Get a Dell 17-inch laptop for $499(ish)

A 17-inch laptop for under $500? Yes! Until you add shipping and sales tax, that is.

(Credit: Dell)

By now you've probably heard about the $348 Toshiba 17-inch laptop that's available at Walmart starting this Sunday.

That's a pretty amazing deal, but I see two downsides. First, it requires a trip to Walmart (and possibly some throwing of elbows, as this is a Black Friday-class price). Second, that Toshiba comes with a seriously pokey Celeron processor.

If you've got a little more room in the budget and want a system that's a tad more robust, you can get a Dell Inspiron 17 dual-core laptop for $499.

In addition to a 17.3-inch LED display and 2GHz Pentium T4200 processor, the Inspiron features 2GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, and all the other standard goodies.

In other words, it's a fine choice for students heading back to school or anyone looking for a no-frills desktop replacement.

Unfortunately, shipping will run you $29, and you may have to pay sales tax as well. Plus, the system comes with Vista Home Basic. I think it's worth spending an extra $30 for Vista Home Premium, which comes with a free Windows 7 upgrade.

By the time you get out the door, then, you may be spending closer to $600. That's still a very solid deal on a 17-inch notebook.

That said, how many of you will be lining up at Walmart Sunday morning? Mighty tempting.

[Raabscuttle]

Right now Dell is running some smoking laptop deals. Usually choose the second from the lowest and start tricking it out. Stay away from Celeron and Atoms unless you want to be driven sloooowwwwly crazy with their lack of speed.

[PowerOfThree3]

If you go to the ToshibaDirect.com website, you can order a new L500 (15.6") with Vista Home Premium and T4200 processor for $441.00 (that includes integrated webcam and wireless-N capability).

[ThomasPic]

I think its worth mentioning that at this price, this laptop pretty much has the basics. No webcam, no Bluetooth, 4-cell battery, 1yr Mail-in Warranty, and as previously mentioned by Rick, Vista Basic. I would definitely recommend doing a major overhaul on the base model. Nonetheless, thanks for the deal Rick as I'm sure people can really take advantage of it.

[Forked_Tongue]

$30 extra and get Vista Premium 64 bit, this will allow it to then upgrade to win7 64 bit. Not bad.

[mclaurin10]

Im not sure about the Toshiba wall-mart as a company, I watched a documentary a little while ago about how they use sub par parts to make their products much cheaper than competition, but use the same packaging, no visible difference but for the crappy cheap parts.

[gescores]

Why do you think HP and Dell are so unreliable? They also recycle parts. In fact they all recycle parts, even Apple. The difference is in the quality control. Apple has a very tight QC (more expensive) HP and Dell have a lousy QC (trying to be price competitive), while Toshiba has poor QC (wal-mart price) on every products. It's a shame, Toshiba used to be very reliable 10-15 years ago, but now their consumer products are all crap. At least they started adjusting their price down.

[rufustel]

I don't know if Toshiba/Wal-Mart computers have different quality than Toshiba bought at BB. My Toshiba from BB last November (great Black Friday deal) has worked in stellar fashion.

[Raabscuttle]

Doesn't matter with lappies. They are all made by the same consortium of Taiwanese /Chinese companies. Doesn't matter the anme of the outside, inside they are usually Quanta, Compal, etc. (yes, including Apple and Dell).

[Syaoranli5]

So $600 for this system... and people think I am charging an exorbitent price ($600) for this system:
Acer T6400 C2D, 16in Screen, 4GB RAM, Bluetooth, HDMI, eSATA, Wireless N, 250GB HDD, Nvidia 9600M GS 512MB, Vista 64-bit Home Premium, 8 months warranty, Laptop Backpack, Habu gaming mouse, two laptop cooling pads. I 'm thinking that I am underselling...

Better CPU, Far better GPU, more RAM, larger HDD, Better Wireless, HDMI, Bluetooth, lots of accessories, 4 month less warranty, for about the same price...

[iGookin]

I think that the HP G70t series is a better deal... even though it starts at $599, you have a free upgrade to 3 DDR2 System Memory, free upgrade from a 160 GB hard drive to a 250GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive, it comes with Windows Vista Home Premium.. and free shipping..

[cptbam]

Rick:

Don't think this is much of a deal at all. Try the Compaq Presario CQ60-420 at Staples.com or in-store. It has varied in price (after $30 rebate) over the past month from $329 to right now at $379--yesterday it was $349. Back when it was $329 I think it was a pricing error--had many problems getting them to honor the price(they finally did and shipped me my new laptop) and all proof that the computer was ever sold by Staples disappeared for a few days from their website while I think they sorted out all their customer-service calls/complaints to those who ordered this computer.
Anyway--This laptop has Vista Premium for the free upgrade later this year and a real Pentium chip (T4200), as well as pretty other awesome stats for a computer at this pricepoint---3GB RAM, and 250GB hard-drive. Cannot beat this deal right now.

[JSThomas7451]

I bought this for my brother yesterday who is starting college, I was contemplating buying an Inspiron 9400 at buy.com for $450 (refurb, of course). I will admit it is not that great of a deal, however; I have several Dells and they've always honored my warranty, returns, etc. I wish it has a 256 MB Nvidia chip instead of the intel inte-garbage chip. I did upgrade it to Vista Premium as Basic wouldn't utilize the power of the machine. With a student discount (which they did not even validate) I walked out the door at $566 for base features + OS upgrade.

[OneDollarWilliam]

I just want to put in a vote for the Dell Outlet. We bought both of our new laptops there and sometimes the deals are surprising. It's a bit hard to find on the Dell website at times, but definitely worth checking out. I compared the advertised model with ones in the outlet and was able to find five available units for $579 and ten for $589. They carry the same processor as the advertised model, but every one of them has Home Premium, 4 Gb of RAM, 9 cell batteries, n wireless, and webcams, and many have larger hard drives. The Dell Outlet is offering free shipping until the end of October, and so the number I ended with after tax and shipping is $625. That's a lot of upgrades for $75, and all Dell Outlet machines carry the same 1 Year basic warranty as their brand new brothers.

[camainc]

We bought a Dell Studio 17 at Sam's club with Vista Premium a couple of weeks ago for 549.00 It has 4 gigs of ram, 160 gig hd, and is very speedy.

[jscott418]

I have seen a lot of cheap computers. Mostly with poor single core Celeron's or at best a older core duo.
I think even a 2 core Celeron would be better then those single cores. I really think anything below $500 is junk that most users will be disappointed when buying. Its one reason Apple can maintain such a high rating in consumer satisfaction. Its the perceived experience that kills the cheaper PC. Sure its a good web surfer if all you do is open one application and do nothing else. But if your like most and start running 2 or more applications the single core is gonna hurt you in speed. I know WalMart loves to brag on price but its really not helping consumers by selling them junk. I have yet been to a WalMart that you can even try out a computer. So you really can't compare. Best Buy has a good display setup and lets you try out the computer. It is one reason I see more Vista Basic editions on computers. Most simply have a hard time running the Premium edition with Aero. Everyone going to school needs to be aware that cheap computers equals poor battery life, slow performance, and lousy reliability. As the old saying goes. "You get what you pay for".

[MrMurder]

I got my Inspiron 1440 laptop for a pretty solid deal; a Pentuim T4200 (a.k.a the Pentium Dual-Core), 4 GB DDR2-800 SDRAM (upgradeble to 8 GB), Dell Wireless N card, Windows Vista Hom Premium 64-bit (with free upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit), 4-cell battery, 14" WLED screen w/1366x768 resolution, all for $524. The Inspiron 1750 is also a good laptop. I would suggest getting it if you want a cheap media center. Also, I would suggest not to go for a Core 2 Duo w/800 MHz FSB, it won't really improve performance over the Pentium T4200; get a Core 2 Duo w/1066 MHz FSB if you're getting a Blu-ray drive. It so destroys the Macbook Pro 17". And they're offering it with Windows 7 Ultimate!!