Looking for a laptop for work and school (FAQ filled out inside.)

Astropuls3

Commendable
Feb 10, 2016
2
0
1,510
1. What is your budget? 
$1300
2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering? 
15inch and below
3. What screen resolution do you want? 
1920x1080
4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop? 
Portable
5. How much battery life do you need? 
4-5 hours
6. Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)? 
Play various stream games, mostly indie adventure games like Firewatch and The Long Dark with some Dota 2 or modded minecraft mixed in.
7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.) 
Graphic design, coding (c++, rust, etc) and working with unity and lumberyard.
8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need? 
Between 500gig to 1TB
9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
Mostly amazon
10. How long do you want to keep your laptop? 
4-5 years
11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
None
12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons. 
Looked at the razer blade qhd but want something less expensive. Looked at Asus, Lenovo and HP
13. What country do you live in? 
US
14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
 

Astropuls3

Commendable
Feb 10, 2016
2
0
1,510
I recommend the Dell XPS 15 which comes with a quad core i5-6300HQ, nVidia 960m, 1TB HDD + 32GB SSD cache for $1,200.

The Infinity Display means the bezel around the screen is very thin making this 15.6" laptop the size of an average 14" laptop. That allows the laptop to be lighter than most other 15.6" laptops; it is 3.9lbs.

http://www.dell.com/us/p/xps-15-9550-laptop/pd?ST=dell%20xps%2015&dgc=ST&cid=245444&lid=4222339&acd=123098073120560&ven1=sEjCXmj6A&ven2=e&ven3=471303134391041693

I believe based some video reviews and written reviews the Dell XPS gets an average of 8 or 9 hours battery with "typical" usage. Actual battery life will depend on what you do. Watching videos until the battery dies? Yeah, definitely less than 8 hours.