Help me buy a new laptop!

[Fall of Epic]

I bought my current laptop USED over four years ago so a new one is long overdue. It's to the point where I need to use an external keyboard and every other time I power it on, I get the blue screen of death. I was thinking of investing in a MacBook Pro but I honestly don't think shelling out $2000+ for a laptop I'm just going to use for writing and online browsing (I doubt I'll do much video editing) is really worth it. I was reccommended a few kinds by some co-workers but not I'd like to hear your thoughts on what I should buy.

One rule: NO DELLS.

 

[jimmy no nose]

It's tough to make a recommendation without more information on price range (although with the MacBook Pro in play I assume pretty much everything's fair game) and screen size, but I've become a very big fan of Lenovo recently. My current machine is a Lenovo IdeaPad Y580:

http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/web/LenovoPortal/en_US/catalog.workflow:category.details?current-catalog-id=12F0696583E04D86B9B79B0FEC01C087&current-category-id=AC523278A4F13F27A84F5F5622D1AC7A&action=init

It's a pretty amazing multimedia machine and the specs are almost unheard of at $1000. Big 15.6" screen that's full HD (1920x1080), 1 TB hard drive, 8 GB RAM, 2 GB dedicated graphics, i7 processor, and a Blu-Ray drive. Also has a number pad built in with the keyboard which is pretty useful for me, but may not be for some other people. The Blu-Ray drive and HDMI out are great if you travel at all. It's also more than capable for gaming purposes if you were planning on doing any of that. There's also a version for $850 that isn't full HD and has a regular DVD writer rather than the Blu-Ray option.

This really might be a bit more machine than you'll need. There are cheaper options with smaller screens and better battery life if you're not planning on doing anything media-heavy with it.

 

[Fall of Epic]

MacBook Pro aside, I was hoping to spend less than $1000. I was hoping for for a big screen since I don't care for owning a desktop and a lot of ram for all my downloaded music. I checked out the Lenovo one and it seemed like a good fit. What do you think about Chromebooks or Samsung laptopos in general?