help...i need an inexpensive but quality laptop !!!

[kitarkus2004]

I am looking for a quality but INEXPENSIVE laptop for the few times a year that i am on the road. I will predominantly use this for surfing from the living room on a wireless network. I am leery of brands like compaq, acer etc., however, I am not willing to spend $1000.00. I am even willing to buy a used machine if i can find one in quality condition. Does anyone have a suggestion for me?? Thanks in advance.

 

[fbrdphreak]

For used, go to eBay for the FS/FT threads here and look for a used IBM w/P3 1GHz+. I would say they only go up to $700-800. I have no clue why you are "leery" of good name brands like Compaq & Acer. They are some of the better brands for the money. Anyway, they're out of your "price range" anyway. Otherwise go to BBY or CC and get a Toshiba or HP model for $800 after rebates, or you might get lucky and see one of the notebooks for $599 after rebates one week.

 

[Moltres]

I suggest you start out in the Hot Deals and For Sale/Trade forums to look for deals. "Quality" is such a loose term to recommend a laptop to someone. Is weight important? How much battery life do you need? Do you need good technical support? Something inexpensive under $1000 is easy. But understand less expensive usually means heavier, slower, and less battery time.

Dell Inspiron 11xx and 51xx computers are inexpensive (on sale between $699-$899) and built pretty well. They are heavy and tech support sucks.

If you don't need much processing power, consider a used tablet pc. There are many convertibles between $499-$1000 that are perfect for browsing and office work. Just make sure to upgrade the OS to Tablet PC Edition 2005 for free (included in the XP SP2 download/CD) to greatly improve the software. They are all very light with long battery life, but the inexpensive ones are all discontinued. I bought a used Toshiba Portege for $700 that is great for doing schoolwork and browsing from the couch.

Give some clue as to what is important to you so that you can get better advice.

 

[IlllI]

i have found that there is rarely such a thing as cheap+ quality. as is usually the case, you get what you pay for. although, i'm sure that the definition of quality will differ from person to person

 

[kitarkus2004]

Thanks very much for your help...one and all.

I typically am a very picky person and select the best regardless of price. This purchase, however is strictly a couch potato purchase. In other words...i do not NEED a laptop. I would LIKE to check email from a hotel occasionally....and I would LOVE to surf the net from the comfort of my living room sofa. I may try to watch a DVD in a car or plane once in awhile......but this machine will be secondary to my home/office desktop machine. I'd love to have a used laptop just to see if I even will USE the darn thing!

I desire for it to be reliable and have a comfortable keyboard. I use an Athlon 1333 at home desktop...and i find it to be plenty fast for most of my applications. I do have an ipaq and an ipod which i use frequently and would likely load software for both onto the laptop. A firewire port would be nice...but i don't see many laps with firewire ports.

Thanks much for the responses.

Jg

 

[Wuzup101]

Maybe consider a used G4 iBook? You can actually get a new entry level ibook 12" for $999 w/ wireless and firewire and all the goodies built in...

 

[trungthiendo]

i have a dell d500 that is pending sale locally, but if things fall through, i will offer it to u for 950obo

pentium M 1.3ghz with complete centrino package
30gb hard drive
dvd/cdrw 24x
14.1 xga screen
4.7 lbs

perfect for travelling on the road since this is dell's business notebooks designed for professionals who travel to do business

bought in march...new keyboard within the last 2 weeks and have not used, just formatted, and new AC adaptor

get 3-4 hours on use...if you want more battery life you can upgrade to a 53watt/h battery found on ebay or get a modular battery that goes in where the dvd/cdrw drive goes into...and this will yeild you double battery life since its quoted at 43 or 48 watt/hour like the battery that the d500 comes with

 

[vamirr]

I've gotten to like the lower end Acer laptops on Newegg. Ones like this aren't too bad with a ram upgrade. There's some others that cost less than this if you don't mind a Celeron M (not such a bad chip IMO). Sounds about right for what you're looking for.

 

[kitarkus2004]

I pulled the trigger!!!!

I bought Dell Inspiron 1150 refurb as follows:

Celeron 2.6
Windows xp home
14.1" screen
30 gig/4200 rpm
256 RAM
DVD
Internal NIC card

free delivery 3-5 days.

$580.00 TOTAL
(i went ahead and added $49 for the 1 year warranty)

I thought it was the best deal i could find. i can always upgrade to PRO and add RAM
as needed.

 

[Rottie]

585.00? where did you find it? I am curious.

 

[dementedlemur]

Good Deal! I have the 1100 p4 2.2ghz inspiron (same as far as dimensions go). It's a pretty decent machine, although not very light.

 

[kitarkus2004]

Rottie--

on the Dell site www.dell.com you can check on the
"notebooks" tab....then check on the "Dell Outlet Notebooks".

Dell Outlet are all refurbished products. I went for the 1150, however,
stock changes rapidly for all models. I clicked for about 3 days
until a machine in my configuration (cheap!) came up.

I saw several of these machines fly by the list (they are purchased
as quickly as they are placed on the board...and Dell only allows you
to keep them in your shopping cart for 15 min!).

Normally I always upsell myself adding more and more items until
i finally spend a lot more than i had originally intended.

This time, however, I bought the CHEAPEST 1150 that i found over three days.
Other than adding another 256 RAM later and possibly upgrading from HOME to PRO XP...
I think this machine will be fast enough for my light use.

I also went to Micro Center and Best Buy etc. I was not impressed with the Acer of the Toshiba
for typically $200 more.

My gosh....methinks that is a lot of computing power for $629 with 1 year warranty delivered to my door!!

Jason

 

[serjsmirnoff]

i can sell you a laptop for less than $600 since my business went bankrupt. If you are interested, please contact me.

 

[Nutdotnet]

Originally posted by: serjsmirnoff
i can sell you a laptop for less than $600 since my business went bankrupt. If you are interested, please contact me.

Suggestion-

READ THE THREAD

 

[serjsmirnoff]

sorry, didn't read it before i posted.

 

[calyco]

I got the 1150 when they had the free upgrade to 512MB ram and 40GB hd, I also added a NEC 6500a dvd burner to it and used it as a desktop replacement. Not bad.. faster than my old athlon 2400+ desktop, a bit heavy to me but that not exactly a bad thing (solid build).