what's a good cheap laptop?

February 20, 2006 12:33 PM

Laptopfilter Difficulty: Less then $350. I'm thinking of getting a laptop for a friend of mine. The other day at best by I saw some that were in the $500 -$600 range. So there must be some somewhere in the $300-$400 range somewhere. Where are they and what would be best?

A new notebook would be nice, but small and light (and cool looking) are also very important. If you know of something a little outside the price range, feel free to mention it. I'd also like to stay away from Apple.

posted by Paris Hilton to computers & internet (20 comments total)

I think the cheapest price ever on a new laptop was Walmart's $400 Black Friday only special. Just to put this request in perspective.
posted by smackfu at 12:37 PM on February 20, 2006

The cheapest cheap laptop at Dell, the Inspiron B120, has a $100 rebate so its now $449. $50 outside your range, but it looks like a great deal.
posted by gatorae at 12:46 PM on February 20, 2006

Yeah, no way are you getting a new laptop for $300. That's about the lowest price you'll see for a new desktop. Personally, I'd consider a used IBM Thinkpad. They aren't the prettiest things in the world, and some people hate the nipple-esque Trackpoint, but they are very sturdy and reliable.
posted by Rock Steady at 12:51 PM on February 20, 2006

Watch FatWallet and SlickDeals. There are brand-new laptops for $400 and under, very frequently.
posted by evariste at 1:02 PM on February 20, 2006

Even used Thinkpads can be more than that... oh, my bad. Here's one for in that range.

No connection with the seller; I have this same model and it's still a great machine. Add half a gig of memory and it'll even run Photoshop.
posted by GuyZero at 1:03 PM on February 20, 2006

Check CompUSA presidents sale. Better Hurray! Try Ebay for a used laptop. Good Luck.
posted by johnd101 at 1:15 PM on February 20, 2006

I wouldn't buy a computer off ebay unless you like getting a box of rocks in the mail. And you can't get a laptop for that cheap. I just got the cheapest dell notebook available online and it was around $575.
posted by puke & cry at 1:38 PM on February 20, 2006

You probably CAN get a laptop for cheaper than $550, but I would not advise it: No warranty likely, and it may even be a scam sale.
Cough up the dough for the Best Buy deal or whatever Dell is selling. At least you can be reasonably sure that you're getting what you paid for, and that it may get fixed if it doesn't work.
posted by BigLankyBastard at 1:55 PM on February 20, 2006

Okay, adjusting my expectations: what's good in the $500-$600 range? Anything light with lots of RAM? CPU speed isn't that important.
posted by Paris Hilton at 2:04 PM on February 20, 2006

For a trustworthy eBay route, Dell Financial Services sells off-lease business laptops on eBay, sometimes even with some warranty left. They don't generally come with a copy of Windows, though.
posted by CrayDrygu at 2:42 PM on February 20, 2006

IBM themselves sell refurbished Thinkpads (as do other places.) Techbargains and Dealnews list several notebooks below $600. This HP for $550 after rebate looks nice (it seems to be an improved model of the Walmart under-$400 Black Friday laptop). I don't have personal experience with anything but my used Dell Latitude X200; I've been surprised with how pleased I am with it.
posted by Zed_Lopez at 3:32 PM on February 20, 2006

I was just looking at office depot's president sale. Here in Chicago they offer a $369.99 compaq system.
(1.5GMHz Celeron M, 256MB, 40GB, DVD, 14" with printer!)
Granted, it is a vanilla laptop but nevertheless cheap.
Configuration code(whatever that means) is 03017116.
It's probably sold out by now and it might not be available nationwide but its worth a try.
Good luck.
posted by yabo at 4:02 PM on February 20, 2006

here is a link for that office depot sale
posted by yabo at 4:10 PM on February 20, 2006

If you want one for under $350, you're gonna have to buy used. Thinkpads are definitely a good option. I have one myself. The problem is, with a used computer for under $350, it might be a bit slow, compared to what some of us are used to. Running multiple programs at once, and programs that use a lot of system resources might be a bit slow. If your friend has any experience with Linux or BSD, or has any interest in learning, they could consider using either of those instead of windows, as many programs written for them (but certainly not all) contain a lot less of the bloaty features most of us are used to that slow things down. Otherwise, choosing the right programs for windows ought to work just fine.
posted by gauchodaspampas at 4:40 PM on February 20, 2006

About three weeks ago I bought a Gateway MX3215 from BestBuy for $550. It's a great laptop 1.4GHz, 256MB memory, DVD/CDR, about 5lbs, built in wireless G/B. I love it... it does what I need -- DVDs, websurfing, word processing.

The same laptop is on sale for $450 at Best Buy now (see their Sunday circular or look at it online). If you can find one still in stock, I'd recommend it. The ony thing I'd change is adding more memory (not entirely necessary, but will only set me back another ~$30).

That being said, keep an eye on Ben's Bargains for other good deals. I think that with a little patience, you're in the market for a cheap laptop at a really good time.
posted by jerryg99 at 5:37 PM on February 20, 2006

If you can bide your time until a deal appears, and can jump on it immediately, and remember to follow all the rebate procedures, then this is possible. I bought a new gateway laptop at Office Depot recently for $350 after $800 in 3 rebates. I found the deal on Fatwallet or Slickdeals and showed up as the store opened to buy the one unit they had in stock. Monitoring Fatwallet & Slickdeals will save you tons of money in other ways too.
posted by roboto at 5:41 PM on February 20, 2006

Hewlett Packard sells refurbished laptops at their online store (with at least minimal warranties.) Keep an eye out.
posted by enrevanche at 5:51 PM on February 20, 2006

Ditto gauchodaspampas. I'd probably be much less happy with my (800 MHz P3, 256MB) Dell X200 if I were running XP. With Linux and the minimal Ratpoison window manager, though, it's just fine. (But trying to get all of a laptop's features working under Linux can be difficult or impossible, depending on the laptop, and anyone who wants to go that route should research the Linux compatibility of any laptop under consideration -- for a few, it's easy.)

Then again, it's getting close, but I still can't quite recommend Linux on a primary system for a non-geek without in-house tech support.
posted by Zed_Lopez at 6:22 PM on February 20, 2006

I second Dell Financial Services, although I went through their main website, rather than through their Ebay one.

I bought an Inspiron 5000e from them about 3 years ago, and was able to get an extended warranty from Dell for about $50.00. The original 20GB hard drive just died, so I replaced it with a space 5GB drive I had laying around and it's now running Ubuntu instead of Windows 2000.

And even though some of the laptops come without an installed OS, they should still have the COA and Windows license on a sticker on the bottom of the laptop. All you would need is an OEM version of Windows 2000 or XP. IANAL, but I would think that this would be legal, since the COA is actually stuck to the device, so the license goes with it.
posted by Jim T at 6:31 PM on February 20, 2006

Several people have mentioned these points, but I wanted to collect them all together. To buy a cheap computer (desktop or laptop), the best strategy involves time and a little research. Usually when I want to upgrade (on a student budget), I start scanning the channels and just watch. Usually in 2-4 months something comes through.

For used computers, the usual channels include Craigslist, your local want ads, eBay, and the major manufacturer refurbishers (i.e. Dell Financial). I have purchased off all of them. Local is safer, but unfortunately 99% of the people selling their computers through those channels seriously overvalue their stuff. So it takes a long time to find a deal. It really helps to be familiar with computers to understand what makes a good value or not. If you do purchase off eBay I highly recommend focusing on the high volume sellers that specialize in buying used or off-lease office computers and selling them.

If you are looking for bargain basement prices on new computers, keep an eye out on the web sites where super deals get listed: fatwallet, dealnews, slickdeals, etc. Get an idea of what a good price is so you can have a sense of what makes for a spectacular price. For example, every few months Dell unloads some of their out-of-production computers at pretty steep discounts. The key is to be able to spot a great deal and to be able to act quickly. Sometimes the deals last for just a day or two.
posted by Tallguy at 7:55 AM on February 21, 2006