HP Envy it is. It turns out the display was a big downside to the Thinkbook because of its poor off angle viewing. My daughter and her roomie watch movies etc. on the laptop.
It also has most of what I wanted to upgrade on the Thinkpad plus an i5 cpu for $100 less. It only has an SSD cache, but that is still a big step up from just an HDD.
The chain having the clearance sale had a demo I could get my hands on and the feel of the keyboard and touchpad are just fine. I'm sure my daughter will be very happy with it.
