Re: Looking for a good student laptop
IBM Thinkpad could be bit expensive, but are reliable ones. I have been using a T43; it's thin/light, sturdy and i like its design too. The only problem i have is that it's keyboard gets bit hot when i use it a lot (something like after 2-3 hrs). It's wireless card is pretty good, and once in a while i use it to work from home (through VPN) and continuously use it for 8-9 hours and had never any problem, Alhamdulillah.
I think on an avg. laptop you'd get the battery life of 3+ hours or so. For the whole day use at campus, you might need to get an extra battery. OR just take your cable, i'm sure there'd be places to hook it up.
If you are not looking at Dell, then other options you can look for are Acer and Toshiba (for a bit cheaper category).