...dedicated laptop ... suggestions on brand?

I have owned many,

Most reliable was a Dell. "Ultra-Sharp" screen offered at the time was well
worth the $extra. Person who is using it says it is still going strong after
about 5 years.

I suggest you stay away from Sony. I currently have a Sony VAIO. Wish I had
not bought it. Comes loaded, partially filled, with too much nonsense
software, I upgraded OS and could never get it to work right after that. Too
many unique driver for sound/video/add-ons etc are required. Hours of
attempts to install everything downloaded from Sony have not worked.
Wont run Linux

My daughter's HP got her through 7 years of college and still runs.

My son-in-law has a neat IBM with a screen that doubles as a tablet. He can
write on on screen with a stylus. He is teaches mathematics at Cornell and
prepares all his lectures on it. lecture notes are all done using the stylus,
and published on the web. Has dual boot Windows/Linux, which works great. He
loves it. I you might need those features, I can get you more information.
Let me know.



R