$500 to $600 laptop

tlarkin

tlarkin

VIP Member
I need to find a laptop for someone in that price range. Basic usage only, nothing fancy no gaming, needs mobility.

I have done some research but am looking for some testimonials. So anyone have any recent experiences with laptops in this price range and what you like/dislike about them?

Also, netbooks are out of the question, the screens are too small.
 
No and they want to buy it this weekend so ordering it online may not be an option. Plus if they buy it from like a Microcenter they can take it there for warranty repairs rather than shipping it them self or dealing with newegg.

I think they want to see and hold the laptop before buying it, which is understandable.

I do not have a specific brand in mind but was thinking Acer since they have pretty good laptops at a pretty good to low price.

This is not for me but I am helping them pick it out.
 
tlarkin said:
I need to find a laptop for someone in that price range. Basic usage only, nothing fancy no gaming, needs mobility.

I have done some research but am looking for some testimonials. So anyone have any recent experiences with laptops in this price range and what you like/dislike about them?

Also, netbooks are out of the question, the screens are too small.
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I bought a refurbished IBM (loaded) for I think it was $389 (retail price about $800+) from overstock.com

My T42 Thinkpad said refub but I cant even tell that anyone ever used it. Great deals at overstock.com.
 
aubiesbiggestfan said:
I bought a refurbished IBM (loaded) for I think it was $389 (retail price about $800+) from overstock.com

My T42 Thinkpad said refub but I cant even tell that anyone ever used it. Great deals at overstock.com.
Click to expand...

That is cool but even then that laptop would be over kill. This is going to be use for office documents and email only. No music, no games, no movies. I mean the basic of the basic laptops will work. I am just trying to find the most reliable with the best warranty for the dollar.

Like for example, I used to repair Sony computers years ago, and I would never own a Sony because ordering parts for those things is a super huge pain in the ass. Their warranty procedures suck, and the repair time was always weeks.

See I have worked the other side of retail computers. I used to be a warranty repair tech, and I used to repair all major brands under warranty. While, I saw a bit of everything (no brand didn't break) I saw more of some and I saw how they were built. I also saw how hard it was to get parts and how long customer's had to wait for warranty repair. I also saw some companies try to reject warranty repair for ridiculous reasons.
 
AFAIK, Dell sells refurbished laptops in your price range. Go to Dell.com, and click on "Dell Outlet" on the bottom under the 'Shop' section. It's definitely worth checking out....
 
Yeah my initial gut feeling tells me Acer is the best sub $500 laptop to buy. I will go get a feel this weekend when I take them shopping but I think I know what I am going to recommend.
 
MSI and hp are cheap and well performing that I have known. Your local shop may have what you are looking for if you are avoiding the hassles of online purchases.
 
I actually found a Sony on sale, and while I don't like Sony all that much it was too good of a deal to pass up.

Core 2 duo 2.2Ghz
2gig RAM
180Gig HD
integrated intel video chipset
15" screen
Built in firewire, usb, SD card and sony memory stick reader
web cam


for $600. This was for my parents who are technology stupid, so I had to hold their hands the whole time. I wanted them to get a Macbook but they said they didn't want to spend over $600. I went to a place where I used to work and they gave me a deal, and even got a 3 year extended warranty on it for them really super cheap (like under $50 I think it was like $30) and since I used to work there (many years ago) they hooked me up.

The thing about the Sony that I really liked is that it shipped with Vista Business but has a license for XP Pro. So, you can run either or and the restore disk gives you both OSes. So, if my parents end up hating Vista I can drop them down to XP Pro. I kept it on Vista since Windows 7 and future MS OSes are going to be like Vista. That way they get used to it and can upgrade to the next version easier. If I dropped back to XP for them I think that would just make it harder for them to upgrade to Win7 or later versions when they had to.

I looked at the Acers and the others in that price range. To be honest the Sony was the best deal for the dollar. A lot of the other sub $500 laptops were Pentium Ds or Celerons, so $600 for a Core 2 Duo laptop really is a pretty good deal.

I just hate setting up Vista. I spent like an hour just getting all the crap out of it and disabling all the unneeded annoying processes to make my parent's laptop just run very simple. Once they get a hold of all the bells and whistles I may go turn some of that stuff back on, but damn it is so freaking annoying to deal with that. Which makes me think how much superior Unix based OSes really are. You don't have to deal with that crap because they are running minimal processes to begin with, and the launch daemon brings up processes and shuts them down on the fly as needed. The Windows Kernel just has all kinds of crap running, that is not needed to be running all the time.
 
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