Which of these 3?

[trogdor796]

I may be picking up a laptop today and I've narrowed it down to these 3. This laptop will be used for 2 years of college and moderated gaming(mostly WoW and maybe some Battlefield). Which of these 3 would you guys recommend? Not only based on performance/price, but also on what you think is a good size for a college student.
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0365385
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0365663
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0360743

The Asus seems like the best deal, and I've been told 3 hrs is enough for college, but I do really like Sony products. And the Acer's 9 hr battery life claim interests me. I would wait for AMD's new laptops to hit at the end of the month, but apparantly it will sacrifice cpu power for gpu power. Seeing as gaming isn't my top priority i think the 540m will suffice. If I am wrong about this plz let me know. And I may buy one of these today, so quick responses are welcome!

 

[Maziar]

The second will give you the best combination of CPU/GPU power

 

[trogdor796]

Yeah, but do you feel it's too heavy for a college student? I've been told it's fine, I just keep second guessing. What about battery life. Does 3 hours sound like a realistic amount for the Asus under general use? I can't seem to find any battery life information anywhere.

 

[WR2]

In 'note taking mode' (no wireless, minimum screen brightness, max battery saving mode) you'll get 4.5hrs (or more) from all of those this year. Next year? Probably 3.5 hrs.

I think you'll see a lot of freshman toting laptops around. Not quite so many upperclassmen. They leave theirs chained up in the dorm most of the time.
How to not look like a freshman

 

[trogdor796]

I am going to a technical college, not a university with dorms and that stuff, so it's a little bit of a different setting. So the battery life degrades that much over a year. Still, since I'm only going two years even 3.5 on the second should be fine. I was under the impression that the ASUS would only give me 3 hrs brand new. So I won't notice a major difference in battery life between the three? Or reliability or anything? If that's the case, the ASUS seems like the ideal choice. On another forum someone said none of those and suggested a Sager NP5160. This doesn't seem as cheap as the ASUS though. What is your opinion?

 

[WR2]

I'm OK with any of those choices.

My personal opinion is that between laptops in the same class (consumer) and price range ($800) reliability will be within a few percentage points for them all. We know a fair bit about past laptop's reliability and just about ZIP on these new models. As long as you take care of it, don't drop or otherwise abuse it, any of those should last four years, easy.

Since you're a commuter and won't have a safe place to store your laptop when not needed you might want to take a serious look at the lightest, 13" model. It's battery will have the longest run time of all the models.

Still, any of them will get the job done, so pick the one you like best. You'll soon learn when you can leave the laptop home and when you'll need it for classes.

 

[trogdor796]

Okay, thank you for the help. I guess it's just based on my preference then.

 

[WR2]

Acer Aspire 3830TG Subnotebook review
shows just how good the battery life really is. And a wealth of other good to know stuff.

Try and find independent reviews when ever you can.

 

[WR2]

See if anything here might be useful to you:
Top Picks: Software For A Better (Campus) Life

 

[trogdor796]

What do you think of the HP dv6? People on notebook review are insisting a higher resolution than 1366x768 is needed on laptops over 13". It's hard for me since this is my first laptop. Thank you for being patient and for all the help so far.

 

[WR2]

1366x768 is just fine for day to day in-class work. That's not to say a high res screen doesn't make for a nice workspace.

But a 23" 1920x1080 LCD external monitor would be my choice vs spending the extra $150 to upgrade a 15" laptop. You'd have your dual screen (1366x768 and 1920x1080) work space if that type of thing is handy for your programs. Otherwise it's the 1920x1080 for getting home work done and 1366x768 for taking notes in class.

 

[WR2]

You can get some really fine deals on the HP dv6t and the Dell XPS 15

 

[trogdor796]

Are there better coupons coming soon for the HP?

 

[WR2]

No way of telling for sure. I've seen better times, and worse, for the HP and Dell coupons.

 

[trogdor796]

Best answer selected by trogdor796.