buying a laptop

[bonkos6]

My husband and I are thinking about purchasing a laptop. I thought the "back to school" time would give us the best deals. What do you think?

 

[deltachi8]

watch for special sales from Dell...there are a few good sites to track them. (www.gotapex.com is one). I purchased mine in April from Dell with a $750 off sale they were having.

 

[swilshire]

Wait until the day after Thanksgiving. It requires an early morning, but there are great deals to be had. My daughter had two super ones to choose from last year. She got to Circuit City at 4 in the morning, and was second in line. I don't remember the cost, but I was impressed.

Sheila

 

[1MegMeg]

watch for special sales from Dell...there are a few good sites to track them. (www.gotapex.com is one). I purchased mine in April from Dell with a $750 off sale they were having.

Hehe! I was just coming in here to post gotapex's web address. That place gives awesome deals!

 

[musicmama]

Before you start looking, decide what features you need and what you're using the laptop for - same as if you were buying a new desktop PC (only probably more expensive). How big a hard drive, how much memory, do you want to watch DVDs, do you want to burn CDs, do you want to burn DVDs? Do you need wireless internet? What kind of software will you be putting on - or is the basic Microsoft Works package fine for your needs? Do you want Windows or a Mac?

Then, check "slick deals", Dell, and your local computer sources - Circuit City, Best Buy, CompUsa, Office Max, Staples, Office Depot, Apple Store, etc. Go in and try a few out - is the screen bright enough, how are the keys to touch, listen to a CD, etc. Plan to spend at least an hour and a half or more - probably just browsing. Tell the guys who hover around you that you are looking, and what your usage intentions are. Hopefully, you'll get someone willing to help out - especially if they think you will come back to them later.

Get the model numbers of the one(s) you like best. Go to "cnet" and look for reviews. Go to the manufacturer's website and check their support section - are there lots of support bulletin updates or just a few? What is their repair history, what are they rated, etc. ?

Are you willing to consider an "open box" or "refurb"? These can save you big bucks on higher-end machines. Look up the prices at the store and online. Back-to-school time can be a good time to find a bargain, but then again so can Black Friday, or even just after Labor Day. And if you live in or near Delaware, you'll save all that sales tax!

Good luck!

 

[KPeterso]

I got my laptop in April through Dell. They were offering deals. Plus through my empolyer, I was able to get a discount. Check with your employer to see if your employer offers any discounts. I also have a Dell Account and am able to pay it off in chunks versus all at once. I have interest free until January 2006, and my minimum payment is $19 (I think, it is something like that). I actually just paid it off this month. For me, going through Dell was worth it because I got some good financing on my laptop, as well as got to pick what I wanted on my laptop. I love my wireless internet!

 

[mom2dea]

My Dh works for best buys . He hates dells I guess cause of all the hell he hears about them daily . Also cause his parents labtops have gone to hell in about a yr time frame .

Anyways they are in back to school sale right now check out there ads (you can even look at them online ) . When they have sales usually they are very good ones .

NO matter what get a warrenty from witch ever company you buy it from . I brought what I still feel like was a lemon and I brought it in the best buys no questions asked they exchanged it (even upgraded for free ) And no it was not Dh store it was the one close to home and Dh was at work .

Sarah

 

[WDWorld2003]

We have an HP Pavilion 5330 which we purchased from Best Buy last Christmas (using it as we speak) - love it! We purchased the extended warranty but so far so good.... it was expensive but I think they have gone down in price since then. We would buy an HP again...... I used ZNNet for a lot of research and asked many questions on their Notebook forums - they were very helpful.

Good luck in your search!

 

[MayMom]

I love, love, love my Apple Powerbook. I'm on it now! Pricey, but soooo worth the money.

I also have a dell desktop that was cheap and we've never had to . I think it is slow, but a pretty standard computer otherwise.

 

[hemispheredancer]

I love my Dell laptop! Wouldn't get anything else but a Dell. It is almost 2 years old and still works as great as the day I took it out of the box. I think mine was between $1500-2K. It had to get sent in once. Dell sent me the shipping box on Tuesday. I packed it up and DHL came to get it Wednesday. I got it back on Friday. That's great service! I needed a new net card and the BIOS needed updating. My neighbor has an HP desktop. She hates it!

 

[precious pixie]

I think everyone has given great advice and mine would be about the same. The one thing with Dell that we didn't like is that there is no actual store you can go to if something does go wrong. You have to send away your computer and you are then computerless. I also like dealing with someone face to face rather than on the phone if their is a problem. We are waiting until the day after Thanksgiving to buy our new laptop. We looked at all the ads for this coming weekend (tax free for back to school) but we feel as if they aren't rock botttom sales.

 

[Paull117]

Musicmama is right. I notebook is just like buying a car. Being a programmer I usually have to buy the high end product. With that being said I will always buy dell or alienware.

Depending on what you plan on using it for really makes a difference. I can see where people would have problems with the dell notebooks, especially the lower end ones. This is where best buy and circuit city have dell. Dell does not sell enough on the lower end notebooks so they cut costs on parts, but they have a great warantee to cover their butts. If you look at the business/professional line of course these cost more, but the parts are better because they are being used harder. Best buy and Circuit City buy from producers (HP, toshiba ...) that specialize in mass productions so they get the parts at a lower rate because they buy more of them.

Dealing with our users I can tell you which ones to stay away from if you plan on using it heavy. Gateway and Emachines I know I will get flamed for this, but you have to understand that I deal with business applications that are running those machines hard. Those 2 I hear the most problems from. Now if you are just doing word processing, surfing the Web, and maybe some games they are just fine.

Personally if I where just going to do word processing, and web surfing I would buy a MAC. If I needed some games I would do some exploring to see if they would run on the MAC first.

Next find out the real reason why you want a notebook. If it is just the fact of having a notebook. Don't get one a desktop is going to be faster and easier to upgrade. Now if you plan on doing some traveling then I would get one, or if you want to roam around the house while you do some work. If you think it will be in one place for the most part get a desktop.

Paul

 

[kandeebunny]

Check your Apple Store, if you are a teacher or adult learner you get a discount. Also they will do packages, for example I got a 4 month old lapotop they had replaced with another model...brand new in the box...with the new OS for $850!!! Awesome deal!

Avoid Gateway if possible...they are nothing but hassles...same with Dell. I also used to work at Best Buy...more problems...whatever you buy buy the warranty and buy a good anti-virus and firewall!!! (Or better yet buy a mac as they very rarely get viri or spy/adware)

 

[sanibelover]

Just used a coupon for $750 off a Dell from www.slickdeals.net. Got my laptop on Tuesday. $850 delivered. With a port replicator, Office, wireless, etc. The same laptop priced out elsewhere was funning about $1500. I have good luck with Dell. This is our 5th one and so far so good.

They do advertise super cheap laptops but the don't have much inside. Make sure you know about memory, cache, the software you want and don't want, etc. Do some research and educate yourself and you should be able to get a great deal!!

 

[RichNKatHolly]

We just got an awesome Inspirion Notebook from Dell. $999 with a $300 rebate. We've had it for 2 weeks now and have had no problems. We used Dell for my desktop 2 years ago and not any major problems. The 2 times I had to call we had excellent customer service and I even had someone here to replace the DVD RW drive (didn't cost us a penny). BTW, it came with an internal wireless card too which is so convenient, and a CDRW that will play DVDs too.

As for the laptop, $699 can't be beat (in my opinion anyway). They have refurbished models that cost more than that. I did see that they also have some "Back to School" deals right now at Dell where the same laptop is about $650-$750.

Happy shopping!

 

[DMRick]

I'm a Dell person. Dell Dell Dell everywhere. We have at this time 2 Dell desktops, and a Dell laptop. All my kids and grands have Dells.

I recently bought a Toshiba Sattelite m45. I couldn't help myself. After rebate and before tax it was $1099. I couldn't stop myself once I saw the awesome, awesome screen they now come with. Watching a DVD on it, is better than my TV. The memory was 512, and only took up one slot, so if I feel the need I can upgrade to another 512 for only $70. The wifi card works like a dream, and even using dial up seems so fast.
The machine is so much lighter than our Dell (and with a bigger screen ever)..a snap to carry from room to room, and even to work in the backyard. I love it..the first laptop that I feel I could use on a constant basis, if my desktop went...and that is saying something..I used to hate working on a desktop.

All that said, I still like my Dells.

 

[piglet33]

Hehe! I was just coming in here to post gotapex's web address. That place gives awesome deals!

Thanks for posting this website. I just bought a Dell Inspiron 9300 Laptop and used a code from this site that saved me 40% ($959.60). They also have $30 off the shipping and handling fee so that only cost me $19.

Thank you so much! Now I can't wait for my new laptop.

Reneé

 

[Keyser]

One other source for good Dell prices is their outlet: www.dell.com/outlet
The stock changes regularly, so you have to keep checking, and you need to be careful in reading through the details to make sure you know what software, drives, etc. you're getting. The savings can be quite good - about the same as it would cost to build a computer yourself, and in my experience always more than $100 cheaper than you can get for the same machine bought "new" from Dell (even with discounts!).

I've bought multiple computers this way (both for work and home) and have never encountered a problem. They include warranties (though sometimes less than a "new" machine).