I have an ASUS Q551LN-I706. It's a 15.6" 2-in-1 Flip, 4th Gen i7-4510U), 1 TB HDD, 8 GB RAM (expandable only to 12 GB), 2 GB NVidia 840m. I will NEVER use this thing as a tablet, btw. I just got it for the much cheaper price as an open box, discounted, discontinued model.
I'm thinking of returning it, spending about $100 more, to get the 17.3" HP Envy m7-n011dx, also touch screen, 1 TB HDD, 16 GB RAM, 5th Gen i7-5500U, 2GB NVidia 940m.
Screen size and sound are not that important to me, but things like overheating and overall reliability are. This ASUS--I've had it for 7 days, seems to get just normally warm but the vents are behind the keyboard, where the screen flips, so the bottom middle part of the screen itself gets warm during use. I wonder if this will be an issue in the long run as far as screen life goes. I don't do any heavy gaming but I do play Sims 3 and 4, and I use my laptop constantly. I need to make sure whatever I choose isn't prone to serious heat issues. The HP is advertised as having "coolsense" technology, but I haven't the foggiest how well that works.
I'm also considering Dell and Lenovo. I really don't want to spend more than I did but I just have a naggy feeling that maybe I should go for the slightly better specs on a new machine vs the discontinued ASUS. I'm just not at all familiar with other laptop brands, other than Toshiba, and I've had screen/keyboard issues with them in the past. Any opinions would be greatly appreciated!
Added (1). Apple would be great if I could get a bigger screen size than the one that BB is offering in my price range. It has to be a minimum of 15.6 for me. I can't afford to shop Apple directly. I'm involuntarily trapped with BestBuy because of the payment method I had to use.
Added (2). While I agree that Sims does not require an expensive machine, I have been through several laptops over the years and this one, like my previous laptop, will eventually be passed down to one of my children, so I want something with decent specs for their games. They have desktops for their heavier games but laptops are a great hand-me-down present for them for portability reasons.