Well, to paraphrase the commercial: dude, don't get dell. I have a laptop that has a lot of lines up and down the LCD. Did a search - found out that this is a very common problem with dells. I'm out of warrenty, of course (not by too much), so SOL. I'm guessing that it's a cost cutting measure. (Lowest bidder, etc).
I can replace the hard drive, cpu, video card, motherboard, etc. for a resonable price. Replacing the LCD will cost as much as a new laptop..
-V