Cheap Laptops Are Finally Good

In my business, I help clients select new computers.  Until recently, I told my clients that they should expect to pay about $1200 to $1400 for a decent laptop.  I typically steered them away for the advertised 'cheap laptops' from Dell and the like.  In my experience, they were underpowered, lacked adequate RAM to get real work done, and left the user regretting the purchase as they were just too slow to enjoy using.  Today, I'm pleased to report that is no longer the case.  The low end laptop, when picked properly,  now has serious power to do serious work.

Here are a few examples of laptops that I found at a few reputable web-based computer sellers:

From Best Buy's Outlet Center at $599 each:

Laptop #1: Gateway - Model: T-6836 | SKU: 8892861; Intel® Core™2 Duo mobile processor T5750; 4GB DDR2 memory; DL DVD±RW/CD-RW drive; Labelflash technology; 14.1" widescreen; 250GB hard drive; built-in webcam; Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit with SP1

Laptop #2: HP Pavilion - Model: dv6835nr | SKU: 8780125; Intel® Core™2 Duo mobile processor T5550; 3GB DDR2 memory; DL DVD±RW/CD-RW drive; 15.4" widescreen; 250GB hard drive; built-in Web cam; Windows Vista Home Premium with SP1

From eCOST.com at $509:

Laptop #3: HP Pavilion - Model: DV6915NR eCOST.com Part #42260062 2.0GHz AMD Turion X2 Dual Core TL-60 Processor, 3GB RAM, 200GB Hard Drive, DVD+/-R/RW DL w/ LightScribe, Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG, NVIDIA GeForce 7150, 15.4" WXGA HD Display, Webcam, Windows Vista Home Premium (HP Recertified)

From Circuit City Outlet at $579.96:

Laptop #4: Toshiba Satellite L305D-S5881 15.4" Widescreen Laptop Model #: TOS L305DS5881 - AMD Turion 64 X2 RM-70, 3GB of DDR2 memory, Built-in webcam, 200GB hard drive, Burns DVDs and CDs, Windows Vista Home Premium

From Newegg.com at $599.99:

Laptop #5: Acer Aspire AS5730-4163 NoteBook Intel Pentium dual-core T3200(2.00GHz) 15.4" Wide XGA 4GB Memory 320GB HDD DVD Super Multi Intel GMA 4500M

From Geeks.com at $599.99

Laptop #6: Dell Inspiron 1525 Core 2 Duo T5750 2.0GHz 3GB 250GB DVD±RW 15.4" Vista Home Premium (Brown) (Refurbished)

Please post a comment if this has been helpful to you.

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Comments

[Medina Sfetcu]

I would advise against the Dell Inspiron 1525. I've had it for less than a year (august 2008) and it's gone crazy on me a couple of times already. The most recent and annoying problem is the cooling fan. After about two months of running fine (hard surfaces alone, have been through the ordeal with my last Toshiba Satellite) it would overheat and shut down. Still Struggling with it. Dell is not helpful at all, they're trying to convince me that it's not a real problem. For the past 2 months I've put something under it to elevate it and allow for better air flow but the other day it overheated and shut down again, even though it was elevated. And from what I understand the fan is very hard to clean because it is located under the motherboard.

So I advise caution.

[Dell optiplex]

I've bought the 1521 laptop a couple of days ago. What can I say?
It's perfect. The batteries works up to 4 hours (if you power off
the wireless interfaces). Also, I was lucky enough to get the model
without that TrueLife glossy screen. The bad thing is that the laptop
only comes with Windows Vista, and therefore has only Vista drivers.
It was somehow hard to find the Windows XP drivers for all presented
devices, but finally I have found them all.
Again - this laptop is just perfect.