My sister had lightning strikes twice. Once across the street and once in a neighbors yard. Both times it shorted out her computer and a printer/scanner. No surge protector could have helped. Even her phone line was melted. I think she must be evil.....
Laptops come in different screen resolutions from 1024 to 1920. Bigger is better.
You also need to look at the graphics device they have. Can you read the text without reading glasses? I have 20/20 but my work Dell desktop has a lousy graphics card and I need my reading 1+ glasses. Using my home pc I do not need them.
Dell also only has a 300 watt power supply. My new home desktop pc has a 850 watt power supply to run the graphics card I put that says to use as a minimum a 400 watt P/S.
Check the number of ports and where they are located. Example the network cable. Mine is on the leftside but toward the front instead of where I would like it to be in the back of the laptop. Some Dells I have used put it on the right side. It depends on your desk and what else is on it. You want more usb connections. Mouse, keyboard, flashdrive. Also look at the keypad. Do you have one for numbers on the rightside. The touchpad is it located in the middle or offset. Since you will be using this you should check out the ergonomics.
You can also get a docking station and plug a big monitor in and a keyboard and put the laptop off to the side.
Example here: http://www.pocketables.com/images/2008/05/19/targus_universal_dock.jpg
Since you found out what lightning can do I can only suggest unplugging the pc in the future whena storm comes along. Surge protectors can help for spikes but lightning is too much to handle.
You can buy Windows 7 if you want on Ebay. 100+ pages of sellers. I have on 2 occasions this year for about $50.
