Generic 1080p Laptop For Multi-task Work and Multimedia

[windowshate]

I'm looking for a 15.6 inch 1080p laptop for work. I'll use it for web browsing, skype, light adobe premiere and photoshop, email, reading, watching movies and tv series, etc, etc.

I'm currently accomplishing all of this on an Acer aspire i3, but its dying. At minimum I'd want an i5.

I dont care if the laptop is thin or portable, in fact, I'd probably prefer a thicker one because it is indicative of lower cost and/or better performance.

I looked around and saw that the Dell inspiron 15 7000 (budget gaming)...

Intel i5-6300HQ 2.3 GHz Quad-Core (6M Cache, Turbo up to 3.2 GHz)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M 4GB GDDR5
8 GB DDR3L / 256 GB Solid-State Drive
15.6-Inch FHD IPS, Wide-Angle, Anti Glare Screen

...and the Acer Aspire E 15 E5-575G-53VG (traditional laptop w/standalone gfx card) seem to be top picks.

6th Generation Intel Core i5-6200U Processor 2.3GHz with Turbo Boost Technology up to 2.8GHz
15.6" Full HD Widescreen ComfyView LED-backlit Display (1920 x 1080 resolution; 16:9 Aspect Ratio) supporting Acer ColorBlast technology
8GB DDR4 Dual Channel Memory
256GB SSD
NVIDIA GeForce 940MX with 2GB of dedicated DDR5 VRAM

The Dell is about 300$ more than the Acer because of the 960m, but the acer isn't available in canada, so I'd have to use some proxy shipper if I wanted the acer, which worries me because if the thing craps out on me I'd have a problem shipping it back I imagine.

I don't really game, but I do watch a lot of hd movies. Is the Dell worth the 800$ price tag for my purposes? Or does it have the same amount of power that I'd get in any 500-600$ traditional 1080p laptop, only with a better but unneeded gaming graphics card? Do you have any other recommendations for something cheaper but still powerful enough to be used as a workstation/media viewer? Or is this my best bet?

 

[Max1s]

I would recommend shopping with this method:

Search for a laptop based on the CPU. Pay close attention to the letters at the end of the CPU code. Use this website:
http/www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/processors/processor-numbers.html

So basically, anything with a "U" at the end is going to suck compared to anything with an "HQ" on the end. Try to find an i7 5700HQ or 6700HQ, with the lowest graphics card possible, since you don't game and so don't want to be paying a premium for graphics performance. Actually, if watching HD movies/videos is the most graphics intensive thing you are going to be doing on the laptop, you could probably get away with no discrete graphics chip, and just use the "on-board" graphics built into the intel CPU. (You should confirm this, I'm not sure) That being said, I expect that most laptops with high-end "HQ" CPUs will come with a graphics chip.

You are going to want lots of RAM and an SSD, but you can easily buy and install these yourself, so consider it a "bonus" if that laptop has them but don't shy away from a laptop that doesn't, as long as the price is right.