best quality laptop for regular school work and applications?

tb thanks

Honorable
Jan 27, 2014
2
0
10,510
1. What is your budget? $250-500 (the best bang for my buck possible)

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering? preferably 15-15.5" screen size

3. What screen resolution do you want? indifferent

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop? portable

5. How much battery life do you need? indifferent

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)? maybe something simple like sims or civilization on low graphics settings, but very rarely

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.) basic web searching and applications

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need? anything 500g+

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links. i dont mind buying from any major reputable site including amazon, newegg, or any other suggestions

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop? 2-3 years at least

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ? dvd rom needed bluray would be a plus but 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.
im noticing brands have changed alot over the years so im open to newer suggestions. positive experience with asus and acer

13. What country do you live in? united states, Illinois

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
its kind of important that i can get windows 7. i know that's kind of hard to get with newer laptops now days but i know you can downgrade with windows 8 professional. also im sure i can get office through my school but if it was preloaded without much added cost that would be good not a huge deal breaker though.

 
Solution
The problem is the Windows 7 requirement since Microsoft no longer allows it to be installed on laptops other than business laptops (since it can cost hundreds of millions or of $ for a large company to upgrade / certify / convert proprietary software to be compatible with Windows 8).

Another problem is business laptops are generally not as inexpensive as consumer laptops. The best laptop I can think of is the 15." ThinkPad E555 with the dual core AMD A6-7000 APU with a base price of $455. Selecting the option for Windows 7 will increase the price to $503. The A6-7000 APU is good enough for every tasks, but it is not as powerful as an Intel Core i3 CPU.

http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/e-series/e555/


Otherwise, you are...
The problem is the Windows 7 requirement since Microsoft no longer allows it to be installed on laptops other than business laptops (since it can cost hundreds of millions or of $ for a large company to upgrade / certify / convert proprietary software to be compatible with Windows 8).

Another problem is business laptops are generally not as inexpensive as consumer laptops. The best laptop I can think of is the 15." ThinkPad E555 with the dual core AMD A6-7000 APU with a base price of $455. Selecting the option for Windows 7 will increase the price to $503. The A6-7000 APU is good enough for every tasks, but it is not as powerful as an Intel Core i3 CPU.

http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/e-series/e555/


Otherwise, you are basically limited to purchasing used / refurbished laptops with Win 7.
 
Solution