a long history of specifying and assembling reliable durable products. Its all about reliability warranty is irrelevant if, like one of our clients, the laptop has been away for repairs on 3 occasions totalling more than four weeks of down time over a two year period.
My favourite quote from a prospective client suggesting some dodgy cheap brand is "my mates got one and its been really reliable" .
Simply my answer here is, your mates got one reliable laptop, I have sold and supported 1000's of laptops since I started in computing in 1987 so I don't count reliability based on the performance of a handful of cases, the clear winner over the long term in the reliability stakes are the customers who purchased Toshiba Satellite's or IBM/Lenovo Thinkpad's.
Finally, this is only my opinion and what would I know I only do this for a living ... 
By Rod Cuffe
