You might want to reconsider getting a laptop with a screen that large. Those things are heavy! Considered getting an external LCD that you can plug into when you're at home? You can get some pretty large monitors these days for $200. Then you can have the best of both worlds - a smaller more portable laptop and the option to use a big screen at home.

An interesting question, we'll have to test that out when we get one in. My guess is to say no, but I'm not entirely certain.

yeah get a stick of ram and save the dough. if you're really itching to get something, grab an SSD to use as a boot drive. that'll speed things up on a daily basis beyond anything you've experienced.

I'd wait. Nvidia's quite close to launching their new lineup. Even if you don't get one of them, it will push prices down for older models.

Between 12 and 19 inches? That's pretty broad for a laptop, especially when you take into account for weight. You can scale from 2lbs laptops all the way up to 10lbs or more. Take her to a store and have her pick a weight that's acceptable to narrow down the search. I'd err on the lighter side, nothing sucks more than a computer you feel like you have to lug around.

Ditto, the only thing you have to worry about is trying to go from VGA to something else - that gets expensive. You can get cheap adapters going from HDMI to DVI to VGA.

Thanks for the kind words folks!