UPDATE 2: My father recommends I get the PowerSpec 1510. It's got an Intel Core i7-7700HQ Processor, 2.80GHz; NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 8GB; 16GB DDR4 RAM; 1TB HDD & 250GB SSD. My only real concern is there's next to no reviews on it, presumably because it's rather new. And it seems a little too good to be true.
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UPDATE: So it's come to my attention that I'm actually the biggest idiot on the planet and it never once crossed my mind that I could use an external webcam via USB connection. Shoot me. Anyway, I guess what I'm looking for now are still the same laptop requirements listed below (preferably a 256+ GB SSD, I don't know much beyond that). And I guess if there's any of you who know webcams well, I'd love suggestions for that as well. I use Google Hangouts to video call (can't stand Skype) and I assume most webcams would work with it but I always see them listed with Skype, so.
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I have an Acer E5-573T-57FZ laptop right now, and the video card is dying on me. If it gets bumped, or sometimes just at random, grey lines/individual pixels appear on the screen. You have to kinda whack the laptop to get it back to the regular screen. It's got a 1 TB HDD, no SSD. It also has an okay webcam quality.
Obviously I have to upgrade somewhat soon. I'm not tech-savvy by any means, but I think as general rule when you have to start beating your computer it's time to look for a new one.
The two things I'm really looking for in a new laptop are the ability to run games and acceptable to HD webcam quality.
And I'm searching for something preferably under 1500$.
As I said, I'd like to be able to play games and I know a SSD is far better for that. Hopefully newer games on medium-high settings (i.e. Outlast 1, Agony, GTA V, etc). I also video call with my girlfriend every night, and while she does move in with me in five months, I really don't want to have to go through five months of being one whole pixel on both her screen and mine due to poor webcam quality.
Again, not a computer nerd, but I do know from both looking at models in stores and by reading reviews that gaming laptops like to shove in whatever Victorian era camera they can get their hands on into their models so they're able to claim they have a webcam at all. System doesn't focus on it, people on gaming laptops don't generally care about camera quality, all that jazz.
As I said, my current webcam isn't HD, and I don't know how to check and see what quality it does have, but it's better than what I saw on the Acer Predator models and the ASUS models. Actually, it was even better than an HP Pavilion I looked at, and I thought they focused on graphics for video editing and all that. But maybe that's a different part of the system.
I bought an ASUS laptop (don't even remember the model) and returned it because on top of having horrible webcam quality (it was like I jumped straight outta Minecraft, I was made up of about twenty pixels) and the screen had a heavy yellow filter that only had a temporary fix. Bought a Dell Inspiron and was just as disappointed. Acer is known for having dimmer displays, but apparently brighter display options have a slight sepia filter. And I hate it. (What does a brighter display usually look like? On the Dell and the ASUS the Google home page, usually white, was tinted yellow. All I have to compare my brightness to is my phone screen, which at 100% brightness outshines the entire sun, so I don't think that's fair.)
In general I've been looking at Acer models because that's what my last two laptops have been, but there are hardly any reviews on the ones that interest me and it makes me a little uneasy.
