Solved! New Laptop on a $600-800 budget

[Renseru]

Hello,
I'm in the market for a new laptop. I've already looked around and found what I would probably buy but I want to see what the Tom's Hardware regs thought.

1. What is your budget?
$600-800

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
I prefer a sleek/light weight style but screen size isn't too important.

3. What screen resolution do you want?
720+

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
No

5. How much battery life do you need?
The more the better

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)?
I don't plan on playing any games but I feel that I should still get a dedicated graphics card now as I can't upgrade in the future. If I were going to play any games as of right now: SC2(low/med), Diablo 3(low/med), Dragon Age 1/2(low/med)

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
Streaming video, Dowloading, Web Browsing, ROM+Emulators, Light Statistics, Word Processing, Spread Sheets.

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
I have plenty of storage on my PC but I still would like to have quick access and still plenty of space for music, movies, etc.
I figure 250GB+. 500GB-750GB is probably optimal but I'm willing to work on a budget as to me, speed is more important than size so... SSD>7200>5400.

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
I do have to pay taxes at newegg. This won't make or break a buy but just keep it in mind when looking at the budget.

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
2-4 years. At some point I will probably upgrade my HDD to some fat SSD + an external as well as add 2-4GB of RAM on.

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
NA, but bluray would be nice.

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.

[HP - I'm told they're a pain to work on (IE: you cant open BIOS, etc)
NO:[Gateway - I'm told they're a pain to work on (IE: you cant open BIOS, etc)
[Dell - They usually come overloaded with software.
[Lenovo - Don't know hardly anything about these guys
Maybe:[ Samsung - Don't know much about them just that they make good LCD/Plasma TVs lol
[MSI - Don't know much about their laptops.
[Acer - Preferred
Yes:[Asus - Preferred
[Vaio Preferred

13. What country do you live in?
USA

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
I have a powerhouse home built PC so I just need this mostly for mobile browsing, school work and light entertainment.

Thank-you,
JD

 

[WR2]

Hello Renseru;

At the top end of your budget I like the
Toshiba Portege R835-P55 13.3-in "Sandy Bridge" Core i5 2.3GHz Ultra-light Laptop $800
Toshiba Portege R835-P56X Review (the P55 model is a P56 without facial recognition)
Portege R835-P56X video review c/Net editor's choice.

Another contender would be a
Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E420s 14" Sandy Bridge Core i3 $664 or i5 $711
Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E420s Review

Both are missing a dedicated graphics card but do have the Sandy Bridge HD 3000 graphics.
Intel HD Graphics 3000 graphics review
Check out the verdict summary, and read the review.

 

[Avro Arrow]

Read my thread and you should have a better idea of what to get. Then you'll be able to feel much more secure in your purchase.
http/www.tomshardware.com/forum/60098-35-general-laptop-advice

 

[samwelaye]

also WR2, the r835 p55 has 3 usb 2.0 ports as opposed to the 2 usb 2 and 1 usb 3 of the r835 p56

EDIT::

I am confused on the statement i just made now. On toshiba's website, the p55x is listed as having usb 3.0 and that it is exclusively available at the microsoft store. however, on the microsoft store's website it is listed as a p55 (with no X), and it does not list usb 3.0 anywhere.

i really hate inconsistencies with these things...