The best laptops to buy are, of course, Dell. So long as they have a new battery, ut you don't have to worry about the batteries now, as you could easily buy a new one. But... Dell is probably the best. You want the Processor to be AT LEAST Intell Pentium III, if you see something higher, that's better. The processor speed, when you search, should be AT LEAST 1GHz. Again, if you find something higher, it's better. You should search for the Memory(RAM) to be AT LEAST 512MB. Again, higher is better. The Hard Drive Capacity, 20GB is acceptible, but you really want 40GB. Higher is better. The screen size could be anything you want. If you need a portable laptop, then get the smallest screen you cant find, but if you just want a laptop that it just going to stay on a desk, get a bigger size. Really anyhting is fine. The Operating System should be AT LEAST Windows 2000, nothing lower it will be bad. Windows XP is best, but 2000 is acceptible. Condition could be anything, if it's used, be sure it only has a few cosmetic errors, if it's refurbished, you can trust it's fine, and if it is new, then it's great.