- Portable enough to take to class daily (battery life, weight, and size)
- I plan on hooking it up to a 1980x1080 monitor and using it on my desk like a desktop while at home
- 1080p video
- More than 4GB of RAM might be a plus, because I'm thinking about running a virtual machine on it.
- Small SSD is nice, but probably rare on laptops.
- Not particularly in need of storage
- I don't need much in terms of gaming power. I play Dota 2 on integrated graphics from years ago and I'm satisfied, so I'm pretty sure anything is an improvement over that.
- Build quality! I'm stuck with this thing for another few years, I would like something nice and lasting
- Budget is up to $1000, although given my requirements I don't think it'll be that costly. Then again, laptops are weird

For a "baseline" I thought about the Y150P but I really don't need the gaming power and it's too clunky.

This is actually my first laptop ever, I've used shitty desktop(s) all my life and it's been fine. I probably could have stayed with my desktop if portability weren't an issue. Also I'm afraid it might get damaged in transport or something.

do you have HDMI or Displayport monitor? VGA out is pretty horrid at 1920x1080.

what's the maximum size of monitor you'll accept, assuming a 16:9 aspect ratio?

This looks ideal to me:
HP Pavilion Touch 11.6" for $500
or if 11.6" is too small for you:
HP Split 13.3" for $550

Otherwise, the only good line of laptops, thinkpads, have been destroyed by apple's hate of mechanical buttons, so it's unlikely you'll find a good one for cheap anymore. The X series looks okay, but the screen sizes don't match the price well.

I'm using a VGA to DVI adapter on my secondary monitor, and it's at 1920x1080. And I've got to say... I CANNOT notice a difference.

I mean I have a VGA cable going from my monitor to my video card, and it's connected to my vcard via a DVI/VGA adapter.

I only really recommend notebooks/cheaper laptops for this sort of work and then desktops for home.

Yes, I have an HDMI monitor. Screens-size, I can go up to 15". I played around with a 16" 5lb laptop for a while and it wasn't that bad, but for exclusively daily use I could go a little smaller.

The ones you suggested are mostly fine, but I'd rather have a .5-1tb HDD rather than rely exclusively on an SSD. Living on 128GB sounds difficult. Also, I don't care much for touch/transforming.

I looked into Thinkpads - the newer models are pretty expensive, while getting an older Thinkpad might be compatability hell (e.g. I doubt they have HDMI out). However, like Oh_Man said it wouldn't be impossible...

Yeah, might just get the type rockz posted and get a separate desktop later down the line.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Apr 30 2014, 10:41 pm by l)ark_ssj9kevin.

Well personally I've also never seen a difference in practice between VGA and DVI. Actually once I did, and thought the colors on DVI looked a little pale (and so did 2 of my workmates). I can't quite explain that though since theory says that analog signals degrade above 1280x720. Maybe because quality DA-AD converters and well engineered, short cables were used?
Anyways, a more convincing argument should be that VGA is finally to be made obsolete. Intel and AMD have signed an agreement that by 2015 they won't sell products that support VGA anymore. This will probably phase out VGA within this decade, so when buying devices you should already make sure you got at a DVI and possibly a DP or HDMI port.

As for HDD/SSD. Since you say 512 MB is enough for you I'd go for a large SSD. They've become affordable so it should fit your budget. If not the speed, the shock resistance would convince me since mobile devices will get shocked eventually, no matter how careful you are.

I only really recommend going (more expensive) business series laptops when you plan on keeping the thing for 4+ years, no matter the sort of work being done wth it. Home series laptops often are made with cheap, inferior components that are not built to last. Often the hinge of the display, the keyboard, or simply fans (in general, the mechanic parts) will die before performance becomes an issue and you'll end up buying a new one because repairs and spare parts for laptops are ridiculously high because they are non-mass-produced items.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on May 1 2014, 5:35 am by NudeRaider.

Durability of SSDs is a good point. Also, I reconsidered it and 128 may be sufficient.

I guess I overestimated the durability/lifespan of laptops because I've always been on a sturdy desktop. The consensus seems to be that going for decent quality and replacing every few years is better than going out of your way for something perfect.

That adapter actually connects to an analog portion of the DVI connector and the video card outputs analog video, btw.

I've actually seen Vista-era HP media laptops with an HDMI output, so I would think that you could get HDMI even if the computer is a little older.

I have a couple of 1920x1080 monitors hooked up as secondary monitors for the computers they are used on (2 computers sharing the same 2 monitors with the DVI port on each monitor used for the primary monitor for each computer). It is difficult to even see a quality difference between the VGA and DVI. The cables I'm using are the thicker type like you would see built-in or included with the old CRT monitors, not the thin cheap ones that monitors come with these days. I also think that the DACs on the video cards these days are much better than they used to be. I remember going from older video cards or older integrated graphics to video cards a few or many years newer on some computers and seeing a noticeable difference (like one time I temporarily used an old PCI video card when I was getting a replacement for a much newer PCI Express video card).

I'm not sure if that's just the way you say it or if you are confusing that with resistance to electrical shocks. In case it is the latter, I'll just put it out there that they are referring to forces from being dropped, banging against things, etc.

That would explain why my observations don't match what everyone is warning about, I guess. Still, because of the supposed phasing out of VGA it would be wise to get something that has a digital port (as well).
Yeah, I meant mechanical shock.

I only say be careful with VGA because on my 1080p monitor and my laptop, the pixels move left and right. On my high end monitor (1050x1680) which is used to view medical images at work I don't have any pixel jitter on a VGA out. It only has VGA or DVI though, so I'd rather use it than my personal 21" cheap IPS monitor.

Displayport to VGA doesn't exist without an active converter. I've also been unable to get a dual link DVI port to work with a displayport to DVI passive adapter.

Update?
I ended up getting this: http://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-NX-M2HAA-011-M5-581T-6024-15-6-Inch/dp/B00CU2JTOY/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top
It fit my price range and is portable enough. A little disappointed because the advertised 20gb SSD is for caching only - I should've figured since you can't fit much on 20gb.

Eventually I might install linux on it or something - any ideas on how to do that? (not the linux part but the ability to use an ssd as storage)

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jun 2 2014, 9:37 pm by l)ark_ssj9kevin.

http://slickdeals.net/permadeal/121804/
Pop $200 on a decent 512

I've used only an SSD on my laptop.