@ crystal
The laptop I mentioned would be a great comparable alternative to the Asus n53sn you were looking at. Both have USB 3.0, which is great, but the one I mentioned doesn't have 1080 resolution, and the AMD cpu, while a strong quad core, wont measure up to i7 level (it ties with an i5 2410 when overclocked though). It's highly highly doubtful that you'd need anything as powerful as an i7. Intel makes the best CPUs power wise, so much so that the high end ones supply far more power than the average (or even above average) user could ever utilize. The real benefit for an averagge consumer in buying an expensive i7 is the fact that it's the gateway to quad core laptops, allowing you to experience great performance boosts and a better overall experience simply due to the multitasking capabilities 4 cores give you. Even with the most basic programs you can notice the difference between a dual and quad core in that way.
But most people will only ever need something as powerful as an i5, if that. AMD's llano cpus offer a greatly balanced approach wherein, with some tweaking, you recieve the same performance and power as an i5 cpu, but in four physical cores instead of just 2. On top of that, the "APU" (combo of cpu and AMD graphics) has graphics capabilities that far exceed the integrated graphics on ANY intel cpu. The separate DEDICATED graphics card in the Asus I linked is comparable to the dedicated graphics in the Asus n53sn.