In the market for a laptop.

[Punked Out Comp]

Here's what I'm looking for in a laptop.

Can surf web.
Can play movies decently.
Good battery life.
Can play songs decently.
Good for light gaming.
Fairly spacious screen.


Thats all I can think of now.

I'm looking for the most inexpensive that meets the above criteria, and is reliable and good quality.

[thefultonhow]

If you're willing to deal with the size of a 17" widescreen, get the Dell Inspiron 9300 with the GeForce Go 6800 GPU in it. The 6800 is quite good for gaming (~4000 in 3DMark05); if you get at least a 1.86 GHz it will be able to play even high-def movies pretty smoothly (might have trouble with 1080p unless you get the 2.13 GHz, but will handle 720p no problem); the laptop has a four-hour battery life if you undervolt the processor and turn down the screen brightness, and even better if you underclock the GPU; and is available with a WUXGA screen that packs the same number of pixels in a 23" Cinema Display or a Dell 2405FPW (24") into 17". Songs and web surfing are small potatoes for it -- any laptop cando those nowadays.

Price -- Under $2000 with all the goodies. If you use discretion you can get it down below $1500. You will have to use coupons, though.

[Jaggannath]

Getting deja vu regularly yet tfh?? I reckon we need to set up a thread you and I can just reference to :D

[thefultonhow]

Getting deja vu regularly yet tfh?? I reckon we need to set up a thread you and I can just reference to :D

Haha, not a bad idea. Frankly, the 9300 can't be beat at the medium-high end for price/performance, and any performance increase past the 9300 will come at the expense of size/weight, heat, and battery life. My XPS2, despite being identical to the 9300 besides the GPU, only gets about two hours of battery life.

[Punked Out Comp]

Ok, now I have the answer to the most inexpensive laptop that meets all the above criteria. Good. Thanks.

Now a slightly different question.
Which laptop will offer me the most of the above criteria for $0-$500? $500-$1000?

[thefultonhow]

criteria for $0-$500?

Absolutely nothing. There practically aren't laptops that inexpensive.

$500-$1000?

Very likely the Dell Inspiron 6000 -- but you'll only be getting an ATI X300 with that.