Hi Lena:
I'm new here and stumbled on to this thread. I've been researching laptops in hopes of building my own line in the future and found out somthing you might find interesting. Most of the big companys, Dell, HP, Sony and the like don't make there own notebooks at all! Read this article:

We often get questions about the differences between "Name Brand" and "Clone." So, we are going to try to clear up some of the confusion. Xtremenotebooks.com does not sell clone notebooks. In fact, we sell the same notebooks that many of the name brand companies such as Toshiba and Dell sell.
It all comes down to the different levels of manufacturing. First, the Original Design Manufacturer (ODM) are manufacturers who actually cast and assemble the main unit which includes the motherboard, outside casing, and display. A few examples of ODMs are Compal, Clevo, Arima, Inventec, Mitac, Asus, Uniwill, and TwinHead. You may not have heard of these companies before but you have definitely seen their systems out on the market. These companies are usually located somewhere in Taiwan or Asia, and have warehouse distribution centers in the US. They distribute their product to Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs). These companies then add the ram, processor, software, and hard drive to the systems. The OEMs stick their label on it, and call themselves manufacturers. So, really you can call them assemblers or service providers. Their products are then sold directly to consumers, or through dealers like Xtremenotebooks.com.
So, who makes Toshiba notebooks? Toshiba actually buys their product from several ODM manufactures such as Compal, Clevo (Prostar 5600 & 8800 Series), and Mitac (Xtreme XJ-88 and Xtreme XO-35). They do make a few of their models themselves, but most are bought from other manufacturers, and relabeled and serviced by Toshiba. Compaq, has a similar story. They have had a huge contract with ODMs such as Mitac, Inventec, Arima and have gained strength in the notebook market because of them. DELL buys most of their systems from Compal, the Xtreme XE-77 and Xtreme XL-22 are identical to the Dell Inspiron Series. Dell didn’t even change the look at all. Compal also manufactures the Xtreme XR-45. Sony, HP, Sharp have all had, or still have contracts with TwinHead.
Alienware®? You may have seen the great reviews about the Area-51M notebook. Guess what? It is also built by Clevo.
What about IBM? Apple? The companies that do in fact make their own laptops include IBM, Apple, Twinhead, Acer and Asus. The rest buy laptops from OEMs...JUST LIKE US


I did some reasearch on these ODM sites and what is said in this article is very true. I guess what I'm saying is don't get stuck paying for the name brand. Just like Outlaws Idea: the same quality for less money by shoping around Oh and do a search in google for Clevo they just released a notebook with a 17" monitor!!

Hope this helps
Lasher