personally i would choose sony, i dont hink dell are any good. I dont understand why you want 2 spend 1.2k on a laptop because you are using it for college so you wil be using office programs such as word n that mainly,its not like your goin to design stuff and have top of the range software. i would only spend abou 500 - 600 may less if youre not much of a gamer. IT all depends on your course really!