Reddit mentions of Lenovo IdeaPad 15.6-Inch Touchscreen Laptop, Black (59406579)

If $650 is your budget, you can get a 1920x1080 IPS display, but its a trade off since it'd have a weaker processor.

There are laptops like the Lenovo G510 that you can get with a more powerful i5-4200M, though, which otherwise is quite similar. Likely a little worse build quality than the Toshiba, though.

It's really a toss up. The Toshiba isn't a terrible laptop. I'm not a fan of Toshiba, but if your dad got it for you, and you'd need to replace it within the same budget.... it may be worth just not hurting his feelings, lol. You aren't going to get anything a ton better. Laptops are all about trade offs. If you're a CS major the additional RAM and quad-core proc may be helpful.

The HP probook mentioned by SaneBRZ is a fantastic laptop for its price. The amazon listing is a little weird and lists the wrong weight, according to the actual datasheet, it should weigh in at something above 3.3 pounds, and not the whopping 5+ pounds there.

Here's a few alternatives, just so you can compare:

Asus x200CA- slower than the probook but should be adequate for your usage. Has a touchscreen and is very light and portable. You mentioned the $300 laptops at Bestbuy- to me this suggests that you'd probably want something decently under $500 and not sitting at it. That said, between the two computers I'd rather take the probook for $200 more

For $530, this Lenovo gets you almost twice the performance and a touchscreen- not bad for $30 more. The probook uses an ultralowvoltage i3 processor, which prioritizes battery life and heat over performance. Additionally, the i3 lacks a few features that the i5 has. This means that the i5 in this laptop benchmarks almost twice the speed of the other. It also has more ram. Although it uses a normal 1TB hdd, versus the super fast SDD in the probook, I don't really see it as a problem. You won't be gaming, so fast load times aren't really useful (well I guess huge spreadsheets). Additionally, windows 8 can boot in 3 seconds with just an HDD, so there's really no major benefit to be gained there. Additionally, if you don't have an external harddrive, then that could add another $60-$100 to your probook because the 128gb SSD won't hold much. The only major downside to this laptop is it's form factor, it's big thick and heavy, at least compared to the probook.

This lenovo is similar to the previous one, but slightly slower and without the touchscreen. It also might run a little hotter too. However, at $460 I included this in case you wanted the performance of the previous, but the price was a turnoff.

Hmm, maybe check these out. Pretty good deals and similar specs to what you were looking at.

• Lenovo - $529
  
• HP - $449
  
• Acer - $399

I wouldn't buy an HP laptop, they are known for overheating. Something like this; http://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-IdeaPad-15-6-Inch-Touchscreen-59406579/dp/B00IO69GVQ/ref=zg_bs_565108_13 would be a better buy :).

I actually ended up buying neither of these because of all the horrible reviews on the slick deals page. After looking around for some time I decided on the G510s Touch found here.

I've only had it for a few days because I was at camp when it came, but so far it's great. The touchscreen is nice and the keyboard, although not the best, is workable. Windows 8 is pretty horrible, but once you know what you're doing and have all of your settings correct you pretty much never have to look at the new UI (I recommend Start8 for a genuine windows feel). I'll be happy to answer any specific questions, but keep in mind that this is the first laptop I've ever bought or spent quality time with.

If you really only need basic internet feature, take a look at Chromebooks.

If you really want Windows or plan on running desktop apps/gaming, then maybe the Lenovo IdeaPad 15.6-Inch or the Dell Inspiron i3542. Both are about as good a computer as you can get for $600. If it were up to me I'd go with the Lenovo.

Thanks h--bar and construktz, I'm going for this one: http://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-IdeaPad-15-6-Inch-Touchscreen-59406579/dp/B00IO69GVQ/ref=sr_1_3?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1406496208&sr=1-3&keywords=lenovo+15.6

I think that this is what you need

edit, it has touchscreen, i5, 6 GB DDR3, 1Tb Hdd and I know someone who haves it and its rather nice to use.

altough its rather over-budget -dammit- I believe it will last a reasonably long time

When it comes to 15.6" laptops, you can't really go too portable or have great battery life if you're limited to a sub-$1000 budget.

Nonetheless, the Lenovo Ideapad looks like it might fit the bill.

I might get this Lenovo IdeaPad at $529.99. The ASUS is good too.

Thanks for the response the HP isn't a bad looking one at all. I also liked the http://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-IdeaPad-15-6-Inch-Touchscreen-59406579/dp/B00IO69GVQ/ref=pd_cp_pc_0

This Ideapad is the best value and has a quality build.

This Acer Aspire E5 has a slight advantage for low end gaming.