Looking for a laptop under $700

[chriskam]

1. What is your budget? Under $700, though cheaper solutions would be ideal :] (closer to $600)

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering? Around 15"

3. What screen resolution do you want? Around 1440x900.

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop? Portable as I'll probably be lugging it around my campus this year.

5. How much battery life do you need? Enough to get me through a day of school, so I assume around 8 hours at least. (I won't be playing games and stuff during this time)

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)? Casual gaming, so maybe play games like TF2 on medium-high, and some of the newer games on low. It's not a problem if I can't play the most advanced games like The Witcher 2. Gaming isn't my priority on this laptop.

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.) Photo editing.

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need? Around 350-500gb

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links. Any Canadian online store is okay. Newegg, Amazon, etc.

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop? For another 4 years or so. I'm not going to be using it heavily and wearing it down.

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ? DVD

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. Any that you guys feel is good for my criteria and isn't known for being "bad."

13. What country do you live in? Canada

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed. None really. I'm not very specific, I just want a portable laptop that I can carry around campus and write notes, etc on. Of course it'd be nice if I could watch some videos in HD resolutions without having it chug. If there's a sleek laptop that has to sacrifice graphical performance, that's totally fine considering gaming isn't going to be my ideal use for it.

Thanks in advance!

 

[airanp]

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834158580

An HP Pavilion dv6-7010us that is currently on Newegg with a mail in rebate dropping the price to 609.99 + shipping. Should be more than adequate enough to last you though school. I will add a side note that in about two years the GPU in this is going to be very out dated, but then which one isn't?

If you were willing to drop the screen size and resolution for improved portability and battery life there is always the Asus U36SG. It's a 13.3" with a 1366x768 resolution but has second gen i5 and a gt 610m in it and they boast that in power saving mode with wifi off it can last upwards of 10 hours on a single charge. But they start at $705 at xoticpc.com

 

[chriskam]

I was also looking at this:

http/www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834215292CVF

and this:

http/shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Laptops/HP-ENVY/B2S72AV?HP-ENVY-Sleekbook-6z-1000

any opinions on these? The first one seems to have pretty high performance, especially for the price. I like the second one because it's sleek and will be easy to move around with. How good do you guys think either of these are?

I like the Pavillion. I'll keep it in mind, thanks.

 

[airanp]

I was also looking at this:

http/www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834215292CVF

and this:

http/shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Laptops/HP-ENVY/B2S72AV?HP-ENVY-Sleekbook-6z-1000

any opinions on these? The first one seems to have pretty high performance, especially for the price. I like the second one because it's sleek and will be easy to move around with. How good do you guys think either of these are?

I like the Pavillion. I'll keep it in mind, thanks.

Keep in mind, I am partial to intel when it comes processors ever since sandy bridge was released. The sleekbook looks like a decent computer for what you want to do but realize that it is an older processor being the A6 with the A8 and A10 currently out. If you were to upgrade to the quad core A10 it would make it a stronger contender but it would also push you over budget so personally based on that information I would be more inclined to lean toward the Acer.

 

[chriskam]

8 hours working constantly?

Not 8 hours constantly, and during that time I'm going to be doing less-demanding work on the laptop.



Any more opinions on the laptops I posted? Really hard for me to decide whether I want a more convenient and slicker laptop rather than a more powerful one.

I also read that there were some overheating issues with the Acer one. What do you guys think about the specs on it? Do you guys know of any other laptops with similar specs?

@airanp

Yeah, I realize that Intel is generally preferred, but I heard that these AMD processors aren't too bad, especially if you're not really focusing on gaming and such. Any similar suggestions with a better processor?

What do you guys think about this one? Cheap, slick, and has a pretty decent graphics card, too.

http/www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=710_577_369&item_id=040741

 

[chriskam]

Any more opinions?

 

[Wisecracker]

I'm a big fan of the HP Pavilion g7z-2100 for $500

Add the AMD Quad-Core A8-4500M Accelerated Processor (3.0GHz/2.1GHz, 4MB L2 Cache) for $50.

HP advised that the graphics slot will be open if you do not select a video card -- ultimately, my goal is to add a AMD FirePro M5950 XT-GL 1GB GDDR5

 

[chriskam]

How is the build quality for the Pavilion you posted? The main drawback I hear about the Acer is that it feels pretty cheap. I might just check it out in-store to see for myself, but the Pavilion seems to a great alternative for me.

Also, how does the HD 7600 perform for games? I've been looking around and I can't find any definitive answers. I've heard the 7670M is pretty good, especially if you're not really focusing on making a gaming laptop.