I am just looking for a new laptop. Looking for one with a good battery life, slim design, and ideally something which will last a fair few years ideally with a hard wearing case. Got approx 500 – 600 to spend on it. Windows 7 not vista please

Long battery life narrows it down considerably – most full feature laptops have piss-poor battery lives except for the top end ones. I have an original tiny Vaio which gives 7 hours, but it cost £2k. However, there are Netbooks, eg search for Acer Timeline, with 7+ hour battery life which aren't that expensive.