Inexpensive new laptops?
 

I have bought my dad a refurbished laptop twice in the past four years, so they have lasted roughly 2 years each. Going to go the new route now. Looking for something inexpensive, preferably around $400. The cheapest I seem to be finding is around $550, but they are quite nice laptops... there must be something cheaper and not quite as nice. By nice I mean decked out spec wise.

All he really does is eBay, CL, Gmail, stuff like that. Would not need that much power but would like to see it last 4+ years.

Any tips? Good deals?

I budget to replace my working machine lapper every two years. I think that's OK. However, buy cheap buy twice is true.

Check consumer reports - I think Apple still top the reliability thing for laptops.

Working machines I agree with, though I've had my current desktop for almost 4 years and it still runs great, have no intention of replacing it anytime soon. Even with the Internet growing rapidly, computers seem to be more sticky these days. I don't think 4+ years should be an issue for a very casual user.

I would go with a cheap core i3 acer. They last forever got 3 at my house one is 5 years old one is 3 years and another is fairly new.

Never crashed or had any hardware problems.

Battery power does seem to drop off with regular use though. 3 hour battery on this one is now about 90 minutes.

Don't buy a Toshiba.....

I don't remember how long I've had my PC here. It's been a while, more than two years. Laptops in my family don't last long; We have a kid and the kid hauls it everywhere so they get destroyed quickly.

I got a toshiba netbook I love it mainly for writing but I also got my mom one. only draw back is the speakers are not great. battery lasts a good 8 hours plus

I googled it Toshiba NB505 N508BL B&H has it $240

You can get a brand new acer for around $250 that would fulfill those tasks just fine.

Is Acer ok to get? I always thought they were crap?

I don't think a netbook would work, he has big hands and I know it would drive him nuts.

I get the feeling that Acer is like the Hyundai of laptops. They get a bad rap because of their name but they're cheap and actually quite good.

Like I said, 3 of them here and none of them have ever had a problem.

2 of them get used daily and this one I am right now is used 8 hours a day and has never had a problem.

i have an acer and I love it...cheap and cheerful..

I have a mid-level Toshiba, and it is bulletproof, and fast..... along with a 6+ hour battery if you set it up right. I have heard really good things about the entry level Toshiba's also.



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Acer laptops are fine :pimp

The new Dell inspiron duo?
http://www.dell.com/us/p/inspiron-duo/pd

I have been buying a new laptop every 2 years for the last 8 or so. My current one is an Acer I got for $550, and it's time is almost up...

It's actually still performing quite normally, this one may go 2.5 before I replace it.

Sounds like Acer should work just fine. Found one on Amazon for $400.

Thanks all.

Acers are pretty cool. I bought one a few weeks ago for my brother who's currently in college. Haven't gotten any complaint. :)

I needed a comp that I could abuse a little and not feel bad about it and found an awesome deal at Costco for a Dell. I think I ended up paying under $600.

I just got one last week, a Toshiba for $350 at Best Buy.

you can get a decent regular sized laptop for $299 - 379 no problem.

Newegg, bestbuy, office depot, etc.

What a bout a mini, they are really cheap. Dell is like 200.

I have had my hp laptop for 3 years and it works great.

I got a $400 acer two years ago and it's great. I was even surprized to see that there is the complete re-install on a partition. When I got a virus I couldn't get rid of, I just did a self-reinstall of the OS and bam I was back up to clean and running in 30 minutes.

The only thing I don't like about it is the touch pad. I tried the MAC touch pad and it was really nice - acer, not so much. But I always use and external mouse anyway.

Even when I could work at home on my main machine, I love going to Starbucks in Hollywood with the laptop and working there for 3 hours just to see all the whakos that come and go.

Acers are well spec'ed for the price but only 3 months on warranty for the LCD, battery pack and charger. They also charge for support with any help outside of what is in the manual. I'd honestly suggest a low end Toshiba or middle-line Compaq around same price.

Every laptop that runs windows has a built-in partition for recovery.


not just sayin all this stuff to "bash" on acer. I sold more acers than I'd care to admit. 50% came back with weird defects.

With over 1000 sold here's what I've noticed in terms of reliability

#1 is LG, #2 Toshiba, #3 Asus, #4 Apple, #5 HP, #6 Compaq, #7 Emachines, #8 Acer and lastly #9 was Gateway

Absolutely, but it would be if you buy something cheap!

I've had 3 Acers that all died, then I started getting Lenovo's - they last.

Bot for cheap ones, I bought a Dell for my mom, she loves it. She also knows nothing about computers so take it for what you want. In fact, she once got a pop-up that said:"We are watching you" - So she closed the drapes, got down and the floor and called me lol

Spend a little more and get a Macbook. It is well worth the money as far as the best OS and reliability.

For what reason, so he also can be a fanboy and a buttbrother?

bought packard bell ... very cheap

Why on earth would I spend $2k+ for a casual user? I won't even spend that on my own computer and I use it 14 hours a day.

Best Buy has a Toshiba for $370 right now, back to school special. Probably going to go with that.

Hey Sly check out that one:

lenovo G570 (43344JU) Notebook
Intel Pentium B940(2.00GHz) 15.6" 2GB Memory DDR3 1333 320GB HDD 5400rpm DVD±R/RW Intel HD Graphics
$379.99

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834246127

I have ordered from newEgg before and never had an issue, they are top notch in my book.

ps: compare your price from bestbuy with Newegg you might saved a buck or two

I would pass on acer's and lenovo's due to poor quality

The cheapest dell inspiron is just $450
http://www.dell.com/us/p/inspiron-15-intel-n5040/pd

My mom has her's for 2 years now and its almost like new.

Probably your best bet right there :)

I had a couple toshibas, one that began to overheat and shut down occasionally. The other killed itself with a windows update [video card incompatibility, could not even get bios up], this was after probably 2 years though.

That $370 one should give you a couple of years of dependable service.

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

Same with me, they seem to deplete quickly.

I had a medion as my first laptop, that thing took a beating and was still going when I sold it to upgrade to a toshiba.

Within maybe 4-6 months it started getting hot!

The hard drive seemed to get issues a lot probably because of the heat, and if it was used for 3-4 hours straight it would cut out completely.

It was a good laptop but too many problems. Seemed slow aswell but it is quite an old machine now. I've still got it sitting around, the power cable is fucked and it takes about an hour to load up :1orglaugh

They are good laptops, just not reliable in my eyes. These acers feel like new aswell even with a ton of apps and software installed.

For something to suit your dad's pc needs and acer is definitely a good inexpensive route to go.

Me and 2 other friends bought 3 Acer Aspire's and the motherboard got fried on two of them. I took it to the Acer center in a different country and they replaced them no problem. I think it was just a bad batch but after that they work like a charm.

All laptops oveheat at any given point in their life-cycles unfortunately. An acquantaince of mine's laptop lasted a few months, a high end $2000 HP. Overheated like a mofo. Apples overheat very often and I've even seen toshibas, acers, dells etc etc etc.

The problem is for the amount of space allotted inside a laptop there is not enough room to efficiently cool multi-core cpus, upgraded gpus and most chipsets.

Cooling mats are a good help but only if there are intake vents underneath near where the cooling mat's fans blow. If in incorrect spot, overheating can be worse!

My best advice to anyone is never place on any surface that is not hard. No laps, no beds, no pillows and no carpets. Also if a lap placement is a must get one of those polyester raised stands. Kind of looks like a coat hanger wire frame wrapped in stiff/hard fabric. Blow the vents out periodically with compressed air as well.

I recommend the exact opposite.. every review site there is has acers labelled as disasters. they overheat, all of them, they have serious mechanical problems, meaning the folding part will break up on you within a year with moderate use. The only thing that was good about this thing was it was dirt cheap...

I've had two toshibas over the past 4 years. One was a 2 year old model that was a bit of a beast, loud fan etc... but it kept cool and ran perfectly well for another 2 years, in fact the only reason i switched because i needed more power... battery life was fine as well. My new toshiba is a lot quieter for the fan, keeps cool, have never had any mechanical issues with it despite lots of use.. so you can't go wrong with these things.. the speakers aren't exactly the best, but if you have headphones that isn't an issue. The ones i get range around 4-500 canadian, probably around 350-400 american.

So myself and everyone else who posted in this thread are lucky I guess? :Oh crap

I have my Asus lappy, bit higher than others yet very durable (almost 6 yrs with me and i use it daily). Cost around $750.

I have seen some bad reviews for Acer I must admit, the guy at staples when I got this one said something about fixmyacer.com when I bought it, never had a problem with it. It gets hard use and holds up really well, the 4 year old and 3 year old one both get used daily aswell and never overheat or had problems at all.

The only problem I've ever had with these Acers is the battery life drops off pretty quickly.

I think everyone has different experiences with different brands.

My cousin has a 3 or 4 year old compaq and that is still running well don't think he's had any problems with that, other than the odd virus (his own fault).

A friend of mine has had 2 HPs, one was already broken when he got it cheap and he fixed it up and had that for a long time. Then he got a newer one and had problems with the touchpad and wi-fi not working, pretty much the same laptop but a newer version.

Everyone has different experiences I guess.