I think IBM has been building their laptop like tanks for at least the past 5 years. My 3 year old iSeries IBM laptop is made of some metal. I accidently threw up my lappy (while in its case) up in the air about 6 feet from the ground and landed with a big thud. I opened up the casing and the plastic "hinge cover" had fallen off. I could see that the metal hinge had started to break, but had only broken about halfway. Looked like it could be welded back, but I wouldn't want to ruin the LCD by accident doing that. I just took the plastic cover, and put it back on, and it is just like it was before. Except that it closes a little strangely, but it closes solidly. I am pretty sure many other laptops would not have fared to well. Most would have probably broken the hinge to the screen, or possibly worse.
One reason I'm a little hesitant to give it up in favour of a new laptop capable of games, (well, technically my pathetic laptop is capable of playing quake 3 arena very well - even multiplayer - at 640x480 and 800x600 so it CAN play games, but only a few) is that the thing is sturdy, has an awesome keyboard (I almost like it better than my wireless ergonomic keyboard), has a battery life that is still 3+ hours and it is built well enough to last a good ten years or more. I feel like if I buy a new one, it will be plagued with problems, be pretty flimsy, have a pathetic battery life and have a not great keyboard. On the other hand it can play games...
