Replacing a Studio 15 Laptop, PLEASE HELP!!

I am looking to replace a Studio 15 that was stolen. I don't want another Dell. It had a dual core processor 6400 running Vista Home Premium. I good web cam is a must. I'm looking for comparable performance with this type of machine or better for the same amount of money.

Hello all THG members Hope you are all fine.
Well I though it would be good to write a FAQ for people to fill in before posting in the laptop section, in order to help others to answer questions more accurately and thus hopefully better.
So please copy and paste these questions in the thread that you want to start, and we will answer them there.


1_What is your budget? $700 including fully operational Office suite

2_What is the size of the notebook that you are considering? 13-15"

3_What screen resolution do you want? Best value screen for budget range.

4_Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop? portable

5_How much battery life do you need? 2 or 3 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)? No gaming at all.

7_What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing, surfing the web, playing music, watching movies, Etc.) Basic Office use heavy focus on Excel, Word, and Power Point. Play movies I also want to be able to hook my laptop up to my 36" LCD TV and use the TV as a monitior when I'm at home, andget agood picture. HDMI port is what I need I think. I need a good to great web-cam to record class lectures with a good microphone. Taking a web design course this fall. Nothing too complex. I want to be abel to burn and rip cds and DVDs.

8_How much storage (H.D.D Capacity) do you need? 30-50 gigs

9_If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post the links to them. Sony, Toshiba, http://www.xoticpc.com/custom-gami [...] 0_104.html

10_How long do you want to keep your laptop? 2 years

11_If you would like to mention some other things about purchasing your ideal laptop, post them. Im looking for the fastest laptop for the budget listed. I got my first laptop in 2006 it was a Dell E1505 Inspiron. It had a dual core processor 512 Ghz, which I upgraded to to max capacity 1 or 2 gig I'm nnot sure, 60 gig memory, it seems like it ran faster than the Studio they gave me to replace the Inspiron whihc broke down . These are the specs on the Studio, ,[Base,Notebook,Core Penryn T6400,2.0,1537,R .Intel core duo processor I just want comparable performance for the around $700i][/i]

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 don't want Dell. Other than that I dont have any biases.

13_What country do you live in? USA