[caver]

Personally, I would go with the largest screen that you could get. I bought a 17” Toshiba for $350. It does not have a dock, nor do most any laptops today have a docking station. You set them down, plug in the power cord and the internet cable and you are ready to go. That’s all you need.

[JAKraig]

I have a 17”laptop and it is fine for home, even for moving from one room to another but for travel, on the road, in other peoples businesses I don't see how I could ever beat my Surface Pro 2. Surface Pros have moved up to model three and even four but I still love my 2. Someday I will progress but for now I love what I have, The keyboard is easily removable but still functions as a computer even without the keyboard.

There are other companies that copy the Microsoft Surface and many of them look pretty good. Your problem is that you won't be able to buy one of the new ones for $500. You will have to either throw more money at it or buy used. If you look you will be able to find what you want either in your price range or pretty close in a used Surface 3 pro. My recommendation, don't consider any Win-10 laptop under 128MB.

[nuconvert]

I have a desk top, so I want a smaller laptop for travel.