So I decided to sell my old dell pc on ebay and get the new ultraportable eee pc. This is a decision I have very mixed feelings about. I was able to sell my old dell laptop that I purchased refurbished a year ago for $350(I bought it for $500). This gave me just enough money to buy a 2GB Asus Eee PC from Amazon along with a 8GB SD card. Here is what I have experienced so far.
I am going to start with the 3 things I dislike: the screen and the keyboard. If I had know there was going to be a 9″ version of the eee pc I would have held out. I constantly find myself dragging windows and scrolling. The resolution is just too small relative to what I am used to. Secondly, allow I have mostly adjusted, the keyboard is difficult to type on. I feel like it just needs to be an inch or 2 bigger in order to type comfortably.
On the positive side, the portability is fantastic. I carry it around everywhere because it is so light and small. Its battery life is good, and I don’t have any trouble managing with 10gigs of space.
I would definitely trade in my old dell laptop again for the eee, but if you are in the market for a new laptop I would wait for the 9″ screen or even for the atom processor.
$399.99 Gateway MT3705 Refurbished Laptop Computer Bundle
- Intel Pentium Dual-Core T2060 1.60GHz
- 802.11g Wireless
- 1GB DDR2
- 100GB HDD
- Dual Layer DVD RW
- 14.1″ WXGA
- Windows Vista Home Premium
Computers 4 Sure by Office Depot is another great place to find a cheap laptop. Places to look for the best deals are the clearance section and the laptop inventory
page. Both places have loads of laptops in the 500-600 dollar range with all the features you need for a basic laptop PC.
The Fujitsu LifeBook P1610 Notebook
is pricier than some of the other previously reviewed laptops, but has features such as a touch screen and finger print reader security that the others do not.
The other specs of the fully loaded P1610 are as follows:
- Intel® Core™ Solo Processor Ultra Low Voltage U1400 (1.20 GHz, 2 MB L2 cache, 533 MHz FSB)
- 1 GB DDR2 533 SDRAM memory
- 80 GB P-ATA 100, 4200 rpm hard drive
- Integrated Atheros Super AG® Wireless LAN (802.11a/b/g); Wi-Fi®
- Integrated Bluetooth wireless
If you have the money the P1610 does not disappoint.
Tiger Direct has an Acer Aspire 3690 2900 Refurbished Notebook PC
for only $400. It comes with a 1.6 Ghz Celeron M processor, 512mb of RAM, a 60GB hard drive, wireless g, a 15 inch screen, and a CDRW/DVD combo drive.
Tiger Directs has a bunch of great deals on laptops. Check out their List of Cheapest Laptops.
If you are looking to buy a laptop cheaply, the Dell Outlet
is a great place to look. You save money no matter what type of PC laptop you are buying by going through the Dell Outlet. The only problem is that quanities are limited, so good deals disappear quickly. If you check often enough you may find a great deal.
For example right now I am seeing an Inspiron 1501 with a gig of ram and a AMD Turion 64 Dual Core - 1600 processor for $469. The equivalent system costs $699 through Dell Small Business.