Screen Size: 15.6"

The screen is a bit smallish and if the built-in video adapter is limited to Maximum Resolution: 1366 x 768, that's a little weak. I would like to see 1920x1080.

I'm certain that the 1366x768 refers only to the resolution of the LCD display. I'm sure it can drive an external display at 1920x1080.

As always, I would go into a showroom and compare the screen and image with other makes and models. If you're going to be doing video on it, you are going to spend a lot of time staring at the screen.

"Basically it's an I7, 4GIG, 500G HD, HDMI "This has basically the same specs as my Dell Studio 15 laptop. It's pretty fast, but no where near the speed of state-of-the-art desktops. New RenderTest 2010 yielded a time of 705 secs.

My 15.6" screen is barely usable for Vegas editing and I only use it for quick-and-dirty stuff I post to the web. It's also handy testing the various techniques I read about on these forums. However, since video editing is only a part of the use for this laptop, I'm glad I got the smaller display because of portability.

Hope this helps,
...Jerry

The major problem I see with this particular laptop (and most other budget laptops) is that it looks like it uses the desktop version of the CPU instead of the lower energy (heat) laptop version. Intel has versions of it's CPUs that use less energy so that they last longer on the batteries of a notebook computer and generate less heat in the smaller format. In the past I've had so much trouble with laptops with desktop CPUs overheating during long renders and editing sessions that I promised myself several years ago that I would never again buy a notebook that didn't have a CPU designed for portable computers. I remember all to well having to prop up my laptop and run an extra cooling fan under it during renders. My current HP notebook has a Centrino version of the Intel Core2Duo chip and having the Centrino version makes all the difference in the world. No more propping up the computer and after an overnight render, the case of the notebook is just a little warm, not dangerously hot like it was when I had a model with a desktop CPU.

"...it looks like it uses the desktop version of the CPU instead of the lower energy (heat) laptop version."The i7 720QM is made specifically for laptops. I get about 3 hours battery life on my Dell. I think we agree that this configuration is not great for complicated projects with long render times. My assesment is, the limited screen space makes it very tough to configure FX's & such (the FX window competes with the Preview Window, etc.). Again, I never use my laptop for anything more than editing short clips for web posts.

...Jerry