Acer Gateway 15.6" Laptop PC (NV57H77u) with 320GB Hard Drive, 4GB Memory - Black and free laptop sleeve $299.99 ($284.99 with red card) at Target starting 5/6

doh, celery...

I tried, and tried to find something I like about this new laptop and found nothing. I think that this might be the absolute most basic and lowliest specced new laptop I've seen of recent searches. Just my honest opinion.

Its hard to get excited about a buying a new notebook that has a Celeron processor and USB 2.0 as opposed to USB 3.0 ports. Admittedly, the graphics card is a small step up and it has an HDMI port. However, there have been some great laptop deals posted lately that are easier to get more excited about.

It's a Sandy Bridge Celeron. Seems like a great web surfing system on the cheap.

Here's a review of an Acer branded system with the same CPU. Given Gateway is an Acer brand this is likely all but the same computer
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2...890,00.asp

celeron is slow cpu slow to load slow to run

Quote from cavan : celeron is slow cpu slow to load slow to run

Celeron is just fine for what most people use a laptop for: 'net surfing, word processing, light (flash, java) gaming. If you want to edit video or play Crisis, you're a moron if you are looking in this price range (and a desktop would be preferable for those purposes anyway).

Here's my beef for today: Look at all you are getting in this laptop for $300. Why on God's green earth are tablets--which have much lower specs and even have a "free" OS--retailing for higher? Tablets should be in the $100 to $150 dollar range, and no one should support the tablet market at current pricing. Buy a cheap laptop instead.

Quote from ThatsNotADeal : Celeron is just fine for what most people use a laptop for: 'net surfing, word processing, light (flash, java) gaming. If you want to edit video or play Crisis, you're a moron if you are looking in this price range (and a desktop would be preferable for those purposes anyway). Here's my beef for today: Look at all you are getting in this laptop for $300. Why on God's green earth are tablets--which have much lower specs and even have a "free" OS--retailing for higher? Tablets should be in the $100 to $150 dollar range, and no one should support the tablet market at current pricing. Buy a cheap laptop instead.

Haha awesome! Repped for that! Totally agree with the tablet thing - with all the cheap netbooks/laptops around nowadays that can do so many things, the only need for a tablet is to show off!

Edited to quote . . . ooops . . .

Quote from ThatsNotADeal : Celeron is just fine for what most people use a laptop for: 'net surfing, word processing, light (flash, java) gaming. If you want to edit video or play Crisis, you're a moron if you are looking in this price range (and a desktop would be preferable for those purposes anyway). Here's my beef for today: Look at all you are getting in this laptop for $300. Why on God's green earth are tablets--which have much lower specs and even have a "free" OS--retailing for higher? Tablets should be in the $100 to $150 dollar range, and no one should support the tablet market at current pricing. Buy a cheap laptop instead.

Quote from SkepticConsumer : Haha awesome! Repped for that! Totally agree with the tablet thing - with all the cheap netbooks/laptops around nowadays that can do so many things, the only need for a tablet is to show off!

I used to totally agree with you guys -- why would I buy a tablet that does less than my laptop or netbook for more cost? That was until I was able to snag two HTC Flyers for $160 each last Black Friday and sell one for $330 (so I kept the other). Now I get it. My laptop doesn't fit in my coat pocket or small satchel like my Flyer does. My laptop doesn't have built-in GPS -- both for driving directions and finding local deals. My laptop takes a lot longer to boot up and get going. My laptop doesn't load and easily use the variety of apps I'd like to use on a tablet. Sure, my phone has all of those things -- and I use it for all of those things. But sometimes I want a full-sized version of a website or app or GPS directions and all of those are much easier to navigate on a tablet. My laptop is light (a very thin and light Acer TimelineX that weighs 3.3lbs) -- but not as light and convenient as my tablet when I'm sitting on the coach and surfing the web. My tablet doesn't get hot on my lap the way my laptop does.

Like I said, I totally agreed with you guys for a long time. I thought they were just a stupid status symbol. Then i started using one. I can't use it for everything -- the software my company uses isn't available for android -- but I do use it a LOT.

I know it might seem on the surface like I'm agreeing with you about the acceptable price range of a tablet since I only bought one when it basically reached your range. However, I know that the acceptable price range of any product is exactly what people are willing to pay for it. Apparently quite a few people are still willing to spend $300+ on a tablet. I'm a Slickdeal shopper, so I'll never spend that much -- but for the average consumer, the blend of price and convenience and ease of use are all worth it.

For the record, my mom is a retiree. I bought her a Samsung Galaxy Tab last Christmas and she uses it nonstop -- plays her solitaire and shops online without the weight and heat of the laptop on her lap and she loves it. So there's that . . .

celery..stay away..

Better buy staple deals

Quote from chipalamaa : Better buy staple deals

I absolutely agree with this. Staples has some excellent deals going. Someone in the thread about the HP one with the $150 in rebates just got that one for $370 by getting an unknowing cashier to stack a $100 off clearance coupon with a $50 off the specific laptop coupon.

Now normally I get annoyed by all of the "you could have something better by spending more money" comments -- but in this situation, the extra $70 or even $105 dollars if you don't get the miracle stack pays off with a Sandy Bridge Core i5, 6GB of RAM, USB 3.0, double the hard drive and nearly double the battery life, and a decent form-factor. And that laptop isn't even necessarily the hottest deal on Earth -- just a solid one.

if you have a frys near you, here is a similar model but with 2 gigs of ram for $247. It is sold out online hut still available at all frys stores in my area. Given the low price of ram, this is a much better deal IMO.

http://www.frys.com/product/69519...age:Fri_p1

Quote from Parachute07 : I used to totally agree with you guys -- why would I buy a tablet that does less than my laptop or netbook for more cost? That was until I was able to snag two HTC Flyers for $160 each last Black Friday and sell one for $330 (so I kept the other). Now I get it. My laptop doesn't fit in my coat pocket or small satchel like my Flyer does. My laptop doesn't have built-in GPS -- both for driving directions and finding local deals. My laptop takes a lot longer to boot up and get going. My laptop doesn't load and easily use the variety of apps I'd like to use on a tablet. Sure, my phone has all of those things -- and I use it for all of those things. But sometimes I want a full-sized version of a website or app or GPS directions and all of those are much easier to navigate on a tablet. My laptop is light (a very thin and light Acer TimelineX that weighs 3.3lbs) -- but not as light and convenient as my tablet when I'm sitting on the coach and surfing the web. My tablet doesn't get hot on my lap the way my laptop does.

• 11.6" ultraportables are exactly that, ultraportable. I have a couple and they fit into my bag easily. 3 lbs, sure. A tablet is a pound, 2 extra pounds isn't going to kill anyone.
• Need GPS? There are very small USB devices for that.
• Load times? Consider getting an SSD for the laptop. They're so cheap nowdays and a $100 120GB SSD is way more than what you can get with a tablet. If you don't need as much, 60GB will hold Win 7 and plenty of apps. If you want to stick with an HDD, sleep mode uses 1W of power and power-on takes 2 seconds.
• What apps can a laptop not load easy? I don't understand that part.
• Laptops getting hot? A ULV Core i3 is cool as ice. The AMD E-series is also very low temp.

Now what can tablets not do?

• Any kind of serious productivity
• Limited number of available applications
• Can't write an email longer than a paragraph (always excusing yourself for writing on a tablet/iPhone/iPad)
• Can't have an online chat at the same speed as if you had a regular keyboard
• Can't hold your full mp3 collection or even a small number of movies
• Can't read a website or document without at least one free hand or a tablet stand
• Can't plug in multiple USB devices at once

You can say that you don't need to do these things on the tablet, but I'd like to have the option of doing these things if I only have one device that I carry around.