Features To Consider

Processor: Intel's Core 2 Duo processor is by far the best currently out there. They are more stable, faster and run at a cooler temperature than their AMD X2 counterparts and to get they will support 64-bit and be more future proof than a Core Duo. Try avoiding AMD or Intel Celeron processors in a laptop. AMD has not been competitive with Intel for several years and their laptops aren't as stable as Intels. Intel Celeron processors lack dual core capacity and much needed cache making them much slower in Vista or Windows 7 than a dual core system. Sub $500 laptops that run on low-power, low-cost Intel Atom CPUs will work just fine with Windows XP, but don't expect them to do much with Vista unless you have a dedicated graphics card.

Graphics Card: Laptops can have either of two different types of video chip sets: a dedicated video card (meaning a separate installed graphics card) or integrated graphics (to save costs motherboard manufacturers install them on the motherboard). Dedicated video cards come mainly from nVidia and ATI/AMD. Integrated graphics are for the most part from whom ever made your laptops motherboard mainly Intel, Via, Sis or a handful of others. If you intend to use your laptop for even casual gaming, make sure that it has a dedicated graphics card with plenty of memory. Do not confuse graphics cards that barrow from system memory. On nVidia cards this is called hypershare, a graphics card might have 128MB dedicated memory for graphics and have to barrow system memory(customizable in the bios) to get more. If you intend to play any gamer you'll need a dedicated graphics card, along with a bare minimum of 256mb of dedicated graphics memory, prefferably 512mb. In the past with Windows XP, integrated graphic cards would work just fine for basic purposes, but Windows Vista and Windows 7 most current budget integrated graphics cards struggle and offload much of the processing responsibility to the CPU. A handful of laptops offer (SLI)Scalable Link Interface, a means to run multiple graphics chips inside one laptop . Hybrid SLI, uses two GPU's operating within a single laptop allowing the laptop to switch between a discrete GPU for graphics hungry tasks and an integrated chip for lower demand tasks. Early versions of hybrid SLI already are present on Apple's newest MacBook Pro and on a handful of laptops from Sony

Graphics memory: Most new laptops typically include 2GB of system memory. Which is what I would recommend for Windows Vista or Windows 7. Cheaper laptops or netbooks may include less memory, for Windows XP 512mb is the minimum that you can get by on and 1GB should be fine. Although on Windows Vista 1GB will be painfully slow. Many laptops today are customizable with 3GB of RAM or more. Before electing to upgrade more RAM than 3GB, check which version of Windows your laptop uses. A 32-bit operating system can not use more than 3.25GB of system memory. You will need a 64-bit OS to Utilize 4GB of ram or more. Often adding more RAM to a laptop allows you to extend its useful life.

Screen: Almost every laptop nowadays is wide screen. Even Lenovo Thinkpads elected to go widescreen. You'll need to calculate several factors to decided what type of screen you'll want. The most important is size, netbooks are around 10.2" while desktop replacement systems can get to 22". For the most part people go for 14.1", 15.4" or 17" systems. 17" might be a little big if you are going to be doing a lot of traveling, but can be a happy medium with limited traveling. Although not as common as it once was the coating on the screen itself is also another factor you will have to decide. Glossy screens allow for a higher contrast, but also have more glare in bright light or sun light, while matte screens are just the opposite. Finally you will want to take into consideration the resolution of the laptop screen as laptop lcd screens display blurry images outside of their native resolution.

Battery: A Laptop's battery life is constantly improving. Thanks to optimizations in hardware the average battery life with a Core2Duo processor is right around three and a half hours. Remember that more portable laptops will have a longer battery life due to slower and smaller components and more notably a smaller LCD. One final thing to consider is going with an extended battery vs. a normal one. Extended batteries generally add time and a half the battery life of a standard battery but can stick out of the back of the laptop by a few inches or add a few inches under the laptop itself depending on the manufacturer.

Keyboard and pointing device: With laptops and their keyboard/touch pad it's best if you try it before you buy it. Smaller laptops may feel cramped while a 19" system will include a number pad. Keys on HP's in particular tend to be overly glossy. Most of the time you won't be able to choose between an eraserhead or a touchpad pointing device. Smaller laptops go with an eraserhead to save space, larger ones generally have a track pad and business class laptops have both. A better option is spending $15 and getting a retractable or wireless USB optical mouse.

Optical and other drives: DVD RW drives are standard nowadays. Now that Blu-ray Disk has won over HD DVD laptops are slowing showing up with Blu-ray drives and prices will continue to drop as the manufacturing costs go down. While floppy drives are long gone you can generally get by with a bootable flash drive for $10 and if for some reason you still need a floppy drive, USB floppy drives can be had for $15-20 shipped.

Hard drive: Most laptops come with hard drives in the range of 200GB to 320GB. Ultraportables now pack solid-state drives (SDDs) with a much lower capacity currently maxing out at 256GB for 2.5" drives. Windows XP was not designed for use with SDD's and generally shouldn't be used with one. Prices will continue to drop on SDD's making them more and more affordable.

Weight and design: Take into consideration the entire weight of everything you'll be purchasing with the laptop including the power adapter, an extra battery or usb attachments.

Docking Stations: A nice feature with laptops is that you can purchase a docking station that snaps right on the back or the bottom of your laptop and leave everything plugged into the dock, which saves you from repeatedly having to plug and unplug everything if you are going to be moving it back and forth from class often.

Communications: Hardly any laptops have legacy ports which have been replaced by USB. Most laptops have a minimum of two USB 2.0 ports;and some go up to six, but you can always get a Powered USB Hub for $20. Many laptops offer FireWire (IEEE 1394) some include eSATA ports for data transfers, depending on the graphics cards, many offer HDMI. Built-In Ethernet and Wifi are standard on anything in the last several years. Built in Bluetooth is a fairly common feature nowadays as are card readers. A handful of laptops are built in with wireless broadband cards allowing you to connect to the internet just like an iphone does without the need for wifi, although USB versions exist as well.