Black Friday:$300 laptops

[Rahmota]

Quoth Fashion Lad!
Umm... good luck with that one. Seriously. You'd be better off just buying a laptop that already suits your needs.

I dunno it depends on what your needs are. I have a cheap presario my wife got at wurst buy (back when we still shoped theere before they shafted us.) and it suits my needs for a laptop quite nicely.

Look at what you are going to use it for, determine what you skill and comfort level are and then go from there is my recommendation. For many thigns in life.

[AKWalMartCartGuy]

corporate won't send us enough, come in at the end of the sale and you'll get something better discounted


I have a $500 everex from Wal Mart, and while it is a complete and total piece of shit(NOTE:I'm comparing it to my Dad's $1600 HP) it does what I need

[Mr. Rager!]

I dunno it depends on what your needs are. I have a cheap presario my wife got at wurst buy (back when we still shoped theere before they shafted us.) and it suits my needs for a laptop quite nicely.

Well here's the deal, BroomJockey, when XP was out... it wasn't that big of a deal to get a computer with crappy processor like a celeron because XP didn't require much of the computer. However now, Vista pretty much only operates at tolerable speed on a dual core. So getting a single core celeron will probably make you cry in the long run, and you'll end up upgrading anyway. Don't get me wrong, I really like Vista. I find Vista to be very user friendly and easy to navigate if you have the right equipment.

So if you're looking at a laptop, I recommend to EVERY customer that I meet that they get something with a good processor. You'll be stuck with that processor for as long as you own the computer. Centrino (my personal favorite) and Turion are the way to go. Anything less will really be a waste.

You can't really upgrade much of anything in a laptop. Hard drive and ram are about all you can really upgrade. Hope that helps.

[LifeCarnie]

I'm looking for a laptop and I wouldn't touch that with a ten-foot pole.

I might end buying one through Dell again. Maybe I'm just lucky but I've had my desktop for over 4 years and had no problems with it.

I've had my Dell lap top for over two and half years and the only problems that I've had are Windows related.

I also wouldn't touch a $300 dollar lap top with a ten-foot pole.

[Broomjockey]

You can't really upgrade much of anything in a laptop. Hard drive and ram are about all you can really upgrade. Hope that helps.

Actually, it does. Thank you
And I agree with you about Vista. I've got it on my desktop, and I'm rather liking it.

[Coconut]

$300 laptops? Are those the ones I've heard about that come pre-loaded with Linux instead of Windows? Can't wait to hear the return stories on those...

I'm assuming these are the ones... God help the Customer Service associates on Saturday.

[Catwoman2965]

So getting a single core celeron will probably make you cry in the long run, and you'll end up upgrading anyway. Don't get me wrong, I really like Vista. I find Vista to be very user friendly and easy to navigate if you have the right equipment.

And the right equipment is exactly why I didn't want Vista, not yet anyway. I couldn't afford to get what I needed, so I got what i could afford, and would do the trick for me, and a CPU with XP was it. I don't play games, just surf the net, email and sometimes work from home...that's about it. Maybe when this one dies I'll be able to get the laptop I want, but until I can, this one will do just fine.

[AKWalMartCartGuy]

Actually, it does. Thank you
And I agree with you about Vista. I've got it on my desktop, and I'm rather liking it.

vista is the debil. I want XP on my laptop(which does have a gig of RAM, but that's still not enough with Vista)


Catwoman put it pretty well

[Zeeko]

Umm... good luck with that one. Seriously. You'd be better off just buying a laptop that already suits your needs.

Definately - I would never try to upgrade a laptop other than RAM. Too much hassle.

$300 laptop deals annoy me, at our work we banish the thought of them - aswell as Dells - and Macs (even though I own one).

My laptop cost me $3000 4 years ago and its been a beauty - still use it everyday. It does look like its part of some hardcore porn movie though - cables and hubs plugged into every possible port. 4 more HDDs, a DVD burner (no internal), real keyboard, mouse, dolby amp (has optical out!!!)mic, PCMCIA wireless, PCMCIA to USB 2.0 hub. So this poor machine, battered and bruised and with a battery with worse capacity than a long term smokers lungs still is the best buy ever.

You get what you paid for!

[powerboy]

I have a cheap laptop that has Windows 98 on it for $300. It works well for me. But all I do is surf the web. Now on the desk-top, I use that for everything else

[chops]

Definately - I would never try to upgrade a laptop other than RAM. Too much hassle.

I once tried (successfully) to replace a dying hard drive in an old iBook I had. That was one of the most complicated upgrades I've ever done. (At least Apple listened and made replacing the hard drive in the MacBook, the iBook's successor, painfully EASY.)

And I just upgraded the RAM in my MacBook to 2 GB. Go me.

[ditchdj]

The ONLY time I expect to pay 3 Grand for ANY computer will be when it's American-made by a union employee making $17 an hour with full benefits and retirement. Anything elset that's made by Asian slave labor for THAT much is nothing but pure profit.

[Naaman]

My laptop cost me $3000 4 years ago and its been a beauty - still use it everyday. It does look like its part of some hardcore porn movie though - cables and hubs plugged into every possible port. 4 more HDDs, a DVD burner (no internal), real keyboard, mouse, dolby amp (has optical out!!!)mic, PCMCIA wireless, PCMCIA to USB 2.0 hub. So this poor machine, battered and bruised and with a battery with worse capacity than a long term smokers lungs still is the best buy ever.

Was it ever used as a portable machine? £3000 will get you an awesome desktop, or $2000 + $1000 for future upgrades .

[TNT]

$300 laptop deals annoy me, at our work we banish the thought of them - aswell as Dells - and Macs (even though I own one).

Where I work, we're a Dell only shop... at least it keeps our IT guys busy.

[Gurndigarn]

I once tried (successfully) to replace a dying hard drive in an old iBook I had. That was one of the most complicated upgrades I've ever done. (At least Apple listened and made replacing the hard drive in the MacBook, the iBook's successor, painfully EASY.)

Anyone else ever play with one of the first-gen flat-panel iMacs? The ones that look like a half-ball with a monitor stuck on the top? I did both the hard drive and the optical drive at different times on that one. It was an interesting experience.