So I've been babying and repairing my T500 for the last 6 or 7 years, buying it as a refurbished laptop and upgrading it, replacing the screen when it broke, and just trying to make it last as long as I could. Well, last night, the plug on the back gave out. I started opening it up to see how hard it would be to replace and saw it would not be an easy or quick fix. It looks like I have to disassemble the whole thing, replace it, then put it all back together or pay probably $200 to get someone to do it for me. I figure enough is enough at this point and it's time to buy a new one. I'd like to keep it in the $1000 range, but would be willing to pay up to $2000 if I knew it would last me a long time and not cause issues.
In general, I'm not doing any real intense work anymore. I'd like the ability to do some stats packages without killing anything and some minor photo editing, but nothing too demanding. I just need enough storage for my music since I was running with 750GB on my T500 and only had about 100GB free between the two drives. I know I could probably pare everything down to 400-500GB.
I was looking at a Macbook, but I hate the trackpad, hate how Apple doesn't like to admit to problems if they exist, hate the lack of upgradeability, and just am not a huge fan of Apple or the OS. Even so, they're awesome laptops that seem to suck me in. Are there other suggestions out there that people would make? Any general recommendations of what's a good, durable laptop that I don't have to worry about carrying around in a backpack?