[Bungleau]

Define your need for "portability". You flying, driving all over the place with it, porting it to/from school/whatever, or something else?

"Portable" leads to small and lightweight. As a seasoned road warrior, I can tell you that every pound and ounce (or kilo if you prefer) matter. Bigger screen size, bigger machine, higher weight. And also shorter battery life to power that beast.

I've pretty much given up on desktops now. Still have one in use, but laptops will do the trick until they're old enough to retire... I've had more problems with desktops.

As for what you're looking for, what matters more? Looks or money?

I'd get the biggest machine I could (in memory and disk, CPU speed if you're going to do heavy-duty high-graphical gaming). Check the max memory on the machine... that's about the only thing you can realistically upgrade on a laptop. If it's alienware, so be it.