Looking for new laptop

[Confess]

Hiya,

 

I am looking to buy a new laptop, but am on a budget...I've looked up a few different laptops, and am looking for some info. The most I am wanting to spend is around $500, and it has to last me around 2-3 years. I currently have a Dell Inspiron 1501 AMD TUrion mk-36, which I will try and sell and get $250 out of, combined with a $100 bestbuy giftcard I already have...that gives me $350, meaning I have to lay down $150. I have a friend that might buy the Giftcard off me since he will probably buy stuff from bestbuy anyways.

 

Heres the laptops I am looking at:

 

Asus K50I

Intel® Pentium® T4400

3GB DDR2 memory

15.6" LED-backlit TFT-LCD high-definition display

320GB Serial ATA hard drive (5400 rpm)

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Edition operating system preinstalled

Comes to $503 after tax.

 

Dell Inspiron 15 (from Dell Website, Listed at $399)

Intel® Pentium® T4400

15.6 WLED display (1366x768)

3GB1 Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 800MHz

250GB3 SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)

4-cell battery

After shipping/tax comes to about ~$500 also

 

Aspire AS5732Z-4598

Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core Processor T4400

4GB DDR2-667 RAM

250GB 5,400RPM Serial ATA Hard Drive

15.6" HD Widescreen Acer CineCrystal™ LCD Display

6 Cell Rechargeable Lithium-Ion Battery

About $537 after tax.

 

Lenovo G550

4 GB DDR3 1066mhz

250GB

Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit (can upgrade to windows 7 for free)

Core 2 Duo T6500 ~ 2.10ghz

Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 4500M

6-Cell Lithium-ion

$499

 

Or, perhaps, do you know of another laptop that is better? Basically, it all comes down to build - so what is the best/will last the longest?

 

Lemme know!

Edited February 13, 2010 by Confess

[Kameloh]

I haven't used a DELL in a long time but I used to use online coupons to make purchases MUCH cheaper:

 

http://www.xpbargains.com/st_deals.php/Dell_coupons.htm

 

Sometimes you can find coupon codes that range from $50-$300 dollars off or even 10-40% off depending on the time of year (I helped a good friend of mine once with a 40% off coupon from dell which saved him bundles!)

 

Hope it helps!

[★ Lynx]

I'd go for the Lenovo.

[Shock]

Usually with Dell coupons, they want you to spend a grand before their coupon even benefits your purchase.

 

$500 is a slightly..small budget, but not impossible to work with.

 

I've had enough of Dell laptops, so pass on that.

 

I work at a local computer shop as a technician, and we've been selling this:

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-MSI-A5000-025US-15-6-Laptop-3GB-250GB-HDMI-WebCam_W0QQitemZ270529659527QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLaptops_Nov05?hash=item3efcd30287

 

Ignore the fact that it's ebay. I don't believe there are currently any retail shops you can purchase it from. It has a 3 year warranty, which is great. From our seller, we were informed that the first year is an accidental warranty as well.

 

The laptop itself is very nice looking. The touchpad has purple and green LED's below it to notify HDD usage and battery meter.

 

The only thing that kinda sucks about it is the single-core processor. It handles Windows 7 like a beast, though.

 

Intel® T3000 processor

15.6" WXGA widescreen LCD (1366 x 768 resolution)

3 GB DDR2 memory (2 Dimm)

250GB hard drive capacity

Supermulti DVD-RW optical drive

802.11b/g/n WLAN

1.3 megapixel webcam

Nvidia GeForce 8200M-G video graphics

HD audio with 2 speakers

HDMI port

3 USB 2.0 ports

4-in-1 card reader

PCI Express slot

VGA port

103-key keyboard

65-watt AC adapter

6 cell battery

Windows 7 Home Premium

[L.C.]

I'd go for the Lenovo.

+1

 

IBM (Lenovo) is reliable. <_<

[BDwinsAlt]

I'd go for the Lenovo.

+1

 

IBM (Lenovo) is reliable. <_<

agree

[Dr Brain]

I second the coupon comment. I got 30% off my $1,000 HP laptop, and since I was looking at paying $700 anyway, I basically got a much better laptop for the same price. Google is a good place to start looking for coupons. If you look carefully, and aren't tied to the brand, I'm sure you can find one that will bring you to your target $500.

[BDwinsAlt]

I second the coupon comment. I got 30% off my $1,000 HP laptop, and since I was looking at paying $700 anyway, I basically got a much better laptop for the same price. Google is a good place to start looking for coupons. If you look carefully, and aren't tied to the brand, I'm sure you can find one that will bring you to your target $500.

I found something kind of like that for my domain for GoDaddy. There were a lot of coupons mostly 10-30% off.

[Dr Brain]

Check out today's Woot: http://www.woot.com/

 

They're selling a laptop for $520 + $5 shipping. They usually have pretty good prices, but see if it's something that fits your needs. Don't take too long deciding, though, as they only sell it for one day.

[Confess]

They sold out. Besides, I'd rather just go with Tigerdirect - its a lil more reputable, heh.