$200-$400 Laptop? Is such a thing even possible?

Looking for one for my nephew. He'll be using it to browse the Internet, mainly Facebook, downloads, and writing papers for College.

Is there any possibility of finding a Laptop in the $200-$400 price range other than waiting and hoping for one on the next Black Friday?

Quote from Malice187 : Looking for one for my nephew. He'll be using it to browse the Internet, mainly Facebook, downloads, and writing papers for College. Is there any possibility of finding a Laptop in the $200-$400 price range other than waiting and hoping for one on the next Black Friday?

Best Buy has the Toshiba Satellite [C655-S5503]15.6" LED-Backlit for $379.99 with free shipping.


Features:

Intel Core i3-2350M 2.3GHz dual-core processor
15.6" 1366x768 LED-backlit widescreen LCD
4GB RAM
500GB HDD
DVD burner
Webcam
802.11n
Media card reader
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Toshi...&cp=1&lp=1

Quote from Malice187 : Looking for one for my nephew. He'll be using it to browse the Internet, mainly Facebook, downloads, and writing papers for College.

305.99 Toshiba 13.3" P4600 2GB 250GB Refurb. [ebay.com]Lenovo Discounted Laptops [lenovo.com]

http://outlet.lenovo.com/laptops.html

Just sort by price. There are many in there under $400

you can also try craigs list every now and then you will find a huge deal. Be-careful to check the retail value of the item you are buying though and see if it works.

Quote from frankrizzo1 : you can also try craigs list every now and then you will find a huge deal. Be-careful to check the retail value of the item you are buying though and see if it works.

Laptops are at the top of the list of things that I would not buy used, along with underwear and cat litter. First, the technology advances so fast with computers, that people are often unwilling to sell their laptops for what they are actually worth. Yeah, I know that you paid $600 for it a year ago, but it doesn't compare to today's $450 laptops, much less the $600 ones. Second, it just needs one repair that you didn't realize when looking it over, and you're now in the hole compared to buying new. You're much better off looking at newegg, the Dell Outlet (especially with the outlet coupons always floating around on this site), and the Lenovo Outlet. Plus the myriad threads that pop up in hot deals. For example, the OP has been here since 2007, so they should know better than to ask this question. A quick search of hot deals would have easily answered it, many of them without even being YMMV.

Then you get the people who want to upgrade every year and have no use for the old one. A year old laptop is pretty damn good. You will find deals on there if you look hard enough.

Quote from shnitz : Laptops are at the top of the list of things that I would not buy used, along with underwear and cat litter. First, the technology advances so fast with computers, that people are often unwilling to sell their laptops for what they are actually worth. Yeah, I know that you paid $600 for it a year ago, but it doesn't compare to today's $450 laptops, much less the $600 ones. Second, it just needs one repair that you didn't realize when looking it over, and you're now in the hole compared to buying new. You're much better off looking at newegg, the Dell Outlet (especially with the outlet coupons always floating around on this site), and the Lenovo Outlet. Plus the myriad threads that pop up in hot deals. For example, the OP has been here since 2007, so they should know better than to ask this question. A quick search of hot deals would have easily answered it, many of them without even being YMMV.

I buy used laptops all the time. Just like a used car, you'd want someone knowledgable to look it over if you don't trust yourself to do it, but you can get some great deals on used, esp. in the OP's price range.

Quote from Jeffbx : I buy used laptops all the time. Just like a used car, you'd want someone knowledgable to look it over if you don't trust yourself to do it, but you can get some great deals on used, esp. in the OP's price range.

A car doesn't become obsolete in less than three years, most car repairs don't come anywhere near the value of a 3-year-old car (how much is it to replace the keyboard, CD drive, webcam, etc. compared to how much you're paying for the computer), and there aren't laptop repair shops on every street corner that can take a good hard look at your potential purchase. Batteries wear down, and there's a significant cost outlay right there.

I agree that a used laptop can be a great deal, especially if you're looking for an older higher end laptop, but buying it used is definitely a niche for most. My roommate in college, for example, got a badass $3,500 gaming laptop as a present from his dad upon getting accepted. However, by the time we graduated it was old news, maybe worth under $600. Had some features that a sub-$600 laptop likely wouldn't have, but for the OP's needs, I'd recommend at most buying from the outlet stores.

Quote from Jeffbx : I buy used laptops all the time. Just like a used car, you'd want someone knowledgable to look it over if you don't trust yourself to do it, but you can get some great deals on used, esp. in the OP's price range.

Its great to hear you haven't burned by too many used laptops. As you mention there are great deals on used laptops working or broken. However, laptops don't age as well as cars, desktops, and wine.

I guess that all depends on what you are using them for too. If you just need it to send emails and browse the web you don't need much.

Quote from FAL : Its great to hear you haven't burned by too many used laptops. As you mention there are great deals on used laptops working or broken. However, laptops don't age as well as cars, desktops, and wine.

Dell outlet, they still have 20% off coupons available til midnite tonight.
tons of choices under 400
http://content.dell.com/us/en/dfh...3,210C2A73

Yes - my point is that you don't need anywhere NEAR the latest & greatest for casual use. Web surfing, office apps & email will work great even on a machine that's 6-8 years old - these are not apps that you need a lot of power or speed for.

Given an under $400 budget, I'd be much more likely to look for an older Lenovo T61/T400 on ebay than buying a new machine with that budget. You'll get a sturdier, better built, longer lasting machine.

Granted, the battery situation is definitely better with a new machine, so that's something to take into consideration - used batteries are really hit or miss. But for those who don't care (and there are a surprisingly large number of people who don't seem to care about long battery life even when they're looking for a laptop), I still say used is a great alternative.

http://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire...=de_a_smtd


ACER aspire one

For what you describe this will be pretty good, especially if you throw ubuntu (or just leave the windows 7) on it.

Product Features
AMD C Series Dual Core C 60 Processor 1GHz (1MB Cache)
2GB SDRAM RAM
320GB 5400RPM Hard Drive
11.6-Inch Screen, ATI Radeon HD 6290
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, 7 hours Battery Life

Processor, Memory, and Motherboard
Hardware Platform: Unknown
Processor: 1 GHz C-Series Dual-Core C-60
Number of Processors: 1
RAM: 2 GB
RAM Type: Unknown
Memory Slots: 1

Hard Drive
Size: 320 GB
Manufacturer: SATA
Type: Unknown
Speed: 5400 rpm

Graphics and Display
Graphics RAM: 256 MB

Ports and Connectivity
USB Ports: 3
USB 2.0 Ports: 3

Cases and Expandability
Weight: 5 pounds

Power
Battery Type: Lithium ion
Rated Charge (normal use): 7 hours

Wireless
Wireless Type: 802.11bgn