Looking for notebook; school use

I’m transferring to a real college this Christmas. Now I now a lot will change in hose few months, but what do you all suggest? I like anorexic notebooks, >1" is preferable, but not really possible.
15 inch wide
Skinny and light
Not Celeron
512mb memory
5+ Hours battery


And what’s the difference between Pentium M and Centrino? I’m guessing that PM is slightly more powerful, but Centrino is going to give better battery life.

Any suggestions? Considering my desktop will sell for about $800 on eBay, I could go as high as like $1200, maybe even dipping into the $2000 range.

Centrino is a platform, Pentium M is a processor. Centrino notebooks include a pentium m processor, wireless and something else

how key is the 15screen. Ie would you settle ether for 15.4 widescreen or a 14in screen

Pentium M - CPU series.. as is Pentium 4, Pentium 3 Etc...

Centrino = the intel 855P or 915P express chipsets, and use the intel wireless adapters.

Legally you cannot call a laptop centrino if it doesnt have any of the other 2 components, even if it features the PM CPU.

with that, skinny and light, and 15 inch screen are almost a contradiction, because for a 15 inch screen, you're staring at a desktop replacement system. if you're looking for skinny and light you might as well go for an ultra portable. If you're looking for inbetween you will have to get a 14 inch screen.. etc etc..

now -- if you decide to go head first into ultra portable land, i could suggest the D600, which has a PM CPU, up to 1.6ghz PM .. that will run you around 850 on ebay refurb.. or you can dig deeper and move up to a tablet.. the toshiba m200 is light, and crisp with up to 2ghz dothan i believe, and is VERY mobile.

if you decide to go head first into power, (with 15 inch screen) .. you can get the dell inspiron 5160, that has 3.06ghz, and an radeon 8500, upgradable to 9200.. that can run most games on medium sets, and can run with most desktop rigs.. but it's pretty heavy, but packs quite a punch..

i'll look up some middle that are moderate, and are at least somewhat light, and pack a punch.

i see so the 15.4 wide is going to be associated with bigger guys, so it would be wise to go 14inch. Okay, so centrino then doesn't offer any real advantages over PM cause its almost the same thing.

In that case, what would you guys suggest?

I can't help but want one of these, but its onlya 12inch screen, maybe that is too tiny for me, but I like waht I see

http://www.voodoopc.com/showroom.aspx?lineid=12

i'm an intel user myself, and those are all amd based solutions, so i can't really comment. from what i've heard the turion and dothan performance is neck and neck, but the dothan based solution is supposed to allow for better battery life (low wattage and ultra low wattage versions forget about it).

If I were in your shoes i'd stick with a main brand (dell, hp[compaq], toshiba, sony) only because those 2 offer the best tech support solutions, and give the best warranty for the buck. my toshiba has a 12 inch screen and it's great. the size of the screen is important, but the resolution is what will make the difference.

ahh, well ill have to drop by bestbuy or some computer place and see what a 12inch 14 inch look like. Thanks for the input guys.