I'm not a large gamer, but I love to play Sims, and I can play games for hours at a time. I also like to read ebooks, and if it's a good one, I can read and read and read without stopping. I do quite a bit of typing, both for pleasure and for school. I'm always on the internet, I'm an ebay seller, but I'm also a large facebook/myspace/amazon/yahoo email sort of girl. I'm also sort of fashionable, and I like things that are eye catching, unique, classic and basic. However I'm always on the go, and I have the ability to be clumsy. I have tons of music, and thousands (literally) of pictures. Put this all together and I need a laptop that is:

tough. it won't die if i drop it (from a short distance) two or three (okay a couple) of times.

good looking. it would be nice if it was appealing to the eye. classy, something with a nice feel, but unique as well. basic black (a nice glossy, gorgous black) with maybe a tiny design on the back.

great on graphics, because i love my games. when i'm not working, i'm gaming or watching dvds. and since my job is easy, i do a lot of gaming/dvd watching.

fast running, i multi-task and it has to keep up with me.

great memory, because i'll fill it up with my games and word documents alone.

decent battery life. right now, i'm lucky if i get 2 1/2. it doesn't cut it because it's either always plugged up, always dying, or somewhere inbetween, warning me i have 20 minutes left. it's annoying.

something that's light. i'm always carrying it around, or lying it on my stomach to read. after a while it gets uncomfortable if it's a 15 pounder like i have now.

dependable. my little gateway, which i've had for tiny over 2 years has blue screened on me twice, i've had to reboot it countless times, it's missing two keys, the battery life (which was already short) has shortened to a little over two hours on power saver. high performance is an 1 hour….most days. the cd/dvd driver is dead, dead dead. i need something that's going to last me at least 5 years strong. not 5 years of little repairs and quirks, like a good solid 5 years. i'd settle for a solid 3 years right now.

price, well i'd enjoy it to be under 2000, if it's at all possible. if not, it would be a worthy investment if it holds up.

oh, i'm not picky on make, but i will say, even though i'd like an apple, i'm not used to mac. i've used windows all my life. if it's not an apple, that would be incredible. if it is, well i'll just learn to adjust.

anything else? hm….

oh, thank you for looking, and thank you tons if you could help me out. I know upgrades can be purchased, so a recommendation with upgrades is just fine.

i've found a few laptops, but i'd like the expertise of yahoo answers. ^_^

Answer:
1. Tough - rugged laptops are a specialized category. Dell makes a hardened business Lattitude model and the gaming Dell XPS M1730 is based on a Dell Precision magnesium chasis both of which are cheaper than a Panasonic Toughbook.

Any other consumer brands or models would be about the same if you are looking at “toughness” instead of “reliability”

Unless you get a specifically designed hardened laptop as mentioned above, don't expect to be able to drop it even once and have it survive.

If you decide not to pay extra for a specialized “tough” laptop, one solution would be to pay extra for a 3 year extended warranty that covers accidental LCD breakage etc. Most manufacturers offer that for roughly $100 per year.

2. Good looking - right here you’ve conflicted with tough even though the Dell XPS M1730 is almost tough and really good looking. The M1730 will fail on lightness stipulation.

3. Games - totally depends on the graphics chip:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Computer-Ga…

4. Fast running - Fastest would be a Quad Core CPU. Otherwise any modern CPU should be decent.

5. Great memory - you probably mean disk space, but RAM is good if either 4 gig or 8 gig and hard drives of 320 or 500 gigs are simple to get.

6. Decent battery life - subjective of course but this requirement conflicts with fast running since there’s no magic bullet to save battery other than runs things slower or get a larger battery. Get an extra battery pack when you get the laptop and keep it charged might be a solution so you don't have to compromise speed or gaming.

7. Light - there’s no way for laptop manufacturers to violate the laws of reality (physics) - Speed generates heat. The best way to get rid of heat is lots of heavy copper plumbing. A light laptop will either run very hot or be very noisy or always run in a variety of irritating slowdown modes or sometimes all three of these irritating things.

8. Reliable - most blue screens come from using low-end integrated graphics chips without dedicated video RAM. Then there’s the issue of the missing copper plumbing…

9. Price - $2000 is not even close to enough if you need a hardened laptop. It can get you a Dell XPS M1730 if you watch for deals. There is no laptop at any price that ideally meets all your stipulations.

10. Brand - The only Apple that doesnt have sub-par components is the Macbook Pro 17″ with the 7200 rpm hard drive upgrade.

Better than Apple would be a Sager:

http://www.sagernotebook.com/default.php

If you really need tough, then you will have to sacrifice light and afforable and look at Panasonic or the specialized Dell.

11. Anything else - be sure to get a 7200 rpm hard drive or a solid state hard drive.

Your reading stipulation - depends on screen resolution and quality - generally the 1920×1200 LCD's have good resolution and quality and a LED backlight on it helps as well.

12. The Dell Studio XPS 16 might be a good compromise of good looking and power as it can be configured with a great LCD selection, a 7200 rpm hard drive and a graphics chip that’s quite a bit superior than a Macbook for a good price. Has the sleek black look and a backlit keyboard and the best LCD quality in a laptop.

http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc….

Tough laptops:

Dell Lattitude E6400 ATG:
http://www.dell.com/content/products/pro…

Panasonic Toughbook:
http://www.panasonic.com/business/toughb…

Answer:
The ideal laptops for games are made by Alienware
www.alienware.com
If you cannot afford one new, buy an seccond hand on eBay with 1,000 USD, I assure you any Alienware laptop is moooooooore powerfull than any other laptop for games on market!