<p>smaller screen ~ longer battery, right?</p>
<p>I'm looking for between 12.1 and 14.1 in screens. My budget is <$400, <$500 at the very most. I need a laptop with very long battery life. It must also last me 5+ years.</p>
<p>Lastly, I'm not familiar with Macs, and I don't have the patience. Sticking with PCs.</p>
<p>Please list suggestions.</p>
<p>There isn’t really a laptop that will last you 5+ years. It’s quite unlikely even if you pay $1000 for it.</p>
<p>If I were you, I’d modify the requirements and go with a 10" Netbook. Sure, the screen is small, but it’ll easily fit in your budget, be lighter than a MacBook air, and have the ultra-long battery life you want.</p>
<p>I personally have an Asus 1001P-MU17, which has a 10" screen, Atom N450 processor, and 48 kWh 6-cell battery. However, because of the power savings, the battery actually lasts 8hr despite its small size. At the end, my bottom-line cost was $260.</p>
<p>Of course, I also have a desktop and a large monitor to supplement that, but that’s because I’m a passionate CS major who spends almost all my time on computers. I do have friends who have only a netbook and the setup works very nicely for them.</p>
<p>I don’t care if my laptop can become obsolete. All I need to do it websurfing, homework writing, and eclipse. It’d be nice to have a game or two as well. My parents strongly disagree with me getting a netbook due to the small size. Are there netbooks out there with 12.1 in?</p>
<p>There is not much if any selection in the 12.1" size for less than $500 its fairly limited even with 14" notebooks. It would also be highly unlikely that you could find a computer with a good battery life for that price without giving up something else.</p>
<p>[Amazon.com:</a> ASUS Eee PC Seashell 1201N-PU17-BK 12.1-Inch Black Netbook - 5 Hours of Battery Life: Computer & Accessories](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/Seashell-1201N-PU17-BK-12-1-Inch-Black-Netbook/dp/B002ZLOR56]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/Seashell-1201N-PU17-BK-12-1-Inch-Black-Netbook/dp/B002ZLOR56) </p>
<p>Here is a 12 in netbook. ~5 hour battery life and with the Nvidia ION platform you could even do some very light gaming. I doubt you could find anything better in your price and size range though…</p>
<p>If you were willing to pay a little more you could go for this: <a href=“http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002PAQXAE/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B002ZLOR56&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0V82W2CND6V788WW2CTT[/url]”>http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002PAQXAE/ref=pd_lpo_k2_dp_sr_1?pf_rd_p=486539851&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B002ZLOR56&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0V82W2CND6V788WW2CTT</a> and get ~7.5 hours of battery life and a better processor.</p>
<p>thanks a lot. Very helpful.</p>
<p>open to more suggestions.</p>
<p>Since battery life is a price spiker, I’m not going to consider it to be a big priority anymore. I’ll just say that 4+ hours of battery is sufficient. And light. I need it to be light. I got enough txt books in my sack right now.</p>
<p>P.S. I read somewhere someone said “Stay away from Dells. Their laptops are cheap because they use cheap scrap metal for their computers.” or something along those lines.</p>
<p>Try asus UL 30 series. It’s 13.3 inch laptop that has 10-12 hours battery life + Core 2 cpu.
[Amazon.com:</a> asus ul](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=asus+ul&x=0&y=0]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=asus+ul&x=0&y=0)</p>
<p>Lenovo X100E will win you over.</p>
<p>Try raise your budget a bit cause this will be more than just a laptop. It will count as a investment as you will use it throughout college (i assume) and therefore it is important as you want it to be good. Plus saving a extra $200 can making a very big difference.</p>
<p>Hey, I ordered one of those 13.3 in Asus netbooks. It cost 600 bucks, so it’d better be good.</p>
<p>The UL30A? I own one myself, and I don’t regret my purchase :)</p>
<p>I’m using a Samsung 12’’ NC20. I like it… It was $400.</p>
<p>I love my Asus!</p>
<p>[Woot</a> : One Day, One Deal (SM)](<a href=“http://w00t.com/]Woot”>http://w00t.com/)</p>
<p>Todays deal is a refurbished 10.1’’ Acer netbook with an accessory kit for $285 which is fantastic.</p>
<p>^ Not worth it. Acer is junk.</p>
<p>[Amazon.com:</a> MSI U160-007US 10-Inch Brown Netbook - 15 Hour Battery Life: Computer & Accessories](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/MSI-U160-007US-10-Inch-Brown-Netbook/dp/B0036OR9B0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=pc&qid=1271894391&sr=1-1]Amazon.com:”>http://www.amazon.com/MSI-U160-007US-10-Inch-Brown-Netbook/dp/B0036OR9B0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=pc&qid=1271894391&sr=1-1)</p>
<p>MSI makes great stuff and doesn’t get enough credit for it. </p>
<p>(you probably will get around 7 hours out of it in real life usage)</p>
<p>Edit- whoops, just read you wanted at least 12". Gonna be hard for under 500 bucks with big battery life.</p>