strts 5/6 Dell® 14R laptop with Intel® Core™ i3-2350M Proc $349.99 a/$100 Easy Rebate Visa at Staples.com

Just picked one up at store.
$449.99 less $25.00 coupon = $424.99 + $29.75 tax = $454.74 less the $100.00 rebate (#12-79509)=$354.74. (Also got the free extra lid.)
They tried to semi-hard sell me the PC Premier setup for $99.99. And the laptop protection plan for 2 years @ $149.99 standard or $239.99 accidental damage. (The 3 year is $199.99 reg or $289.99 accidental.) I elected not to get any extra warantee plans. Once you leave the store you can't buy the accidental warantee plan. Their 14 day return policy sucks, but you can't beat the net price.
Wish me luck on set-up, date transfer, software installs and creating a recovery disc. (Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated especially on creating the recovery disc.)
Thanks in advance,
Mike

pris0n said:   Wow. I've been looking at some hard drive replacement videos (would like to put my SSD in this) and it looks like it's going to be a major hassle to do that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtC7rFZ3z40&feature=youtu.be

My goodness! That's exactly the opposite experience I had with the 14z. I'm shocked that they're so different underneath the skin.

Return/rebuy was super easy.

449 - $50 off 299 laptop - $100 rebate = 340 after tax.

Really pleased with the laptop so far. The pre-loaded installation is seemingly free of bloatware, but it's painfully slow. Fresh installation of Win7 has it running along nicely.

Not looking forward to the SSD installation, but I'll live.

THANKS, FATWALLET DOT COM

If a $25 or $30 coupon is working, that's really a nice little bonus. If it wasn't such a bear to put an SSD in there, I think I'd be all over this.

where did you get the $25 off coupon? I checked some coupon sold on eBay but didn't see any I can use on laptops.

To get the coupon go to eBay.com. Type Staples 25 off 50. Go to link. You should see the following. Nothing said about not good on PC or laptops. Anyway, it worked for me.

Staples 25 off 75 coupon (valid in store only; expires 6/9/12)
Each coupon has a unique bar-code that can only be used once

The coupon will be sent shortly after payment

Please feel free to contact me if you have further question or concern.

Below is the exact fine-print printed on the coupon itself:
Valid in U.S. Staples stores only. Limit one per customer. Minimum purchase requirement of $75 must be met with purchases to which no other coupon or instant savings offer applies. May not be combined with any other coupon. No cash/credit back. Not valid on any HP ink and toner, Epson ink and toner, custom printing orders placed online, services, promotional products, gift cards, mobile phones and mobile phone services, phone cards or postage stamps, Staples industrial purchases, prior purchases or any purchases on other provider web sites. Tax and shipping not included in calculating minimum purchase. Expires 6/9/12.

diswes said:   yesidonoitall said:   pris0n said:   Return/rebuy was super easy.

449 - $50 off 299 laptop - $100 rebate = 340 after tax.

Really pleased with the laptop so far. The pre-loaded installation is seemingly free of bloatware, but it's painfully slow. Fresh installation of Win7 has it running along nicely.

Not looking forward to the SSD installation, but I'll live.

THANKS, FATWALLET DOT COM


RE:
THANKS, FATWALLET DOT COM


For what?
I spied the offer from the Staples ad back in March.....
And later....

Fresh install? how? from the backup DVD?

RE: yesidonoitall

That was humor.

RE: diswes

I have a copy of Win7 on a flash drive that I used for the fresh installation.

I just did the Windows index thing on this laptop and the processor got a 6.6! I'm really impressed with the performance of this laptop -- especially for $340.

MVALLEY59 said:   To get the coupon go to eBay.com. Type Staples 25 off 50. Go to link. You should see the following. Nothing said about not good on PC or laptops. Anyway, it worked for me.


Staples 25 off 75 coupon (valid in store only; expires 6/9/12)
Each coupon has a unique bar-code that can only be used once

The coupon will be sent shortly after payment


Please feel free to contact me if you have further question or concern.


Below is the exact fine-print printed on the coupon itself:
Valid in U.S. Staples stores only. Limit one per customer. Minimum purchase requirement of $75 must be met with purchases to which no other coupon or instant savings offer applies. May not be combined with any other coupon. No cash/credit back. Not valid on any HP ink and toner, Epson ink and toner, custom printing orders placed online, services, promotional products, gift cards, mobile phones and mobile phone services, phone cards or postage stamps, Staples industrial purchases, prior purchases or any purchases on other provider web sites. Tax and shipping not included in calculating minimum purchase. Expires 6/9/12.

saw this one on eBay http://www.ebay.com/itm/Staples-25-off-75-Coupon-Valid-by-phone-...

Not sure if it works...

pris0n said:   zhangjuneric said:   MVALLEY59 said:   To get the coupon go to eBay.com. Type Staples 25 off 50. Go to link. You should see the following. Nothing said about not good on PC or laptops. Anyway, it worked for me.


Staples 25 off 75 coupon (valid in store only; expires 6/9/12)
Each coupon has a unique bar-code that can only be used once

The coupon will be sent shortly after payment


Please feel free to contact me if you have further question or concern.


Below is the exact fine-print printed on the coupon itself:
Valid in U.S. Staples stores only. Limit one per customer. Minimum purchase requirement of $75 must be met with purchases to which no other coupon or instant savings offer applies. May not be combined with any other coupon. No cash/credit back. Not valid on any HP ink and toner, Epson ink and toner, custom printing orders placed online, services, promotional products, gift cards, mobile phones and mobile phone services, phone cards or postage stamps, Staples industrial purchases, prior purchases or any purchases on other provider web sites. Tax and shipping not included in calculating minimum purchase. Expires 6/9/12.

Thank you. I see the coupon you mentioned on eBay. But it says "Minimum purchase requirement of $75 must be met with purchases to which no other coupon or instant savings offer applies.". Since the $350 is already the price after coupons and instant savings, does the store still accept the coupon? Or how did you do it?

I used a $50 off $299 I pulled from eBay and it worked fine and had the same wording in the fine print. As long as you're not combining it with other coupons, you should be good.

did you buy the laptop online or at the store?

pris0n said:   zhangjuneric said:   

did you buy the laptop online or at the store?

in store

THANKS, I WILL TRY IT IN STORE TMR

nave74 said:   For those who purchased this, would you mind sharing it's performance, features, etc? Thanks.

It has decent overall features that are good for day-to-day usage. This laptop doesn't really fit in the "light" category or the heavy category either.

Pros:
DVD drive (ultrabooks lack this)
6GB memory
LED Screen
Webcam
Bluetooth
USB 3.0
HDMI

Cons:
Pretty slow startup
Not as thin or light as an ultrabook
5400RPM drive
Only 1328x768 screen, would have liked 1600x900.
Installing an SSD is painful
No backlight for the keyboard.

diswes said:   nave74 said:   For those who purchased this, would you mind sharing it's performance, features, etc? Thanks.

It has decent overall features that are good for day-to-day usage. This laptop doesn't really fit in the "light" category or the heavy category either.


Pros:
DVD drive (ultrabooks lack this)
6GB memory
LED Screen
Webcam
Bluetooth
USB 3.0
HDMI

Cons:
Pretty slow startup
Not as thin or light as an ultrabook
5400RPM drive
Only 1328x768 screen, would have liked 1600x900.
Installing an SSD is painful
No backlight for the keyboard.

at this price point, listing a backlight for the keyboard is rather silly....as is the ultrabook comment. Show me anywhere a $349 laptop with these features.....so it's a non issue, certainly not a con unless you were comparing $600 machines.

So did anyone get one? How hard are these mofos to find instore?

yesidonoitall said:   Pros
$350


Cons
Not $600
with tax here: it will be:
Pros:
$387.13

Cons:
Not $650

yesidonoitall said:   NeuroSynapsis said:   So did anyone get one? How hard are these mofos to find instore?


Get just one?
Well I am on my 5th person to accept the rebates for me....
Will need a 6th this week....why would you do this? There is a Asus deal that is very similar to this with less hassle at bestbuy. Yes, I bought one...

diswes said:   MISTERCHEAP said:   diswes said:   nave74 said:   For those who purchased this, would you mind sharing it's performance, features, etc? Thanks.

It has decent overall features that are good for day-to-day usage. This laptop doesn't really fit in the "light" category or the heavy category either.


Pros:
DVD drive (ultrabooks lack this)
6GB memory
LED Screen
Webcam
Bluetooth
USB 3.0
HDMI

Cons:
Pretty slow startup
Not as thin or light as an ultrabook
5400RPM drive
Only 1328x768 screen, would have liked 1600x900.
Installing an SSD is painful
No backlight for the keyboard.

at this price point, listing a backlight for the keyboard is rather silly....as is the ultrabook comment. Show me anywhere a $349 laptop with these features.....so it's a non issue, certainly not a con unless you were comparing $600 machines. For the pricepoint you are right. I didn't say it was a bad deal at all; there are just features I would have liked to see. Maybe at some point in the future ultrabooks will come down in price and we will be having this conversation again. FYI, I saw the Acer ultrabook had 100 off visa card as well going for 799 in the store (no comparison to this deal, just mentioning it.)

I also see Acer one. But its storage is so small, 20GB ssd. Besides it doesn't have backlit keyboard either.

iswes said:

MISTERCHEAP said:

diswes said:

nave74 said:

For those who purchased this, would you mind sharing it's performance, features, etc? Thanks.

It has decent overall features that are good for day-to-day usage. This laptop doesn't really fit in the "light" category or the heavy category either.

Pros:
DVD drive (ultrabooks lack this)
6GB memory
LED Screen
Webcam
Bluetooth
USB 3.0
HDMI

Cons:
Pretty slow startup
Not as thin or light as an ultrabook
5400RPM drive
Only 1328x768 screen, would have liked 1600x900.
Installing an SSD is painful
No backlight for the keyboard.

at this price point, listing a backlight for the keyboard is rather silly....as is the ultrabook comment. Show me anywhere a $349 laptop with these features.....so it's a non issue, certainly not a con unless you were comparing $600 machines.

For the pricepoint you are right. I didn't say it was a bad deal at all; there are just features I would have liked to see. Maybe at some point in the future ultrabooks will come down in price and we will be having this conversation again. FYI, I saw the Acer ultrabook had 100 off visa card as well going for 799 in the store (no comparison to this deal, just mentioning it.)

I also see Acer one. But its storage is so small, 20GB ssd. Besides it doesn't have backlit keyboard either.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Show me anywhere a $349 laptop with these features"

Last week Office Depot has the Lenovo e420 with an I5 on clearance for $449 and most of the stores honored the $100 off clearance laptops coupons from Staples-that brought the price down to the same as this machine-it weighs about 4.6 pds which is nice and it has an I5. Some people aren't crazy about the matte screen but i like it and i would say overall it is a better buy than this Dell(if weight and speed are important). I purchased two(one was a display and that cost $304. I have been playing on it and it is quick-it also comes with a 7200 rpm HD. I like Dell and i like Lenovo, they are both good names in laptops, but feature for feature i think the Lenovo is a better buy.

I just almost bought one of these Dells. That is until the salesman at Staples basically came right out and told me that over the last few years the Dell quality has gone down the tubes. He was not trying to up sell me or move me to another brand. He just basically was honest with me and said that very many Dells have been coming back with hard drive failures and other issues. He stated that he personally was always a Dell man until a few years ago. I decided to wait for another deal. This particular laptop will be traveling to school with my son in August and we need something with a better track record of reliability.

MentatYP said:   diswes said:   yesidonoitall said:   NeuroSynapsis said:   So did anyone get one? How hard are these mofos to find instore?


Get just one?
Well I am on my 5th person to accept the rebates for me....
Will need a 6th this week....why would you do this? There is a Asus deal that is very similar to this with less hassle at bestbuy. Yes, I bought one...

What, this one?

The Asus is/has:
$50 more cost
slower CPU
less RAM
smaller battery
lower resolution webcam

Hmm... choices, choices...

And no HDMI, a must for me....
My first with such.

I saved a screenshot from the Staples app for $50 off $299 laptop / desktop. Will it work on this deal?