Laptop for School Recommendation

[Jglitch]

1. What is your budget?
$1000-3200

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
15.6 to 17.3

3. What screen resolution do you want?
Hi Res 1080P if all possible

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
really want a desktop replacement, but if something is cheaper meets my needs I'm open to it

5. How much battery life do you need?
as much as possible, I know that apple and lenovo (with its slice battery) offer good battery power, and any other comparable computer companies produce similar battery performance

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)? yes just playable doesnt have to be on high settings, but am not against it depending. sc2, diablo 3 when it comes out, etc.

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
Word Processing, Itunes, Web Surfing, games

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
close to a 500gb min up to 2tb

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

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
3-4 years
11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
doesnt matter really as long as i can install software
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.

The specific brands I've been looking at are

apple-mbp 15 or 17 inch (anti-glare option only)
alienware
Lenovo
Msi
Asus

My biggest things for me are backlit keyboard or other method to light keyboard in dark(more or less essential to me) , matte screen/anti-glare screen if possible, and if not available on something you would recommend how bad is the glare on the screen, good battery life, and durability are my main concerns.

In regards to Osx or windows don't want to start a flame war over which is better, but if you do recommend one OS over the other please let me know why. Thanks.

No companies I truly dislike

13. What country do you live in?
US

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
Looking for a good warranty for accidental and on-site if possible, if that increases the budget I am ok with that.

Thanks for everyone's help previously, sorry to resurrect my old question thread (i deleted the old one so there shouldn't be a duplicate) but some things have changed in my original plans of building a desktop, now just going to have a laptop solely, and I am now looking to buy because I start school in August and there is much time left to wait. I look forward to your new recommendations or similar ones.

 

[Maziar]

Sager NP8150
http/www.xoticpc.com/sager-np8150-clevo-p150hm-p-2972.html
and
8170
http/www.xoticpc.com/sager-np8170-clevo-p170hm-p-2971.html

are great and offer a matte display(via customization) but both lack backlit keyboards.
AW M17x R3 is also good(more expensive than the Sager models though) but have a glossy display.

On the other hand,MBP's offer a matte display along with backlit keyboards "BUT" they're not gaming machines.The high-end models offer 6750M which can handle SC2 fine on high settings but it's significantly slower than the GPUs used in the other laptops I mentioned.

 

[Jglitch]

I like both the Sagers, but I kind of insist upon backlit keyboard first and foremost.

 

[Maziar]

Then go with M17x(OR ASUS G74 if you can wait for it)

 

[Jglitch]

Best answer selected by jglitch.

 

[Jglitch]

Thanks after reading and researching a bit more i decided to not go a gaming laptop and am now looking at mac book pros

 

[Maziar]

No prob,hope you enjoy whatever you get