which models ru looking at? i checked out a few lately and found them quite ok. except that i do not quite think that the chrome parts (decorative) would retain their shine for long Service-wise i have been told its good. quite many service centres. build would be comparable to compaq but not quite perhaps. specs can be a bit dodgy at times. i saw a celeron 1.73 Ghz with DVD writer retailing at 25,000 but the celeron 1.86 without a DVD writer at 23,000!!! but brand-wise HCL is big. desktop-wise they can take a good beating and still work fine. better check out the specs to price ratios.
forget hcl wen it comes to laptops...overall finishing leaves alot to be desired...if ur looking for a general low price lappy consider either the lenovos or compaq...hp for styling and some perfo....and go with dell for performance....