Just had to buy my wife a new laptop - hers died last week. My thoughts:
- Windows 8 owns the new-PC market. Between Amazon, Micro Center, Newegg, and TigerDirect, I found *FOUR* models that fit her (truly not excessive) needs which were available with Win7 (7 Pro, all of them). I found probably hundreds with Win8. She has a Win8 computer now.
- For Win8, I honestly would have preferred a touchscreen computer, since it's basically a tablet/smartphone interface. Not with otherwise-decent hardware at around $1000, though.
- Harder than I would have thought to find a model with BD optical drive plus backlit keyboard. We got one, but it took some work. ETA - at less than $1500, it's hard.
- Win8 with StarDock's Shell8 greatly resembles Win7, for $5, and is highly configurable. I'll be messing around with that once I get a little time to do so. 30 day free trial is currently running.
- the new-gen clickable touchpads royally suck. My stepdaughter has one on her new Sony Vaio, which her dad bought her, and my wife's new HP Envy that I got her has one. I also bought a Logitech 325 wireless mouse for my wife's computer, which is what she wanted - we'll be investigating how to turn off the touchpad.
- A thousand bucks will get you a nice machine. Lori's HP Envy-17 j092nr has :
Intel Core i7-4700MQ Processor 2.4GHz (wasn't a critical requirement, but better to have more CPU and not need it...)
Microsoft Windows 8
12GB DDR3 SDRAM (lots of RAM helps her on the job, teleworking)
1TB 5,400RPM Hard Drive (up from a 320 GB 5400rpm - could have gotten a similar machine with a 750GB 7200rpm, but HDD speed is not a thing for her)
NVIDIA GeForce GT 740M (this WAS a critical req - the integrated graphics on her prior machine choked hard on Netflix. This should not.)
Blu-ray Player and SuperMulti DVD Burner (again, better to have and not need...)
Multi-format Digital Media Card Reader
10/100/1000 Network
802.11b/g/n Wireless
Bluetooth
17.3" HD+ BrightView LED-backlit Display
The screen is pretty, and while not true HD, at 1600x900 is better than her previous one and more than sufficient for her needs. System is portable, powerful, and while the battery life isn't the greatest, she almost never goes untethered anyways, so it's not an issue.