Clueless when shopping for a laptop, HELP!

So I need a new laptop. Because right now, I do everything on a netbook that is not handling my workload whatsoever. I was wondering if any techies here could help me out in finding a laptop that would suit my needs?

I'm going back to school, so I need something that can handle that- powerpoints, word documents, watching videos, etc. I value fast loading and internet access above just about anything else. I like to play The Sims, too. LOL. I'd love something with a CD drive. Battery life is something I'm lenient on... but I guess a laptop that dies within half an hour might start to piss me off.
I also like purple. In case you want an extra challenge.

I love my acer....LOL
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I'm thinking you need a basic kind of laptop that has graphics that are good enough to support your gaming, a hard drive large enough to house many documents without lagging. I do think you need to consider a big battery life. Especially if the power goes out for hours; trust me mine is only 4 hours.

The colour isn't as important, you can generally get them customized later on, but at the moment there are 3 kinds of processor speeds (how fast your computer is, how much it can handle, etc.)

The most basic is Intel Core i3. I have Core i5 and I do a lot of what you're looking for as I am a college student, I manage my horse's finances, I play some games now and then, etc. Core i7 is for butt kicking capabilities. Mainly if you work with rendering (3D modeling) or you're more of a serious gamer since it takes up a lot of your CPU usage (how many programs your computer can juggle at once without crashing/freezing/etc.)

I think you should aim for Core i5 as Core i3 is pretty useless in my eyes :P

The second thing you need to focus on is the 'plugs' (not the technical term lol) that are on the laptop. Do you use a lot of usb plugins like a little mouse, or USB thumb drives, or card reader, etc? Are you going to use plug-in internet, are you going to want to plug a TV into your computer, etc.

Fast internet is going to be something different. That's mainly what kind of internet plan you buy, not really related to the laptop EXCEPT an onboard (inside the laptop) wifi chip is nice. One that has an easy off/on switch.

MOST new laptops come with their basic version of windows or mac. You can decide to keep it or get it wiped clean and buy the right operating system program that you want. The version that comes with it usually has a lot of useless apps or shortcuts so I recommend finding someone that knows PCs (if you don't, that is) and removing those to free up space.

Mine is from fujitsu, which is more of a multimedia brand but I love its capabilities and it wasn't that expensive.

Dells are a good option too.

Acer.. pretty nice but I really highly recommend reading the reviews on any laptop you consider purchasing. Be careful asking people at the store as they usually just want you to buy something.. so they can talk up a storm.

You should look for a laptop that isn't too heavy, though. That's my advice to you.

I wouldn't get an Apple..

Hope I helped a bit.. I'm still learning myself.

But write down what you need, your price range, and go research!! Maybe go to a website and look at what they have to offer, look at the "specs" and see if something has most if not all of what you want.

I don't recommend Leader laptops at all and I will never buy one of them ever again. My current laptop is an eMachine and it's decent except there's supposedly some fault in eMachines that stop some of them from running whenever they encounter something that requires Adobe Flash Player. It really irritates me whenever I go to watch youtube videos and my computer shuts down, but my laptop runs The Sims and Photoshop really well so it kinda makes up for it.

Price Range?

I recommend Macbook Pros all the way....their warranties are excellent and I've been going with Apple for 5+ years. PC convert. I mean, Windows is slowly looking like a mac osx anyways ;) no need for antivirus or any of that nonsense. However, they are spendy.

I'm not sure what you mean by "no need for antivirus or any of that nonsense"

If you mean you don't need anti virus software, then you're wrong. Viruses these days can get past the firewall as they appear relatively harmless but infact can spy and corrupt your entire system...... so you need to have active programs that look for the little buggers or you'll end up in a world of hurt.

And if you mean the pre-loaded crap that comes with most laptops.. it's really easy to clean that off.

Dell Inspiron are pretty good. You can customised the spec on their website to meet needs and budget. Like Sky says right now you'll be best getting an i5 processor. Dell provide a pretty good service and I had my old one for years.
Others to consider are toshiba, Sony, Sanyo, just make sure theyve got i5 processors, windows 7 and for anti-virus try a free one you can download called avg.

And I think dell even do different colours. Bonus!

Ok, I work on a boat and have a VZ mobile hotspot at top of engine room stairs,

I want to ,
Read e books,
Shop,
Post on this forum
Post on FB,
Surf web,

Things I would like to be able to hold it like the tablets, it doenst have to be super light weight but would like long battery life. I also have limited to no feelings in my finger tips and find using a touch screen hard to impossible.

I have no idea what android or an app is. Specific models anyone ?

I'll sell you mine cheep. $69 should suffice. Hit me up on pm if you're interested.