Any great deals on a laptop? Is is dumb NOT to wait for Black Friday?

[moopdog]

We have not had a home computer for about 6 months and are paying for internet, paying to print things at our library, etc. I know we need one but I also feel like it's fooish to get one now with BF looming around the corner. On the other hand, I keep telling myself that waiting another 10 weeks for a deal that MIGHT be useful to me could be kind of silly too.

Are there any really good deals going on right now? I basically need a laptop that is not the bottom of the barrel in quality and features but that costs no more than $600-$800. We are on a tight budget and will probably have to finance the darn thing as it is! I am confined to using the library computer so I don't really have the time to scour the internet for bargains..... if you have any info - please share! Thanks.

 

[katrina1122]

You could easily stay in that price range at BJ's for a good laptop, we were just browsing at the other night along with acer e-pads.

DH and I don't even bother with BF any more unless I'm online shopping. Things run out too quickly to make the savings and crowds worth it imho.

 

[hineshm]

I think that good deals on computers are to be found before Black Friday. I have bought my last 2 laptops at Wal-Mart the second Saturday of November at their secret Saturday sale. I bought them for $279.00 each and I checked all the black friday sales and did not find anything cheaper. So, if you find a great deal I would go ahead and benefit from it now.

 

[marmalade]

I would shop now and not wait until black friday and deal with the stress and probably not even end up getting what you want. I ordered my laptop on QVC last year it was a little over $1000 so more then you are looking to pay, but I was able to pay it off in 6 months. This made it affordable for me, I think we paid something like $179 for 6 months, with no interest. I bought a tv for my bedroom this way too, I like making the smaller payments and not paying a finance charge.

 

[angierae]

My daughter just bought a fairly decent Toshiba laptop at Microcenter for $399 last weekend. If you just need one for internet /word processing it's absolutely fine. (Higher end graphics-intensive games might not run as well on it.)

 

[Darcy03231]

If all you're using it for is email, surfing the net and typing documents, you can get one for less then $300.

I bought an HP Compaq at Walmart last year in November before the black friday sales and its been great for what I do with it. It was $279.

 

[momof3ds]

I just bought a Toshiba at best buy for $350 dollars. They had several models/ brands in that price range all with great hard drive space and ram. I had originally bought a floor model gateway on special for $332 but the motherboard was bad so I switched to the Toshiba.

They had a slightly better Toshiba model for $500 but that wasn't in my budget at the moment.

I'd love to get a mac laptop but those are in the $ thousand dollar range.

If you are going to use the laptop for watching movies or home videos of any kind, I'd advise you to get one with a graphics card (ati radeon or nvidea) and not what they call integrated graphics. If you are looking at laptops at someplace like BJ's, click computer in the start menu, then click system properties at the top. Then device manager and then click display adapters. If it doesn't sat radeon or nvidea, then you don't have a graphics card.

At a store like best buy, just ask the rep if the laptop has a video card or integrated graphics.

 

[MAD4EEYORE]

I would start looking now. I was shopping this past weekend and noticed that Target, Walmart and Best Buy had some computers on clearance. They marked them down to make room for the new models coming out for Christmas.

Also another thing to think about is on BF the stores only have a few electronics they advertise on hand for the sale. You have to wait in line a long while and may or may not get one. Plus you have to deal with all the crowds of people wanting the same thing. IMHO it's not worth it. You can find deals leading up to and after BF. Sometimes they are a better deal.

 

[torinsmom]

DS just bought this one for $249.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834158024

I bought this one at Walmart a few months ago...

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Compaq-CQ57-229WM/16662274

I guess if there's something special you need, you might pay more, but we just need internet, music, DVD capability, and typical office applications. I was surprised to find mine even had Microsoft Office Starter, which had Word and Excel for free.

 

[woodkins]

We have not had a home computer for about 6 months and are paying for internet, paying to print things at our library, etc. I know we need one but I also feel like it's fooish to get one now with BF looming around the corner. On the other hand, I keep telling myself that waiting another 10 weeks for a deal that MIGHT be useful to me could be kind of silly too.

Are there any really good deals going on right now? I basically need a laptop that is not the bottom of the barrel in quality and features but that costs no more than $600-$800. We are on a tight budget and will probably have to finance the darn thing as it is! I am confined to using the library computer so I don't really have the time to scour the internet for bargains..... if you have any info - please share! Thanks.

I also just bought the $350 Toshiba from Best Buy & it is great. There were a few choices for $250 & $279 but this one seems great & also comes with the Microsoft Office Starter (Word & Excel) so it comes ready to work!