Another "please help me choose a laptop" thread

kyleis

Honorable
Dec 7, 2012
30
0
10,580
Looking for a basic secondary student laptop for web/essay writting, key want: long battery life laptop.

1. What is your budget? $400, possibly $450 if I had to - I know. Pathetic.

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering? 12" = 14.5 " Maybe 15"..

3. What screen resolution do you want? Unimportant.

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop? No. My main laptop is at home, but too cumbersome to carry around every day (Lenovo Y580).

5. How much battery life do you need? Alll the batteriez!!! 6-8 hours if possible. I want to avoid carrying the power cord.

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)?
- Nope. This will be a Web/youtube/and essay writting machine, mainly used at the library.

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
Web access / streaming/ MS Office. I DO NOT want a chromebook.

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need? More is better, but cheaper is best.
As I understand it, SSD's are what giver you long battery life, so something SSD, or at least something I can put an SSD into inthe somewhat near future.

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links. MUST use BestBuy Canada, as I have $300 in gift cards from there.

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop? As long as possible. Doesn't everyone?

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
I would like to at least have DVD ROM, but could possibly learn to live without, as budget restraints are quite meager.

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.
Prefer Lenovo, Toshiba and Asus, mainly as I feel they are more durable and long lasting.
Disdain HP (impression they use cheap components desinged to fail) Dell (seen too many reoccuring issues with cracked bevels - pathetic!!) and Acer (I had one fry from inserting a battery powered usb MP3 player once. WTF!?!) I would however consider anything in my price range, that fits the bill.

13. What country do you live in?
Canada

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
I do not what a Chromebook. With such simple tasks planned, I do NOT want to wait for mouse movement, mouseclicks ect. I can't believe that's even a problem these days!! Long battery life is the most prefered trait, after portability. Upgradeable SSD would be nice. Should be able to run Microsoft Office smoothly.

This will mainly be a system I use to carry around all day anduse at the library, to access the web / online university college site, used to study and do essays, basic coursework ect.

Thanks so much in advance!
I might try waiting for black friday deals, but it's so far away!



I'm considering the HP ProBook 6470, there's a refurbished $399.
Or the Asus VivoBook X540SA 15.6, has HDD but still supposedly 6hrs of battery.

Does battery life go up significantly if you swapout HDD for SSD? Thoughts?
 


And it's only $150-$200 over budget...

 

stoopiedas

Distinguished
Dec 5, 2011
9
0
18,520
Here's a quick friendly trick. Price match it at a store that has coupons to amazon.com and use the coupon. Most stores will allow you to get it and you will get the best price on it.
 


Yes but he does have a $300 voucher which should discount the price.
 


Could be. But my guess is that the budget includes the voucher already. Both examples he's considering are less than his stated budget. It makes little sense to say your budget is $400-$450 if you're actually looking for a $700-$750 laptop. But then again, people often make little sense. ;)