Hi guys-
I'm looking to get a new unit to replace my old clunker-hopefully one not obsolete in 1 yr or that will be expandable. Looking to move from 9.7 lb down to maybe 5? My gaming needs are the typical old-school point & click Myst-type graphic adventures, but Obduction needs 8 gig RAM, an i5 and GeForce 660...
Here are my sort-of needs:
1) weight-not heavy
2) 15.6 screen
3) at least 8 gig-open to 16 (or more?)
4) at least i5, but thinking i7??
5) a GOOD graphics card I won't need to replace for 3 years, hehe
6) expandable
7) I already have separate bluray burner so optical drive not needed
8) open to a partial SSD if really needed...I have external storage drives, but want to have enough on board that I'm not transferring every month
9) budget of maybe $1500, though could go a little higher for the right model
10) reasonable battery life
11) unit that isn't so hot it'll fry my lap!
My usual needs are just surfing, email & the light gaming (no shooters/rpg's), but looking for a unit to
last awhile.
Sure appreciate any thoughts or 'point in the right direction ' feedback & suggestions!! Thanks!

The Good:
1). Now is probably a good time to buy, you may find a good "Black Friday" deal somewhere. For example Cyberpower has free shipping through "Black Friday" on the computers I looked at.
The Bad:
1). I took a quick look at the Cyberpower website and when the laptops upgraded from the GTX-1060-(6 gb) to the GTX-1070-(8 gb) the price jumped out of your range.
2). I never saw a laptop rate its heat on your lap. I imagine they would all get hot after a while. I think the only way you could find this out is to read customer reviews on laptops and hope someone mentions that.
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PS: I don't like your laws.

The Razer Blade Stealth doesn't have a 15.6 inch screen, but is a very highly rated gaming laptop.

http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-systems/razer-blade-stealth

You might do a search on "best gaming laptops 2016" and see what comes up. The comparisons at places like PC Magazine are pretty good. I agree with GEO and you might be able to find some good deals right now.

EDIT: Newegg has some very good Black Friday sales going on. You can go here and search for gaming laptops by video card - which is going to be the important thing for you. Then you can read some actual user reviews. Heat is just going to be present in one of these laptops with high end components - no way to get around it! If you are concerned, then consider getting a laptop cooler.

http://www.newegg.com/Gaming-Laptops/Category/ID-363?Tid=167731

Here is an example of something in your price range with some excellent specs and 5 egg reviews...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834154302

Thanks for the input!
Have run into a serious contender...Asus Rog GL502VS-DB71. 16 gig RAM(could go to 32), an i7 @ 2.6 (6700HQ), 1 TB/7200 HD + 256 SSD, and an NVidia GTX1070m (w/8 gig). Reasonable number of ports/connectivity. Only about 4.8 lb.
Listed at $1700, and on sale for $1400. Sales guy swears it doesn't run nearly as hot as the MSIs, for example....

I've heard the same thing about the Asus ROG gaming laptops - don't know if it's true or not though. As I said, when you start putting high end components into a small enclosed space, you are going to have heat.

This sounds like an excellent deal - given your usage, you would never use 32 GB of RAM. I play shooters and high end RPGs and never even come close to using all my 8 GB of RAM.

On any of these OEM laptops, you are going to have massive amounts of bloatware - ASUS is one of the worst ones. But then that's why they can sell these laptops at such good prices. Bloatware is still easy to get rid of as there are some good free utilities out there. McAfee is one of the worst ones as the only way you can get rid of it is to use the uninstall utility at the McAfee website.

I say go for it!