So this isn't quite a sub-$300 laptop, but it's close and is a decent deal for back-to-school.
(Credit:
Wal-Mart Stores)
Beginning Sunday, Wal-Mart Stores will offer a 17-inch Toshiba Satellite L355 for $348. The model is almost a year old, so the specs aren't fantastic--3GB of RAM, 250GB hard drive, Intel Celeron processor, and Windows Vista Basic--but for the price it's understandable. (Also, you'll have to wait. If you try to buy it now it will say "out of stock.")
Of course, not everyone is going to want a 17-inch laptop, but if you're looking for value it's a steal. At $348, it's a full-feature laptop that's less expensive than some Netbooks, with a normal-size keyboard, screen, and everything. As competition heightens for consumers among retailers there's sure to be more where this came from, with better deals on traditional notebooks. And then there's the new wave of CULV (consumer ultra-low voltage) laptops that are super sleek and light that will come with very attractive pricing too. The effect these lower-priced laptops will have on Netbooks still remains to be seen.
If you do happen to be in the market for a back-to-school laptop, don't miss our handy buying guide put together by resident PC experts Dan Ackerman and Rich Brown.
33695854-2-440-0_270x202.gif)
Looks the same as other HP laptops, but not nearly as powerful inside.
(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)Editors' note: This review is part of our 2009 Retail Laptop and Desktop Back-to-School roundup, covering specific fixed configurations of popular systems that can be found in retail stores.
One thing we noticed when reviewing the lowest-priced entry-level laptops in our retail roundup was the presence of the Intel Celeron 900 processor. Showing up twice (in the Compaq CQ60-417DX and the Toshiba L305-S5955, discussed below), it's an outdated, poorly performing CPU.
The sneaky thing, however, is that this processor shows up in a chassis that also houses more highly powered machines. Perhaps this downgrading and price-cutting has been inspired by the success of Netbooks. Regardless, it can be confusing for consumers. $350 or $399 sounds like a great deal for a laptop, but is it still worth it with an processor that's not much better than a Netbook?
In our Back-to-School retail laptop roundup, we've taken a look at a few real bargain-basement machines. Along with the Toshiba Satellite L305-S5955, the Compaq Presario CQ60-417DX comes in at less than $400. Although it's 50 dollars more than the Satellite L305-S5955, it also has a larger, 15.6-inch, higher-resolution 16:9 screen, comes with a Windows 7-upgrade-eligible Windows Vista Home Premium OS, and has a keyboard and touch pad that were far more comfortable for us. But, you should be forewarned: both systems are nearly identical otherwise, and both come with a pretty bare-bones Celeron 900 processor.
However, for only $29 more, you can get a laptop with a significantly better dual-core processor in the Dell Inspiron 1545-012B, so the underpowered processor at the CQ60-417DX's core can't be overlooked. For your entry-level computing needs, we recommend looking elsewhere.
For the same price, would you rather have a larger screen and Vista, or a Netbook?
On Sale Now: $389.99
View the latest prices for HP Compaq Presario CQ60-417DX
Tuesday, Canon announced six new printers that are sure to appeal to a variety of users including small- to mid-size business professionals, photography enthusiasts, students, and creative hobbyists. This new release includes four new Pixma printers and two new Selphy compact photo printers. Let's take a closer look at the offerings:
Pixma iP3600
- $80
- 9600x2400 color dpi resolution
- Dual paper trays for plain and photo paper
- Five color individual ink cartridge bay
- Bundled with one ChromaLife100+ ink set and Easy-PhotoPrint EX software
Pixma iP4600
- $100
- 9600x2400 color dpi resolution
- Reported print speeds of up to 26 pages per minute for black, and up to 21 ppm for color
- Auto-duplexer with two separate paper trays
- Easy-PhotoPrint EX software includes Auto-Photo Fix for easy edits
... Read more
The Gateway P-7811FX is a deal of a desktop replacement.
Students can certainly find a suitable laptop for general campus use for less than $1,000. Of the retail models we've reviewed this summer, we'd point you to the $979 Dell Studio 1535, the $799 Gateway T-6836, or the $679 Sony Vaio NR430 . Of course, with Apple's education discount, the entry-level MacBook costs only $999--a campus favorite and one we endorse (we reviewed the higher-end black MacBook after the last update). The higher-priced laptops you'll see on retail shelves are a specialized lot, by and large. You'll see big, feature-packed 16- and 17-inch models that are better bets for consuming media at your desk than tossing in your backpack as you head to class, while the addition of a Blu-ray drive turns the otherwise mainstream 15-inch Pavilion dv5-1015nr into a tony $1,249 system.
Therefore, choosing an overall favorite among this high-end group isn't has clear cut as it was with the budget and mainstream back-to-school laptop groups. Yet, the Gateway P-7811FX stands out. You simply won't find a better deal on a desktop replacement. For a very reasonable $1,449, this 17-inch laptop serves up a very fine 1920x1200-pixel resolution and combines Intel's latest Centrino 2 mobile platform with high-end Nvidia GeForce graphics. It offers all-around excellent performance, including very playable 3D framerates. Our only gripes are minor: it lacks Bluetooth, and, well, given its native resolution, a Blu-ray drive would be nice.
Runner-up: the HP Pavilion dv7-1025nr, another fully loaded Centrino 2 desktop replacement. It trades some graphics horsepower for a slightly better look than the Gateway P-7811FX, while knocking $150 off the price.
See more laptops in CNET's back-to-school gift guide.
We had a late arrival to our mainstream back-to-school laptop group, but it proved to be well worth the wait.
The Dell Studio 1535 is our pick among mainstream back-to-school laptops.
Of the nine retail laptops in the $800-$999 price range we've reviewed this summer, the Dell Studio 1535 was the last to hit CNET Labs. While it enjoyed the advantage of time--using a few extra weeks to get itself assembled with the latest components--the fact remains that it's the best mainstream laptop you'll find on big-box store shelves right now.
If you're heading off to college in a week or two and have budgeted $1,000 for a laptop that needs to get you from orientation to graduation, it's hard to argue against this member of Dell's new Studio line.
The Studio line sits between Dell's high-end XPS and mainstream Inspiron lines. It features the same tapered shape, rounded hinge, and slot-loading optical drive found on XPS laptops, but adds a bit more bulk and sells for prices that more closely resemble Dell's Inspiron models. This 15-inch model also features appreciated extras including an HDMI port and touch-sensitive media controls.
While every other Intel-based laptop in our mainstream group uses the 65nm Core 2 Duo T5750, the $979 Dell Studio S1535-125B boasts the 45nm Core 2 Duo T8100 processor, which is clocked slightly faster at 2.1GHz (vs. 2.0GHz), operates on a faster frontside bus (800MHz to 667MHz), and features more L2 cache (3MB vs. 2MB)--all of which helps performance. To wit, the Dell Studio made a clean sweep of CNET Labs' application benchmarks, while delivering a respectable, though not chart-topping, 3 hours of battery life.
Runner-up: HP Pavilion dv6985s for its cool copper accents and huge battery.
See more laptops in CNET's back-to-school gift guide.
Heading back to school means two things: getting back on a regular sleep schedule, and going shopping.
And consumer electronics retailers have always been particularly grateful during the season in between the Super Bowl and Black Friday for the spike in money spent at their stores during July and August every year.
Typical spending this time of year is on a computer, but as the U.S. becomes more and more saturated with PCs, the back-to-school retail boon for retailers is expected to be more modest this year than in years past.
This year there should be a 25-percent increase spread across July and early August, according to forecasts by The NPD Group. To compare, the week before the Super Bowl normally sees a 16 percent jump over the weeks before, and Black Friday alone sees a 160 percent jump.
As with previous years, the notebook is the computer of choice for most students heading back to campus. Currently, three out of every four computers sold at retail is a notebook, the rest are desktops. But it's more pronounced this time of year, when "over 80 percent" of computers sold are notebooks, according to Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis for The NPD Group.
And though retailers would love for shoppers to pick up cameras, GPS, and MP3 players while they're loading up for school, consumers do tend to stay focused. Printers, mice, USB sticks, external hard drives and keyboards--things that are made for use with the PC--are the other products that tend to get a back-to-school bump.
There are a few things happening this year that could prove interesting. First, there have been rumors of Apple redesigning the MacBook. It's the notebook that has a lot of cachet for college students in particular. The most sales for the season are done over Labor Day, but Apple--if it does update its signature notebook--won't do that until mid-September at the earliest.
There are also some things we won't see. Those cutesy, lightweight laptops you've been hearing about? Even though they're intended for educational applications, don't expect them to be on campus in large numbers come this fall. Though netbooks are no longer the domain of second-tier PC makers--all the big guys are making them now--Hewlett-Packard, Acer, Lenovo, and soon Dell.
"We haven't see a lot of indication that there's going to be much out there for back to school," said Baker, who tracks retail electronics sales. "Most (vendors) won't hit in big quantities until Christmas." Though models like Acer's Aspire One and HP's Mini-Note are available, they're online-only at this point.
And though it's done well at e-tailers like Amazon.com--where nine of the top 20 best-selling laptops are netbooks--online retailers are not necessarily indicative of the larger computer-buying population. "To get real industry-changing volumes, (netbooks) need to be at Best Buy, Circuit City, and Costco," said Baker.
Also, don't anticipate huge discounts on computer hardware. The average price of a Windows-based notebook sold at retail these days is $750, which hasn't changed at all from this time last year. That's because there's just not as much room for a lot of price slashing.
"There's not so much room for pricing to collapse anymore," said Baker. "We're not talking about $1,100 notebooks anymore." He's right. The margins are so thin on these that the lowest traditional notebooks can go anymore is about $399 or $499. Of course, exceptional consumer demand for netbooks could eventually change that.
Perhaps if you are doing nothing more than lounging poolside while working at a part-time job this summer, the season may seem to be progressing slowly. To a workaday stiff like myself with precious few summertime weekends and a boatload of back-to-school laptops to review, I see the calendar soon turning to August and Labor Day fast approaching. As I view it, there's little time left before a busy class schedule will replace your lazy days of summer.
To help you find the right laptop before that happens, we here at CNET Reviews have queued up 27 laptops that you'll likely find on big-box store shelves this month and next. We've broken the laptops into four groups, based on price, and have completed our reviews of the systems in the first two groups: Entry-level and Budget.
(Look for the Mainstream $800-$1000 group to be completed by the end of next week, with the High-end group to follow in August; we're still waiting on some Centrino 2 laptops to arrive at CNET Labs.)
After the break, see our recommendations for the Entry-Level and Budget categories.
... Read moreConvergence is the key to staying ahead in the technology game, so it's no surprise that printer vendors are offering more and more printers that do quadruple duty as scanner, copier, and fax machine. Today, Lexmark caters to the back-to-school shoppers with a handful of new All-in-Ones that are competitively priced but include all the features you'd find in their larger counterparts.
The $99 X5650 AiO is a printer, scanner, copier, and fax machine with an auto-document feeder for scanning/copying stacks of paper. It can reportedly print up to 25 black pages per minute and 18 color. Unique to this model is a port that sits on the front of the printer, making it easy to quickly connect and print through a laptop.
The $129.99 X6650 is also four machines in one and adds a wireless printer server built into the device. It also has a 2-inch OLED screen, an auto-document feeder, and the same reported print speed as the X5650.
Finally, the $149.99 X4950 only has three capabilities (print, scan, and copy), but also has wireless, two-sided printing (duplexing), a 2.4-inch color LCD, and an auto-document feeder.
All three models in the Home and Student series will be available in September.
This laptop's parents must be very proud.
When people refer to a seasonal business, they usually mean the holiday shopping season that starts with Black Friday. But the real season for laptops has become the summer shopping phenomenon known as "Back to School." For college students, a laptop is virtually required equipment, and even high school and grade school kids are getting in on the act.
To help you pick the perfect system for your academic needs (or to send those Facebook party invites from), we've scoured the retail shelves of big box electronics stores to find the specific configurations and model numbers you're most likely to find in Sunday sales circulars throughout the summer.
Below are all the retail laptops we're reviewing over the course of this summer. If you bookmark this page and check back regularly, we'll add links to the reviews as they go up and then present our favorites from each category.
Note: Laptop models listed as XXX haven't been officially announced yet--check back for updates.
Entry Level ($699 or less)
Compaq CQ50-115NR
Dell Inspiron 1525-121B
Sony VAIO NR430E/L
Toshiba Satellite L305-S5875
Toshiba Satellite L355D-S7815
Budget ($700 - $799)
Dell Inspiron 1420-123B
Dell Inspiron 1525-122B
Gateway T-6836
HP Pavilion dv2915nr
HP Pavilion dv6915nr
Toshiba Satellite A305D-S6848
Mainstream ($800 - $999)
Dell Studio 1535-125B
HP Pavilion dv2945se
HP Pavilion dv9925nr
HP Pavilion dv6985se
HP Pavilion dv5-1002nr
Sony VAIO CR510E
Sony VAIO NR498E/W
Toshiba Satellite A305-S6858
Toshiba Satellite U405D-S2852
High-end ($1,000 and up)
Dell XPS M1330-126B
Gateway P-7811
HP Pavilion dv7-1025nr
HP Pavilion dv5-1004nr
HP Pavilion dv5-1015nr
Sony VAIO FW140
Toshiba Qosmio X305-Q701
See more laptops in CNET's back-to-school gift guide.
(Credit:
Crave UK)
Here at Crave UK, we're celebrating the end of British summer. But not because we hate Britain's perma-cloud and incessant flooding, oh no--it's because it's back-to-school time! It's that time of year when the government forces our hoodied young to vacate the street corners, put down the cans of spray paint and actually go and learn some stuff.
And since they're all going back to school and leaving us free of harassment, why not reward them with a brand new PC that can aid their studies--or at the very least help them spread their gang videos on YouTube?
We've already covered a bunch of cheapo laptops you can get for 499 pounds and under, but arguably the best back-to-school PC we've EVER seen is the Mesh Elite Quad 6600 FX. It uses a quad-core CPU, which means it's among the fastest desktop machines on the market--and best of all it only costs 699 pounds (about $1,404). No, that's not a typo, we're not missing a digit--it really is stinking, dirt-cheap.
Here's what you get for your pennies: an Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 CPU clocked at 2.4GHz; 4GB of RAM; 250GB SATA hard drive; 256MB Nvidia GeForce 8500 GT graphics card (for gaming); Microsoft Vista Home Premium edition operating system; 18x dual-layer DVD rewriter; Microsoft Works 8.5 (for all the homework stuff); and a cordless mouse and keyboard. An optional 19-inch monitor is available for an extra 100 pounds (about $201).
Remember the quad-core Sony Vaio RM1N that cost 2,500 pounds? This has the same CPU and more memory, which says an awful lot about Sony's pricing. How Mesh can afford to include all that stuff for 699 pounds is anyone's guess, but we suggest you snap one up before somebody realises their mistake.
We're going to conduct a full review with benchmark results and all the usual gubbins in the next week or so--but in the meantime, we wouldn't hesitate to recommend buying it. Do it for the kids.
(Source: Crave UK)
- prev
- 1
- next
