buying my first laptop

[WillWork4RAM]

Hey guys, ive lurked in the forums quite abit now. I thought it was time to make an account. Im not a stranger to PCs but ive never really paid attention to mobile devices, I have a samsung galaxy 2 but I dont use it for anything really and thats about it. Now these days its getting kind of hard for me to lug alot of binders for class to class (university student) so i thought why not buy a laptop.

Im going to sound very naive please bear with me. I know about the basic laptop term but whats the difference between netbooks --ultrabooks--notebooks?

Ive been staring at two models:

Lenovo Z580 15 inch with intel core i7-3612QM, 8gig of DDR3 1600MHz ram, 6 cell battery, 500gig 7200rpm hdd $699.00 on sale (gray only i think)

Dell Vostro 3350 13.3inch intel core i5-3317U. 8gig DDR3 1600MHZ, 320gig 7200RPM SATA HDD, ? cell battery (possible 9 cell if willing to pay for 169.99) $699 by itself.

You guys have opinions about these 2 models or others models i should look at? Also whats stopping me for building my own laptop? I built my PC a few years ago as a gaming rig and kept it up to date is there a reason on not building my own?

[JJThomp]

Get the lenovo if you want higher performance and get the Dell for maximum battery life and portability.

[moocow]

If you want custom build you could look into a Clevo. However the upgrade path for laptops are pretty limited, especially the graphics card. As far as I know the difference between those 3 types of portables are:

Netbook: small under power laptop like device that does nothing well but go online, such as Asus EeePC. I guess an Ipad with attached KB or MS Surface would be about the same except you can rip off the KB.
Ultrabook: Intel defined specs for thin and light laptops. Basically their version of Apple Air.
Notebook: standard laptops.

[dandelioneater]

If its just for doing basic schoolwork (internet, typing papers, etc) check out something with an AMD chip in it.
MSI X370-251US AMD Zacate E-450 APU 4GB 500GB 13.3IN Radeon HD6320 W7HP64 Notebook White

Not sure if you like white, but I've used the one with the e-350, and it was a capable little laptop for doing simply work. Much more energy efficient than a big intel machine. It'll even play Starcraft2 on low settings.

[WillWork4RAM]

Thanks for the reply guys, Ill check out that MSI and look into Clevo machines and do some comparisons. Its been a long time since i bought a prebuilt system and im kinda hesistant especially when manufacturers tend to load lots of bloatware.