Help Me, LAPTOP: I Want a Sub-$900 Gaming Notebook

You ask for notebook advice and deliver. Reader Sajjad writes:

My criteria for laptop would for price point between $500-$900. Basically, want laptop that can be somewhat portable and is capable of watching movies, but can play games like Need for speed SHIFT. I want a screen range of 13″-16″. I would like the battery to last 4 hours or more on a 6-cell. I would be using my laptop for more than 4 years so it must be durable.

The things which are most important to me are:

• Screen size (preferably 15″)
• Processing power (core i3 or core i5)
• WiFi
• RAM (at least 4 gigs)
• A good Graphic Card. (at least 512 MB)
• Battery Life
• Good Speakers
• A back-lit keyboard
• Durable (because i have to use it for more than 4 years…)

It used to be that you couldn’t get a system with strong discrete graphics performance for under $900, but fortunately we’ve seen a few pop up lately. Here are our suggestions.

The 15-inch ASUS N61 series costs just over $900, features powerful 1GB Nvidia GeForce graphics, a 7,200 rpm hard drive, and USB 3.0. However, its 3 hours and 28 minutes of battery life is below average for a notebook this size.

To maximize battery life, ideally, you’d get a system with Nvidia Optimus technology. Optimus gives you the best of both worlds by automatically switching between power-saving integrated graphics and performance-enhancing discrete graphics, depending on what you are doing at the moment.

If you’re willing to get a 14-inch notebook, the ASUS UL80Vt is a really strong choice. It has Nvidia Optimus techonlogy, over 6 hours of battery life, a Core i3 processor, and a generous 500GB hard drive. Even better, ASUS provides a two-year warranty with a year of accidental damage protection.

The 14-inch Toshiba Satellite M645, one of our favorite laptops right now, is also available with Nvidia Optimus and it can also be configured with a powerful Core i5 CPU and a 7,200 rpm hard drive. We love the Satellite M645, because it has a fantastic keyboard, accurate touchpad, and the best speakers we’ve heard on a notebook this size. However, with these options the M645 may cost closer to $1,000.