I've actually found some great deals on craigslists, if you can invest a bit of time into finding the right seller. There's also this option of trying to put on your best nice face and making friends with the guys in Best Buy, I've made a few friends and they have showed me a lot of great deals.
I was going to suggest NewEgg also. They are always running some kind of deal and discounts there so you might be able to find a good laptop for fairly cheap. By the way, how much were you planning on spending? It would be better to give recommendations if we had a price range.
Yeah, Newegg is the best for electronics. They have affordable prices and I ordered a laptop from them already. Best Buy would be my second choice because they have higher prices. What price range are you comfortable paying for a laptop?
Have you also considered brands and what exactly you want out of a laptop? Acer is fairly cheap for a machine that gives a workmanlike performance and tends to last. It does have some heating issues, but all and all it does well. I can give you some other recs if you tell me what you need, what you'd like, and how much you have to spend. I would not however advise HP... at all.
I was going to say Macbook, but then you said affordable . Anyways, I would recommend investing in a Macbook. It is going to last you way longer with less problems than anything else that is available.
Walmart's website has some good deals, but I can tell you from experience to avoid buying a Toshiba Satellite, no matter how cheap it is....that is unless you are comfortable with soldering your power input jack back in place. This has happened to two of my Satellites in the last three years.
I think you have to balance the price you pay with what you get for your money. My husband and I bought our last laptops within months of each other. Mine was a Dell and cost around £700, while his Medion (from Aldi) was £450. We've since spent around £150 on having his laptop repaired, and it's now broken down completely. My Dell has cost me just £50 in repairs, and it's still going strong, even though it's several months older than my husband's. He's just bought a new Samsung for £430 from Curry's. It was reduced from £680 in the sale, so he's got a good machine for an affordable price. That's the way to go, I think, and it's what I'll do when I need to replace my trusty Dell.
My daughter is wanting to get one and we are hoping to find a good one for under $500 USD. She does not want to get a used one. We are looking into the mini laptops as an option because thay are more affordable. They do have a few drawbacks like no CD or DVD drive so I'm not sure if we will get one. We have found that Acer and Asus seem to be the most affordable brands.
Give it another month or two as Vizio is coming out with a line of PCs that includes laptops and they look like they will be very affordable for what you'd be getting.
I am with this person. I just don't see the value anymore in spending a lot of money on a computer only to turn around in a couple of years to get another one. Computers are getting so cheap these days they are almost getting disposable. If it is possible, do you think you could wait a bit for the 'back to school' specials? I bought my Acer a couple of years ago in August at Walmart and it was cheap! For some reason, a lot of people have never heard of Acer but they are a brand that has been around for almost 20 years. I would also suggest not getting an HP. They put too much crap on a machine and it slows it down. I've been pretty happy with my Acer. My only complaints would be that it did not have enough USB ports for me, but I bought a USB hub for 12 bucks and now I have plenty of ports. I also wasn't overjoyed with the speaker quality, but when I want to watch a movie, I just plug in some speakers I have. Overall, again if you could wait until July or August I think you could get some great deals at Walmart. Between now and then, just make up a list of the features that are really important to you and whether or not you want to pay extra for them if you have to.
I'd say to go to Newegg for all your computer purchases. Oh and for affordable computer deals, I'd recommend to hold off until fall rolls around! That's when all the top computer brands will lay out all their fancy new tech and put their old models on sale to get rid of them all.
Whatever you get do not buy a Dell. I did that and started having issues almost immediately. The company told me it was my fault for the computer acting up and then told me I would have to prove to them that it was the computer. I am not computer savvy so I could not do this and they got away with it!
I am in the market for a new laptop also. I have looked on craigslist and saw some great prices. I am'looking for a few things on the laptop like a dedicated numeric keypad, which I need for work. I have never heard of Energy, will check them out before I purchase my laptop.