Laptop or netbook for school and watching videos in 720p or 1080p

[VendingMachine]

1. What is your budget?
500 - 700 but personally trying to find something cheaper than that

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
Uhh, 15" and under

3. What screen resolution do you want?
Not sure

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
Portable

5. How much battery life do you need?
6-8 hours?

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)?
Not much probably some emulators maybe League of Legends on Low at most but not a top priority choice as I have a desktop to play games on.

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
Watching videos and streams on 1080 or 720p and office programs mostly

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
250gb

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
No

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 ?
Doesn't matter

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.
No specific brand

13. What country do you live in?
Canada

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
Willing to go below $500 if I can find a laptop to play 1080p minimum. Also lighter would be better of course.

Thanks for reading.

 

[WR2]

Hello VendingMachine;

In the middle of your budget range: @ $600 a thin and light 14" Dell Inspiron 14z
Core i3-2330 2.2Ghz CPU, 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD, 14" 1366x768 LCD (720p) & HD 3000 graphics
4.5lbs, 6.5hr battery life

 

[WR2]

If you want to look at a 13" laptop for comparison:
TOSHIBA Satellite L730- $610
Core i3 2310M 2.10GHz, CPU 4GB RAM, 640GB HDD, 13.3" 1366x768 LCD w/ HD Graphics 3000 graphics
4.6lbs and 5.5hrs battery life

Intel HD Graphics 3000 review

@ $500 HP Pavilion G4 14" notebook
Pentium B940(2.00GHz) 4GB RAM 640GB HDD 14" 1366x768 LCD w/ Intel HD Graphics 3000
4.7lbs and 4.25hrs battery life

The Pentium B940 is an entry level Sandy Bridge CPU

 

[WR2]

Willing to go below $500 if I can find a laptop to play 1080p minimum. Also lighter would be better of course.

You won't have trouble playing 1080p video in any current laptop- it will just get downscaled to 720p to fit on the 1366x768 LCDs that are in your budget range.

@ $467 HP Pavilion DM1 11.6" ultra-portable laptop
AMD Fusion Dual-Core E-350 (Zacate) 1.6Ghz APU, 4 GB, 640GB HDD, 11.6" 1366x768 LCD w/ Radeon HD 6310 graphics.
3.4lbs and 5.5hrs battery life.
That E-350 is a fairly week APU - but it's enough for the basic home office, education and home entertainment usages. For light duty multi-tasking email, webbrower and iTunes type of stuff it's OK. If you plan to do some heavy multi-tasking - it's not going be the best choice.
Also, the price is higher than it should be. We frequently see the HP DM1 on sale down here in the US for under $400 or $370 0 best deal ATM

 

[WR2]

HP Pavilion dm1 Review Editors Choice @ LaptopMag

 

[VendingMachine]

You won't have trouble playing 1080p video in any current laptop- it will just get downscaled to 720p to fit on the 1366x768 LCDs that are in your budget range.

@ $467 HP Pavilion DM1 11.6" ultra-portable laptop
AMD Fusion Dual-Core E-350 (Zacate) 1.6Ghz APU, 4 GB, 640GB HDD, 11.6" 1366x768 LCD w/ Radeon HD 6310 graphics.
3.4lbs and 5.5hrs battery life.
That E-350 is a fairly week APU - but it's enough for the basic home office, education and home entertainment usages. For light duty multi-tasking email, webbrower and iTunes type of stuff it's OK. If you plan to do some heavy multi-tasking - it's not going be the best choice.
Also, the price is higher than it should be. We frequently see the HP DM1 on sale down here in the US for under $400 or $370 0 best deal ATM

I was looking at the HP Pavilion dm1 but what would you consider heavy multi-tasking?

 

[WR2]

Running two MS Office programs like MS Word and Powerpoint would be an example.
Basically, anything that would load up the E-350 APU while trying to do something else.

 

[VendingMachine]

Running two MS Office programs like MS Word and Powerpoint would be an example.
Basically, anything that would load up the E-350 APU while trying to do something else.

Oh I see. I'm thinking of getting the $500 HP Pavilion G4 14" notebook then do you think of any problems with this multitasking?

 

[WR2]

Here is the Big List or Mobile Processors (CPU Benchmarks)
In there the E-350 APU ranks #331.

 

[WR2]

On the same list the Pentium B940 is ranked #121 and will be a competent multi-tasker by comparison.

 

[WR2]

And if you want to keep looking higher in the list: Core i3 2330M is #66


The Brazos Performance Preview: AMD E-350 Benchmarked: Setting Performance Expectations
It's a very capable 1080p playback system mostly thanks to the HD 6310 GPU.

 

[de5_Roy]

since op mentioned 720p and 1080p videos, how about a laptop with amd's llano processors - they have better igp than intel's.

 

[WR2]

Which one did you have in mind?

 

[de5_Roy]

for example:
http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834214402
or
http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834215113

 

[WR2]

I did find a nice price on a AMD E-350 Toshiba 14" laptop:
Toshiba Satellite L740D $380

and HP Pavilion g4 $400

 

[WR2]

What are the Canadian sources and prices?

 

[de5_Roy]

i couldn't find the exact model.. but here's the list of llano based notebooks on newegg.ca:
http/www.newegg.ca/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100006741%20600165139&IsNodeId=1&name=AMD%20A-Series&Pagesize=100

and the closest to the toshiba model - TOSHIBA Satellite L750D-019 priced@ $569.99:
http/www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834214440CVF

couldn't find the acer one, sorry.

 

[WR2]

Llano laptops @ TigerDirect.ca

 

[VendingMachine]

I'm currently leaning towards getting the HP Pavilion DM1 for $420 because of the smaller size and you said it can run 1080p. The only problem would I see would be mutlitasking, also I read from reviews that it had a loud fan.

http/www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=62807&vpn=LY074UA%23ABC&manufacture=HP%20Consumer&promoid=1366

 

[WR2]

You can play around with the fan profiles a bit to adjust loudness vs temps.
Usually the fan runs loudest when it's on your lap and quieter when it's on a hard flat surface (to keep the case cooler on your lap).
I don't think average, everyday multi-tasking will be a problem. Checking email while listening to music and browsing the web with multiple tabs... that kind of workload will be OK.

For comparison, and around the same price: ASUS Eee PC 1215B AMD E350 Fusion $450 A "Premium" 12.1" Netbook with the same E-350 APU / HD 6310 GPU, 2GB RAM, 320GB HDD

HP DM1 = it's no MacBook Air but the price is nice for what it does.