Best Laptop for me is?

I don’t have the answer for you, but cnet.com probably has the most reliable product reviews you can find.

I like the Toshiba T235–1370 (also available in red or white).

See, I love my old T135–1305, and the T235–1370 is the newer version. Decently powerful and fast, nice and light, long battery life, and a not-bad price tag. Toshiba is also near the top when it comes to laptop reliability; better than Apple or Dell. There are quite a few professional laptop reviewers that agree with me on this budget laptop as well. However, you want to avoid the lower trim levels of this model as the AMD processors are not nearly as fast (barely faster than a netbook that costs half as much; even my patient wife considers them infuriatingly slow) and tend to drain the battery quicker.

I would find a place in your area that sells used / refurbished computers and choose from one that they have on offer. Find someone who has been doing it for awhile in the same location / business name, and preferably someone who does their own work on the premises. (I know a place in north central Connecticut that I often recommend to friends.) They’ll have a good deal on a machine that they will have gone over themselves, and they might even offer you a warranty. Even if they don’t, with the money you save you can just make weekly (or so) backups and never worry that the machine is “too valuable to fail”.

If you’re really looking for a hastle free Internet/email/writing machine, buy a MacBook. They come with 1–3 year warranties and have 10 hour battery life.