Laptop ~ $600 - $900

[jptech]

1. What is your budget?
I would like to stay within $600 to $900.

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
12" - 15", I'm pretty flexible.

3. What screen resolution do you want?
Not a huge deal, I have a 1080p 23.5" monitor.

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
More towards portable, but I need some power too.

5. How much battery life do you need?
Looking for 5+ hours (4 is a strict minimum, 6+ is great)

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, I don't game, but if it plays Crysis, I won't complain . Oh, and I play Age of Empire III some, but it isn't TOO demanding.

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
I program websites, extensive multitasking, photoshop, and I may run Premiere Pro CS5 some. I would love for a machine that can run Premiere Pro well.

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
> 200GB is ideal

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
Don't really care where I buy as long as it is a respectable company.

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
At least 2 years, 3-4 years maybe.

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
Optical drive is not strictly necessary, but a DVD burner would be a nice thing to have handy.

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.
I own a Toshiba right now, but I'm not too partial to a brand. I very much dislike Acer for almost every reason. I've been looking at ThinkPads some.

13. What country do you live in?
USA

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
Looking for power, portability, and battery life... the ultimate question! Will update tomorrow /w more details.

Update:
I would like something significantly more powerful than my current machine:
Toshbia M305D - Turion X2 2Ghz, 4GB DDR2, 200GB HDD, 14.1" 1280 by 800 LCD

I also tend to lean towards the new Sandy Bridge processors because they seem to be faster, and I may be doing some video encoding and editing in Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 for class that I will be taking.

 

[wintermint]

You may want to take a look at the new released llano laptops. Most comes with 1600x900 but you do get the usual 1366x768. While the CPU part of the laptop may not beat Sandy Bridge or the likes, it's not entirely crap either. The GPU, on the other hand, is pretty good for the price you're paying. The battery life should be good too on those. Go take a look

 

[jptech]

You may want to take a look at the new released llano laptops. Most comes with 1600x900 but you do get the usual 1366x768. While the CPU part of the laptop may not beat Sandy Bridge or the likes, it's not entirely crap either. The GPU, on the other hand, is pretty good for the price you're paying. The battery life should be good too on those. Go take a look

Thank you for the reply, wintermint. Yes, llano isn't bad, but the issue with it is that it still has the forever old Stars CPU, and I'm afraid that CPU performance won't be that big of a jump from what I have right now, a 2 Ghz Turion X2. That isn't to say that I won't look more into it, but I've mainly looked at Sandy Bridge machines because of the CPU power. I agree that llano is a good platform; the integrated graphics are amazing (besting many entry level dedicated cards). I'll have to look at the benchmarks and reviews again to see how it fairs.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the GPU typically doesn't do much when transcoding or editing video (excluding nVidia CUDA acceleration). The new SB graphics are good enough for my Age of Empires III needs (in fact, most graphics for the past 2-3 years are sufficient). I'd like a solid laptop with the ability to do some video work, but I really don't know much about the hardware demands of Adobe since I've not really used Premiere Pro since CS2 (and a machine was provided).

Thanks,
JP Tech