Laptop suggestion

[Borg]

The OP wanted a screen size of 12" to 14"? What about Toshiba laptops? The L635 at Stooples is 13.3" w/ i5-480M CPU. I am just curious about it. I never see Toshiba recommended in laptop discussions.... even HP gets a few fans. Any reason?

It's $700, though, so a bit pricey... not sure if it's over the OP's budget. Tons of Acer choices but I don't like that they never have extra features like eSATA and only a bit cheaper than other alternatives. Also, Acer QC is questionable?

[bgf]

I don't know how important battery life is but here is a look at a new Lenovo with the Sandy Bridge CPU. If this is a example of what Sandy Bridge means to laptops it might be worth waiting a little longer.

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/news/mobile/lenovo-announces-sandy-bridge-thinkpads-30-hour-battery/

[bgf]

Opps the above link does not work hereis batter one

Lenovo Announces Sandy Bridge Thinkpads with 30 Hour Battery | Hardware Canucks

[ADay2Long]

Kilauea what did you end up buying?

My gf also needs a new laptop and the requirements are very similar!

[Kilauea]

I went for a Lenovo X120e, I've had it for 2 days.

My gf is not so fond of the looks, she actually finds it ugly, while I find it has a nice look. It feels very nice too, there is no cheap feeling in it. It also seems fast enough to do just about anything I would want to do with it. For a bit more style, you could always go for the Sony version of it (not sure if it has a glossy screen), there is also the MSI which is not out yet, but very nice looking by her standards.

It is smaller than what I said I wanted in the original post, but I find 11.6in to be quite nice actually.

[CMetaphor]

ya lucky sonofa....

Mine still hasn't even been shipped yet... i think ill call and complain today

Can't wait to run some old school games on it and bench it to see just what it can do.
Im crossing my fingers for SC2 - med or low settings - 720p... we shall seeeeee

[ADay2Long]

I was actually leaning towards the x120e also, they have it in stock at my local Canada Computers, hope they have it on display!

Future Shop also has a HP DM1 with the exact same specs minus the matte screen.

How's battery life?

[Kilauea]

I haven't been able to try the battery life yet, I will do that soon. As it appears, it should be around 5 hours.

I still got another unit to send back because of Lenovo's no change policy... Need to do that tonight too.

I am getting the feeling SC2 will not run well at all on it, but we'll see... Hopefully more info will come tonight.

[Kilauea]

According to Systemrequirementslab.com, it can run SCII based on the minimum requirements.

[Borg]

Originally Posted by CMetaphor

According to the early reviews and benchmarks thus far, they are:
A) Far, far faster than Intel Atoms.
B) Their integrated GPU is pretty much equal to ION2 options.
C) They produce far less heat than the Athlon II "Neo" mobile processors.
D) They have at least 1.5-2hrs increased battery life over netbooks/laptops using the above.

All in all theyre looking like an amazing options for netbooks/small notebook/ultraportables/tablets, but ill wait till more reviews come out (including hopefully a HWC one) before deciding what I want to to buy.

Trying to stay OT though, sorry to the OP. Just trying to provide the most info possible for ya.

I'm wondering about these laptops, too.

I don't know if I'll be in the market for a cheap one anytime soon but my laptop is ancient and I would like a new one.

I thought maybe the fusion/amd ones are not good for processing power but maybe it's good enough if you want it for surfing and basic computing?