Need advice on ~$500 work Laptop

After 5 years my old Toshiba laptop finally died, leaving me kinda lost as to what would be a good replacement.

I need something that will run Photoshop (cs2 or cs5) well and have a good battery life (or the option of purchasing a bigger battery ). Aside from doing digital illustration I only do basic computing (word, internet browsing, some old games etc), which leaves me with a dilemma. On one hand I don't want to spend thousands of dollars on a gaming laptop only for Photoshop, but I know a low end business laptop won't cut it.

My budget is around $400-$500 and I don't care about specific brands or sites as long as the laptop is decent

That being said I'm currently debating between a HP ProBook 4530s and a lenovo IdeaPad Z575

The HP has a Intel Core i3 2310M(2.10GHz) and a 7200rpm HDD but just an Intel HD Graphics 3000 and there are several reviews where people complain about HP customer support and how bad the screen is (which would be very bad for my Photoshop work).

The lenovo has a quad core AMD A-Series A8-3500M(1.5GHz) a hdd at only 5400rpm but a AMD Radeon HD 6620G. Another downside is that apparently the battery life is not the best and I couldn't find a better battery for purchase separately.

I am leaning towards the better processor right now, but I simply don't know enough to compare the two effectively. Would the better hdd and cpu of the HP laptop make up for the Lenovo's graphic card?

For either one of these I will upgrade with more RAM, so that's not really an issue; I'm just confused about the other specs.

I was also considering this refurbishedAsus U46 Series U46E-BAL5 but I have never used an Asus and I'm a bit weary of purchasing a refurbished laptop. The reviews seem pretty bad, although the specs are almost ideal.

Does anyone have any advice on these brands/ types of laptops or maybe some better deal out there for around 500 bucks?

Thank you very, very much for any and all feedback.