Best laptop under £500?

[Smudger]

I've been looking at tablets, and thinking: 'Surely you get more in a laptop, in terms of speed and flexibility'. So, what's best to go for in this budget?
I'd be looking at >15" screen, hopefully core i5, but willing to go i3 if it's OK.

[timread]

Dell have a nice 15% discount code (M751DLSJF0K1MS) that's valid until the end of today on some Inspiron and XPS laptops starting from £499 or higher. They also have some decent discounts on the XPS lineup right now, until 9th November. I just got an XPS 17 last night for £597.14 inc VAT&Delivery [don't laugh, it's for the wife ]

Model code was N00X7M21. Total 'discounts' came to £320.85 according to Dell, which seemed decent. It has a Core i5-2410M, 4GB RAM, 1GB Nvidia GT 550M, 640GB HDD, 17" 1600x900 HD+ screen, 1yr Next Day Warranty (plus I should get another 5% off that price via topcashback).

I almost went for an XPS 15, Core i5-2410M using the above discount code, for around £517... I just wanted a higher screen resolution than 1366x768, which seems to be the standard 'consumer' 15" laptop screen resolution these days, unfortunately IMHO.

You should also be able to pick up a decent Acer Aspire 5750G or Lenovo G570 for somewhere between £550-600, although I think the latter might come with a Core i3.

[Smudger]

I had a look at Dell, the XPS 15 with the i5-2430M was cheaper than the 2410 one, I think cos it only had 3gb RAm and a 320Gb HD, but when you go through to checkout, they give you 4gb and a 500gb HD for nowt...