Can anyone suggest a good laptop for me?

get a mac, they last forever. i've had my mac since 2002 and its still going strong

Macbooks are too expensive for the hardware they provide. A lot of what you're paying for is the Mac design.

I'd go Dell or HP. I'm on a Dell now, and have been very pleased with it. Since you're on a budget, try looking through Dell's overstock and refurbished section. Often you can find machines there that are brand new but the owner had to return them, or couldn't pay or something. They'll cost half as much from the overstock site as they would from the main Dell site, and they come with a year-long guarantee. I think HP may also have an overstock site, you'll have to look. I also know for certain that Dell has a seven-hour battery option, since that's what I've got on my machine. It lasted an entire flight from New York to Amsterdam without running out of battery!

Other brands, let's see...

Sony has never impressed me. You can get the same specs for cheaper elsewhere, usually.

Gateways are far too expensive, and are prone to crashes. Don't go gateway.

HPs have a reputation for decent middle-of-the-road machines.

Lenovo is really expensive, but their machines are built like tanks. They'll last for years, but you pay for it.

I got an acer from Wally world for $745 and it is great with a web cam built in. I had to take three of them back and finally I got one that was programmed right. I did not think it would be this fast or have so many features.Aspire 5610-2762. I know it is an "off brand" but I am very happy with it. The battery lasts 1hr 45mins.

EVEREX XT5000T AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-50(1.60GHz) 17.0" Wide XGA+ 1GB 100GB Dual layer DVD Burner NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600 NoteBook $699

Very vibrant 17" display. Dedicated Video Card. Dual HDD capable. Upgradeable CPU. Vista Home PREMIUM. Relative Clean Install. best gaming laptop for the money

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Sub...

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtool...

http://www.everex.com/products/xt5000t/xt5000t.htm

http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1174232

A MacBook for sure.

Why?

1. MacBooks are inexpensive. They start at exactly $A1599 for the baseline model which is perfectly fine (I'm on one now)

2. Most games available for Windows are available for Macs and if not you can just install Windows.

3. Unless you want to spend hours of study time troubleshooting, you will need Mac OS X.

Just my two cents. (That's 2,2 Aussie cents)

If your looking for cheap and easy, I would get an HP or DELL. As much as I hate them, they offer good warranty's and their customer service is supposed to be good and they are fairly cheap as well. I have a vaio/gateway/HP myself.

Vaio - too over rated for what they can do

Gateway - paid $3500 for what I could have just built the same exact one for $1500 cheaper

HP - has lasted 3 years so far, cost me $1200, does everything i need it to do.

I suggest you try NEO laptop. You can buy an Intel Core2 Duo on that price.

buy an acer aspire series,.,..dont believe some other opinions that it sucks,.,it depends upon the user and the type of usage,.