I'm in a pretty nice position: my gf needs a new laptop and she said she would give me the free 4GB XBox that is currently a promotional item for students. I only game rarely, so the Xbox is a nice-to-have, and I would not push a craptop on her just to get in on the promotion. So priority would be to find her the best laptop if there's a clear standout. I first recommended a Macbook, but she "hates Mac." I then recommended a Thinkpad for their reliability, but "it's not pretty enough."
So now we're reaching the consumer level laptops here and if I can find a good laptop that comes with a free Xbox, it would be win-win.
There are several stores participating in the free Xbox deal: Newegg, Microsoft online store, and Best Buy. The first two stores only have the XBox promotion applied to certain laptops and I found those to be overpriced (for example, could have found similar laptops for almost $100-200 cheaper and use that saving to put towards an XBox), so I pass on Newegg and MS Store.
Best Buy offers more choices: any laptops $700+ gets the Xbox. Her budget is $700-900. I would pass on most of their consumer HP, Toshiba laptops and similar due to their crappy reputation and reliability. I haven't had experience with Asus or Samsung laptops though and so I want to ask if Best Buy carries any particular model that provides reliability, value, lightweight, and decent performance, in that order (she mostly goes online, watches movies, and uses MS Office; not a performance user).
So now we're reaching the consumer level laptops here and if I can find a good laptop that comes with a free Xbox, it would be win-win.
There are several stores participating in the free Xbox deal: Newegg, Microsoft online store, and Best Buy. The first two stores only have the XBox promotion applied to certain laptops and I found those to be overpriced (for example, could have found similar laptops for almost $100-200 cheaper and use that saving to put towards an XBox), so I pass on Newegg and MS Store.
Best Buy offers more choices: any laptops $700+ gets the Xbox. Her budget is $700-900. I would pass on most of their consumer HP, Toshiba laptops and similar due to their crappy reputation and reliability. I haven't had experience with Asus or Samsung laptops though and so I want to ask if Best Buy carries any particular model that provides reliability, value, lightweight, and decent performance, in that order (she mostly goes online, watches movies, and uses MS Office; not a performance user).
