Notebook for movies, WoW and school

[Gwinn]

General Questions

1) What is your budget?

Around 1500$

2) What size notebook would you prefer?

c. Thin and Light; 13" - 14" screen

3) Where will you buying this notebook? You can select the flag of your country as an indicator.

Czech republic (EU) or USA, don't realy care

5) What are the primary tasks will you be performing with this notebook?

Browsing the web, playing WoW, watching movies, writing stuff for school, maybe a few other older games. In that order.

6) Will you be taking the notebook with you to different places, leaving it on your desk or both?

Sometimes, though not very freguetly. But I'd like it to be under 3kg.

7) Will you be playing games on it; if so, which games or types of games?

As mentioned, mainly WoW, Warcraft3, potentialy SC2

8) How many hours of battery life do you need?

Don't care much.

9) Would you prefer to see the notebooks you're considering before purchasing it or buying a notebook on-line without seeing it is OK?

No problem buying online as most manufacturers don't offer half as many models in my country.

10) What OS do you prefer? Windows (XP or Vista), Mac OS, Linux, etc.

Windows, currently running XP, but planning on moving to Vista.

Screen Specifics

11) From the choices below, what screen resolutions would you prefer?

b. WXGA+ – 1440x900; A modest bump over WXGA. Text and icons are a bit smaller. A little more stuff fits on the screen.

I will consider other suggestions, but don't really wanna go below this.

12) Do you want a glossy/reflective screen or a matte/non-glossy screen?

I think I'd prefer glossy, but I didn't a have a matte, so can't really compare. But glossy was fine.

Build Quality and Design

13) Are the notebook's looks and stylishness important to you?

Not really.

14) When are you buying this laptop and how long do you want this laptop to last?

Around 3 years. The build quality is very important for me, because I know I won't treat it nicely. So something sturdy is much prefered.

Notebook Components

15) How much hard drive space do you need; 80GB to 500GB? Do you want a SSD drive?

I plan on buying SSD in about a year, so about 160GB at 7200 speed is fine.

16) Do you need an optical drive? If yes, a CDRW/DVD-ROM, DVD Burner or Blu-Ray drive?

Definitely need one, but blu-ray isn't necesary.

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I'll be leaving in a week for Sweden, for my Erasmus stay there. So I need a notebook to use there.

From browsing the forums, I came to consider the Lenovo T400. The only problem I have with it is the screen quality, which doesn't go very well with movies. So basicaly, I'd like suggestions on similarly equiped and resilient machines that have better screens. Preferably from well known manufacturers.

[Howitzer225]

Sony Vaio SR or ASUS N81Vp.

[User Retired 2]

Sony Vaio SR or ASUS N81Vp.

+1. Could look at cheaper with slower gpu performance, but cheaper with DIY ViDock. N81VG below has $100 mail rebate bring it to US$900, a great price.

US$650 14.1" Dell Studio 14z 14.0" T4200-2.0 3GB 250GB 9400M VHP
US$1000 14.1" Asus N81VG-X1 14.0" P8600-2.4 4GB 320GB GT120M VHP
US$1000 12.1" Lenovo X200 7459-N1512.1" P8400-2.26 4GB 160GB 4500 vBulletin

[Gwinn]

Thanks for the suggestions.

I checked the 2 models you proposed, but the Sony SR seems to have some build quality problems and the the Asus, although I otherwise like it, has a bit too low resolution.

On the other hand, I don't think I need the laptop to be a gaming powerhouse, nice screen and above all, durability is the priority for me.

[Howitzer225]

T400 or Latitude E6400 are my recommendations.