New laptop: 15.6″ Acer Aspire ES 15 for $300 [limit 5]

A new laptop is out of the gate and it already has its first discount. For $300 you can get the 15.6″ Acer Aspire ES 15 running Windows 10 Home. It is powered by the i3-6100U processor, which currently ranks #740 at cpubenchmark.net, so definitely not a Photoshop or AutoCAD powerhouse. It is a U-series processor after all. It has 4GB RAM and 1TB hard disk. The screen resolution is what will go on Windows’s tombstone if it gets killed by iPads and Androids, “1366 x 768 non-touchscreen”. Meow! But it has a DVD burner, so take that iOS and Android 🙂

It has the usual connectors, USB full size (Type A) ports (3.0, 2.0), HDMI, bluetooth 4.0, Ethernet port, 802.11ac MiMo Wifi, and so forth. Battery life is “up to” 6.5 hours with a 4-cell battery. Graphics are of course on-board Intel, the HD 520.

The official model name if you want to further research it is ES1-572-31KW.

15.6-inch ASUS K501UW-AB78 Gaming Laptop with 512GB SSD for $870 [updated]

If you want to be among the first to try new gaming laptops running Windows 10, a relatively new model is out of the gate with a discount, it is the 15.6-inch ASUS K501UW-AB78 going for $870 (was $800) with a limit of three units per customer at Amazon by Amazon actual where it averages 4.5 out of 5 based on 55 customer reviews… Price Updated Here on 8/3/16…

This is an SSD laptop, no spinning hard disks! It has 512GB on-board storage, plus anything else you want to add via the cloud or the three USB ports (two are 3.0) and the memory card reader. The display is a 1920 by 1080 Matte, with 8GB RAM, powered by a sixth generation Intel Core i7-6500U Skylake which currently ranks #537 at cpubenchmark.net. So this is a tank sized gaming laptop, with the trade-offs that that entails. It has a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M graphics card, HDMI and VGA output ports, Gigabit Dual-Band 802.11AC, and backlit keyboard among other features.

15.6-inch Acer Chromebook 15 for $230

Speaking of budget laptops, on the Chromebook side of things, if you are fond of the 15.6-inch form factor, there is a sale on the Acer Chromebook 15, model CB5-571-C1DZ, going for $230 with free shipping at Amazon by Amazon actual. This comes with a nice 4GB RAM but only 16GB on-board storage which can however be augmented using the two USB ports, the memory card slot, and of course the cloud. The screen is a 1080p IPS, but not a touchscreen.

It is a Celeron powered model, it has the Dual-Core 3205U which currently ranks #1239 at cpubenchmark.net. The review average is 4.4 out of 5 based on almost 500 of them, but multiple variations are clustered together in a single review page. The options 2 or 4GB RAM and 16GB or 32GB SSD, and Accessory Bundles (mouse and bag).

Pre-order 15.6″ Acer Aspire E (i5U, 8GB, 256GB SSD, 2GB Nvidia, 1080p) for $550

Things are getting competitive in the world of laptops once again. If you like to be among the first to try new models as they roll out, Acer has a new power-value model coming up soon with a starting price of $550, the E5-575G-53VG, part of the Aspire E line-up.

For that, you get a 15.6-inch 1920 x 1080 display with a dedicated graphics card, the NVIDIA GeForce 940MX with 2GB DDR5 VRAM. It has 8GB of RAM and 256GB of SSD if you are no longer fond of churning hard disks. The processor is the Intel Core i5-6200U which currently ranks #588 at cpubenchmark.net.

The lower performance is because this is a “U” processor, which in turn promises up to 12 hours of battery life on a 6-cell battery running the included Windows 10 Home.

Creature comforts include an 8X super-multi-format DVD burner, 802.11ac Wifi, HDMI out, the new USB triumvirate (USB 3.1 Type C, along with two USB 3.0 and one USB 2.0 ports), Bluetooth 4.1, Gigabit Ethernet, and such.

NOTE: as far as I can tell from the specs and pictures this does NOT have a touch-screen.

As of the time of writing, this is available for pre-order at Amazon by Amazon actual for $550. There is no shipment estimate at the moment.

PS: as usual with new releases, there is always a risk since a product is an unknown, so if you hate this “boldly going” type of thing, you may want to wait until reviews come out or go for one of the laptops that has already been released and has been “vetted” by shoppers and reviewers alike.

Refurbished 15.6-inch Acer CB3-531-C4A5 for $115 [ChromeOS]

Many of the Chromebooks are on the smaller side of laptops, but not all of them. With prices dropping on computer screens, you don’t have to get a Windows machine if you prefer a budget 15.6-inch screen. You can get a Chromebook.

And if you are comfortable with manufacturer-refurbished, at Groupon Goods you can get the 15.6-inch Acer CB3-531-C4A5 for $115 with free shipping, and free returns, and a 90 day warranty from Acer.

This obviously has basic specs, 2GB RAM (ChromeOS is not as demanding as Windows, but websites continue to get bloated and fill up with all kinds of widgets and scripts, so keep that in mind), 16GB on-board SSD storage, only a 1366×768 resolution (despite the 15.6″ size), and it eats Celery. And by that I mean it is powered by the Celeron N2830 processor which currently ranks #1556 at cpubenchmark.net.

15.6″ ASUS F556UA-AS54 Laptop (256GB SSD, Win10) for $550

Brand new laptop coming out of the gate if you are interested in doing away with hard drives and going the SSD route. It is the ASUS F556UA-AS54, with 256GB SSD along with 8GB RAM and powered by the Intel i5-6200U which currently ranks #572 at cpubenchmark.net.

It has a 15.6-inch 1920 x 1080 non-touchscreen display, 802.11ac Wifi, a variety of connectors (HDMI, VGA, Ethernet, card reader, various USBs). One thing to note is that the battery is a lithium polymer (LiPo), not the more conventional lithium ion (LiIon).

It comes with Windows 10 pre-installed which can be a pro or a con depending on how much you hate this half-baked abomination of an operating system 🙂

There are no customer reviews of it yet, and it is “temporarily out of stock” but you can buy it for $550 with free shipping, with a limit of five per customer at Amazon by Amazon actual.

[DEAD] 15.6″ HP 15-ac121nr laptop for $460 [Win10]

As of 3/28/16, this laptop is “currently unavailable” ~ you cannot order or pre-order it. There is no further information posted there as to when or whether it may return…

[Read more…]

15.6-inch ASUS F555LA-AB31 Win10 1080p laptop for $350

The value frontier for Windows 10 laptops is not just the crappy Celerons with 2GB RAM! There’s a pretty good bang for the buck offer on a 15.6-inch laptop with a 1920 x 1080 non-touchscreen display for $350. It is the ASUS F555LA-AB31, with a 5th-generation (not Skylake) Core i3-5010U 2.1GHz processor, which ranks a fairly reasonable for the price (and being a laptop) #695 at cpubenchmark.net.

Other specs include 4GB RAM, 500GB hard disk (albeit at 5400rpm), a DVD burner (not always a guarantee anymore with laptops), WiFi 802.11ac, a mix of USB 3.0 and 2.0 ports, and both HDMI and VGA outputs. The sale, with a limit of up to five per customer, is available at Amazon, sold by Amazon actual.

Shipping soon: 15.6″ Windows 10 Toshiba C55-C5241 laptop for $450

UPDATE (7/29/15): as of this update, the laptop is in “This item has not yet been released.” status…

ORIGINAL POST: If you want to be among the first to jump aboard the fresh Windows10 train, at Amazon.com, shipping right now (as of the time of writing), is the brand new 15.6″ Toshiba Satellite C55-C5241 laptop for $450 with free shipping with a limit of three per customer.

This is powered by the Intel Core i5-5200U 2.2GHz processor which currently ranks #556 at cpubenchmark.net. It has 8GB of RAM and 1TB hard disk (5400rpm), along with good old 1366X768 pixels screen resolution and mobile Intel graphics. It has a DVD burner and the usual assortment of ports.

NOTE: this shares the same Amazon product listing page with the Windows 8 version, so their reviews are combined. Most of the reviews there at the moment are for the older W8 version!

15.6-inch Lenovo G50 i7 laptop for $550

A lot of the laptops featured on sale typically have non-Core processors, or if they have one of the Core processors, they are typically i3 or i5. But if you are fond of the i7s, the current spotlight deal at the eBay Deals is the new condition 15.6-inch Lenovo G50 (model 59421808) for $540 with free shipping. This is sold by NewEgg’s eBay store, so it’s a trustworthy seller. Over 1950 laptops got sold from this eBay listing so far. The limit is five per customer and NewEgg is strict about the limit.

So what does $550 get you? The Intel Core i7-4510U 2.0GHz processor which currently ranks #431 at cpubenchmark.net. You get 8GB of RAM (which is the maximum supported) and 1TB of hard disk, and DVD burner, and Intel HD Graphics 4400, 4-cell battery and 4.63 lbs weight. You can’t expect miracles at this price, the resolution is 1366 x 768, and not a touchscreen. On the connection front, there’s Bluetooth 4.0, HDMI, VGA, one USB 3.0 and two USB 2s, card reader, 10/100 Ethernet, and things like that. This is a Windows 8.1 laptop.