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How to Buy Cheap Laptop Computers
How to Buy Cheap Laptop Computers
Having a laptop is a matter of convenience for most people. For other people however, it’s a matter of necessity. When you travel a great deal, work from home, or are in school ,a laptop can be your best friend.
Yes, you do want a laptop, but if you’re like everyone else in this economy, you want one that you’re not going to pay thousands for. In addition you want to get the options that you need.
You don’t have to pay through the nose to get a great laptop if you shop around a little bit to get the bargains that exist on the internet and elsewhere. The price of a laptop has become more reasonable just in the past year or two. They continue to drop as the smaller parts become more easily made and the technology becomes more advanced.
The trick is to find one that is a good quality product which will fit jobs that we need it to do. Before you begin your search for a laptop at a low price, sit down with a piece of paper and make a list of what you’re going to need from the laptop and exactly what you plan to use it for.
If it’s for work, then you’re going to need specific things. Likewise, for play or gaming you’re going to want certain features.
Laptop Features
When you plan on a laptop purchase, you want to get a lower price. You also want to factor in the other things that you need from it. Among the things that you need to consider about your laptop will be:
- Reasonable price–self explanatory, the price you should set the top price that you’re willing to pay and what you want to get for that price before you even start looking.
- Memory-The more speed you want, the more memory you want. 128 megs is pretty much bottom line these days, but you’re definitely going to want more if you’re considering anything at all that requires a little speed. Internet connections, movie downloads and watching, streaming video, all take more memory. Do note that upgrading the memory in your laptop isn’t done with the same five minutes effort that it takes to upgrade in a PC, and plan accordingly.
- Processor Speed-how well you can use your laptop will to a large extent depend on the processing speed. If you want it for CAD or graphics manipulation you’re going to need some speed. No matter what you want it for, don’t settle for anything under 1 GHz.
- Low weight-There are some massive machines out there. The weight actually make some of them prohibitive to carry around. What’s the point of a ten pound laptop that gives you spinal curvature when you put it in a backpack.
- Screen size-Depending on what you want it for, the size of the screen is going to matter. You may think you’re going to use it just for graphics, or just for programming, but there will come a time when you want to view pictures, edit images, or even watch a movie. The higher the resolution that your screen can use the more you’re going to be able to see all at one time.
- Longevity of the battery-Going for a Lithim battery is probably your best bet. Most of them will last between 2 and 6 hours even under serious workloads.
- Hard Drive-While you might be able to settle for a10 gig drive, chances are that if you’re going to use it for any level of serious work, you’re going to be further ahead with a 20 or even a 40 Gig drive.
Where to Find it?
Depending on what you want, new, refurbished, or used, you’re going to be able to find just about what you want for the price you have to pay if you’re willing to shop around.
New Laptops– are available online and discount stores that start at about 399. While they won’t have all of your options, most likely having a smaller hard drive and less memory, you’re probably going to be able to find a low priced laptop and be able to pick up an external hard drive reasonably to go along with it.
Of course specialty laptops are going to be a little more costly. If you want it with a gig of ram or something else that’s not a common factor, you’re going to pay a little more.
Otherwise, its very likely that companies such as Dell, Compaq, Gateway and even HP are going to offer you laptops that are well within your price range and offer some financing as well.
Refurbished Laptops– can quite likely be found in the same place. Online stores feature refurbished laptops for a discounted price online. A simple search,”laptops under 300 Dollars” brings back more than 1 million returns from Google.
Start with this type of search and when you arrive at a given site, search on-site for the specifications that you’re looking for.
Used Laptops–This is where the internet shines. You can find low priced laptops starting online for as little as 50 dollars when you search auction sites and other used goods sites. Numerous used computer stores are online, as well as some major manufacturers who also sell used laptops and refurbished ones, so don’t forget to check those sites.
Buying from reputable sellers on E-bay is a good bet to get you a great laptop at a great price. Check the seller reputation prior to bidding to make sure that they have a good one.Take care when you buy online to try to use a pay service such as Paypal so that you have better recourse in the event that the laptop isn’t all that you were promised that it would be.
Another great place to find a reasonable laptop is Craigs List. Searching our local Craigs list in Las Vegas we found more than 200 laptops that were selling for between 75 and 300 dollars.
Notes and Precautions
Before you bid or call on any of the laptops that you see, check out their specifications and check it against the list that you made in the beginning of features and options that you need.
Before you pay the full price for a laptop, for an online purchase, consider getting a single use paypal debit number and using that to buy since it guarantees your purchase. Before you pay for a laptop that you purchase from a Craigs List seller or newspaper advertisement, ask to visit the seller and see the machine in operation just to be on the safe side.
This entry was posted on Saturday, July 31st, 2010 at 11:53 am and is filed under Computers, Shopping. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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