Need help picking a small laptop/netbook

[JERRY2KONE]

Originally Posted by Modding_out

Got out bid by some artard paying $107 for it I think I'll find a better deal. so we gonna do this the right way now?

Trust me you did not just get outbid. You were the lucky one here by not getting that piece of crap. Set your goals a little bit higher and get something that you will be pleased with. My 14 year old son is mowing lawns right now to earn enough money to purchase his next laptop. By the time Xmas rolls around he will have gained enough money from B-day and Xmas gifts, and his own work to purchase a brand new HP Intel I-7 2.8ghz laptop loaded up with Windows 7, and microsoft office 2007 for about $700. So if a 14 year old kid can do it so can you. Our son is learning early that if you want something bad enough you will find a way to make it happen, and DON"T settle for less.

[Arct1k]

This is very difficult as there is no one answer - For email, browsing, music and movies the reality is a cheap $300 netbook with a 2gb memory upgrade should work fine.

Personally I would look at newegg (if not NJ or you can get a PA/NY mailing address to save tax) or Tigerdirect/ JR (no NJ tax) and go for a brand name such as Samsung.

Lets face it any laptop these days is pretty much obsolete or dropped and broken in a cople of years so is it worth spending a huge amount IMO.

If I had extra cash I'd probably put it to a good desktop or external montor setup etc.

[simplechamp]

People tend to push for dual core, high clock speeds, etc. but if you just need to do email, word processing, and other basic school/work related stuff all that processing power will be going to waste, if anything it will lower battery life. The Intel Atom processors are fine for most people's usage. If you want to spend on upgrading don't bother with CPU or GPU, spend it on more RAM and secondary storage.

[whitrzac]

ug... a 12-14in laptop is the most expensive size you can buy... I'v seen 11in ones with the same specs as a 14 for $200-300 less and 15.6 light wight models are fairly cheap also...


not quite what your looking for, but you would get a lot of attention
http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthr...8177&t=2248565

[whitrzac]

the list...

$450
other colors available, crappy CPU but OK on everything else
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834220760

$500
same thing, but $50 for a dual core CPU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834220805

$350
should be good for everything you want
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834146606

$480
dual core, OK GPU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834152160

$480
dual core, beater GPU but smaller
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834114915

$450
dual core, 3gb ram, good GPU, but only 11.6in
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834115822

$460(probably 10%-25% less if you can find a valid coupon)

http://outlet.us.dell.com/ARBOnlineS...=22&l=en&s=dfh


$509
little over $500, but it has the new i3 series of CPUs(google for why there awsome)
http://outlet.us.dell.com/ARBOnlineS...=22&l=en&s=dfh

$400
decent, never heard of the man. before, google before you buy
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...404&CatId=2508
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...829&CatId=2508

$410
can't believe I'm recommending a comcrap, but it appears to be a decent laptop
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...650&CatId=2509

$500
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...861&CatId=2509



http://www.notebookcheck.net/ is your friend



just my $.02
in my searches, I couldn't find much that had office preinstalled, if you don't need office 2007, office 2003 can be had for free/cheap(came on just about every POS PC made...)
if you go with a 15.6, or a 10-11 in the price drops by $100 for a similar laptop
you don't NEED win 7 installed, with win 7 pro upgrade from MS($30) is soooo much better than the home premium that comes installed on most systems
buy something that has a good man. behind it, and has a decent warranty, CALL them before you buy anything.
I would highly recomend at least a dual core and somthing better than the intel 4500 GPU, the iterwebs has gotten to the point were low end integrated video will hang up on certain sites.
DO NOT buy something that is "off lease" or similar... think used rental cars...
buy something nice now, and in 6months the price will drop by 40%, by crap now, and it won't be usable in a year....



for me personally, I would get a 10-11in laptop with a dual core, the best GPU I can find, and put an SSD in it. no moving parts=

[whitrzac]

new 25% off codes for dell outlet

http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthr...8177&t=2250037

[JERRY2KONE]

buy something nice now, and in 6months the price will drop by 40%, by crap now, and it won't be usable in a year....

This is a very true statement. Don't waste your money buying anything used that is old technology, because it will not last long. Spending a little bit more up front to acquire something with newer technology will not only out perform the cheap crap, but it will last longer. The new Intel I-3, I-5, & I-7 PCs work very well and most come with 4 to 6 gig of ram making them very fast in performance.

[rawfuls]

School's biting you in the butt too?
I know mine is..

Anyways, not sure if anybody covered this, but whenever you DO get a laptop, make sure you wipe it before using it.
ie. Dell installs loads of bloatware, and makes it a load of crap IMO.

I suggest checking slickdeals.com daily (If possible), or maybe even every other day or so.
I've seen some pretty nice Lenovo refurbs for as low as $200 or so, under $300 for sure, and weren't bad. Believe they were mostly i3's/Core2Duos, but the ones they had were quite speedy, and weren't bad at all.

I, honestly, even though I love PC's kind of like the Mac's.
The design to me is just perfect, aluminum unibody, with perfect accents, and they're quite easy to use. (OS wise) Especially when it comes to just notes.
It's probably because I have a chunky 20lb Sony VAIO P4 that I use to take notes, and it's leaving a bad taste in my mouth..

Either way, broken MacBooks go for real cheap on Craigslist, sometimes even a hundred for just a broken backlight (inverter, roughly $30 fix, really easy too); broken screen (Usually pretty expensive). But I remember one Macbook in pieces, but was going for about a hundred, needed a screw kit, and it was perfect (At least that's what he said..)

Whatever you get, good luck!