Budget Laptop for Word Processing & Internet

[eternal83]

Hello,

I was hoping the community might be able to help me in picking out a new laptop. I already own a great desktop, but find myself in need a laptop for the mobility. Since I've never bought a laptop before, I really don't know where to even begin to look.

Thank you for your help!

1. What is your budget?
Under $500.

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
Small-Medium (closer to Medium)

3. What screen resolution do you want?
Doesn't matter.

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
Portable - lightweight is high priority.

5. How much battery life do you need?
6+ hours. This is the other high priority.

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.

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
Just Word Processing and internet research. Good enough graphics for a youtube video is fine. The more comfortable the keyboard for writing, the better.

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
About 500GB should be plenty.

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
N/a.

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
3+ years.

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
DVD-RW

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 brand is fine.

13. What country do you live in?
USA

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
Since graphics aren't a priority at all, I'd rather funds go more to CPU/RAM than a great GPU. As mentioned before, lightweight, good battery life, and a comfortable keyboard are the things I'm looking for the most. I'm pretty much just going to be using this as a mobile library and glorified typewriter, so as long as it doesn't take 5 minutes for Microsoft Word and a web page to load, I'll be just fine.

Thank you again for your help!

 

[dscudella]

For what you need a laptop for, anything will do. I was just at my Best Buy and they had a Lenovo i3 using the Integrated Graphics for $249 on sale. You could also go for an AMD A8/A10 and use the integrated graphics.

I use a Toshiba Satellite for all my mobile needs and it's great. I don't even attempt to play games on it other than Solitaire & Mahjong.

Asus K-Series $399

Lenovo IdeaPad Z585 $499 ($485 after MIR)

 

[ram1009]

I suggest Costco because they offer a 90 fay return policy and extend all warranties to 2 years.

 

[walterm]

Any intel I3 Ivy Bridge. HD4000 video and should get 6+ hours battery life.
Read reviews before purchase.
I got a good deal on a Samsung Sandy Bridge, seriously like the matt screen, and keyboard NP300E5A-A02UB, ABOUT 5 -6 hour battery life.

For you try them till you find one you like. Screen, keyboard, touch pad, whatever.
There were bargains on AMD Processor laptops, do not seem as common a the moment.
Unfamiliar to me (tried a friends I3, seemed good enough, and is).
Will probably try an SSD to speed things up after Christmas. Maybe.
Most people say increasing memory past 4 GB speeds things up.(6GB so do not know)
Smaller lighter than 15.6 (about 5 lbs) price goes up
Ivy Bridge battery life may go up, price will.

Older chips take either larger heavier batteries or give less battery life.

 

[jaguarskx]

6+ hours of battery life is pretty high expectations for a cheap laptop. Most can do about 4 -5 hours with minimal usage (i.e. no music, videos, or internet surfing... just typing).