I need a new backup laptop (with a non-chiclet keyboard!)

[Ken g6]

Uses: Backup for my desktop (meaning web development, preferably at least one 1GB-RAM Linux VirtualBox VM, occasional ancient gaming), IE development, some Distributed Computing (so good cooling would be nice) and maybe occasional video encoding. Any Intel HD graphics would be fine for the gaming - even pre-HD graphics would have worked.
Budget: Can I get $500? Willing to expand the budget if needed, but I'm cheap.

Must have:
- Windows (7, or 8.1)
- A good keyboard. No

chiclets. My Dell Inspiron 6000 from 2005 has a good keyboard (except for occasional rrepeat lletters). My Asus Transformer TF300T has a chiclet keyboard - not good.
- A touchpad. No eraserheads or rollerballs if they still exist.
- A nice-sized screen. I'd like a 16x9 screen that fits well in a 17" laptop bag. If it doesn't fit, but you can fit a nice new laptop bag in the budget, that's OK too.

Would like:
- At least 8 hours battery life. This shouldn't be hard to find, should it?
- A dual-core Sandy, Ivy, or Haswell processor, preferably with HT. Though I might take an Atom or such for the right price. Honestly, I could almost make do with that ancient Dell if I could add some more RAM, an SSD, and an OS newer than XP.
- No discrete graphics. Don't need it, don't want it.
- A ~250GB SSD. But I'd be willing to buy one myself and swap it in for a HDD.
- RAM: 4GB minimum, 8GB would be nice, 16GB would probably be very nice. (Space for a second Linux VM, and multiple browsers at the same time, being the nice part.)
- A common, easy-to-find power supply, if I need one later. Any laptops that can be charged (slowly) by USB?

I went to WalMart and looked at laptops today. Most of the laptops had chiclet keyboards, and they're unusable. The only brand that had non-chiclet was Toshiba, and they didn't have any i3s or i5s on display. I'm thinking this might work. But it's a bit expensive. :\

 

[frozentundra123456]

That laptop is way too expensive. I got a very similar HP laptop with an i3 at Best Buy recently for less than 400.00. Seems like it was 369.00 but I dont remember the exact price. I am sure it wont make 8 hours battery life, and it had no SSD, but the same would apply to the one you linked.

I doubt you will get anything with a SSD or 8 hours battery life for 500.00 unless you go for something like Kabini or atom. They might make the battery life, but performance will be lousy and those low end ones dont have SSDs as a rule either.

If you are looking for 8 hours battery life, you are probably looking for an ultrabook, which will be expensive.

 

[Ken g6]

The battery life thing was in the "would like" section which is less important. I just can't believe the average laptop doesn't get 8 hours of battery life yet. My year-old tablet-with-keyboard gets 12!

 

[holden j caufield]

definitely look into a t420, non chiclet, built like a tank, regular battery gets 5 hours extended gets almost 10 hours. 1600 x 900 14.1, 16gb ram capable, modular dvd drive can be swapped out for a another hard drive. I actually had 3 drives in mine, msata, regular drive, and one in the modular. Can get a sandy bridge in i5 up to i7, some have even put in i7 quad cores. Love mine but with so many vm's running I really wanted a 1080p screen (well actuall 1200p old school)

 

[Ken g6]

Hm, a T420, huh?

1600 x 900 14.1, 16gb ram capable

Not from what I can see: 1366 x 768, max 8GB.

Not bad, but surprisingly old. Is old or high-priced really what it takes to get a decent laptop keyboard these days?

Although, surprisingly, battery life isn't bad, so I guess the main downside is no USB3. :hmm:

 

[raildogg]

The Dell Latitude series keyboards are not totally chiclet. They are built well, very serviceable and come with 3 year warranties. Even the refurbished ones come with 3 year warranties.

 

[holden j caufield]

t420 is cutomizable they have 1600x900 and up to i7 etc. 8max is when only 4gb dimms were on the market I'm running one with 16gb at the moment

 

[Ken g6]

[thread=2215964]Seems almost everybody agreed on Lenovo[/thread] two years ago. I'll probably get that one from Newegg, but I think I may wait a bit to pull the trigger.