Best $500 portable device running windows

bimde

Honorable
Feb 1, 2013
5
0
10,510
Hello, I'm looking for a laptop/ultrabook/tablet type device running full windows (not rt)


1. What is your budget?
About $500 before tax

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
I'm looking for a portable device, something light and between 11-12.5 inches

3. What screen resolution do you want?
Not too worried about screen resolution, at $500 and 11 inches, even 1366 by 768 is fine.

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
Portable, but powerful enough to do things like use windows movie maker, stream hd video, and run full Microsoft office.

5. How much battery life do you need?
Battery life is one of those nice things to have, but I only need 5 or so 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 in mind, integrated graphics are fine.

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
MS Office, web browser, some light video editing software, that's it.

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
I am set on getting an ssd with at least 128 gb of storage

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
Ncix, tigerdirect, bestbuy, future shop, newegg, anything like that is fine.

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
I'm hoping for this device to last at least 2-3 years. Having something like an i5 will be beneficial.

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
Not required.

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.
Any recommended brands from you guys should be fine.

13. What country do you live in?
I live in Toronto, Canada.

Some additional information: I am ok to buying a refurbished device as long as it is a good deal.
 

bimde

Honorable
Feb 1, 2013
5
0
10,510


Hmmm. That looks interesting, but is 2 GB of ram enough for Windows 8.1?
 


needs 1gb for windows 8.1 32bit which comes with it. yes its on the small side but can do everything you want it to. it will do well with ms office, web browsing, and light video editing. it wont lag as long as you dont have a ton of tabs open and tons of programs open or playing games with heavy graphics.