Can anybody recommend a good, budget laptop.

My girlfriend is going back to school, and since we are going to be living in separate cities, I want to buy her a laptop so I can keep my computer. Unfortunately, I know nothing about laptops (I know enough about computers to build my own desktops, but I'm not to sure about most of the parts for laptops). What are some reputable vendors. What should I be on the look out for?

Oh, and unless they are very cheap (which is never the case based on my research), there is no need to recommend apple products.

What my gf cares about:

1)Hopefully under 1000 bucks

2)Not one of those tiny notebooks. At least 15 inch screen.

3)Not interested in using it for fancy games. Just homework and those dumb flash games. Her fav game is....ugh...mahjong.

4)Has to be able to play youtube videos (I told her any computer would, but she insists....).

Of course I decrapified it of all the trial offers and bullshit software it was bogged down with.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834107024

It seems like a good comp, but man do they ever load it down with a bunch of useless shit.

That's why I like to make my own comps. It's only got what I want.

That gets rid of most of the garbage;.
Revo Uninstaller will clear out even more.
I cleared up 20Gb hard drive space getting rid of the crap.

for around $250 about a month ago

I have several old Dell Desktop PCs, a handful of various Macs, and I'm astounded with what the Acer netbook is, considering the price: 1 GB RAM, 130 GB HD, wireless, webcam, build-in mike, ethernet port, 3 USB ports, audio jacks. It came loaded with Vista, which I promptly scrapped for Ubuntu -- with some minor funtionality loss (the internal mike, the wireless led indicator, and sleep-on-lid-closure are known problems for Ubuntu with this line of machines). But overall, I'm well satisfied: it's interesting to compare this baby with the Dell Dimension XPS T450 I got a decade ago for five or six times the price, with a slower processor, 128 MB RAM (!), and a 13 GB HD (!)

My advice: think seriously about netbooks, if the smaller keyboard's not a major issue

It was $399 and came with Windows XP, purchased at BestBuy. I had them do their optimization which cleared out all the trial offers and other junk.

more info
http://www.amazon.com/Toshiba-NB205-N311-10-1-Inch-Frost-Netbook/dp/B002BDUATU


Edit: I really like the keys on the keyboard. There is space around each key so you know which letter you are on. It's a touchy thing from those old typing days. Some of those netbooks come with flat keys across the entire keyboard and it's difficult to distinguish the letters.

But for my girlfriend, it's out of the question. She wants something big that she doesn't have to strain to use. Mobility is not really an issue (but she doesn't want a desktop since she will probably be moving it every now and then).

Regardless, thanks for the advice. We ended up getting this:

http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0926INGFS10126822&catid=20354

Except we got in on sale for 720.

they have some incredible deals on their outlet site.

http://www.dell.com/outlet

At work, we always get dells, and I hate them. And their customer service sucks.

I keep telling my boss, next time this lab gets a computer, just let me build it. But no, there are "regulations"....even though I could save him a shitload.