Portable laptop reccomendations

[fritzington]

Apologies if something similar has been answered recently, but everything I saw seemed to be for gaming laptops, which is the opposite of what I need. I'm looking for a laptop to carry around all day. I need something lightweight with a long battery life, ideally around 14 inches, that runs Windows 7.

1. What is your budget?
under $1000

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

3. What screen resolution do you want?
doesn't matter

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

5. How much battery life do you need?
as much as possible

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)?
this isn't as important as the other criteria, but i'd like to be able to play games that are a few years old, doesn't need to be on high settings

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

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
doesn't matter

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
none

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
at least a year

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
doesn't matter, a DVD drive would be nice but i'd give it up for a smaller laptop

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.
I've had good luck with Asus in the past

13. What country do you live in?
USA

Thanks!

 

[bliq]

You're looking for an ultrabook...

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230171

more options

http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834158316

http/www.dell.com/us/p/inspiron-14z-5423/pd?ref=1925Aimg&~ck=mn

 

[palladin9479]

To the OP:

Ignore most of the other posters. Your looking for something with an APU. I know this because this is the EXACT same thing I was looking for last Christmas. I travel for business a lot and needed something was easy to carry on airplanes / trains / taxi's, easy to setup in different hotel room layouts and that I could play some video games on when I got finished for the day. HP actually has some amazing offerings, the DV6, DV7 or Envy line will get you all the above and for much less then $1000 USD.

Also Samsung and some others have their own offerings, just look for anything with an A8/A10 CPU and you'll be fine.

HP DV6z-7000

Starts at $650 USD and you can add options.

I'd go with:
A10-4600M
8GB of DDR3-1600 memory
9 Cell LiION battery (6-cell is standard)
750GB 5400 RPM (their SSD is $160 for 128GB, you can get cheaper / better from a Samsung 830 so just stick with their basic
HDD and use it in an external enclosure. If your not buying a SSD then chose the 7200RPM drive for another $20 USD.

Total So far: $769.99

You have two display options
#1 15.6 Inch 1366x768 +$0
#2 15.6 Inch 1920x1080 +$150 USD

Your choice, I went with the 1920x1080 in mine and absolutely love it. My GF has the 1366x768 screen and she likes it just fine, so really up to you.

Another Option
#1 DVD-RW +0$
#2 BD-ROM + DVD-RW Combo drive +$75

I went with BR-ROM, gf went with DVD-RW (she watch's downloaded movies).

Base device = $549.99

    Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
    AMD Dual-Core A6-4400M (3.0GHz/2.6GHz, 1MB L2 Cache)
    8GB 1600MHz DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
    Microsoft(R) Office Starter: reduced-functionality Word/Excel(R) only, No PowerPoint(R)/Outlook(R)
    AMD Radeon(TM) HD 7600 Series Discrete-Class Graphics
    FREE Upgrade to 750GB 5400RPM Hard Drive
    No additional security software
    6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
    15.6-inch diagonal HD BrightView LED-backlit Display (1366x768)
    SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support
    HP TrueVision Webcam with Integrated Digital Microphone + HP SimplePass Fingerprint Reader
    802.11b/g/n WLAN
    Standard Keyboard

Total with option #1's = $719.99

    Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
    AMD Quad-Core A10-4600M Accelerated Processor (3.2GHz/2.3GHz, 4MB L2 Cache)
    8GB 1600MHz DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
    Microsoft(R) Office Starter: reduced-functionality Word/Excel(R) only, No PowerPoint(R)/Outlook(R)
    AMD Radeon(TM) HD 7600 Series Discrete-Class Graphics
    FREE Upgrade to 750GB 5400RPM Hard Drive
    No additional security software
    6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
    15.6-inch diagonal HD BrightView LED-backlit Display (1366x768)
    SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support
    HP TrueVision Webcam with Integrated Digital Microphone + HP SimplePass Fingerprint Reader
    802.11b/g/n WLAN
    Standard Keyboard

Total with nicer screen and BD-ROM = $994.99

    Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
    AMD Quad-Core A10-4600M Accelerated Processor (3.2GHz/2.3GHz, 4MB L2 Cache)
    8GB 1600MHz DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
    Microsoft(R) Office Starter: reduced-functionality Word/Excel(R) only, No PowerPoint(R)/Outlook(R)
    AMD Radeon(TM) HD 7600 Series Discrete-Class Graphics
    750GB 7200RPM Hard Drive
    No additional security software
    9 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
    15.6-inch diagonal Full HD Anti-glare LED-backlit Display (1920 x 1080)
    Blu-ray player & SuperMulti DVD burner
    HP TrueVision Webcam with Integrated Digital Microphone + HP SimplePass Fingerprint Reader
    802.11b/g/n WLAN
    Standard Keyboard

You can get anywhere from $50 to $150 USD coupons on internet for HP stuff, just gotta search around. Most have expiration dates and use limits, so gotta be quick once you see them.

That's without going into the Envy series, G series (lower end then DV6) or the DV7's (higher / bigger screens).