where can i find a good deal on a laptop?

[Guest]

i want a good deal on a laptop wheres the best place to find a maybe with a webcam built in i was looking into dell but i'll wit untill the exploding laptops thing wheres a the best place?

[cooper]

This stuff depends on your location, so you might want to specify that a bit.

Also, particularly with the exploding batteries, now is a GREAT time to buy laptops. Why? Simple: supply and demand. The media scares the customer away with the reports on exploding batteries. So supply stays the same (it's not like they only start building one when your order comes in) yet demand goes down. To get the machines that have arrived (and are losing value at an astonishing rate, like all things IT tend to do) out the door, they need to bring demand up again, so they lower the price a bit. The bigger the scare, the bigger the drop in demand, the lower the price.

I'm pretty sure that if you went on a holiday via aeroplane on, say, 25 sept 2001, using a last-minute ticket you'd get to your destination for a STEAL. And seriously, what are the chances some nutter would try to blow up your plane at this point? Security was ludicrous. If there was ever a safe time to fly, that was it.

[armadaender]

I too, am in the market for another laptop at the moment. So far I've been watching ebay because I'm only looking for a beater laptop to throw debian on and take to class, roadtrips, etc. So far, 1.4 ghz, 256mb ram with a 20-40 gb hdd is fetching around 220 bucks (US). Just depends on the brand.

[VaKo]

Dell factory seconds work great. Got a laptop from a place called EuroPC for £400 off the list price and since i went threw the buisness side, i got a 1 year next day onsite warrenty. So when my flatmate dropped it at a party and the HD died, there was a guy in my house fixing it less than 24hrs after the incident. For free. There not even seconds, just cancled orders or a refurbished failed unit (dell make all there laptops to order, so when there returned they can't sell them as new, even if the fualty part was replaced.) And the myth that dells are crap? Load of rubbish. So, if your looking for an OK laptop on a budget, i'd seriously consider a Dell.

(will it explode? Unlikely. Apple's have been blowing up for years yet they still sell like hot cakes)

[comcipher]

I've found one of the best places to look for laptops is simply in your sunday ads from the paper, or check store ads from Best Buy, Circuit City, etc. They usually have some really nice looking laptops for great prices every week.

Usually it'll be alot cheaper because it has less RAM then possible, but it's really easy and cheap to upgrade that for a considerable performance boost.

[VaKo]

1: work out a budget

2: think about what you want (ie a desktop replacement for gaming, a thin&light for carting around, or something in between)

3: look at what is on sale that meets your requirements and budget

4: read reviews (http://www.notebookreview.com <-- very good site)

5: ignore brand name fanboys, most of them know dick beyond what digg tells them to think, judge the product and support by its own merits.