Looking for college laptop

[jes133]

Hello everyone. I am in the market for a new laptop for college. I use an Asus G73 as my main computer, but it is far too heavy and cumbersome to lug to class.

1. What is your budget?

$350 or under

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?

12"-15.6"

3. What screen resolution do you want?

Does not matter

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?

Portable

5. How much battery life do you need?

Good battery life. I would say at least 4-5 hours, if possible longer.

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.

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)

Note Taking, Word Processing (In-class writing assignments), Light video watching, Web browsing

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?

320GB or more

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.

None in particular

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?

3-5 years

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?

CD/DVD Burner is pretty much standard now, so at least that

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.

Preferred brands are Dell, HP, Asus, Acer, Sony, and Toshiba but I am open to suggestions

13. What country do you live in?

United States

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.

If possible I would like a touchscreen that I could use a stylus on, but if that is not possible, I would like a comfortable keyboard so I can quickly type notes in something such as Evernote of OneNote

 

[Pyree]

You may want to sell you G73 for a G53, but you won't get the battery life you want.

 

[ajay_vishvanathan]

check something in hp pavilion.. They are best for students.. But they may be a little low for your budget.. But they give good life and durability..

 

[jes133]

Thank you for the replies. I will check into both options. I also forgot to mention that I have a spare HP g62 laptop sitting around. It is about a year and two months old. It would be perfect, but the battery life is horrid (about an hour with wi-fi turned on). If i upgraded to the nine cell battery like this one: http://www.amazon.com/Cell-Laptop-Battery-G42t-G72t/dp/B004UDBG4W/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1317855660&sr=8-1 would I get the battery life I am seeking? I have seen mixed reviews about the 9 cell on HP's website, so I am not sure what to think about it.

 

[jes133]

Sorry for the bump. I just did note feel an entirely new thread was necessary. If I got rid of my Asus G73 in exchange for the HP Pavilion dv6t QE, would I get better battery life but still have close to the performance of my G73? As I have it configured now the HP would contain: Core i7 2630QM, 6GB DDR3 RAM, Radeon HD 6770M 1GB, 1920x1080 HD screen, and a 750GB 7200rpm HDD as well as a blu ray drive.

My G73 is configured as follows: Core i7 2630QM, 8GB DDR3 RAM, GTX460M 1GB, 1600x900 screen, a standard dvd drive, and a 750GB 7200rpm HDD.

Since I would use the HP as my main computer it would need to be able to run AutoCAD (simple 2D drawings and very light 3D work), web surfing, gaming (GTA IV, FSX, other much less demanding games), and hopefully better battery life. I configured it with a 9 cell battery and the reviews say people are getting 5-6 hours with it even using the dedicated graphics. Could this be true? Opinions are appreciated.

 

[Pyree]

The 6770m in the HP is not going to be as powerful as the GTX460m in the G73, but you can definitely play games on it.

I think for the up to 5.5 hours part is for dv6 series laptop on the i3 with integrated gpu. Your 6770m probably have about 2hrs on battery in battery saving mode (all device turned off, lowest screen brightness) on the default 6 cell battery playing standard definition movie.

 

[jes133]

Ok, I knew the 6770m would not be as powerful, but do you think I could at least achieve medium settings on both games mentioned at 1920x1080 with the 6770m?

 

[jes133]

Best answer selected by jes133.