Help determining what laptop to buy.

I know virtually nothing about the specifics of computers. I use one everyday and can figure almost anything out, but knowing what specifications I need for what I'm looking to get out of it is way over my head.

I'm hoping to get advice on what specs I need, but also what can I do without. Specific brands and models numbers would be great and why. There are so many options that I'm getting confused.

1_What is your budget? I’d like to keep it under $800

2_What is the size of the notebook that you are considering? Anything over 15 inches

3_What screen resolution do you want? I don’t know???

4_Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop? Somewhere in the middle

5_How much battery life do you need? More is better, but this isn’t a deal breaker

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)? I’m not a huge gamer so this doesn’t need to be a major consideration

7_What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo / Video editing, surfing the web, playing music, watching movies, Etc.) I like to do all of those on my computer (Photo / Video editing, surfing the web, playing music, watching movies), but I think photo editing and most importantly I work from home and get paid by my rate per hour so I need something that is fairly fast without costing a whole lot of money

8_How much storage (H.D.D Capacity) do you need? I don’t know???

9_If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post the links to them. I don’t care, just wherever I can get the best deals.

10_How long do you want to keep your laptop? As long as possible

11_If you would like to mention some other things about purchasing your ideal laptop, post them. I am just interested in finding the best combination between speed, quality (good customer service is important) and lowest price.

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 would prefer to stay away from Dell because we have had a horrible experience dealing with them concerning our desktop that has never worked right straight out of the box!

13_What country do you live in? USA

Thank you in advance for any and all suggestions and advise.