My girlfriend is on the verge of buying a portable within a month, and I'm thinking maybe I'll surprise her and offer it to her for Valentine's Day.

Anyway, given her needs (no games, just browsing, messaging, listening to music, watching videos, and word processing), I know it has to be something that has the "N" internet standard, a 14 or 15 inch monitor, and Windows 7 included. Everything else is not important, so I've found several models that are suitable with a T4400 processor, ranging between €379 to €470.

However, there are similar portables being released this month which only differ by having an i3 processor instead, but it's more expensive (€600).

My question is, is the price difference worth it? Is the i3 that much better in the long run? Given that it will run Windows 7, will the T4400 struggle at all, or will it run just fine?