While they are more expensive, from what I have seen, business class laptops are easier to disassemble such as the Dell Latitudes.  They are generally designed for quick component swapping by IT techs in corporate environments. Thus quick break down and repair is a must. Where as consumer laptops are design to be made cheap as possible and dis-assembly is an after thought.

Apple laptops are in a league of their own since they are designed with a main emphasis on looks. I have an older Macbook and am not impressed with the way it is made.

Like another poster, I like being able to swap hard drives as well. I much prefer being able to remove 1 or 2 screws and sliding the hard drive out the side, instead of my current Acer (like the one pictured in an earlier post) where you have to loosen 7 screws to remove the cover and then remove 2 screws for the hard drive. It was a cheap buy from Craigslist though.

Just my 2 cents.

On a final note, the most difficult laptop I've ever taken apart was called a medion. Dont think they're in business anymore (thankfully)

They sure are still in business - bigger than ever - and last I checked their lappies are rebranded or special versions of bare bones MSIs.

Thanks for sharing ! Yes, this is a really nice design and... you're right : it doesn't look like it could get much easier or better than that! I really like it. This is certainly one to keep in mind


[Edit : oh... and good luck with your research!  I hope you didn't loose any data when your Acer died..,]