recommendation for nice cheap laptop

[Big Spender]

basic requirements.

light (as in the weight). good battery life, able to use in america. decent storage capacity, not much need for multimedia, maybe some music and photos and the odd dvd. something that wont slow right down when i open more than 2 screens! not too botherd about screen size, anything above 15" would be good, and most importantly.... cheap!

so what do you guys recommend?

 

[GuruJockStrap]

Finding a laptop thats light and cheap is extremely tough.

When I was looking for a laptop, I generally found that the cheaper models (sub £500-600) were heavy (3KG+). If you wanted compactness and a light weight (sub 2KG) be prepared to pay more.

I paid £450 for my Dell Inpsiron 630m and that weighs about 2.4KG, which I consider middle road in terms of size/weight.

For that I got:

Pentium M 1.73GHz (2MB Cache)
512MB DDR II RAM
40GB 8MB Cache HD
Integrated Intel Graphics
Integrated Intel Wireless Adapter
14.1" Widescreen display
DVD RW
NIC
Modem
6 Cell Battery
Windows Media Centre Edition OS

The laptop is extremely quick and feels quicker for general useage than my P4 3.2GHz Shuttle system. Best of all is battery life. Can get 4 hours from the battery with light useage.

 

[split]

anything above 15" would be good

If by that you mean 17, then it's not gonna be light.
15.4" would lower that a bit.

The Dells with the M chip do have a good battery life.