First Laptop for college business student

[joseph.sand]

What is your budget?
Anywhere from 1500 to 2500, perferably under 2000 though

What country will you be buying this in?
USA

What size notebook do you prefer?
14-15 inch screen

Would you consider a refurbished laptop?
No

Where will you be using this laptop?
Will be used different places

How many hours of battery life do you need?
average or better

Will you be buying online or in store?
online or in store

Which OS do you prefer?
Windows 7

List the screen resolutions that interest you:
High Resolution (1600 x 900)
Max Resolution (1920 x 1080)

Do you prefer a glossy or matte screen?
glossy

Is the laptops design important to you?
Yes

Approximately what date will you be buying this laptop?
As soon as i decide, unless newer versions are comming out in the next 3 months (it's June)

How long do you want this laptop to last?
3-4 years

How much storage capacity do you need?
1TB to 750gb unless SSD

Are you interested in SSD for storage?
Yes

Do you want a built-in optical drive, what type?
Yes blueray, but isn't a must

The three most important factors to me are:
-Good Design/Display
-Good keyboard
-Good Quality

I will not be playing any modern 3D games, but I would like decent multitasking power.

Laptops I'm interested in atm (feel free to suggest others)
-Dell
-HP
-Sony

[Prasad]

How could you have left out on mentioning your budget?

[pepper_john]

I would suggest lenovo/IBM thinkpad series, I have two already and just ordered another one.

[joseph.sand]

my bad. anywhere from 1500 to 2500. perferably between 1700 and 2000

[Curs3]

What is it that you will be specifically doing if not gaming with a laptop worth around 2000$?

[joseph.sand]

solidworks and autocad for work in the summer. i need it to run FAST

[Prasad]

Consider the Sager NP9150.

[shorty920]

Why is it that Sager gets recommended in every single thread even it's clearly not a suitable recommendation. Looking at the 3 most important requirements:

1. Good design: The OEM laptops in general don't have good designs, the Sager design is simple, but mediocre at best and definitely lack the professional look that a business student would want. That goes for Alienware, MSI, and any of the laptops listed on sites like XoticPC. These laptops are also rather large and bulky, also a big no-no for business. Portability will be a big factor I'm assuming.
2. I admit I don't actually know how the keyboards are on Sagers, but #1 should make this moot anyway.
3. The cooling is great that's true, but again we're not looking for a gaming laptop, and there are no studies or research that shows the reliability of these OEM laptops. It may not be worth the risk especially since the OP doesn't care about gaming on this.

So imo Sager wouldn't be a good fit in this scenario given the requirements.

Anyway Joseph would you consider an ultrabook? Most scream for professionalism and they super portable and come equipped with SSDs so they are screeching fast for everyday tasks.

If not then definitely search for business class notebooks since they have better build quality and tend to last longer. The Lenovo Thinkpads are excellent I hear. If you want a Dell XPS, then wait a month because their latest line with Ivy Bridge isn't out yet. HP has the probook, Folio and the Envy-Spectre as light, business laptops.

http://store.sony.com/webapp/wcs/sto...52921644863998
Here's a sample Sony S laptop. It's only 4.4lb which is unbelievable for a 15 inch laptop and Sony usually has great build quality. It looks professional too.

[Prasad]

1. Well, like everything else, "good" is relative, is it not? I consider something simple and elegant to be "good". There is nothing in common between the look of a Sager and that of an Alienware. In fact, they're quite the opposites. The "Burj Al Arab" might just be a "good" design to you then, since it is simple but it is a 7-star hotel, while most 5-star hotels are more complex but "Meh." in comparison.
2. Out of the 7 mobile computers I've owned so far (out of them only 1 Sager), I'd do anything to get my old Sager's keyboard back!
3. Gaming or not, the user wants to do AutoCAD among other things. These powerful applications can fully utilize the power of such a machine. Ask me, I bought a gaming Alienware (because I couldn't get a Sager in my limited time frame) primarily to be able to run Linux/Android kernel compilations. This is my business oriented task as well.

[angelica12]

Lenovo are good laptops (I have one, by the way). Toshiba are not good, I had one and it was awful. Besides, I have found many negative reviews (Laptops and Tablets) about this brand in the web. HP, Acer, Asus are all good.