Sales for budget laptops?

November 20, 2007 11:01 AM

Are there likely going to be holiday sales on budget laptops?

My siblings and I are planning to give our mom a laptop for Christmas. She doesn't need anything extravagant; plenty of the budget models will work well for her. Right now I'm looking at the Dell Inspiron 1521 and the Toshiba Satellite A215-S4697 since they're listed as Consumer Reports Best Buys, but I still need to do a bit more research too.

I may be able to make the purchase over the next day or two, and all things being equal I figure I might as well just to get it out of my hair. But if I could save some money by holding off a bit, I'd like to do that. So, are these sorts of models likely to be discounted for the holidays?

Insider knowledge would be awesome; sharing experiences from the past year or two would be great, too. And I'm all ears for any other tips about how to save or keep the hassle to a minimum. Thanks so much!

posted by brett to computers & internet (14 comments total)

This Gizmodo Black Friday guide lists a few cheap laptops.
posted by erikgrande at 11:05 AM on November 20, 2007 [1 favorite]

Circuit City, Best Buy and Walmart all have door busters on laptops for black friday, but they will require spending the night out waiting for a ticket or validation for them.

www.dealnews.com may have a lead on them
posted by iamabot at 11:05 AM on November 20, 2007

It's not the exact model Toshiba you mentioned (though it's pretty close), but how about this?
posted by cerebus19 at 11:09 AM on November 20, 2007

The Dell Vostro 1000 (if you pick the cheapest one on the left) only costs $400 and actually looks to be a pretty powerful laptop. That's a normal/permanent price, not a sale.
posted by DMan at 11:19 AM on November 20, 2007

Seconding Dealnews. Here's a link to their laptop listings.
posted by shinybeast at 11:24 AM on November 20, 2007

On the contrary, iamabot, I've bought three computers on Black Friday without spending the night waiting. I usally get there around 5 am and go directly to the location of the computer. At least at my local Best Buy, it works like this: The give out a fixed number of tickets, say 25 per store, but they actually stock more than that number. If you are fairly far back in line but you immediately go for that item, chances are there will still be some stock (above the 25) that is still available.

That said, this stuff seems to get crazier every year; maybe 4 am is the time to arrive this year.
posted by Doohickie at 11:24 AM on November 20, 2007

Seconding dman -- the Dell Vostro deal has been deemed "better than black friday". It looks like some comparable BF deals may save you $100-150, but those 1) aren't even close to guaranteed and 2) will probably require a time and aggravation investment.

Are the laptop deals going to get any LOWER than black friday deals or this dell deal? I think it's doubtful. Budget laptop prices have been hovering around $349-$399 (for ones with specs that aren't as good as the dell's) and that's after rebate. I'm pretty sure you're not going to see any $299 laptops with no strings attached (clearance, rebate, limited offers), and you might not even see the dell deal again between now and xmas.
posted by fishfucker at 12:18 PM on November 20, 2007

Amazon has a laptop in it's customers pick the savings bracket thingy.
posted by drezdn at 12:56 PM on November 20, 2007

The Amazon Customers Vote has a $1000 laptop going for $299 if it wins.
posted by drezdn at 12:57 PM on November 20, 2007

Thirding dman. I saw that earlier and emailed a couple people I know who are thinking of getting a new laptop. Wow, thats just a great price. I think it expires on the 21st.
posted by damn dirty ape at 12:58 PM on November 20, 2007

Sold out.
posted by damn dirty ape at 1:01 PM on November 20, 2007

Regardless, just visit dealcatcher.com everyday and you'll find something.
posted by damn dirty ape at 1:02 PM on November 20, 2007

The Amazon Customers Vote has a $1000 laptop going for $299 if it wins.

just to clarify, the $299 price is available to 250 users out of the thousands upon thousands who have likely voted -- not to everyone who participates. The amazon vote thing is fun, and everyone should go cast a vote, but it's essentially a lottery. I'd put it as much less likely than getting a black friday deal. also, keep in mind you MUST have a valid credit card on file with amazon (to prevent you from regging multiple accounts) -- the FAQ says you will not be notified/altered if you vote and do NOT have a valid credit card on file.

in general, to get a great price on an item (rather than just a good one), you need to have your money ready, know what you want to get for what you want to pay, and jump when the number comes up -- as you can see, the dell deal is already dead (i'm a little surprised it lasted for almost 2 days, personally -- usually those deals are dead within a couple hours). whenever you read the deal sites, you'll always see countless comments of "darn, pulled out of my cart while i was checking out".
posted by fishfucker at 6:18 PM on November 20, 2007

There's also the Devil's Advocate/How to Get the Most Value from Black Friday view, via Cnet: Beware Black Friday Laptop Deals.

It specifically goes over which deals are crap (and which configurations are best value) and which deals are worth noticing. They also mentioned a 'best pick' that's just cheap and not necessarily a time-sensitive deal, which might work out well for you (since you wouldn't have to worry about stores selling out of it). Either way, some guidance to be found there.
posted by librarylis at 3:47 AM on November 21, 2007