Budget Laptops, Opinion?

College Life
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<p>Three laptops I'm considering; </p>

<p>Toshiba Satellite T135-S1305RD TruBrite 13.3-Inch:
Amazon.com:</a> Toshiba Satellite T135-S1305RD TruBrite 13.3-Inch Ultrathin Black/Red Laptop - 9 Hours 22 Minutes of Battery…
Processor, Memory, and Motherboard
* Hardware Platform: PC
* Processor: 1.3 GHz Pentium
* System Bus Speed: 800
* Number of Processors: 1
* RAM: 3 GB
* RAM Type: SDRAM
* Memory Slots: 2
Hard Drive
* Size: 320 GB
* Manufacturer: Serial ATA hard disk drive
* Type: Serial ATA
* Speed: 5400.0 rpm
Ports and Connectivity
* USB Ports: 3
* Modem: Modem
Cases and Expandability
* Size (LWH): 12.7 inches, 1.35 inches, 8.78 inches
* Weight: 3.88 pounds</p>

<p>ASUS UL30A-X5K
Amazon.com:</a> ASUS UL30A-X5K Thin and Light 13.3-Inch Laptop with Kindle for PC (Black): Computer & Accessories
* 1.3GHz Intel SU7300 Core 2 Duo Processor; Kindle for PC pre-loaded
* 4GB of DDR3 RAM, 2 slots, 4GB Max
* 500GB SATA Hard Drive (5400 RPM); No optical drive
* 13.3" HD LED Display, Intel GMA 4500MHD, Wi-Fi 802.11 bgn, 0.3M Webcam
* Windows 7 Home Premium Operating System (64 bit); up to 12 hours of battery life</p>

<p>Dell Inspiron 1440
Inspiron</a> 14 (1440) Laptop | Dell</p>

<p>Intel® Pentium® Dual Core™ T4500 (2.3GHz/800MHz FSB/1MB cache)
Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64bit, English
14.0” High Definition (720p) LED Display with TrueLife™
8X CD/DVD Burner (Dual Layer DVD+/-R Drive)
3GB1 Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 800MHz
320GB2 SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD
McAfee SecurityCenter, 15-Months
Dell 1397 Wireless-G
48 Whr Lithium Ion Battery (6 cell) </p>

<p>I'm majoring in Human Resources so I don't need anything high-end. All I'm looking for is decent performance, 3GB+ of ram, 250GB+ Harddrive, good battery life (over 4 hours), and portability (5 lbs or under).</p>

<p>I'm also on a budget of about $600-ish. </p>

<p>I'm not too good with tech secs so I was wondering if anyone can help me out on how to get more bang for a buck. </p>

<p>The Dell seems to be at the best value for now because the other two doesn't include disk drives. But the battery life and and the reviews make me more skeptical. </p>

<p>Suggestions for other options are welcome.</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

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<p>UL30A would be my pick for battery life. One of the best ULV CPUs (other than the limited available i3 ULVs)</p>

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<p>Yeah, it looks like you’ll have to compromise here… either you get the disk drive or you don’t.</p>

<p>I’ve heard good things about ASUS’ battery life so that would be the brand you would want to take if you want extended battery life over a disk drive.</p>

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<p>i’ve heard good things about the asus as well.</p>

<p>iirc, r31ncarnat3d has one so he could give you more info about it</p>

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<p>That I do!</p>

<p>@qchen5943: Bang for buck, the Asus has the best value in my opinion. As summerdude pointed out, you’ll be giving up an optical drive, but after a year of using my laptop I haven’t found that to be an issue.</p>

<p>The best feature of that laptop is, as redfedora711 pointed out, is the battery life. With its stock harddrive, the laptop pulls off 9 hours on a single charge. With a solid state drive (as my laptop does), the laptop does 10 hours (with wifi on). If you’re on a budget and/or need the space, a harddrive should still be more than enough for you.</p>

<p>The laptop itself is very light and thin. I throw it in my messenger bag and honestly, I hardly feel the weight. The laptop “feels” lighter than other laptops also because unlike most laptops, it doesn’t need a charge halfway through the day, so you can leave that charger at home.</p>

<p>The CPU, while a CULV Core 2 Duo, I found to be surprisingly strong. I usually multitask like any other college student (MS Office, Google Chrome, AIM, Pandora) and the CPU is still more than fast enough. In fact, I can get some field photoshopping done with Adobe Photoshop CS4 without any lag, and the laptop handles 10MP RAW files just fine.</p>

<p>The only issue you will have with this laptop is the graphics processor, or lack of it. The laptop uses an integrated Intel graphics chip, which is unsuited for gaming. For non-rendering purposes, like video playback (I’ve done 1080P playback before), the graphics chip will run without a problem. With gaming, however, the most you can do is Sims 3 on lowest settings. Anything more than that will be unplayable.</p>

<p>So in short, if you want a thin+mobile laptop that will last you the entire day on one charge, and you’re not one for gaming, this laptop is the one I recommend!</p>