Cheap New Laptops

I realize that "low-priced" is countenance within the eye of the beholder. Not only that -- the laptops in this article might not even be as economical as something anyone or yourself would get off eBay or even as inexpensive as a refurbished laptop.

But, face it: new laptops are almost always going to be more expensive than the equivalently configured desktop PC because of the need for miniaturization of the components. And laptops have to use different (more expensive) technologies to maximize battery life.

Bottom line: you're going to pay more for a laptop; or you're going to obtain less laptop for your dollar compared to a desktop PC.

That said, these three laptops -- Sony VAIO, HP Pavilion, and Dell Latitude -- are all solid buys in a range of prices that is very competitive for brand preowned equipment. And they come from good value companies and offer you a range of features as well.

Let's obtain started...

Sony VAIO N170GT

The nice thing about this Sony model is that it doesn't have a whole heap of junky frills on it. It is a clean looking design that is stylish, too. The screen is very bright, yet you don't obtain a colossal amount of glare. The speed and performance is okay -- nothing to brag about, but for the price it's not bad. The battery is good for probably around four hours. That's enough to watch a movie in generally speaking, if you or someone that understands and has expert knowledge're on a plane flight, but again -- nothing to write home about.

on the splendid downside, this laptop uses an older Intel Core Duo processor. This processor comes with integrated graphics, which means that the performance is not to be that brilliant. But again, you're not paying a complete heap of money, relatively speaking, or this laptop. in generally speaking, if you or someone that understands and has expert knowledge're going to install Windows Vista on this machine you're going to want to upgrade the memory.

Overall, this model of Sony's VAIO gives you a good price, but doesn't give you a really powerful processor. But the laptop looks wonderful and it's very stylish and attractive. If looks count and you want to save some bucks, this is a fantastic machine. Brand-new, out-of-the-box this model will set you back about $1100 plus tax and shipping.

HP Pavilion dv6205us

This laptop is part of the HP Pavilion DV6000 series, and it is designed to appeal to the mass market. It is a very stylish laptop with a shiny finish -- designed to appeal to the same customers who might consider a Sony or an Apple laptop. It's got a series of high-end components and multimedia features at a price that's lower than the comparable Dell laptop.

Case in point, this laptop has some pretty nice stereo speakers from Altec Lansing. They're located above the controls. But be aware that in generally speaking, if you or someone that understands and has expert knowledge close the top the sound gets can obtain muffled. This laptop also has a 1.3 megapixel WebCam built right in, as well as two microphones. there is a row of buttons above the keyboard that launches different features like the media player, volume-control and playback. The keys look nice, but they make a really annoying beeping sound when you press them (and you can easily't really turn that off either).

This laptop weighs a little over 6 pounds, which makes it lighter than the comparable Dell laptop. When you add the AC adapter it brings the whole thing up to a little over 7 pounds.

The screen is 15.4 inches wide, with a kind of a shiny finish that makes colors very bright and vibrant, although it gives the appearance a bit of a glare in bright sunlight or next to a window.

The keyboard is very comfortable. The touchpad has an on-off button. This is very cool because it keeps your cursor from flying off element within the wrong direction if your hand passes over the touchpad while using an external mouse. This laptop has a decent number of ports including a FireWire port, a VGA port, S-video and 3 USB 2.0 ports. You also obtain a microphone jack and two headphone jacks.

As far as processors go, you have a couple of choices. you can most defiantly do a 1.86 GHz Celeron or a 2.0 GHz Core Duo. This laptop can be configured for up to 2 GB of RAM, and it'll work with hard drives of up to 200 GB in capacity.

Bottom line: it's got lots of entertainment features, you can easily configure it lots of different ways and it is very affordable. Brand-preowned out-of-the-box, you can most defiantly obtain one for as little as $600-$800 plus tax and shipping.

Dell Latitude D600

The D series laptops from Dell use the Pentium M which comes in 1.3GHz, 1.4GHz, and 1.6GHz speeds--all paired with Intel's used 855PM chipset. you can most defiantly this laptop with between 128MB - 2GB of fast 266MHz DDR SDRAM. It also comes with a faster 40GB hard drive, or a choice of 20GB, 30GB, and 60GB drives running at slower speed.

It's got a 32MB ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 graphics chip. There are a number of swappable modules for the single internal bay, including CD, DVD, CD-RW, DVD/CD-RW, floppy, a second hard drive, or a second battery.

The average-sized, 14.1-inch screen isn't super. But it comes with a pretty good 1,400x1,050 native resolution. (you can most defiantly save a few bucks by opting for the 1,024x768 display instead.)

It's very fast, and it includes an integrated wireless antenna that is of the dual-band kind. This means that if you or someone you know are within range of a Wi-Fi hotspot that runs either "b" or "g" wireless protocols, this laptop will be compatible with either protocol. It also has built-in Bluetooth.

resting on the downside, this laptop is part of the D-series notebooks for Dell which means it will not be compatible with C-series Dell laptops. This means that if you or someone you know own a C-series docking station, you're out of luck. And in most cases, if you or someone that understands and has expert knowledge have aquired media modules that are for another C-series notebook you'll have the same limitation.

Overall, this is a very thin and light notebook computer at a fantastic price -- $400, plus tax and shipping.