Laptop Deals

A look at the Best Buy weekly circular ad (5/24 to 5/30)

In addition to the just-mentioned $400 Toshiba, and the $250 netbook, Best Buy has a number of other laptops featured in their weekly circular advertisment, although none of the laptops have made it to the front of back page.

A good deal at $450 is perhaps the HP Pavilion G60-244DX, which has a new 16-inch widescreen display of the 16:9 aspect ratio variety, which is good for watching widescreen and HD-Video since that is their aspect ratio. Older laptops were using 16:10 widescreen aspect ratios which were not a perfet mathc, and of course a few years ago, the most common aspect ratio was 4:3, which nowadays you only find in refurbished laptop sales, since very few make them anymore. Video killed the aspect-ratio star!

This comes with 3gb memory, 250gb hard disk, an AMD Athlon X2 dual-core processor, and Vista Basic. There is a limit of one per household and it comes with a software box one-year subscription of Webroot's AntiVrius and SpySweeper.

But if you prefer a more mobile option, the 14.1" widescreen HP dv4-1225dx may be of interest as it goes for $580. It has an AMD Turion X2 dual-core processor, 4gb memory, 250gb hard disk, lightscribe, and battery life of 165 minutes. Not bad if you ask me considering the screen size. Assuming of course that you do want this size for portability.

But if battery life is an issue, the Dell I15-157B comes to the rescue, offering 340 minutes (yes, 5 hours and 40 minutes), for just $600. This is also packed with key specs, like a Core2 Duo processor, 4gb memory, 320gb hard disk and the 15.6" (16:9) widescreen, which replaces the 15.4" (16:10) widescreen typically found in laptops a year ago.

The $700+ club
And now it is time to move to the more expensive models, starting at exactly $700 for the golden-themed HP dv7-1245dx, yet another Best Buy exclusive model as you can tell by the magic keyword "DX" in the model name. This lovely has 4gb memory, 320gb hard disk, lightscribe, AMD Turion dual core and a 17-inch widescreen display.

And we close with some Apples, but no Oranges :) The MacBook MB881LL/A can be yours for exactly $1000. It comes as you can expect with a Core2 Duo dual-core processor, a spartan 2gb of memory (can be expanded to 4gb), 120gb hard disk, NVidia GeForce 9400M, slot-loading dvd drive, bluetooth, wireless and all that good stuff. The display is of course the trademark 13.3" widescreen.

Sunday paper laptop deals at Best Buy

Apart from the netbooks dominating the front page, and the $400 Toshi on the backpage, there are plenty more laptops featured in the Best Buy weekly circular ad.

So we start the roundup with the lowest prices first, to make it easier to sort them through. And that is where find (shock-and-awe) a 15.6" widescreen laptop powered by Celeron (oh dear!) for $380. As you can tell from the screen-size, this is a new model, and God only knows why HP decided to put a Celeron in it, considering the waves and waves of Atom-based netbooks out there. Nevertheless, the Pavilion GQ60-211DX has 2gb memory, 160gb disk, Vista Basic (great idea instead of Premium), and battery life of 165 minutes. We recommend that you go for a dual-core processor model, the Toshiba we mentioned above is a better deal for an extra $20.

Next, at exactly $500, we find an AMD Turion X2 dual-core laptop, the Gateway MD261-4u. Acer has been able to leverage the brand-name recognition of the Gateway name into some affordable models that are getting some traction in the market. This particular model has 3gb memory, 15.6" display, 250gb disk, dvd burner, wireless, webcam, Vista Premium, and up to 3 hours of battery life. I love these "up to" because sometimes the only way to get the maximum battery life is if you turn it on and keep it running without doing anything :) (Please note, I am not picking on Gateway specifically, this is a more general comment about consumer electronics in-general).

Moving on up, at $600, the Dell Inspiron I15-157B offers an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, but more importantly, a battery life of 5 hours and 40 minutes, which is almost good enough to get you through the workday if you sleep or hibernate during lunch adn meetings. (By "sleep" I mean the computer, not the human operating the computer!)

An extra $50 will get you a smaller 14.1" widescreen model with Centrino Core 2 Duo, and 512mb of discrete graphics memory with the NVidia GeForce 9300M GS card. This being the ASUS XB3VB-X2. Don't even try to figure out the model name, ASUS has so many, even their own employees can't probably figure it out ;-) This also has 4gb memory, 250gb disk, battery life of 216 minutes, Vista Premium, wirelessm, webcam, and things like that. Not a bad deal for $650 (at brick and mortar) if you ask me.

The 700+ Club
And now we enter the $700+ club, starting with the nice-looking HP dv7-1245dx, a Best Buy exclusive model, as you can guess from the "DX" in its model name. Someone must have suffered through enough assembly language programming to go out of their way to give it the name "DX" :-)

This model goes for exactly $700, and as we mentioned before, no rebates whatsoever at Best Buy. It has an AMD Turion X2 dual-core, 4gb memory, 320gb disk, dvd burner, webcam, Vista Premium, and yes, a 17" widescreen, which partialyl explains why the estimated battery life is two and a half hours. Nevertheless, if you want a big laptop that can handle some multitasking and have enough screenspace so you don't go blind with tiny fonts, then it's worth a good hard look.

Next up, for $50 more, you can get the 15.4" Toshiba A305-S6916, whcih is a Centrino Core 2 Duo lappie, with 4gb memory, 320gb disk, dvd burner, wireless, webcam, Vista Premium, and things like that. Battery life is comfortable at 221 minutes, and perhaps the jewel of the crown that justifies the $750 price tag, the ATI Mobility Radeon HD3650 graphics module with 512mb dedicated memory.

But that's not all, the above also includes a Toshiba Nano Wireless Laser mouse, which goes for around $50 on its own, and together they are a Best Buy exclusive special.

Next, at $800, we find the HP dv4-1365dx, with its Centrino Core2 Duo, 4gb memory, 250gb disk, dvd burner, Mobile broadand embedded, 195 minute battery life estimate, Vista Premium and things like that. As you can guess, the mobile broadband internet is what makes the price be what it is, compared to other laptops with similar specs but without the embedded mobile broadband.

But if you sign up for a two-year Verizon, Sprint, or AT&T data plan, then the price you pay will drop by $200 to $300, depending on the promotion. Of course you will pay more than that in monthly fees for the data plan, but if you were already planning to get both a broadband-laptop and a broadband data plan, then you can obviously take advantage of this "self-subsidy".

And we close with a gadget-laptop, the 12.1" widescreen HP tx2-1025dx, yet another BB exclsuive, going for $900. This of course has a touch-enabled display, 4gb memory, 320gb disk, dvd burner, wireless, webcam, 225 minutes of battery estimate, and Vista Ultimate. What is Vista Ultimate a cynic would ask and answer: more junk to remove in order to speed it up? :-)

13-inch Dell I1318-142P laptop headlines Staples weekly deals

The new Staples weekly specials, which you can find in your Sunday paper's circular and at the Staples website (yes, they have gone line already) for the week of May 10 to May 16, 2009, are headlined by a 13.3" widescreen Dell I1318-142P laptop offered for $700. This affordable power-compact includes 4gb of memory, 320gb hard disk, Intel Core 2 Duo T6400 processor, DVD burner, 64-bit Vista, WXGA resolution, wireless, webcam and all that good stuff. Despite the power-specs, the laptop weighs just a little under five pounds, so you can take it many places, without worrying that it may fly if it gets too windy - like a 2-pound netbook would ;-)

Speaking of which, for $300, you can get the HP Mini 1115NR. This netbook is powered by the Intel Atom N270 processor, has 1gb of memory, and a 16gb solid-state disc (SSD), which is nice for speed and also power consumption. Speaking of which, the battery can last up to three hours. Better yet, it runs the more spartan Windows XP Home OS, instead of bloatware-Vista. The display is 8.9" (WSVGA) and it weighs 2.23 pounds. Needless to say it has all the connectivy features you'd expect, wireless, webcam, and memory card reader.

And now let's look at the stroage offers, which start with a 4gb Sandisk Cruzer USB drive going for $18, without any rebates. For more long term storage, a one-terabyte Seagate FreeAgent external hard drive goes for $130. Not a bad price. Now this is not a "skinny" drive, but if you do want a skinny drive, for half a terabyte you can get the Western Digital MyPassport Essential, also for $130. This is really portable.

New weekly specials at Staples (April 26 to May 2)

We start the round-up of the weekly laptop specials at Staples with the HP dv2-1030 going for $600 after a $50 Easy Rebate. This is the "new generation" of laptops, going after the netbooks by downsizing. Once upon a time it was a luxury to have a fully functional laptop with a 12" display, now you can get it for $600. And this is not a gimmicky laptop! You get 4gb of memory, 512mb of dedicated graphics memory, 320gb hard disk, Athlon Neo MV40, 64-bit Vista, and weight under 4 pounds. DVD functionality is external however, since you can't have everything :)

And we go from tiny to huge next, when we find the HP dv7-1232 which is a 17" widescreen model. It goes for $650 without any rebates. As you can see, just $50 more than the 12-incher. You get a lot of similar specs (4gb memory, 320gb disk, 64-bit Vista) but of course the processor is a "regular" AMD Turion 64 X2 DC RM-74.

From HP, we move to Sony-Land, where we find the Vaio VGN-P530H for $900 without rebates. It comes with the Intel Atom Z520 processor, 2gb of memory, 8" display, 60gb disk, mobile broadband, GPS, and Vista Basic.

And now we move to the land of "real" netbooks, starting with the Dell IM10-2634 for $400. This has a 10-inch display, 1gb memory, 160gb disk, XP Home and weight under 3 pounds. As you can see when you compare with the HP dv2-1030 above, there is still a reasonable distinction in terms of the other specifications.

And if you want to pay even less, at $300, you can get the Acer Aspire One with XP Home, 1gb memory, 8.9" display, 160gb disk, webcam, wireless, mouse, and weighs under 2.5 pounds.

And we close with a ...closeout! For $100 you can get a 19" wide-screen display, without rebates. It is the AOC brand with 5ms response time and 16:9 aspect ratio. Of course with display prices going down, many people prefer the 22"+ size, but in some cases, you may want a smaller display for monitoring older computers or to put in tight spaces. Or you may only want to spend $100 :-)

HP dv5-1235dx with amazing battery life at $650 headlines Best Buy's weekly specials

Two laptops are featured on the front page of this week's circular ad by Best Buy, the $500 Dell Inspiron I15-156B and the $650 exclusive HP dv5-1235dx. The former is a very reasonable option considering that you are paying half a thousand, as you get 3gb memory, 15.6" widescreen which means you get the high-definition-video-friendly 16:9 aspect ratio. Other features include 160gb hard disk, and T3400 dual-core Intel processor. And for bonus point, this has a smooth pacific-blue color scheme.

But obviously the star of the ad is the HP model with its excellent near-7-hour-long battery life. Beat that! On top of that, there's 4gb memory, 320gb disk, 64-bit OS, 15.4" display, and T6400 dual-core processor.

But the lowest price laptop in the ad is the Toshiba L305-S5919 going for a mere $400 and of course, just like everything else, no rebates. This exclusive model has 2gb memory, 15.4" widescreen, 160gb disk, dvd burner, but do note that it has the Intel® Celeron® processor 585, not a dual-core! However, if you are not planning to use this with processor-heavy tasks, then the price might be right for you!

For those who want more in every dimension, there is the HP G60-22350dx, an exclusive model, offered for $580. It has a 16" widescreen display, which means you get the newer 16:9 aspect ratio that movie and high-def video fans prefer. Other features include the T3200 dual-core processor, 3gb memory, 320gb hard disk, battery life close to 3-hours, dvd burner of course and a whole lot more.

Next we move to the $700 price-point, where we find the Sony VGN-NS240E/W, powered by the T6400 Core2 Duo processor, with 3gb memory, 3-hour battery life, 250gb hard disk, wireless-N, but a "mere" 15.4" display. Yes, you do get "Centrino" but you are obviously also paying the Sony Vaio premium. If you are not a Sony fan, you can get a better deal with the other brands mentioned here :)

Laptops at $900 and beyond
In the land of the more expensive laptops we find the HP tx2-1025dx, which as you can guess from the model name, it is a convertible tablet with a touch-screen display of 12.1 inches. The price is $900 which is not that bad considering that this tiny has 4gb memory, AMD Turion RM-72 processor, 320gb disk, close to 4-hours battery life, Vista Ultimate and a whole lot more. This, by the way, is an exclusive model at Best Buy, just like about half of the models described in this week's circular.

Next we have the "ASUS Invasion", with the ASUS G50VT-X5 going for $1000. This price gets you a 16:9 15.6" widescreen, Intel Core2 Duo P7450 processor, 4gb PC2-6400 memory, dvd burner, and (surprise!), a secondary OLED for short messages. Other features include a 320gb disk spinning at 7200rpm (nice!), the NVidia 9800M GS graphics card with 512mb of dedicated memory, wireless-N, and battery life of 3hr and 23 minutes. Oh so precise the bureaucrats are :) This has a fancy design on the lid, so be sure to check it out either way. Either way meaning whether you love or hate laptop "art".

Then we find a more traditional laptop, but at the same time, it is the Dell Studio XPS SX13-163B. This is a 13.3" widescreen model, with the P8600 Core-2 Duo processor, and 4gb of DDR3 memory. The graphics system is an NVidia 9400M GS. Other features include a 320gb disk spinning at 7200rpm, slot-loading dvd burner, 64-bit Vista, five pounds weight, backlit keyboard and things like that. Does this smell like a MacBook killer? :)

Speaking of the MacBook, the MB466LL/A is offered for $1300, with its 2GHz Core 2 duo processor, 2gb DDR3 memory, 160gb disk, NVidia 9400M, MacOS X, multi-touch trackpad, and things like that. So can the Dell above tell this MacBook: "everything you can do I can do better, and for less!.

And it's probably right, unless of course you are an Apple fan :-)

What's hot at Staples this week? (March 8 to 14)

A new week, and a trio of laptops find their way in the new Staples circular ad. The theme of this week is affordable prices, set one-hundred dollars apart.

And we start with the lower price, at $450, we find the Acer Aspire AS4730, featuring a mobile-friendly 14.1" display, a very usable 3gb of memory, 250gb hard disk, dvd burner, wireless, webcam and all the usual stuff. Not bad at all considering the specs. Obviously you are not getting a "designer" name laptop, but if function and price matter, good luck getting this price from the "designer" laptop manufacturers!

Bump up the price by $100, and then you can get the HP DV4-1222, also a 14.1" widescreen, but with 4gb of memory. The processor is the Athlon RM-72, dual-core of course. The other specs are as expected, 250gb disk, dvd burner, and things like that. Also please note that this has 64-bit Vista, because of its 4gb of memory. Otherwise you wouldn't be able to make the most out of this memory because of the way 32-bit computers and operating systems are restricted.

Last but not least for sure, for an extra $100, going for $650, you can get a 15.4" Dell , with 4gb memory, 320gb disk, slot-loading dvd burner, 64-bit Vista (obviously) and your choice of body colors. Not bad either.

So as you can see, you have an interesting trio of choices, and to be fair, you can't really go wrong with any of the above, providing of course they meet your needs and they are within your preferences and budget.

This week's laptops at Best Buy are headlined by the Toshiba L305D-S5934

A new week is upon us, and that means a new round of weekly circular ad specials from the big box retailers. Now we take a look at what Best Buy has to offer, so you can decide whether you want to camp outside tomorrow morning :)

New at Best Buy: Toshiba A305-S6916
We start with a new arrival, the Toshiba A305-S6916, an exclusive model, going for $750. This is a 15.4" laptop, whose claim to fame perhaps is the 512mb dedicated memory of its ATI Mobility RADEON HD 3650 graphics card. The other features are as expected, Centrino-ness, T6400 dual-core, 4gb memory, 320gb disk, dvd burner, 64-bit Vista, and things like that. For those who like stylish laptops, this has the Fusion finish with a Kinetic pattern.

Front page story: Toshiba L305D-S5984 at $500
We start with the front page model, the Toshiba L305D-S5934 going for exactly $500, and of course as with all things Best Buy, no rebates! This onyx-blue lovely is a BestBuy exclusive model, and carries a 15.4" widescreen display, along with the AMD Turion RM-70 dual-core processor of course. Memory is reasonable with 3gb PC6400 DDR2, and a 250gb SATA hard disk. The display is handled by the ATI Radeon 3100 which of course as you can expect from this price range uses shared memory. Hey, you can't have everything for $500!

All the other expected features are here, dvd burner, wifi, webcam, card-reader, and such. On the negative side, the battery is just barely over 2 hours. However, for $500, and the Satellite brand name, it's hard to ask for more consider the landscape of the market at the moment. And you don't have the hassle of sending rebates, which cost a little bit more, because you still pay tax on the rebate amount, have to spend time processing and tracking, have to factor in the risk of never receiving the rebate, and also the costs of copying and mailing the required material.

And before we continue, a reminder that the new U2 album "drops" on Tuesday, and U2 will have a one-week residency at Dave Letterman's show!

Price leader: Acer Aspire AS4730-4516
This lovely Aspire is this week's price leader at exactly $400. It has a decent feature-set considering the price, especially for those who love 14.1" widescreen displays, because, (you guessed it) it has one of those! This lappie is no slouch, it has a T3400 dual-core processor, 2gb memory, up to 3 hours battery life, 250gb hard disk, dvd burner and all the usual accessory-features (wifi, webcam, card-reader, etc). The weight is a reasonable 5.3 pounds.

17-inch Temptations?
If you like a little bit more than the L305D mentioned above, for an extra $100, at $600, you can get the 17-inch Satellite L355D-S7901. You get the RM-72 Athlon dual-core, 3gb memory, 250gb disk, and a lot of similar specs as the aforementioned 15.4" Satellite. Battery life is around 2 hours which is not that bad for a 17-incher, and the weight is one Ally McBeal lunch short of seven pounds :)

An extra $100 however, will get you the HP dv7-1245dx, yet another BBe (short for Best Buy exclusive). It has 30 minutes more in battery life, and 4gb of memory, and a 320gb hard disk. I'm sure there are other smaller differences, but this is intended to be a summary, not a line-by-line comparision between the two models. And obviously, with 4gb of memory comes 64-bit Vista, offering you even more ways to blue screen :-)

Two more to go
Interestingly, there is no Apple advertised this week, but we have three more to recap before we go. First up at $630, a 14.1" lovely is the HP dv4-1225DX which as you can guess from the "DX" in the name is another BBe (Best Buy exclusive). This has a battery life of 15 minutes short of three hours. Other specs include the Athlon RM-72 which we saw a few times above, along with 4gb of DDR2 memory, 250gb disk, ATI RADEON HD 3200 RS780M graphics, and a nice weight of 5.1 pounds.

At $730, we find the Dell Studio S15-158B with an amazing 7 hours and 17 minutes of battery life. They can take the 17 minutes, I'm thrilled with SEVEN! That alone is worth the price boost, but this is not a basic laptop either. You get the T6400 dual-core, 4gb memory, 320gb disk, slot-loading dvd burner, and the usual stuff. Weight is 6.4 pounds, but you can't really complain, wouldn't you trade an extra five hours of battery for an extra half a pound of weight? I would any day!!!

Laptop temptations at Best Buy this week

In addition to the two sub-$400 Acer Aspire models, Best Buy has a lot of other laptops on special. Let's take a dive into the circular ad and check them out!

At $500, with a movie-friendly (16:9 aspect ratio) 15.6" widescreen display, we find the Dell Inspiron I15-156B. This nicely colored (pacific blue) laptop uses a Pentium dual-core T3400 processor, and it has 3gb of DDR2 (SoDIMM) memory, with 160gb disk, and the usual features of this price range, such as dvd burner, Intel GMA 4500MHD, card-reader, wireless, Vista Premium SP1, and more. The weight is 6.5 pounds.

For an extra $50, you can get the Gateway MD2614u, but only one per household. This has the same screen-size but an AMD Turion X2 processor instead (RM-72), a 250gb hard disk, and about 30 minutes longer battery life. Also instead of the Intel GMA, it is using the ATI Radeon 3200 HD graphics module, which can "steal" up to 1.9MB of main memory. Also different from the Dell above, you get 64-bit Vista, and the usual features you would expect from this price range.

From here, we take a jump in price and feature sets, starting at $700 with a new Best Buy exclusive model, the Toshiba M305-S4910. This laptop emphasizes mobility with its 14.1" widescreen display and almost 5.5 hours of battery life. Not bad! The processor is a Core2 Duo T6400, with 4gb of memory, 4gb DDR2 SDRAM (PC6400), 320gb disk, but Intel GMA4500MHD graphics. And of course it has all the other features you'd expect, dvd burner, wifi, webcam, card-reader, networking, IEEE 1394, etc. The 64-bit Vista SP1 is a must for the memory, and its weight is 5.5 pounds, not featherweight, but you are getting 5.5 hours of battery!

If you want near seven hours (yes, seven) of battery life, the HP dv5-1235DX can be yours for $730. As you can tell from the "DX" in its model name, this is a Best Buy exclusive model. And preferred by assembly language programmers everywhere ;-) It has a Core2 Duo T6400 processor, with a 15.4" widescreen display (WXGA), with 4gb DDR2 memory (maximum 8gb), 320gb hard disk, Intel GMA 4500MHD, and all the usual features. The weight is 5.9 pounds, and when you consider seven hours of battery life, BRING IT ON!

The Screens Get Bigger
Next we jump to a 16.4" widescreen display, an uncommon for now size, but it will become more common in the next few months, as this is the screen-size for the 16:9 aspect ratio which is favored by high-definition movies and TV, and will eventually take over all displays. The laptop in question is the Sony Vaio VGN-FW351J/H, offered for $900. Apart from the bigger display, it has a Core2 Duo T6400 processor, 4gb of PC2-6400 DDR2 memory (expandable to 8gb), 320gb hard disk, dvd burner with BluRay playback, Intel GMA4500 MHD, and all the usual features including Bluetooth. Battery life is 3.5 hours, which is half of the HP mentioned above, but hey, you are getting BluRay playback and a bigger screen :)

Next we have two 17-inch models, one with the Intel GMA and the other with an nVidia card wit dedicated memory. We start with the cheaper one, the GMA one obviously, which is the Dell Studio S17-162B going for just $750. Apart from the 17" WXGA display, you get 4gb of memory, a Core2 Duo T6400 processor, 320gb disk, dvd burner, and all the expected features. A larger screen means a larger laptop, and that means almost eight pounds of weight.

The other 17-incher is the HP dv7-1285DX, another Best-Buy-exclusive model, going for $1200. Ouch! Why the price? Obviously, we start with the nVidia GeForce 9600M GT graphics with 512mb dedicated memory, but that's not all. You get SIX gigabytes of DDR2 memory, instead of the usual four, half a terabyte of disk space, and a Core2 Duo P8600 processor. The rest of the features are as expected at the four-figure price range, with battery life estimated at 3 hours and 15 minutes and the laptop weight at 7.6 pounds.

As you can see from above, the main trade-off is battery life versus screen-size. You can get really good battery life at 15.4" and below, but there's only so much current technology can offer with the larger displays. At least for now :-)

Two Acer Aspire (AS5515-5831 and 5187) laptops under $400 at Best Buy

This week's laptop specials at Best Buy are headlined by two Acer Aspire models under $400. Not one, but two! One of them is included in a special bundle even! Wowie! Run to the store!

We start with the lowest price, the Acer Aspire AS5515-5831 offered for $350 and just like everything else at Best Buy, NO REBATES! This is a basic but still useful laptop, with 2gb of memory, 160gb disk, dvd burner, ATI Radeon Express 1200, webcam, and 15.4" widescreen. Oh and Vista Basic SP1. However, it uses a single-core processor, the Athlon 2650e, so if you are going to be using it for processor-heavy tasks, you may want to look at a dual-core model. Nevertheless, thsi will still beat up and crash netbooks that sell at a similar price, but obviously it's bigger and heavier.

At exactly $400, you can get a bundle build around the Acer Aspire AS5515-S1887. The bundle includes a Swiss Gear 15.4" laptop sleeve and a Microsoft Wireless Optical notebook mouse 4000. No rebates! You just get them all for $400.

The laptop itself also uses a single-core AMD Athlon 2650e processor, so again, it is nice for general purpose use, but if you are planning on processor heavy tasks, you may want to jump to a dual-core. However, this has some nice features, such as a 3gb memory, 160gb disk, webcam, wifi, 15.4" widescreen (WXGA), dvd burner, ATI Radeon 1200 Express graphics, and Vista Basic SP1. It weighs just over 6 pounds but it's only 1.3" thin - according to the product specs.

Tempting laptop specials at Office Depot for President's Week

Office Depot goes on the attack with some great specials, starting at $370 for the eMachines eMD620 laptop. Yep, $370! And get this, it has a 14.1" widescreen display, 2gb of memory, a 160gb hard disk, wifi, Vista Basic, BUT, yes, BUT, an AMD Athlon 2650e processor. So if you need it for lightweight work, then the specs are just fine. But if you plan on more processor-heavy type of work, you may want to go with something with a more powerful processor.

One such option could be the Toshiba L305-S5933 for $500 after $50 mail-in rebate. This lovely has a 15.4" widesceen, 3gb of memory, 250gb disk, webcam, dual-core T3400 processor and the usual amenities of a laptop of this price range. And you are getting a Toshi Satellite, not just any brand!

And if you ride the Toshi train, for $550 after $75 MIR, you can get the Toshiba L305-S5937, which happens to be an ODP-exclusive model. As you can see from the model number, it has some small differences from the one right above, such as 4gb of memory and 320gb of hard disk instead. Along with face recognition and all the usual suspects.

Smaller Screens
Nothing says smaller screen than a netbook, and if you happen to need one, the Gateway LT1004u netbook, which rumor has it is a clone of the Acer Aspire, goes for $330 and without rebates. This is an 8.9" display, with 1gb memory, 160gb disk, and the Atom N270 processor. Along with webcam, wifi and Windoze XP Home.

But a netbook can't do everything, so if you need a "real laptop", then the Gateway UC7308u is your friend at $600 after a $50 mail-in rebate. Once upon a time considered luxury items (*cough* MacBooks *cough*), the 13.3" widescreens are now getting more and more affordable. This guy has 3gb of memory, 250gb disk, T3400 dual-core processor, slot-loading dvd burner, wireless-N, and things like that. Not bad if you ask me.

Bigger Screens
At the other end of the spectrum, if you are looking for a desktop-alternative or an entertainment laptop, then for $550 after a $50 MIR you can get the Toshiba L355-S7902. The price is right, it is not a typo! And this is no slouch either, you get 3gb memory, 250gb hard disk, T3400 dual-core, integrated keypad (yum!), and battery almost as long as 2.5 hours. The last one not a bad thing for a 17-incher.

If you are looking for a slightly smaller screen, then $800 after a $50 MIR will get you the 16-inch widescreen Toshiba A355-S6935. This Satellite ...orbits around the dual-core T6400 processor, 4gb memory, 400gb hard disk, ATI graphics card with 512mb memory, face recognition, FM tuner, USB sleep-n-charge, wireless-N, and of course 64-bit Vista so you can make the most of the four gigabytes of memory. And the popular Fusion finish.

Check them all out at Office Depot!