Looking to buy a video viewing laptop.

PhilosophicalRide

Estimable
Aug 28, 2014
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4,510
1. My budget is $0-$600

2. The size doesn't matter

3. I'd like to be able to watch video in at least 720p

4. Just need something portable

5. Battery life does not matter to me, I'll just keep it plugged in.

6. I don't care if it can play games or not. I'll buy a desktop if I want to do any serous gaming.

7. I just want to watch videos and Maybe write a little ActionScript.

8. I'd prefer to have at least 10 GB of storage but storage is not a big issue.

9. I was looking at Amazon, Newegg, Pricewatch, CNET, E-bay, and Craigslist and so far the best match I found was on Amazon.

10. I want to keep it for about a year, Maybe more.

11. A CD drive would be nice but it's not a big concern.

12. I'd prefer not to buy from HP if possible due to little customer service, but only a minor factor.

13. I live in the US

14. My 2 main desires are ability to play video with out any stuttering/freezing and low price. If you have any suggestions I would be happy to hear them. Thanks.
 
Integrated intel graphics from the sandy bridge era two generations ago was good enough for 1080p playback, so the any new one will handle 1080p fine.

I would get a core i3 laptop, you can find them on sale for $400 or even decent refurb ones for$350 or less. Lenovo and ASUS are good brands, HP is hit or miss on quality, Del and Toshiba have degraded quality over the last few years, and Acer/Gateway/Compaq are cheap garbage that often die shortly after the warranty period.

If you wanted the best performance for buck:
Core i3 laptop + replace boot hard drive with ssd + put old hard drive in caddy that fits into your old cd slot. All of that would cost around $500.
 
It should be decent enough for 1080p playback to an external device.

If you need windows programs then it is an immediate bust.

Are you streaming the videos from the internet/lan or storing them on a hard drive, a 720p movie should be at least 4-7GB is size so that 16gb solid state wont hold much.

I would do a ram upgrade to it for video though.

You might get a lot more utility out of it by removing the chrome OS and installing Linux. Might also look at XBMC software for the media player front end.