Dell Vostro 1000 or HP 2550se?

Hey guys,

I live in Canada.

I'm looking for a good laptop that I can use for my undergrad years at University. I'll be living on campus, so it will be my main computer.

I am looking for a light-weight and good battery life laptop. I asked a few people I know and they also recommended I get 2GB of ram, as it would most likely last me 4 years.

Now, I've narrowed my choice down to 2 pc's that have the above details; the Dell Vostro 1000 and the HP 2550SE from Best Buy.

Both have 2 GB of ram. The Vostro has a 9 cell battery, while the HP has a 12 cell, although both should last at least 4 hours (for taking notes in lectures).

The Vostro, with taxes, comes to about $700(CAD). The HP, on the other hand, comes to approx. $1400(CAD). 1 of my friends said to get the HP, while my cousin says to get the Dell, as there isn't much difference besides the price in the two.

Let me clarify what my laptop uses will be. Firstly, it will be for going in lectures and taking notes, so a good battery life/light weight laptop is essential here. Secondly, I'll probably be doing some powerpoint on it. Thirdly, maybe some music or videos (youtube). Lastly, I MAY play some games on it. Nothing like Crysis or Bioshock. Something old like CS 1.6 or Warcraft 3 (maybe WoW). And that's it.

In my opinion, the HP looks 10x better than the Vostro. However, my brain keeps racking and telling me that wasting more money for looks is a bad idea.

I appreciate any advice and anything other information I may have missed. I'm not too familiar with processors for laptops. In fact, I'm not too good with any specs for laptops. I'm more of a desktop guy, so Turion's and Centrino Mobiles are new to me.

Again, any advice will be appreciated. I'll be buying one of these within a day or two.

Or if any of you can recommend another laptop, that would be helpful too. Best price range would be under $1300 CAD.

The links to the 2 laptops:
Dell Vostro - http://configure.dell.com/dellstor [...] 00A2X_F_1E
HP 2550se - http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/prod [...] &langid=EN

Thanks again.

uhh def the vostro. u can upgrade the battery too, cant you? if you arent gonna be playing any real games, then get the cheapest you can for college. because mostly, teh cheapest laptops can already do all the basic stuff you need for college.

Yea, this is a link to the Alienware Fan Club...

Go with the DELL if check out http://www.dealcatcher.com where you can usually find DELL coupons to bring the price down below the HP enough to make it worth it, otherwise I think the HP is built better.