I used to be a hardcore supporter of the "D" series Latitude laptops from Dell. Held up great, and and worked flawlessly. I usually got the service upgrade, so if I did drop it, it was covered by dell. Now we have two "E" series, and I am less impressed (E5500 and E6500).
One thing I have noticed is that the touchpad has some issues with sensitivity, especially when connecting to an external device through serial, usb, or Ethernet (it is essentially unusable). On the E5500 I opted to not get the TouchStick (big mistake). As I was chatting with service about the hard drive that went bad, I mentioned the mouse. They said they would replace the motherboard... Ok, I also bought a new Keyboard with the touch stick to install as well (small lack of confidence in the motherboard diagnostic). Ever since the Serial port does not work, (cannot recognize device, Dell tried sending me drivers, but they only crashed the system) I have since given up on the integrated serial, and use a USB adaptor, because the original port was flush, and did not work with all serial connectors.
So after that little rant (Sorry) I have been lightly shopping for what our next laptops will be. I like the idea of the tough-books, but by their nature, they are not going to be the latest hardware available; and for the cost, I can upgrade my laptop in half the time. Normally after 3 - 4 years, I'm ready for an upgrade anyway.