Want to buy a new laptop for uni

Lenovo makes pretty good hardware for a low price. I've owned one of their laptops (although not a gaming one) in recent past and was really satisfied (sold it because I no longer need a laptop). Did a quick Google search and this seemed like a good deal: http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/ideapad/y700-series/y700-14-inch/

I doubt you'll find anything more powerful for the price. The only downside is the small screen.

Gaming and studying do not go very well together. If you want a good laptop for Uni, especially in the battery department, do not buy a gaming laptop.

Lenovo IdeaPad Z50-70
Intel Core i5-4210U
8GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GT 840M 2GB

This is mine. It can run Fallout 4. :P

Toshiba XD. Look msi, they dont sell it with SO, then is cheaper than others

If you are looking for a Lenovo laptop, please avoid the Y50-70 model. Behind the screen the cable linking from laptop base to laptop screen gets pinched which causes flashing and horizontal lines to appear. I have sent my Y50-70 to a Lenovo repair shop and I still get the flashing and flickering lines after the repair was done. Just last week I sent the laptop to a Lenovo warehouse by FedEx for a full refund.

Here is thread, 45 pages ONLY about the screen issue: https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Lenovo-P-Y-and-Z-series/Y70-screen-flashing-blinking/td-p/1839531

There are other threads of similar topic, but the 45 page thread is the main thread.

Wait. There's still quite a few months until your university starts (probably, depends on where you live), and you don't need a laptop in the first few weeks. If you wait, you're free to take advantage of eventual sales or price drops until then.

I'll add to Noctem's smart observation that you probably will need a decent keyboard on that laptop if you intend to do some work on it. I own a variation of the Asus 550 you are eyeing, and while on the gaming front it can run anything not Uber-AAA, the lousy keyboard is a major pain in the butt for daily use. My advice is to always try your hands on a laptop before buying it online.
In my experience, battery life isn't as awful as some other budget laptops (I'd say around 3-4 hours of internet usage), but still not good.

Notcem is probably right about the battery and my suggestion to buy Lenovo turned out to be pretty bad, so here's another one: if you have a screen/TV laying around, you can simply go for a budget PC build and then buy a laptop just for studies. You can buy used to save even more money.

i personally have a samsung ultrabook series, 5, which was around 700 dollar give or take

its not a gaming laptop, granted, but for what i use it its perfect

I can't recommend any laptop, just an advise: don't forget to check if the batterie can work for 6/8 hours straight, I did the mistake to take one who can only do 4 hours on office usage.
And after 3 years of usage I can only use my pc for ~2 hours on batterie, and that sucks, like a lot ='(

I have Lenovo Flex 2 (15inch) , nothing special for gaming. I think you should find something with grat balance in performance/battery life. i would recomend a 14inch for being less heavy

i recommend MSI now. i had samsung, acer and died.