Best deal on a laptop for around $500 before Christmas?

karkyco

karkyco

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So I've been tasked with finding a "good" laptop for my nephew as his Christmas gift. Any help in finding a great deal will be greatly appreciated.

We want to spend up to $500, maybe a little more, and basically just get him something he can get online with, write reports, etc.

I was thinking about ordering this $300 HP laptop for him, but I'm definitely not sold on their quality. I would prefer to give him a brand name, maybe a Toshiba, Dell, or Sony...but really it ultimately doesn't matter as long as it's reliable and can handle the usual basic functions...

Any of these worth considering?

Thanks in advance!
 
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Well, if all you're looking for is basic document writing (Word) and internet access, a netbook like those would probably do the job just fine. There are many to choose from, and $250-350 seems to be the going price for the majority of them. I would personally go with the Asus Eee PC.

Netbooks are small and lightweight. They're great for that, excellent for carrying to class and around town to do homework at the cafe or library, but that's about all you'll be able to do with it. But you won't have a CD/DVD player/burner. The keyboard (on the ones I've tried) is fairly small and cramped. If you have larger hands, it can be a pain.
You probably won't be running anything but the most basic of games (if that matters), and streaming movies could be up in the air. Youtube type videos should be fine, but you probably wouldn't be able to get HD content to play smoothly, and even some of the more graphics intensive (flash/videos/etc) websites will be choppy to view.

Overall, great for toting around to class/school, doing research for homework, and basic web browsing. Beyond that, netbooks are going to be lacking.
 
I would suggest checking out Dell's Vostro Laptops on their Small Business section of the website.
 
All of the laptop's in that price range are similar quality. Everyone has their own brand preferences but to say Toshiba is more of a name brand than HP is absurd. For the amount your looking to spend you should get a pretty good 16" laptop. Keep your eyes on slickdeals and be ready to order when you see a great deal. If you hesitate it will be gone. There was a $520 lenovo that had dedicated graphics and a core2duo processor a couple days ago.
 
Amazon had a $300 Dell Laptop with 250gb hdd and 4 gigs of ram a week or two ago as a lightning deal that sold out in 2 minutes. I would say watch their black friday for something like that again (I tend to post the deals as I find them on my blog in my sig)
 
There's a $399 laptop on newegg right now (Lenovo G550), but its probably long gone by now. The same one was selling on the lenovo site for $525 or $549 a couple days ago. I ordered one for my mother. Its a respectable laptop for internet use and probably what you need it for.
 
I would go with the Dell Inspiron 15 for $449. I was tempted when I saw it that price on their site and I'm not trying to find out a way to order one. The shipping is free so the total will just be about $479.

Or, you could go to Staples, atleast their website, and they have them for $499.99 and with many different colors. I think the dell is a good choice and I don't think you can find a better price on a quality laptop.

Nice gift! : D
 
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