My last laptop was a 15.6" beast (Core2 T7200 I think with a GeForce 8400M G), but it was just underpowered enough to not do everything I wanted when I wanted,

My last laptop was a 15.6" beast (Core2 T7200 I think with a GeForce 8400M G), but it was just underpowered enough to not do everything I wanted when I wanted, and was too bulky and power hungry to be considered portable. Last year I switched to an i5 desktop with more than enough CPU and GPU grunt to push through the most demanding tasks (such as video encoding). However, if i wanted to slowly hack away at some code while watching TV in the lounge with my partner or do some coding while at my parents place, I was out of luck. To solve this problem I bought a AMD C-50 equipped Acer Aspire 522 the day they were available here. Despite having only a 10.2" screen and a "netbook" processor, I find it does everything I want to do with a portable computer. The battery life, size and weight give me great portability (+1 for couch-hacking). The dual-core APU never locks up or stutters, even when playing 1080p video via the HDMI port. The DX11 capable graphics even play WoW and Minecraft great at native resolution (1280x720), and allows me to hack around with OpenCL GPGPU programming from my couch. NOTE: I upgraded the memory to 4GB, i would recommend an upgrade to at least 2GB for anyone who has/is getting this laptop. I definitely think switching to a lighter form factor with more portability has allowed me to get more done because I can literally have this machine with me at all times. That said, I waited for this laptop specifically because it was portable, cheap, and had a decent screen resolution. If i were recommending a laptop for someone, I would probably reccomend something in the 12-14" range, unless they're going to have a desktop to do the grunt work, as I do.