Travel Technology - Timing of new laptop purchase - Nov-Dec

My old laptop went plooie. I want a new one.

I want it to have no bigger than a 14" screen.
I want it to be thin, and quiet, and have a small power adapter.
I also want it to be kinda cheap (sorry Lenovo and Sony) (i.e., < CAD$1500).
I need to buy it in Canada.

I also want to buy it during the holiday season, but I don't know if purchasing today, versus 4-6 weeks from now will yield a big difference in price.

Should I wait for the XMas sales from Dell/HP? Are there better deals to be had post-xmas?

Or am I just holding out for $50 and if I get it now, I have that much longer to enjoy it?

Thx

I guess that only leaves your choice to dell.
Fiscal quarter for dell ends at the end of November, so I guess wait just a bit more if you can.

My old laptop went plooie. I want a new one.

I want it to have no bigger than a 14" screen.
I want it to be thin, and quiet, and have a small power adapter.
I also want it to be kinda cheap (sorry Lenovo and Sony) (i.e., < CAD$1500).
I need to buy it in Canada.

I also want to buy it during the holiday season, but I don't know if purchasing today, versus 4-6 weeks from now will yield a big difference in price.

Should I wait for the XMas sales from Dell/HP? Are there better deals to be had post-xmas?

Or am I just holding out for $50 and if I get it now, I have that much longer to enjoy it?

Thx

I would have said IBM(lenovo), but with your limitations...
I'd also say Dell... (may be Mac?)

Recent news reports talked about oversupply of chips and other components that would lead to cheaper prices for computers this holiday season. That combined with Vista not making it out in time should drive down prices for laptops and desktops, I haven't followed the market close enough to see if that has happened yet or if its coming, maybe someone else can chime in who has been watching prices?

My old laptop went plooie. I want a new one.

I want it to have no bigger than a 14" screen.
I want it to be thin, and quiet, and have a small power adapter.
I also want it to be kinda cheap (sorry Lenovo and Sony) (i.e., < CAD$1500).
I need to buy it in Canada.

I also want to buy it during the holiday season, but I don't know if purchasing today, versus 4-6 weeks from now will yield a big difference in price.

Should I wait for the XMas sales from Dell/HP? Are there better deals to be had post-xmas?

Or am I just holding out for $50 and if I get it now, I have that much longer to enjoy it?

Thx

There is never a really good time to get computers these days. I'm inclined to wait for the next Ten Days of Deals by Dell. I'd rather not be a guinea pig for Vista either.

Do they have "Black Friday" in Canada?

My old laptop went plooie. I want a new one.

I want it to have no bigger than a 14" screen.
I want it to be thin, and quiet, and have a small power adapter.
I also want it to be kinda cheap (sorry Lenovo and Sony) (i.e., < CAD$1500).
I need to buy it in Canada.

I also want to buy it during the holiday season, but I don't know if purchasing today, versus 4-6 weeks from now will yield a big difference in price.

Should I wait for the XMas sales from Dell/HP? Are there better deals to be had post-xmas?

Or am I just holding out for $50 and if I get it now, I have that much longer to enjoy it?

Thx

I would recommend a Dell D620. My work machine is a D820 and my home/personal machine is a D620.

One thing I demand from a laptop is a full sized keyboard, and this machine has all you're looking for and has the full sized keyboard, as well.

http://www1.ca.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/latit_d620?c=ca&cs=CABSDT1&l=en&s=bsd

Lots of Dell deals at http://www.deal2buy.com/delldeals.htm

...and deals on other notebooks as well, although usually far fewer than the Dell coupons.

Microsoft's new operating system Vista should be available by the end of January, but some computer vendors will offer a coupon for a free upgrade during the holidays. For more info, see http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,228280,00.html

Buying a laptop now with Windows XP Home or Professional will cost you at least $100 or so to upgrade if you don't get the upgrade deal with your purchase.

If you don't need speed, run video or music, a Sempron or Celeron based system can be had new for US$400 from Toshiba, HP or Compaq from OfficeMax, BestBuy or similar vendor. If you want double the battery time, buy a laptop with a AMD Turion or Intel Duo 2 Core processor. Centrino processors have a longer battery life than Celerons or Semprons and can be had for almost the same price, since they are considered outdated.

If you plan to watch DVDs, get a wide-screen with better resolution and a better aspect ratio for viewing movies (15.4" vs the standard 14") screen. (The screen is wider and shorter.)

If you are run multiple jobs simultaneously, get one with more memory. 512 minimum, 1gig preferably. Minimum hd size on a cheap laptaop will be 40g, but most would prefer 60g, 80g or even 100g. I know memory and hd can be upgraded later, but the OEM package price is usually substantially cheaper than buying these items and adding them later.

If you need service at a moment's notice, go with Dell, if you need cachet, go with a Sony Vaio, if you want envy, go with an apple, but laptops IMHO are becoming commodity items.

HTH,
outoftown

Pity it has to be from Candada, since IBM Australia are having a great sale for their T43 range. A base model can be had for A$1199 including delivery, which is pretty sweet deal for what you are getting (build quality, warranty etc). Link here: http://www-604.ibm.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/PromotionDisplay?storeId=10000036&catalogId=-36&langId=36&promoName=clearance&re=home_A_au

Do they have "Black Friday" in Canada?

I would guess not, since they don't have Thanksgiving.

I would guess not, since they don't have Thanksgiving.

Canadian Thanksgiving is in October.

Lenovo, Dell, or Bob's Laptop Shack, keep your eye on sites like www.techbargains.com for promos and coupon codes.

I wouldn't wait for vista. As with any microsoft products, it will be very buggy at first, so I would wait at least six month before I upgrade my xp to vista. I'm currently running vista rc2 x64 right now on my pc, and I'm not impressed. I would suggest new core2duo Macbook as you can run both OSX and windows and it fits your requirements. Only drawback is that it does not have dedicated graphics card, but it might or might not be important to you.

Microsoft's new operating system Vista should be available by the end of January, but some computer vendors will offer a coupon for a free upgrade during the holidays. For more info, see http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,228280,00.html

Buying a laptop now with Windows XP Home or Professional will cost you at least $100 or so to upgrade if you don't get the upgrade deal with your purchase.

If you don't need speed, run video or music, a Sempron or Celeron based system can be had new for US$400 from Toshiba, HP or Compaq from OfficeMax, BestBuy or similar vendor. If you want double the battery time, buy a laptop with a AMD Turion or Intel Duo 2 Core processor. Centrino processors have a longer battery life than Celerons or Semprons and can be had for almost the same price, since they are considered outdated.

If you plan to watch DVDs, get a wide-screen with better resolution and a better aspect ratio for viewing movies (15.4" vs the standard 14") screen. (The screen is wider and shorter.)

If you are run multiple jobs simultaneously, get one with more memory. 512 minimum, 1gig preferably. Minimum hd size on a cheap laptaop will be 40g, but most would prefer 60g, 80g or even 100g. I know memory and hd can be upgraded later, but the OEM package price is usually substantially cheaper than buying these items and adding them later.

If you need service at a moment's notice, go with Dell, if you need cachet, go with a Sony Vaio, if you want envy, go with an apple, but laptops IMHO are becoming commodity items.

HTH,
outoftown

Microsoft's new operating system Vista should be available by the end of January, but some computer vendors will offer a coupon for a free upgrade during the holidays. For more info, see http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,228280,00.html

Buying a laptop now with Windows XP Home or Professional will cost you at least $100 or so to upgrade if you don't get the upgrade deal with your purchase.



I've been researching laptops for a friend the past couple of weeks - many manufactures are now offering systems with XP and a free upgrade to Vista. This does two things - it gets you Vista at no extra charge, and guarantees the system is capable of running Vista. You might check out the HP laptops. I've used ThinkPads and Dells for years and think they are both very good, but I've had an HP laptop (HP/Compaq nc4000 series) for the past year and I'm very happy with the quality, etc.

By the way, I've been running RC2 of Vista along with Beta 2 of Office 2007 for a few weeks - I for one like them.

Bruce

Incidentally, Lenovo has its "3000 series" notebooks which also fit within your budget.

Don't get hung up on the name brand too much. What you should really be interested in is the ODM. There are only several ODMs and their hardware gets resold and rebranded (Dell, IBM, etc).

The best equipment at the best price I have found is at Powernotebooks ( www.powernotebooks.com ). They are very highly rated at resellerratings.com . I can attest that they have a great customer service.

I tend to shy away from the big rebranders like Dell, IBM, etc. Some reasons:

1) some rig their hardware to their brand specific. (eg so that you cant use a universal power supply forcing you to go to them for an overpriced brick)
2) junk software packaged with machine
3) customer service (if you can call it that) in some faraway land

good luck.

There is an extensive discussion of Sony trade up program on FW
Good deal if you plan to buy Sony notebook (somewhat overpriced to begin with but with great screens):

http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/messageview.php?start=0&catid=18&threadid=644923

http://sony.tradeups.com/LandingPage.aspx?PromotionID=33

For a limited time, you can you can trade in your qualifying notebook and receive at least $400 Cash Back when you purchase a VAIO BX, SZ, TX or UX Series business notebook or trade in a Sony PC and receive a minimum $600 trade. Valid for purchases between September 1, 2006 and December 31, 2006.

Trade-in Cash Back Offer Ends
A working Sony notebook $600.00 December 31, 2006
Any other working notebook $400.00 December 31, 2006

The newer HPs are quite good....

So, while I love my nc6400 work laptop, its $1,800.

I settled for a Dell Inspiron 640m, with 1.5gig ram, 120gig HD, 1.83 Core Duo 2 procesor < $1,400 all-in.

I'm happy. But the waiting is killing me! EEEEE!