So Many Choices - Recommend a Middle-End Non-Gaming Entertainment/Work Laptop

G

GeForceX

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Mar 19, 2003
Messages
4,172
Hey guys,

It has been a while since I've shopped around for a laptop. My Dell Inspiron 640M has been nothing but good to me (except the battery now can only live for 10 minutes per charge). The wonderful thing about this laptop is that while it has a 14" screen, it has a beautiful resolution of 1440 x 900 packed in so everything seems so crisp. The keyboard has been wonderful and easy to use too.

So now, I want a new laptop with these criteria:

  • Everyday purpose laptop except for gaming. I do not plan to game at all on this laptop.
  • I watch Hulu in high quality so I need a CPU/GPU chipset that would support smooth rendition of the video.
  • I also watch DVDs and use a lot of software through my school via CDs so I would need a capable DVD drive.
  • I'd like to have a speedy hard drive with a good sized hard drive. Would SSD's be even needed? If I had to choose between speed and storage, I think I would lean slightly on speed.
  • I would like a battery life that's definitely more than my current laptop - it used to get approximately 2 hours. I want more than that!
  • I want a screen size of at least 15"-17" with high resolution.
  • Budget: The less, the better - no more than $900 or so. If there are coupons/deals to make it cheaper, I'm all for it.

I am eyeing this model: http://laptops.toshiba.com/laptops/satellite/A500/A505-S6005. But I am dissatisfied with the resolution - it packs a resolution of 1366x768 in a 16". That's LESS than my current laptop of 1440 x 900 in a 14"! So I know the screen is going to look ugly.

Any advice here?

Thank you,
Jeffrey
 
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