HP vs Dell vs Lenovo (laptop for a college student)

[skywalker1]

Friends-

My son's 3 yrs old Toshiba Satellite died. Looking for a decent laptop, that runs cooler than the Toshiba he had. Below are some info. What do you suggest?

Budget: $600-$800
Will buy extended warranty (is it worth it though)?
3rd gen i5
8gb ram
500gb (minimum) hard drive
HDMI
WiDi, if available
Blu Ray, if available
15.6" max screen
He is not a gamer, but watches movies a lot
Other usage: Word, PowerPoint, Excel, video editing, etc.

I heard Lenovo Ideapads are a lot better built (and their support got totally revamped too) as opposed to HP and Dell.

Any suggestions?

Regards,
Skywalker

 

[mgrantham]

For $600, this is what you want:

http/shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/catalog.workflow:item.detail?GroupID=457&Code=218982U&category-id=EE41656D5F51E55161504F88E98FE321

 

[ix1911]

http/www.tomshardware.com/forum/80601-35-laptop-screen#t322792

edit1754's link gives you a huge discount and even after getting a way better screen (add 50$) its around 600$ for a Thinkpad (much better than Ideapad) for the same price.

 

[skywalker1]

Thanks friends for you responses.
I would love to get a Lenovo. In fact I contacted them after seeing mgrantham's reply here. They told me that all their products are shipped out from China, and it takes anywhere from 2-6 weeks to get the machine (as sometimes it waits at customs for clearance). I can pick up a pre-config'd one from Best Buy or Newegg, but I want to config myself of what I want.

ix1911, that URL (edit1754's link) takes to a sign-on page.

Any other suggestions? As I said, my budget is not exactly $600, I will definitely pay up to $800 for a good machine.

Thanks again everyone for your help.

Best regards,
Skywalker