sobeit

you can find some pretty good laptop reviews here.

From my personal experience, price wise hp is the way to go. I have two hp laptops and never had a lick of problems with either - other than what I caused. Whenever I research for a new computer and start comparing features with pricing, HP seems to come on top.

That said, the reality is, just about all laptops are about the same. Unless you happen to get a lemon, and if you are careful what you install on it, it will last.

For good battery power, it depends exactly what you are running - even for business. Running Microsoft Office will cut battery power time to almost half.

As far as vista, it is the future. I have been using it since it came out without any major problems. I have had some but mostly drivers and such that I caused. If you decide you want xp, get it on the laptop, otherwise if you change your mind, the vista laptop you get may not have drivers available for xp. See the help forums because there are hundreds of users asking for help because they changed their minds after purchasing a vista computer.

As far as ram, 2 most likely will be enough for your plans.

CPU - I really cannot help with that one. Read this for some info