Andy Hall wrote:

The physical build quality is streets ahead of anything I've seen in
PCs.

Take it you don't have a G4 Titanium laptop then, Andy? Bent Ti cover
(way too thin), snapped hinges (has anyone got one on its original
hinges?), blowing power supplies and a dead superdrive now. Had Mac
optical mice fail as well, never had MS optical one fail yet. Don't
get me wrong, still like Mac OS but I would not buy one for quality of
construction. If you want a well built laptop then the only thing on
the market as far as I am concerned is the Panasonic Toughbook range
which are simply in a class by themselves.

To the OP, if you want good customer service then you shop local -
there are loads of good small computer shops that offer service far
above the big boys like Dell and Mesh. Ask around for recommendations.
Do you want to deal with call centres, premium rate calls and flow
chart following "engineers"? Buy a Dell machine, your parents will end
up spending twice as much on the machine after their "trial" software
all expires three months down the line and it becomes infected with all
kinds of trash. I seem to be peering at a lot of small monitors from
them these days as well, if you do go that way, check what size monitor
they sell you, they have one that is tiny, not suitable for old eyes at
all.

Regards

William MacLeod