Best $500 laptop for basic use?

15 inch screen, preferably larger

4 GB of RAM (don't need more)

320-500 GB hard-drive

Fast(ish) dual-core

Decent integrated graphics

Decent speakers

Decent cooling

Good keyboard and touchpad

Non-hideous

4-5 hour battery life

Limited bloatware

Less than 6 pounds

I'm willing to spend a bit more than $500

The laptop is not for me.

I'd like to purchase it from a non-obscure website (Newegg, Bestbuy, Compusa, tigerdirect, etc)

If you want to save money and want an extremely well built laptop
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Dell-Latitude-D630-Laptop-2-4Ghz-T7700-1440x900-200GB-WiFi-Win-7-Office-2007-/181023509773?pt=Laptops_Nov05&hash=item2a25d78d0d

I had a d630, loved it.

Battery life isn't 4-5 hours, but you can replace the cd drive with a battery, and get a 9 cell battery for really long battery life.

I had pretty much the same model, with the same gpu. It's the quadro version of the 8400mgs.

You can just lookup "d630 1440x900" for more results and all that.

I swear by ASUS for laptops personally. Good build quality, sleek looks, decent specs at a decent price.

I swear by ASUS for laptops personally. Good build quality, sleek looks, decent specs at a decent price.

broken_bass_bin

For sub500: I'd get:

A used macbook/pro (lol)

Some kind of latitude laptop

Build quality is the most important thing on these kinds of cheap laptops.

I swear by ASUS for laptops personally. Good build quality, sleek looks, decent specs at a decent price.

broken_bass_bin

What's the person you're buying it for planning on using it for? I ask because for many purposes handled by a laptop in this range, a tablet could be a serious contender and some usability and portability may be gained with it (eg: loving my new Surface for MANY of the tasks I used to use my laptop for and I can tote it around work and into and out of patient rooms much more easily).

[QUOTE="broken_bass_bin"]

I swear by ASUS for laptops personally. Good build quality, sleek looks, decent specs at a decent price.

FelipeInside

[QUOTE="FelipeInside"][QUOTE="broken_bass_bin"]

I swear by ASUS for laptops personally. Good build quality, sleek looks, decent specs at a decent price.

Allicrombie

I would not, all my asus stuff has broken down relatively quickly. This includes 1 laptop and 2 motherboards. Laptop barely lasted 3 years and the motherboard also failed after 3 years. The other motherboard failed after 3 months lol. Stay away from garbage asus.

15 inch screen, preferably larger

4 GB of RAM (don't need more)

320-500 GB hard-drive

Fast(ish) dual-core

Decent integrated graphics

Decent speakers

Decent cooling

Good keyboard and touchpad

Non-hideous

4-5 hour battery life

Limited bloatware

Less than 6 pounds

I'm willing to spend a bit more than $500

The laptop is not for me.

I'd like to purchase it from a non-obscure website (Newegg, Bestbuy, Compusa, tigerdirect, etc)

Riadon2

[QUOTE="Allicrombie"][QUOTE="FelipeInside"] I second that, and they come with 2 Years Warranty off the bat on most models. All other brands only have 12 months.blaznwiipspman1

I would not, all my asus stuff has broken down relatively quickly. This includes 1 laptop and 2 motherboards. Laptop barely lasted 3 years and the motherboard also failed after 3 years. The other motherboard failed after 3 months lol. Stay away from garbage asus.