$500 Laptop Advice (US/Canada)

[xsever]

1. What is your budget?
$500 + or - $50 (will pay 600 if it's REALLY worth it.)

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
13.3 or 14 or 15.6 inch

3. What screen resolution do you want?
I am not really concerned about that. All new displays are just fine.

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
A mobility solution. I have a powerful desktop at home. I won't game on the laptop at all.

5. How much battery life do you need?
2 hours +

6. Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?
No gaming on the laptop.

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing,watching movies, Etc.)
1080p videos, MS Office, Adobe Photoshop CS5, Browsing.

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
320GB or more (250GB may be fine)

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
I can buy from stores or online both in the US or Canada.

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
The more the better. I want something future proof for the relatively simple tasks it is going to handle.

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
DVD burner. Bluray is not needed.

12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.
Brands I prefer: Toshiba, Gateway, Acer, Dell. I do so because I've had good experience with these brands through friends' and family's laptops.
Brands I don't like: HP because all HP laptops I used in the past 4 years have heating problems. You can't even rest your hand on it. Better off as a volcano.

13. What country do you live in?
I live in Canada, but I have a US shipping address too so I am flexible in that.

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
My desktop is very powerful and it serves all my needs. I just want more mobility with the laptop to browse, watch videos, and take with me.
Something worth adding to the requirements is that I prefer a Core i3 CPU (IGP on chip) with 4GB of RAM.

Thank you very much for your help.

 

[Snipergod87]

The battery in the Toshiba was a smaller battery then. Also depends on usage too, i find some pages that use flash use hardware acceleration which puts my graphics card in 3d clocks, consuing more power than it needs. This is why I hate hardware accerarated flash.

 

[xsever]

The Toshiba had a 48Wh battery while the Acer is advertised as 44Ah. I need to know the battery's voltage so that I can calculate the Wh rating for it.

As for hardware accelerated flash, you are right. It seems that disabling hardware accelerating while browsing on battery is the best thing to do in order to extend battery life.

Benchmarks also showed that Google Chrome is the best browser when it comes to energy consumption. I am using Chrome 10 and here are some benchmarks for the Toshiba L645D-020:

1. Activity: Browsing using Google Chrome 10
Battery life: 2 hours and 10 minutes

2. Activity: Browsing using Google Chrome 10 along with a couple of restarts for installation purposes
Battery life: 2 hours and 4 minutes

3. Activity: Watching a Top Gear episode with Xvid quality
Battery life: 1 hour and 51 minutes

 

[xsever]

Best answer selected by xsever.

 

[Brett928S2]

Hi
You can get one under your budget at COMMERCIAL SPAM REMOVED - "CedarPC Computer Wholesalers offers refurbished notebooks and desktop computers at excellent prices. Factory Refurbished laptops and refurbished computer netbooks at very cheap wholesale prices with warranty. Huge selection of Dell, Acer, HP, Toshiba, Lenovo, IBM and other laptop computers. Cheap laptop and desktop computers at clearance prices, why pay retail, when you can get it for less."

1. What is your budget?
$500 + or - $50 (will pay 600 if it's REALLY worth it.)

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
13.3 or 14 or 15.6 inch

3. What screen resolution do you want?
I am not really concerned about that. All new displays are just fine.

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
A mobility solution. I have a powerful desktop at home. I won't game on the laptop at all.

5. How much battery life do you need?
2 hours +

6. Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?
No gaming on the laptop.

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing,watching movies, Etc.)
1080p videos, MS Office, Adobe Photoshop CS5, Browsing.

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
320GB or more (250GB may be fine)

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
I can buy from stores or online both in the US or Canada.

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
The more the better. I want something future proof for the relatively simple tasks it is going to handle.

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
DVD burner. Bluray is not needed.

12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.
Brands I prefer: Toshiba, Gateway, Acer, Dell. I do so because I've had good experience with these brands through friends' and family's laptops.
Brands I don't like: HP because all HP laptops I used in the past 4 years have heating problems. You can't even rest your hand on it. Better off as a volcano.

13. What country do you live in?
I live in Canada, but I have a US shipping address too so I am flexible in that.

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
My desktop is very powerful and it serves all my needs. I just want more mobility with the laptop to browse, watch videos, and take with me.
Something worth adding to the requirements is that I prefer a Core i3 CPU (IGP on chip) with 4GB of RAM.

Thank you very much for your help.

Hi

You just replied to a 3 year old thread

All the best Brett