Good laptop under $1000

It's been a while since I last bought a laptop (circa 5 years), and while it is usually pretty easy to recommend BFUs one given their budget, for my personal use, I find it quite overwhelming. I would say I'm closer to power user than basic..

 

My priorities in descending importance are

- Linux compatibility (I can work around Nvidia Optimus crap and stuff, so that shouldn't be a problem)

- good build. My mid-range gaming MSI was really tough, but had rather weak hinges and after one nasty fall, they broke off and took half of the chassis with them :D

- at least 8GB, ideally 16GBs of RAM for running VMs, working with 10+ MPix images in GIMP and a bit of future-proofing.

- good screen - no "HD Ready" crap... On a 15,6" laptop I expect at least 1080p as most new phones do have nowadays, preferably matte finish, antiglare... you know the drill

- battery life - at least 3-4 hours of mid-range workload.

- decent keyboard (preferably backlit) and touchpad.

 

As for gaming.... I usually only play Skyrim with few immersion mods (frosftfall & basic needs for starters) and indie games, so I suppose even onboard Intel graphics could cut it. 

I am not sure about the screen size... I like the portability of <=14" laptops, but at home I got my desktop plugged to 42" 1080p LG TV and I love the screen estate. Even when I compare my current 17" laptop (1440x900p) I prefer it over 15" (1366x768). Is there any developer working on 13" laptop around here? Is it manageable?

The Alienware 13 looks great. Should be compatible with Linux as my Latitude E5530 works great. Dell is renown for compatibility with Linux.

Well.. I would prefer to be able to buy it without Windows. I already got MSDNAA licence for pretty much all Windows versions ever, and I will probably run only Linux on it anyway. The CPUs are just dualcore, which bothers me, since I want to run VMs. Also it looks rather bulky for a 13" laptop.. if I am to carry 5 pounds (including powebrick), I rather have more spacious keyboard and more screen estate. Also, in my price range, the default screen is 1360x768, which is pathetic for a $1k machine...

The best laptop I have owned is a cheap Toshiba apu satellite with high frequency ram and an 840 evo. And I have owned some high end laptops before (M170, M1710, M1730, AW M17x R1).

 

Can play all my games at low at 60fps, stays nice and cool, sips battery, and is just as fast as my desktop on normal use. Something that every other of my laptops had failed at. I am never spending more than $400 on the initial cost of a laptop again.

The screen sucks balls though.

So.. I need to speed things up and buy it this week. Today I lived through real programmer s nightmare - Mere hours before deadline for my c++ school project and another deadline for an Android app the backlight of my old work laptop died. Fortunately one of my friends was kind enough to get in the car and is driving with a spare external display in this moment :D I m ordering a laptop on Friday, but I am still not sure, what to buy. Experience says, I need to get something really sturdy...

So... in the end, I ended up ordering Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E540 Red, with a bit lacklustre GT 740M, 8GB of 1600 MHz DDR3L RAM and pretty beefy looking  i7 4712MQ. I'll get it by Tuesday, so I'm gonna report my initial impressions... My only gripe is that it's got TN panel, but I guess I can't have everything, considering the price... On the plus side, it looks like the fingerprint sensor is going to work in Linux as well :)