Notebooks at Netbook Prices: How Low Can We Go?

Other Online Vendors

You can probably find deals comparable to what we listed above at other brick-and-mortar shops - OfficeMax, Office Depot, Target, Costco, etc. should all have similar systems, with prices that may be slightly lower or higher. If you have the time to shop around more, keep an eye out for special deals as we've shown that the Wal-Mart $300 laptop is still one of the most compelling in terms of price and features. We checked out a couple other online vendors including Newegg and TigerDirect as one last point of comparison.

Newegg

Newegg actually had several of the same laptops we've already listed, for slightly higher prices or with slightly different features. The $380 Acer 15.6" AS5516-5474 from Wal-Mart for example is available at Newegg for $400 or at Frys.com for $340 (yeah, tough call). There's also a recertified Compaq Presario 15.6" CQ60-215DX for the same $380 price as Best Buy.

The most attractive Newegg offer at present is the Lenovo 15.4" G530-444635U, priced at $400. This comes with an Intel Pentium T4200, 2GB RAM, 160GB hard drive, DVDRW, and Windows Home Basic. It uses the ubiquitous Intel GL40/GMA 4500M chipset and boasts up to 4.6 hours of battery life. If you're willing to pay a bit more, the Lenovo G530-444636U has 3GB RAM, 250GB hard drive, and Windows Home Premium for $450, along with limited availability of a free Targus notebook carrying case combo (a $90 value!)

TigerDirect

There are many similar/repeat products, and one of the brand names we keep on seeing is Acer. Acer has made a huge push into the affordable notebook market, and they have been successful in increasing their market share. They may not always be the best built notebooks on the planet, but if you're looking for an affordable laptop it's almost impossible to escape their presence. Considering Acer now owns Gateway, their market presence is even greater than you might think. Looking at TigerDirect, the most interesting laptops all come from either Gateway or Acer, although a few others from Compaq, Lenovo, and Toshiba are also present. Like Newegg, most of TigerDirect's non-netbook offerings are closer to our maximum $500 price point.

First up is the Acer Aspire 15.6" AS5535-5452, a $450 laptop that includes a dual-core AMD Athlon X2 QL-64, 3GB RAM, 320GB 5400RPM hard drive, 802.11N, Gigabit Ethernet, webcam, ATI Radeon HD 3200 integrated graphics, and Vista Home Premium. It's extremely similar to the Acer AS5536-5883 at Wal-Mart, with a slightly lower price.

For $30 more, the Gateway T-1424u is a 14" laptop that has similar features in many areas. The primary changes are that it uses the Athlon X2 TK-67 (dual-core, 65nm, 1.9GHz, 2x512KB L2, 1600MHz HyperTransport), a slightly slower dual core chip compared to the QL-64 but one that also uses a bit less power (31W TDP vs. 35W TDP). The chipset is the AMD M690T with ATI Radeon Xpress X1270 graphics, and networking is downgraded to 802.11G/100Mb Ethernet. Gateway doesn't specify the battery life, which is unfortunate, but the smaller chassis is a nice option for thin and light notebooks. The Gateway M-1631U is virtually the same concept in 15.4" trim with a TL-60 CPU (dual-core, 65nm, 2.0GHz, 2x512KB L2, 1600MHz HyperTransport) priced at $500. The M-1631U also upgrades the memory to 4GB and comes with Windows Home Premium 64-bit.

Two final $500 notebooks from TigerDirect are the Lenovo 3000 G530 4446-24U and the Toshiba 15.4" Satellite L305-S5961. You can also buy the Lenovo at CompUPlus for $487 plus shipping or the Toshiba from Amazon for $480. As mentioned, these brands tend to cost a bit more for the provided features. Toshiba doesn't include a webcam and uses the GL40/GMA 4500M chipset with a Pentium Dual-Core T4200 CPU, 2GB RAM, 250GB HDD, and Vista Home Premium 32-bit. The Lenovo 15.4" 3000 G530 is almost the same but with 3GB RAM and a Pentium Dual-Core T3400 (dual-core, 65nm, 1MB shared L2, 2.16GHz, 667MHz FSB). Lenovo also includes a webcam (0.3MP), and we would give them the edge simply based on the overall appearance and styling. Lenovo may not make flashy notebooks, but they are well built and many people like the conservative styling.