Lets get one thing out of the way right now and that is to answer the question of "Who has the best sub $500 laptop deal this Black Friday?"
Answer in order from
First place : Circuit City - Toshiba L25-S1193 $450 or $380<--will explain later Second place : WalMart - HP Pavillion ze2308wm $389 (Some may prefer this over the CC laptop) Third place : Best Buy - Toshiba L25-S1192 $380
Well we know of all the sub $500 laptops now so heres whats hot and whats not and what you need to know before deciding on which unit to buy. PLUS some unadvertised info that may get you $70 off the Circuit City laptop which IMO is the laptop of choice this BF followed very closely by the WalMart laptop.
BestBuy $380 Toshiba L25-S1192 Celeron M 1.5ghz 15" XGA screen (NOT the TruBrite screen) Graphics Card ATI RADEON® XPRESS 200M 256mb DDR2 ram 40gb hard drive (5400rpm) CD-RW/DVD combo Wifi Half-capacity 4-cell battery (1-1.5 max hour life) S-Video TV out only 90 day warranty ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Circuit City The laptop is NOT $199 its $450 or $380 with the Gift Card deal<--will explain later Toshiba L25-S1193 Celeron M 1.5ghz 15" XGA TruBrite Screen 512mb DDR2 ram 60gb drive (5400rpm) Graphics Card ATI RADEON® XPRESS 200M Wifi Half-capacity 4-cell battery (1-1.5 max hour life) S-Video TV out 1 year warranty
The laptop is $199.99 ONLY after you signup for 12 months of AOL. Its $449.99 otherwise. If you want to signup for 12 months of AOL dialup at 24/month the total cost of laptop + AOL will be $488. Here is how you will get it for $380. The laptop is advertised for $450 and you can get $250 off if you sign up for 12 months of AOL. Signup for 12 months of the $15/month AOL for Broad Band plan which will cost you $180 for the year. SO..$450 - $250 AOL sign up + $180 actual cost of the $15/month plan = $380 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ WalMart $398 HP Pavillion ze2308wm AMD Sempron 2800+ 1.6 Ghz 256 MB DDR SDRAM Memory 40 GB Hard Drive (4200rpm) Graphics Card ATI RADEON® XPRESS 200M CD-RW/DVD combo Drive Wifi 15" XGA screen Full capacity 6-cell battery <--unconfirmed 1 Year warranty ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Staplesalso has an ok deal which IMO is 4th place. Spec wise similar to the BB laptop but I don't think $80 more is worth the extra battery life and IMO Toshiba build quality is better. Plus this Acer was initally designed for a widescreen so what you have is a standard 15" screen on an unnecessarily wide laptop. Its still a decent deal though.
Acer 3613CLi Celeron M 1.5ghz 15" XGA screen 256mb DDR ram 40gb drive CD-RW/DVD combo drive Wifi Full capacity 8 cell battery (Will give you 2.5 hours)
The first 3 are the BEST sub $500 laptop deals this BF. There is no question about it.
Forget the other retailers Compusas laptop will cost you $550 and NOT $299 like the AD states because you have to pay for AOL. The best you can do is $480 IF you can get the $15/month AOL deal. Office Depot only has a base config "build-to-order" laptop that lacks a CD-RW, Wifi, and uses a slower CPU. The cost of upgrades and $50 shipping kills the deal.
A few things to note before you decide.
1. The Toshiba laptops have half-capacity batteries. You CAN get higher capacity batteries but how much they cost I dont know yet. The WalMart laptop so far is believed to have a full capacity 6-cell.
2. Extra ram is CHEAP. 256mb of DDR is only about $20-$25
Users like you can add images, links and other relevant information about this topic.
posted: Nov. 18, 2005 @ 7:34p
itsed
Happy Member
posted: Nov. 18, 2005 @ 8:19p
I was looking for more information on a replacement battery on the Toshiba, since most of the complanist on that laptop is the battery life, but so far to no avail.
I thought L25-S1193 has 1 year warranty? L25-S1193 Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition, Intel® Celeron® M Processor 370, 512MB DDR2, 60GB (5400 RPM) PATA, CD-RW/DVD-ROM, 15.0” TruBrite™ XGA, ATI RADEON® XPRESS 200M, TV-Out, 802.11 b/g, CD Buttons, 1-year Limited Warranty
sunrise said: On the Circuit City flyer, I see some Toshiba laptop for $199, what is the deal there ? I cannot read the model # though , can anybody comment ?
Its the same laptop discussed. The price is $449.99. IF you signup for 12 months of AOL you get $250 off making it $199.99. AOL is $23/month for dialup although as discussed you MAYBE able to signup for the $15 AOL for Broadband plan which costs $15/month.
$450 - $250 AOL signup - $180 actual cost of the $15 AOL for Broadband plan = $380
Do NOT signup for the $23.95/month plan since the total cost of the laptop and AOL will be $488. But its really not a bad deal, an extra $38 for 1 year of dialup isnt bad. but who uses dialup??? Save your money IMO.
sunrise said: On the Circuit City flyer, I see some Toshiba laptop for $199, what is the deal there ? I cannot read the model # though , can anybody comment ?
It's actually $449 but there's another $250 if you sign up for a year of AOL. I read somewhere that the AOL plan must be a minimum of $24.99 a month. So the AOL discounts are bust unbless you need internet access.
sunrise
Senior Member
posted: Nov. 18, 2005 @ 10:35p
thanks
DealEnthusiast
Senior Member
posted: Nov. 18, 2005 @ 10:37p
Performance wise, can we say the HP AMD is the best among these sub-500 laptop? Assuming additional 256MB upgrade is added.
DealEnthusiast said: Performance wise, can we say the HP AMD is the best among these sub-500 laptop? Assuming additional 256MB upgrade is added.
Looking quickly over some benchmarks performance difference between the 2 looks to be neglectable. Sure the Semprons based on the A64 are good but dothan cored Celeron Ms are nothing to sneeze at because they are in fact Pentium M cores with 1/2 the L2 cache enable. Still they have a whopping 1mb and benchmarks show that perfomance is nearly identical to Pentium M cpus. Its power consumption where pentium Ms are better not performance.
I will be getting 2 lappy's from WalMart before bf, then probably sit in line at bb to get 3 of theirs. I'd really like to get CC's but think I need more items at BB then CC. great post OP
I thought the WalMart laptop isn't in the store right now, that it wasn't coming out on the floor until BF.
And this is a great comparison. I've been debating picking up one of these on BF or trying my luck at the Dell Outlet on a cheap one.
Socrilles
Senior Member
posted: Nov. 18, 2005 @ 11:56p
actually the celeron M is a better processor then the sempron, just like the pentium m is a better processor then the athlon 64. Of course this is only true in some things....but in terms of laptop there is little comparison. The other advantages the Toshiba has at Circuit City is memory upgrade will be a lot cheaper it is very common for the 1 gig ddr2 chips to be under $100. Lastly, there is a way to mod the celeron M to make it run an 2 ghz instead of its default 1.5 ghz this will give you the equivalent performance of about a pentium M at 1.866 ghz. Also note the Celeron M's were initially pentium M's, however the pentium M's were bumped up to 2 mb L2 cache, so the 1 mb variants became celeron M.
davidbeckham
Senior Member
posted: Nov. 19, 2005 @ 12:49a
is there a way i can get rid of truebright because i'll use the laptop mainly for texts?
Celeron M doesn't have speed-step, so 2 ghz Celeron M will be very hot on these cheap laptop
Socrilles said: actually the celeron M is a better processor then the sempron, just like the pentium m is a better processor then the athlon 64. Of course this is only true in some things....but in terms of laptop there is little comparison. The other advantages the Toshiba has at Circuit City is memory upgrade will be a lot cheaper it is very common for the 1 gig ddr2 chips to be under $100. Lastly, there is a way to mod the celeron M to make it run an 2 ghz instead of its default 1.5 ghz this will give you the equivalent performance of about a pentium M at 1.866 ghz. Also note the Celeron M's were initially pentium M's, however the pentium M's were bumped up to 2 mb L2 cache, so the 1 mb variants became celeron M.
Any chance of buying any of these sub $500 laptops online?
weescot
Senior Member
posted: Nov. 19, 2005 @ 10:06a
I was wondering about that too. Are any of the BF deals available online? Weescot
llewxam
Senior Member
posted: Nov. 19, 2005 @ 11:14a
You can't buy these laptops online.
I am actually not a fan of the trubrite screen with its reflection. When you are using a laptop with that screen, it is like having a crt tv screen up close in your face.
I am actually not a fan of the trubrite screen with its reflection. When you are using a laptop with that screen, it is like having a crt tv screen up close in your face.
Circuit City had the doorbuster laptop online last year...it sold out fast but it was online.
onion said: llewxam said: You can't buy these laptops online.
I am actually not a fan of the trubrite screen with its reflection. When you are using a laptop with that screen, it is like having a crt tv screen up close in your face.
Circuit City had the doorbuster laptop online last year...it sold out fast but it was online. really?! was that for shipment order only, or could still be picked up in-store? and when did the sale begin, like at the same time as the in-store hours or earlier? sorry for so many question marks, but onion, you sound like a guy with very good memory.
I was just wondering approximately how many of this BF laptop will likely be available at any Circuit City store? I don't intend to be waiting for the doors to open- too old for that and it isn't that critical. What time does the online sale open?
TravelMom
Senior Member
posted: Nov. 19, 2005 @ 9:57p
I was just wondering approximately how many of this BF laptop will likely be available at any Circuit City store? I don't intend to be waiting for the doors to open- too old for that and it isn't that critical. What time does the online sale open?
I got the 499.00 lap top from CC last year (and it's still working great and I have been very happy with it) and anyhow, my CC had only SIX and I was like 10th in line (arrived at 4::30)and they came out before the store opened and gave out vouchers for the limited items. Some of the folks in front of me were not getting the lappies so I was lucky. Plan on being early.
Any idea about how to get infos on where and how many lappies will be in certain stores ?
TheBrain
Member
posted: Nov. 20, 2005 @ 12:07a
Well maybe its just me but isn't a 1hr-1.5hr battery life really pittiful for a laptop??? I don't know about you, but I can not get much work done in an hour...
the 8 cell version is going for $101.99 on Toshiba's website. (froggle didn't show anything really cheaper) http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/adet.to?poid=294716&seg=HHO
IMHO this makes the Staples laptop a hell of a lot more enticing. It has an 8 cell battery that gives it an 3hr battery life. (Besides aren't there any coupons that we could uses with that laptop?)
I don't know about u but one of the big reasons for getting a laptop is to be able to work in envirnments that are not desktop friendly (ie that do not have an available powersource or are outside). My data/work is pretty portable, but access to power generally isn't. So long battery life, means more time I can laz-about in the sun getting some work done, and not having to worry about battery life/powersource.
just my 2cents
maasenstodt
New Member
posted: Nov. 20, 2005 @ 12:35a
Socrilles said: actually the celeron M is a better processor then the sempron, just like the pentium m is a better processor then the athlon 64. Of course this is only true in some things....but in terms of laptop there is little comparison. The other advantages the Toshiba has at Circuit City is memory upgrade will be a lot cheaper it is very common for the 1 gig ddr2 chips to be under $100. Lastly, there is a way to mod the celeron M to make it run an 2 ghz instead of its default 1.5 ghz this will give you the equivalent performance of about a pentium M at 1.866 ghz. Also note the Celeron M's were initially pentium M's, however the pentium M's were bumped up to 2 mb L2 cache, so the 1 mb variants became celeron M. This is simply incorrect. Spend some time with a Sempron laptop and a Celeron M laptop and, all other things being equal, the Sempron outperforms the Celeron M, puts out less heat, and uses less power. What's more, you're not entirely correct when it comes to the Athlon 64 vs. Pentium M, either. The Pentium M does hold the power saving title, but performance-wise the Athlon 64 is at the top of the heap, even without taking value into consideration.
For more information on these matters, check out NotebookReview.com, and this thread in particular.
As far as the overclocking comments go, a person would have to be nuts to OC one of these Celeron M notebooks. First, it voids the warranty. Second, these notebooks are simply not equipped to deal with the heat produced by overclocking, and good aftermarket cooling solutions are tough to find. Third, on a chip that already runs fairly hot due to the fact that the Pentium M's power saving technologies have been stripped from it, the chances of frying an egg on such a laptop would seem excellent.
As I look at it, the Celeron notebooks offered here have the advantages of faster and perhaps bigger hard drives, and perhaps more memory. The Sempron laptop has a superior processor and battery life. If somebody is trying to decide between these units, I see the breakdown like this:
If you're unlikely to upgrade and battery life isn't a concern, the Circuit City lappy looks best.
If you're likely to upgrade and/or battery life is a concern, the Wal-Mart unit is a better bet.
Given the advantages of the Circuit City notebook over Best Buy's (more memory, bigger hard drive, better warranty, and arguably better screen), the only reason not to go with it is if you're on a really, really tight budget, and you aren't likely to upgrade or have concerns about battery life.
Myself, I'll be picking up the Wal-Mart model, then immediately upping the memory to 1GB and adding a 7200rpm HDD, which will cost about $250. Those additions will make it far faster than either of the other laptops, and faster than any laptop that you could buy from a store at that price point. I'll also have the ability to upgrade the CPU to a higher end Turion64 down the road, and for much less than it would cost for an equivilant Pentium M. Doing so right now would cost about $250 for the top of the line MT40, making the total cost of the unit about $900. But that laptop would be about as fast as you could get right now outside of video performance, and for a price way below what you'd pay for a stock unit with comperable specs.
Skipping 464 Messages...
Shehzada
Member
posted: Dec. 18, 2005 @ 5:52p
SickTeddyBear said: Onion, how does the upcoming CUSA laptop deal: L25-S119 for $330 AR on December 18th ...compare to the BF deals? I'm not talking about for resale, but for personal use. Its $399 AR where I am. But still a good price. Now what is the difference between:
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