Laptop recommendation?

I'm looking for some laptop recommendations. My price range is $400-500. I'll probably get a 15" - because of the low cost, and it's still portable enough for me.

I intend to use it mainly for e-mail and surfing, maybe some very light digital photo processing. No real gaming.

It doesn't need to be super-portable. It will mostly be for sitting on the couch at home, taking when I visit relatives, or down to the coffee shop.

I know Dell, Toshiba, and Lenovo are pretty decent.. are there any other brands I should be looking at, or should stay away from? Do I need to spend the extra $ to get a Core Duo, or will a lesser processor do it for me?

Links to some exact models that fit my bill would be appreciated. I can go outside the price range if needed, but $400-500 is my target.

Edit I would like something with fairly decent battery life if possibly (3-4+ hours)

Check out the MSI Wind. It's awesome for your needs

http//www.laptopmag.com/review/laptops/msi-wind.aspx

I've been going back and forth on those Netbooks. The problem I have is that everyone says the screen is too small - even at 10", since I don't need something ultraportable.

Unfortunately I haven't found any on display at a B&M store to try.

Personally, after using my friend's lenovo thinkpad, I can't go back and i'm waiting for the x200's to go on sale. Try looking on the lenovo website, they got some sweet deals at times, and they're solid computers. They're a bit pricey but like I said, they have sales and i'm sure ppl in the US get better deals than us anyways..

Not sure if HP ( Hewlett-Packard ) was one of your brands, but they are a very good company. A little while back my dad stopped working for them... When I was a kid ( and the company was named "compaq" he would be able to get me demo laptops that were not used by the company for extremely low rates. They are very durable and never broken on me.

http//www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/computer_can_series.do?storeName=computer_store&category=notebooks&a1=Category&v1=Versatile+performance&series_name=CQ50Z_series

[quote5294983272="ilikegreens"]Not sure if HP ( Hewlett-Packard ) was one of your brands, but they are a very good company. A little while back my dad stopped working for them... When I was a kid ( and the company was named "compaq" he would be able to get me demo laptops that were not used by the company for extremely low rates. They are very durable and never broken on me.

http//www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/computer_can_series.do?storeName=computer_store&category=notebooks&a1=Category&v1=Versatile+performance&series_name=CQ50Z_series[/quote5294983272]
Just to add some dissenting opinion P Compaq was not-so-lovingly called Comcrap by a lot of us old-timers in the IS/IT field. One of the worst commercial brands of PC's I've ever had the privilege of working on, especially in their early days. IBM was another, believe it or not, until they got out of the desktop business and redeemed themselves with the Thinkpad. As for HP, I'm not fond of them either, especially their desktops, although I would rate their laptops a little better than the old Compaq laptops.

Personally, my brands of choice would be Sony, Toshiba, Lenovo, and barely Dell. I say "barely Dell" because I was a fan for a long time, but have seen their quality decline over the last few years. Their business Latitude line are built better than their consumer Inspiron line, but that gap has narrowed considerably too, to the point I think now they may use the same platform for both. For the last 10-12 years, I've been issued Dell laptops at work every 2-3 years, so I've had quite a few models and handled several others that landed in between mine. I used to say I'd buy a Dell laptop first, but after my experience with them and with other brands since, I consider Dell as a mostly "safe" choice but not really the best choice. Then of course there are the "boutique" brands which can be pretty good, such as the Asus and Alienware gaming laptops and others, but they are pricey.

My last two personal laptops have been Toshiba and then Sony, and was quite happy with both -- my 17" A-series VAIO the Sony has to be the best, tightest laptop I've ever seen, and is a pleasure to use.

On a tight budget, I think Acer makes a decent product in a pinch.

Of course, keep in mind that almost none of the big name laptop manufacturers actually make their laptops. The "guts" of almost all brands of laptops are made by the same handful of OEM laptop manufacturers that most people have never heard of. Then they're assembled with brand-specific cases, sometimes custom LCD panels, and maybe a few minor bolt-on features to make them look unique, but are ultimately the same as other brands who use the same OEM. Where they differentiate is in things like quality of build, LCD, BIOS, and support -- and those can be wildly different across brands. I used to could tell you which OEMs the big brands use, but I've forgotten now and it tends to change up a lot. Some brands use more than one OEM too.

We stick primarily with Dells. I agree their quality has gone down, but their service IMHO is leaps and bounds above the rest. I'm not a fan of the nipple mouse pads at all, but if that's your thing, more power to you.

In my experience Sony and Toshiba won't fall in your price range. You can usually find something from Dell on Slickdeals/Fat Wallet (whatever you use).

Also not a fan of Acer, but haven't dealt much with their laptops. I do know most times a clean OS will be needed as they fill it with every piece of software you could imagine before they ship it out. Before I started at the company I work for, they ordered about 20 mini Acers. About 15 of them are dead now.

Thanks everyone. I've seen some really good deals locally on Toshiba's, so I may keep my eye out for something like that. I've also seen some good local Dell deals, so that's an option too.

This is the one I ended up getting.

http//www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9050242&type=product&id=1218012522418

A bit outside my price range, but I had the extra money. I love it so far!

Do you enjoy your Anus Laptop?

I sure do