I need a laptop

[SLIQ]

My sister is a college student and needs a laptop. She will use it for Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, frequently surfing the web and other school purposes. Her budget is $600, so if you can what is the best one for that price.

 

[suicidalpigeon]

dell has a $750 off any of specific inspirons that are $1499 and up. thats if you can really give your budget a nice stretch. id say its worth it. link.

 

[w00t]

600 is pretty low might want to look to buy one used so you can get sumthing good.

 

[Ken90630]

One of the big office supply stores -- I think it's Office Depot, but I'm not 100% positive -- has been advertising laptops for around $500 or $600 recently in their Sunday paper ads. CompUSSR might be doing it too right now (?). (I look at so many of those ads from so many stores, they all kinda become a blur after awhile.) Anywho, what's kinda interesting is that you can customize them too by adding more RAM, or a bigger hard drive, or whatever, for a little extra money ... but the stock specs are surprisingly not too bad right off the bat. IIRC, they're coming with Intel Centrino chips (around 1.5GHz, I think), 40GB hard drives, CD-RW/DVD-ROM drives, 256 or 512 MB of RAM, and Windows XP Pro. The way the ads are worded, they start out at $999 or whatever, then there are 2 or 3 rebates involved. So you gotta jump thru the rebate hoops and fill out a couple of forms & wait for the check(s) in the mail, but I'd fill out a couple forms to save $400 any day.

I think the ones on these deals are Compaq, and maybe HP(?), laptops. Compaq is not known as one of the better laptop brands, but HPs are generally rated higher. (And yes, I know HP owns Compaq now.) Neither will compare to, say, Apple or Fujitsu, or the pre-Chinese-takeover IBM ThinkPads, but those are beyond your stated budget. I agree with the previous posters that it would be ideal if you could spend a little more if you can, as a cheap laptop is more likely to break a year or two down the road and then you'll have a mean repair bill to deal with. :frown: As much as I hate to say it, Dell is tough to beat from a bang-for-your-buck standpoint a lot of the time. As long as the buyer doesn't need the higher-end features/quality that Dell doesn't typically offer, a Dell laptop will fit the bill. For a typical college student, it'll prolly be just fine.

BTW, this is just my opinion, but I'd steer clear of eMachines. They're cheap for a reason (again, just my opinion).

Good luck.

Edited to fix a typo.

 

[suicidalpigeon]

yeah one of the stores had a 399 after mir. they were compaqs with a64 3200+ and such and such. but i wouldnt buy it, mail in rebates are the devil, and so is compaq.

 

[Ken90630]

Originally posted by: wafflesandsyrup
yeah one of the stores had a 399 after mir. they were compaqs with a64 3200+ and such and such. but i wouldnt buy it, mail in rebates are the devil, and so is compaq.

Yeah, I think I saw that ad last Sunday now that you mention it. I don't like rebates either, but sometimes they're the only option if money is tight. As for Compaq's demonic ties :evil:, I don't know enough about their laptops' reliability to be able to comment definitively. Maybe some guys who repair laptops can chime in with their experiences with them. Sometimes cheap just means no frills as opposed to poor build quality; but again, I don't know enough about Compaq laptops to say. I just mentioned them 'cuz of the O.P.'s stated budget, and there aren't a lot of choices at that price level. I think I'd buy Compaq over eMachines though.

A used, good-condition Apple iBook or PowerBook, or pre-Lenovo IBM ThinkPad, would be nice.

 

[SLIQ]

Thanks for the help.