[fizzwheel]

IMHO no its not true. There are plenty of manufacturers now so don't just look at Dell. I always say to people set yourself a budget and then buy then best thing you can afford for the budget you have and to always if you dont know about I.T. buy something from the big named Brand manufacturers of which Dell are just one. I got Liz's mum a cracking HP laptop for £400 ish a while ago. The only brand I would stay away from is Packard Bell as a few of my customers had problems with them and they were a b*stard to get upgrade parts for, and if you could they were damn expensive to repair / upgrade as well.

One thing I wouldnt scrimp on is the screen though. Some of the cheaper budget price laptops that you'll find in the sales at this time of year will IMHO have a poor quality screen on them.

Anything by HP, Dell, Compaq, Toshiba is probably going to be OK. I'd have a look at Sony to except that they recalled IIRC some of their laptops a while back because the batteries were exploding.

Have a look at the Macbooks as well if you just want itunes and internet access it might be just what your looking for.