notebooks

What's a warranty worth to you? And how big a warranty do you need to be comfortable buying a laptop?

While you chew on those questions, check this out: Today only, and while supplies last, Woot Tech has the refurbished HP Pavilion G7-1328DX 17.3-inch laptop for $369.99, plus $5 for shipping.

Because it's a refurb, the Pavilion has a fairly standard 90-day warranty. That's usually enough time to determine if, say, the LCD has a bad pixel or the system has a sudden-reboot problem.

For sake of comparison, Best Buy sells the Pavilion G7-1328DX new for $429.99 shipped (… Read more

Quick housekeeping note: I'm taking a rare vacation day tomorrow, so this is it until Monday. Have a great weekend, and I'll see you then!

Apple's new MacBooks are getting lots of attention right now, but it'll cost you a minimum of $999 to get one. For that kind of money, you could literally buy three of today's deal.

While supplies last, Newegg has the refurbished HP Pavilion dv6-6c48us 15.6-inch laptop for $339.99 shipped. How good a deal is that? The same model sells new at Office Depot for $599.99.

The Pavilion … Read more

Today might just be the perfect day to start shopping for a new MacBook.

And by "new" I mean "old." At today's WWDC, Apple announced new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models, meaning there's soon to be a glut of previous-generation systems -- new, used, and refurbished alike.

The question is, where can you score the best deals? Yesterday's MacBooks are already gone from the Apple Store, so don't expect any bargains there (with one exception -- see below). But if you know where to look, you might just be able to … Read more

If you were eyeballing the $299 Dell Inspiron 11z I wrote about last week but found a few of the specs lacking, here's an appealing alternative that's only slightly more expensive.

HP is offering the Pavilion dm1z laptop for $349.99 shipped when you use coupon code NBG3246 at checkout. (Depending on where you live, you may also be on the hook for sales tax.)

By the way, if you're an Ebates user, you can save an additional 5 percent (or around $17.50), bringing your total down to $332.50. (Not an Ebates user? Check out … Read more

So that was fun yesterday, doing that guest spot on CNBC -- right up until the feed mysteriously went black. Conspiracy theorists, have at it: Was there some overzealous Apple fanboy manning the broadcast, not liking my comments about the new iPad? It's funny how many people suggested that possibility.

Anyway, if you're looking for further proof that the iPad is a little out-of-whack, price-wise, check this out: While supplies last, Dell has the Inspiron 11z (1121) 11.6-inch laptop for $299.99 shipped (plus sales tax in some states).

That's a pretty amazing price for a … Read more

This is an update of a post from a few months ago.

For a long time I was a solid-state-drive naysayer. I'd heard mixed things about their performance and longevity, and I certainly wasn't a fan of their sky-high prices.

But SSDs have improved considerably over the years, to the point where they're now a highly desirable alternative to traditional hard drives.

Indeed, a good SSD is usually significantly faster, and it consumes less power -- a big consideration for battery-conscious laptop users. Also, because it has no moving parts, it's much less susceptible to damage.… Read more

In the market for a starter or entry-level laptop? You know, the kind that's good for things like word processing, Web browsing, and e-mail? Good for students and grandparents and folks with simplistic needs?

Look no further: While supplies last, Best Buy has the HP 2000-416dx 15.6-inch laptop for $299.99 shipped (not including sales tax). Surprisingly, it's new, not refurbished.

Not to gush, but that is just an amazing price. Granted, the HP won't win any speed awards (or, for that matter, design awards), but it covers all the computing bases well enough.

To wit: … Read more

You know the deal with most bargain laptops: lower-end processors, weak graphics, smallish hard drives, and so on.

If you need a little more power than the average low-end lappie affords, check this out: MacMall has the refurbished HP Pavilion g6-1c58dx 15.6-inch laptop for $384.99 shipped.

That price buys you a quad-core AMD A6-3400M processor, 4GB of RAM, a 500GB hard drive, and a 15.6-inch LCD. As my dad often says, that oughta keep you out of mischief.

(Interestingly, OnSale has a 17-inch model, the Pavilion g7-1237dx, for the exact same price--but it has a dual-core … Read more

I firmly believe that most people can get by just fine with a dual-core processor. But if you can get a faster one for the same price? Heck, yeah!

For a limited time, Best Buy has the Gateway NV55C56U Core i3 laptop for $329.99 shipped, plus sales tax. That is without question one of the best deals I've seen on a non-refurbished Core i3 system.

(In case you're not up on your processor studies, the Core lineup is part of Intel's current newer generation of processors. In this case it's the Core i3-370M, a first-generation … Read more