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[TennelVince69]

OK, so I need some help in choosing a laptop. My basic requirements are that it's smaller than my current Inspiron 600m (14", 60 GB, 1 GB Ram, DVD Drive, 6 lbs). I want a laptop that has at least 6 hours or more battery, smaller screen size, but not so small that I need to squint my eyes just to look at something. I'm basically going to be using it for Gmail, Web Browsing, Typing stuff up, using excel for heavy calculations, and IM/Skype. I'm not replacing my normal desktop with it. Currently the Inspiron 600m has trouble playing Hulu (small screen or full screen)...and since this laptop is 5 years or so old, I figure time to upgrade.

So I was looking at the Asus UL30A-X5 - 13.3" , 12 Hours Battery Life. Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit (Will upgrade to Professional), 3.75 pounds, 1.3 Ghz SU7300 Core 2 Duo, 4 GB DD3 Ram, 500 GB HDD, Wi-Fi-N, with Webcam. My gripe though, is the display is using Intel GMA 4500MHD with 1360 x 768 resolution ....which I know is not the greatest video card for laptops. It probably was chosen for the battery life.I do plan on also watching movies from iTunes or stuff downloaded...so I'm concerned about the video quality.

What are my other options for laptops with a dedicated video card? I'd prefer that screen size, but I'm concerned about the video graphics. I saw that a studio 14z from Dell had a dedicated one, had 1600x??? resolution, but was 14". So I'm wondering if I should make that jump. The laptop would only be 1 pound lighter though! (4.85 pounds I think).

What do you think? Again, I'm not really planning on playing any real games on this...so I'm not sure if the Intel GMA 4500MHD can handle movies, etc. well. I'm concerned about memory usage.

Thanks!

[fleshlight]

The 4500mhd can output 1080p just fine. You don't need a dedicated card for what you're doing. Unless "heavy calculations" involve using goalseek on a 65000+ row spreadsheet, the Asus is overkill.

[dksmoove]

The Asus should do just fine with what you are about to do.

Problem with your old inspiron was probably the processor just couldn't handle the videos, not necessarily just from a bad GPU (videocard).

You don't need a dedicated GPU unless you're a gamer.

[VK45DE]

I agree with others that the asus is fine for what you're doing. I'm running a thinkpad with 1.6 C2D 4gz ram and it can even do video convert video as fast as my desktop. I heard the seperate video card decreases power consumption though so that might be a reason to get it. Actually if you do, the dell 14z isn't really special, most any 14" laptops have the option. Finding it on a smaller one is rare though but I have here it is"
IdeaPad Z series