I'm having a hard time trying to find what I'm looking for. Basically, I want a 14" or smaller, newer laptop with a dedicated video card for around 500 USD or less. It can be the worst video card on the market, but so many games that aren't even remotely graphically intense still apparently aren't supported by integrated cards, even though a few games which are graphically intense will run on them. I'm mostly interested in playing strategy/RPG/indie type games on it, though. No graphically intense FPS's or anything like that. Pretty much any game I'd want to play on it will run on very low end dedicated cards. It's also for watching movies in bed, hence the smaller size.

More specifically, I want:

i3/i5/i7
4gb minimum RAM
LED or backlit LED screen, max resolution unimportant
backlit keyboard
HDD size/type unimportant
11-14" screen size
nvidia cards only for the hybrid switching power saver thingy
DVD drive preferred over no drive
removable battery nice but not important
HDMI

It's actually quite easy to find a cheap laptop with all of those qualities sans the dedicated card. It's practically impossible to find anything with a low end card for affordability. You either get an HD4000 or a 660m or better, with no choices in between. It almost seems to me like the laptop market is in some kind bad spot for trying to find 14inch laptops with dedicated cards, unless you want to spend over 1000. My brother just recently bought the last Asus G46VW model for 500 something new (retailed for 999) that a local Best Buy still had in stock. That is quite a deal for that laptop. Finding one of those new for 500-600 would be great, but I think I missed that boat. And Asus has not replaced that model with another 14" gaming machine that I can find anywhere.

Anyways, does anyone have any suggestions? I already have a high end desktop and a mid-high end 17" gaming laptop, which is why I'm not looking to spend much on this one. I just want something smaller than 17" for watching movies in bed, but I want the option of being able to play some games (stuff like FTL, Humans Must Answer, Sword of the Stars The Pit, just to give you an idea) which I've read are incompatible with integrated cards. It really shouldn't be this hard to find something, but it is.

Also, I really like Asus laptops even though they have mediocre customer support and some of the worst touchpads on the market. Other than the touchpads, they are quite well made and usually reasonably priced for what you get. Pretty sleek looking, too. So, I'd love to find another Asus. Secondly, I will not buy used from a regular person like on Craigslist. Too risky to buy an expensive item that way. I will buy a manufacturer refurbished laptop that comes with a warranty from a trusted source, or an open box, but they must be from some type of retailer. Newegg does have some G46VW's that are refurbished but they are overpriced (my brother paid 500'ish for a brand new one - I'm not paying 699 for a used one).

Thanks in advance for any suggestions you can offer up! (FYI I'm about to sleep so I may not respond right away)

Why Nvidia only, if you are really not after gaming performance? I e.g. prefer playing the Interplay/Bioware CRPGs (Baldur's Gate 1-2, Icewind Dale 1-2, Planescape: Torment etc.) on my older ATI/AMD graphics laptop, as my newer NVidia gaming laptop seems to have some widely-known NVidia-specific graphical issues in them. The fix to those NVidia-specific problems is to change graphics from 32bit to 16bit, and switching some ingame rendering options to software. ATI/AMD doesn't seem to need them.

Also the newer NVidia drivers seem to have broken compatibility with some older Windows games, so overall I feel ATI/AMD may have a better track record for backwards gaming compatibility (also for GOGs).

But if I am looking for a powerful gaming laptop to play newer games, I think the choice still normally goes to NVidia powered laptops. Albeit, I think AMD also has some good solutions in the upper end nowadays as well.

Thanks for the response. Well, like I said, Nvidia has the better power saving option because of the hybrid graphics technology (being able to switch to the Intel HD when you don't need the dedicated card - saves power and keeps laptop cooler when not in use). Also, while I think ATI/AMD cards have improved over the years, I had one recently in a laptop (a 5870) and they are still a pain in the arse compared to Nvidia cards. They still have worse driver support imo. They certainly aren't bad cards at all, but personally I think that everything about the brand from the installation to the actual functioning is still a step behind Nvidia.

Since this laptop won't be primarily for gaming, I'd really like to have that hybrid feature that I guess only Nvidia has.

(Edit: I hope you're wrong about the gog issues on Nvidia cards, but like I said above, the hybrid deal is a very nice feature for my situation - being able to keep the laptop cooler while watching a movie in bed by using the integrated instead of dedicated card would be really nice, for example.)

(Further edit: Even still, there are no laptops with what I'm talking about with ATI/AMD cards, either, so that's not really an option. If you know of any though, I'll certainly take a look at them. Absolutely no AMD processors, though - I'm firm on wanting Intel only.)

go for this then:
Acer Aspire V5-572G-6679 15.6-inch Laptop (Polar Black)

Intel Core i5 3337U 1.8 GHz (3 MB Cache)
6 GB DDR3
500 GB 5400 rpm Hard Drive
15.6-Inch Screen, NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 720M
Windows 8, 5-hour battery life
Price: $559.99

Probably you can find it cheaper than Amazon has it.

Well, if it's not for gaming: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JF28Z--oucA&feature=youtu.be

That's a good price for that laptop, but 14" or smaller is a requirement. Thanks for the suggestion, though! Well I have about 300'ish DVD movies, so that's the main reason I'd like an internal drive. Since I want to be able to watch movies in bed, having to use an external drive would take up more space on the bed.

ah , right; in this case :P

I'm wondering if that is the obstacle of finding a $500 laptop with the features you want? Maybe I'm mistaken, but when I think about those under-14" laptops:

- the cheap Atom-based mini-PCs with WinXP or Win7Starter; not what you are looking for, and are they even selling those anymore, as Android tablets and IPads probably killed them? These also have so low resolution that even many GOG games may have problems with them.

- the small corporate ultrabooks and such which try to be as light and thin as possible, and also costs extra due to that extra mobility they offer? And these most probably come with only integrated Intel chips, in order to maximize battery life (=mobility).

To me it would seem that the cheapo $500 laptops usually come with 15", or even bigger (up to 17.3"), screens.

However, if I were you, I'd still check whether you really don't want a Intel integrated graphics. I think they are better than their reputation suggests, and probably many (indie) developers just say they don't support them, as they haven't tested on them. Or is it a known fact that the games you mentioned before just won't work on Intel integrated graphics? If true, the indie developers are cutting out a big part of potential buyers, as laptops with Intel graphics are quite widespread, and people want to play on them too.

My next work laptop will probably have Intel graphics anyway, so I get to test that in practice.

I think you are going to want to spend at least another $100. The crop of $500 laptops are for those that want basic functionality out of a laptop.
I would actually suggest the $600-700 range. For $500 you are pretty much stuck with one brand, Acer. Not saying Acer is bad, but It is nice to have a wider selection.
Also, wait for sales on the laptop you want. Newegg flyers seem to flash $100-150 off this or that laptop. When I was looking for a laptop for my dad, I was looking at one Sammy, and then the next week the laptop above the one I was looking at had a $150 off. I had him buy it immediately ($700 laptop for $550 was a great deal).

I'm not sure with 100% certainty that the games will not work with them, but I've read that some games absolutely will not work with integrated graphics because of the way those cards handle memory sharing or something like that. Perhaps someone with some knowledge on the subject can answer. The integrated cards are probably plenty fast enough for the games I'd want to play on it, but I want to make sure I'll actually be able to play them so that I don't end up paying 500'ish bucks for nothing but a portable dvd player.

Thanks for the response. Yeah I don't even plan on playing games as graphically intense as the ones you've mentioned, though it's cool the integrated card could handle them. I mostly want to play more casual games, but I was worried that some of them flat out wouldn't run due to incompatibilities. I've been trying to find a compiled list, if one exists, of games that for certain will not run on an integrated card, but haven't found one yet.

I will probably end up either having to up my budget, possibly substantially, or go with a cheaper laptop that has an integrated card. I guess there just isn't really a market for what I'm after. I wish I was interested in a 15.6" laptop, because there are tons of great options there. But, I already have a 17" laptop, and I'm really set on something in the 11-14" range.

what you think of this
upgrade prices are bigger
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=6547

Yeah I came across that article the other day. Those are decent models, especially the Lenovo. The problem that I'm having is it seems like I'm trying to buy a laptop during either A) An in between 14" model phase for manufacturers, or B) There will be no more 14" models made. The 14" models that fit what I'm looking for are all gone everywhere. You can only buy them used or refurbished, and in some silly cases, you can find people selling brand new ones for 500+ more than they retailed for (which is silly because a person could just buy a better model laptop if they are willing to spend 500+ more than the retail cost of that particular model).

Here's that Lenovo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834246626 And the HP isn't even listed at Newegg anymore, if it ever was.

It seems like right now there aren't any new 14" models being made. I hope they'll come out with some new ones soon. I can either spend <500 for one with an integrated card, or jump up to 1000+ for one with more power than I need just to get a dedicated card. An expensive laptop like that would be a waste for light gaming.