What's the best laptop I can get for ~$350?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Note: I am wayyyy out of date on computers. I don’t have anything past Windows XP.

Here are my ideal requirements:

  1. Windows PC, not an Apple.

  2. Decent size monitor and pretty good resolution.

  3. Good processor speed. No idea what is considered good nowadays, though.

  4. A touchpad mouse, not one of those rubber thingies.

  5. Plenty of memory and a good size hard-drive.

Basically, I just want a good computer. I’ll use it to prepare things at home and will be regularly taking it to work. It must be new, not used.

What’s the best thing I can get for under $400(including shipping).

Thanks!

2

By decent size monitor, I kind of mean a pretty large one, not a tiny little rectangle one that I see on so many laptops.

My current one(Compaq nc6320) is rather old, but has a big(to me) screen.

3

This might not be a bad choice - take a look in the forum for a list of reviews: Samsung Quad-Core Laptop . You’d need to buy it today, though.

4

The biggest obstacle will be find something with a newer processor (Core i3 probably.) Don’t get hung up on RAM or hard drive size as those are easily upgraded in the future if you need (make sure you know the max capacity for RAM) and fairly inexpensive.

5

Those are good specs for the price, but it is refurbished. I don’t like buying refurbs, but that’s just a preference. I know people who have, and have had good luck with them.

6

This is a pretty good deal and you might be bale to find it cheaper than at Best Buy. It’s a 14" screen though, which may not be big enough for you.

7

eMachines. Runs Windows 7, 15.6" screen, plenty of HD space. $299 at Micro Center.

8

I only buy refurbished computers for myself and I have bought dozens of them for companies as well. Every one I have ever seen has been indistinguishable from brand-new just cheaper. I suspect that most of them really are new but were just an ordering or shipping mistakes.

9

I recommend looking at the deal sites

I would recommend getting an intel processor. I5 or higher preferably.

I3’s are cheaper, and are fine for most people, but i5’s will last a while. If possible, also get one with an ivybridge processor. (Not sure if it’s possible to get an i5 ivybridge laptop for 400$).

10

I should add that the price limit is set by my work, who may be buying it for me. I can easily spend my own extra cash to upgrade things like memory. :slight_smile:

11

do you get to keep the laptop? It might just be a better idea to add your money onto the 400 straight away, rather than upgrade afterwards. At least in terms of getting a good processor and such, the economies of scale the big companies have can’t be beat.

(not so true with ram or sometimes hard-drives)

12

I might, but with the way this crap works, the initial order must be under the given amount. It’s weird, but the way it is.

13

Do you have a link to this product?