I do not need the full milspec explosion/waterproof models..
Just hopefully minor drop and knocked over drink resistance to protect my $500 ballpark investment.
Much as I have been looking at CF-51 etc semirugged or the harder cased CF-71 family variants the $ to hardness trade offs seem dicey. As in perhaps I just should get a $399 low end from somewhere new and get the no quibbles even broken screen warranty .
My average use profile is web browsing, light commercial use of OpenOffice and some music playing.
I do not need shooter game frame rates etc. Battery life and stability are more important to me as examples.
Beryl would be nice but not essential as a target max demand application. DVD/CD burner is a minimum optical drive.
Within that overview recommends will be appreciated
SO folks, if you were going to spend $500 on a new or Ebay sourced laptop what would it be?