Recommend me a budget laptop: Wait for Haswell?

Hardware and technical stuff
1

I’m currently in the market for a laptop as a High School graduation present for someone headed off to college in the fall, so timeline for the purchase is in the next month or two. Ideally, the system will be 14-15" with a solid battery life. Light gaming would be a plus, but I think the HD 4600 could handle it. Everything out there says to wait for Haswell (and since this will be used as a portable system first, the extra battery life is a huge plus), but how long would I be waiting for a good system that includes Haswell in the $400-500 range? Could push it to $600 as an absolute max but it would have to provide a lot more value than a $500ish system.

If Haswell is not a viable option, what’s a good system that hits all those points? Refurbs and other outlet offerings are fine.

2

Yes, wait for haswell. They will be available in less than a month. Try for at least the GT3 (HD5000) graphics if possible, although $600 might be pushing it there.

3

In addition, there are normally a lot of sales of laptops in that price range targeted at students closer to school starting back up in the fall so it’s probably doubly good to wait.