Looking for a 'family' laptop

[JohnnyKay]

1. What is your budget? Under $1,000

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering? 14" or 15"

3. What screen resolution do you want? Not critical

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop? Hybrid? Travel infrequently, but want a size that I won't mind packing when I do.

5. How much battery life do you need? 4ish+ (mainly for same reasons as above)

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.)
Basic photo editing. Perhaps some simple video editing. Otherwise internet (multiple windows/tabs) and productivity/data-base type software. Often using all of these at the same time (don't know how much demand that does/doesn't place on RAM)

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need? minimal (most pictures & videos are eventually off-loaded to desktop storage)

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

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop? As long as possible--until it no longer performs the tasks I need adequately

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ? CD/DVD burner. BluRay not necessary.

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. mostly Dell in the past--convenience

13. What country do you live in? USA

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
n/a

Thanks,
John

 

[captaincharisma]

if you are not looking for a high end laptop for gaming then any laptop will do. i suggest a laptop with at least an intel i3 or AMD E-350 CPU. my sister just got a laptop with that AMD CPU in it and seem pretty good. the brands to watch out for IMO are HP and acer.I have seen a lot of issues with those over the years

 

[WR2]

Hello JohnnyKay;
A good all-rounder is the 14" Dell Inspiron 14z $600
Core i3-2330M 2.2Ghz CPU, 6GB RAM, 6GB RAM, 640GB HDD, 14" 1366x768 LCD w/ Intel HD 3000 graphics.
6hr battery life and 4.6lbs.
Dell Inspiron 14z (2011) Review

 

[JohnnyKay]

Hello JohnnyKay;
A good all-rounder is the 14" Dell Inspiron 14z $600
Core i3-2330M 2.2Ghz CPU, 6GB RAM, 6GB RAM, 640GB HDD, 14" 1366x768 LCD w/ Intel HD 3000 graphics.
6hr battery life and 4.6lbs.
Dell Inspiron 14z (2011) Review

Thank you. That was actually one I was looking at and was just wondering if it was worth it to consider the faster processor for my needs. It sounds like the i3 should be sufficient and I would rarely notice a meaningful difference with the i5?

 

[JohnnyKay]

sorry, dp

 

[WR2]

the i3 should be sufficient and I would rarely notice a meaningful difference with the i5?

That's a good way of putting it and I think it's accurate. The i5 Turbo Boost would be beneficial in some situations. But there is no work the i5 can do that the i3 can't. I don't believe the extra $100 gets you enough of a performance boost to be a "must have" option.

 

[JohnnyKay]

Best answer selected by JohnnyKay.