My current HP laptop has served me well, unfortunately the hinge is broken and it no longer shuts after 3 years of steady college use. It is a 14 inch with an i5 processor running Windows 7. For my next laptop I would like a 14 inch screen with the new i5 4th Gen Haswell processor, and a touch screen for Windows 8. Oh, I forgot to mention I would like to keep this under 800, preferably under 700. The only one I can find now is from Dell, anybody know of others?
We've had good luck with Toshiba laptops. My wife dropped her last one down the stairs & it somehow still worked fine. My step-daughter has that one now, and it still works fine...I'm thinking it must me 4 or 5 years old at least.
Oh yeah, and we replaced it with a touch-screen Win8 Toshiba earlier this year. IIRC it's a 14", i5 Intel, and we paid around $750 for it.
While Dell business-class machines are still pretty good, I feel the HP business class line has surpassed them. And the Toshiba consumer line seems more robust than either Dell or HP's consumer line.
iPad with a clamcase keyboard! All the utility of a cheap laptop at twice the price! 
I always look into refurbs from Tiger Direct, Newegg, MicroCenter, and even Amazon. You can save a ton of dough. I got a 15" HP Envy with Core i7 and Win 8, with a 1TB drive for under $500 as a refurb from MicroCenter.
if you want a touchscreen, her'es one in your price range:
+1 for Lenovo. Back when I was saddled with PCs, I found their stuff to be low on bling (hello HP) and very high on performance and reliability.
That said of course, a used PowerMac will be better in every respect. I gave my daughter my 3-year old Mac and she uses it instead of her school-issued brand new Win 7 PC.
Whatever brand you look at try to get one from the business like of machines. They tend to be built stronger to take the abuse of being moved around.
Aside from that here at work we have Dell machines and they have held up rather well and Dell does have a website where they sell off lease returne machines.
Lenovo hardware is very good quality. I've had terrible luck with Toshibas. I have an uncle who says repairing them is good business.
Dells are pretty good too. I have an Asus that's held up well.
We've had really good luck with Toshibas. The last one we bought lasted 8 years while being used (and dropped, stepped on, spilled on, etc.) by the whole family.
+1 for referb/off lease (though off lease probably won't have Win 8 yet) Dell's outlet has treated me well.
My Vostro 3550 is older tech now, but has treated me well, and I got it cheap referb from Dell's outlet.
I like Toshiba and Asus. I have one of each, and they've held up longer than any other laptop I've purchased.
I'd rather get beat upside the head with a 2x4 than use a touchscreen. You'll get my mouse only when you pry it from my cold, dead hands!
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