Which laptop to go for.. What Do i need?

[Aay]

Hey there,

I have been looking at buying a laptop for a while.

I am a university student of a budget around £500. I want one that will last, basically. Good build quality and decent specs for a reasonable price. Will be used for MS Office, Research and internet use. Youtube and music, the odd movie download. No hardcore gaming.

I cannot decide whether its worth going for an i5 over an i3, or will an i3 do me fine? I was originally going to go for an i3 but after discussion I was going to go for an i5 with say 4GB or RAM and down the line upgrade it. Apparently an i5 will do me better if I am wanting to keep the laptop long term, what do you think?

Also, I'm not a real fan of lenovo, they feel cheap and plasticky to me.
I cannot decide which brand to go for as I believe a laptops life depends on the user, I am going to take decent care of it. I was looking at a Sony VAIO E- Series as its in pc world with an i5 and 4GB, for just under £500. Or would the dell buisness range be more reliable? A dell vostro 3560 I was looking at.

It would be amazing if you could tell me a specific laptop to look at which will meet my needs. Looks decent and feels decent with decent specs.

Im new here so sorry If i have posted in the wrong area, any help much appreciated!

 

[Aay]

1. What is your budget? £500

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering? 15.6 Inch

3. What screen resolution do you want? Not a major problem

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

5. How much battery life do you need? 4-5 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 a hard-core gamer.

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.) As mentioned above, usual university student. Word, a lot of research, music etc. Movies. Reliability and long lasting.

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need? 500GB Would be enough as I have two 1TB External hard drives.

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links. As long as its reliable and warranty down the line wont be a problem I am happy to buy from online companies.

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop? At least 3-4 Years, with good care taken.

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ? Standard DVD writer fine, blu ray would be a plus.

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 like sony for their build quality. They look nice and from what I have heard are reasonably reliable. Asus and Dell are among the others I like. Ive been steered away from HP due to their bad CS

13. What country do you live in? UK

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.