New Laptop options

[norsoulnet]

My wife is looking to buy a laptop for school so after some searching she found:

http://www.buy.com/prod/acer-aspire...ron-3400-1-8ghz-14-1/q/loc/101/204153291.html
for $545

and

http://www.buy.com/prod/acer-travel...aptop-notebook-intel/q/loc/101/204389942.html
for $599

Battery life is imperative (our last laptop was a Sony Vaio that cost $1700 and the battery charge lasted only 2 hours) and the only applications she plans on running is office and firefox (thus we're trying to keep the price in the 500-600 range). These laptops look good to me but I don't know jack about laptops (as evidenced by that $1700 door stop).

Do either of these models pass muster for the price, and if so which one would you recommend?

I also found:
http://www.buy.com/prod/acer-travel...ghz-14-1/q/loc/101/204153719.html?dcaid=17820
for $585 but I truly loathe Intel and besides if I remember correctly, those chips drain more power than AMDs.

Thanks in advance for input and advice,
Russ

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

I'd say any of them would perform just the same. Battery life I'd give to the Celeron M actually not the other way around.

So really unless you know why you want the more expensive laptops don't bother, the celeron may have a bit better performance or battery life, but we're talking about minor differences. The Celeron is the bestter choice on paper, but in real life I don't know if the practical difference would be noticeable.

PS, edited your links to be clickable.