11.6-inch Samsung Chromebook 3 (with 4GB RAM) for $200

The ChromeOS is a fairly lightweight operating system, but the same cannot be said for today’s web as websites get bigger and bloat-ier, especially the bigger page-view driven websites. So a Chromebook with better specs may be needed to keep up with the website growth (more than the ChromeOS bloat).

Which brings us to the 4GB version of the third generation Samsung Chromebook, model XE500C13-K02US, currently on sale for $200 with free shipping at Amazon.com. This is only $20 more than the 2GB model, and that $20 is definitely worth it if you are browsing more than one website at a time.

Other specs include 16GB of on-board storage (but cloud and USB ports can give you a lot more storage), the budget 11.6-inch 1366×768 screen resolution. It is eating celery, which is a roundabout way of saying it is powered by a Celeron processor, the N3050 which currently ranks #1595 at cpubenchmark.net.

May 7, 2016 Filed Under: 11-inch laptops Tagged With: ,

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.

May 5, 2016 Filed Under: 15-inch laptops Tagged With: , ,

Refurbished 11.6″ Acer One Cloudbook for $100 [W10]

If you are going to get a really entry-level Windows 10 laptop, you might as well pay a really entry-level price, $100 with free shipping and free returns. That gets you the manufacturer refurbished 11.6-inch Acer Aspire ONE Cloudbook from Groupon Goods.

This has basic specs obviously, the Celery N3050 CPU (ranks #1592 at cpubenchmark), along with 2GB RAM, 32GB of on-board storage, 1366×768 screen, 02.11ac WiFi, two USB ports (one is 3.0), HDMI out, Bluetooth, SD slot, etc. It comes with a 90 day warranty from Acer. Its full name is AO1-131-C9RK.

April 26, 2016 Filed Under: 11-inch laptops Tagged With: ,

13.3-inch ASUS Zenbook UX305UA for $750 [Win10]

Everything Zen, well, if all goes well 🙂 There’s a discount on another SSD-powered Zenbook, the UX305UA is on sale for $750 with free shipping at Amazon by Amazon actual. This is a Windows 10 device, with 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD (hooray, no spinning disks!).

It is powered by the Core i5-6200U Skylake processor which currently ranks #547 at cpubenchmark.net. It has a 13.3-inch full HD (1920 x 1080) display of the matte variety with a 170-degree viewing angle.

Other potentially promising specs include a weight of under 3lbs, a 10 hour battery life, and a variety of ports, including micro-HDMI with 4K display support. This has no touchscreen display, but a larger touchpad if you are fond of using touchpad gestures.

If you prefer a touchscreen, there is a model that shares some of the main specs going for $800, it is the ZenBook UX303UA.

April 18, 2016 Filed Under: 13-inch laptops Tagged With:

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.

April 14, 2016 Filed Under: 15-inch laptops Tagged With:

Pre-order new semi-premium 14″ Acer Chromebook for $300

Chromebooks have certainly come a long way since the early days when Samsung’s goofy model (with the ports on the back) became the first “blockbuster” Chromebook, topping the best selling charts at Amazon for a long time. Since then, many and more models and manufacturers jumped right in, trying all kinds of different things to differentiate themselves.

Which brings us to today, Acer has a new semi-luxury 14-inch Chromebook, the awkwardly named CB3-431-C5XK, with an aluminum chassis, a 1080p display and 4GB of RAM (the web is getting more and more bloated, my 2GB Chromebook sometimes has a hard time keeping up with some of the bloated big media websites). It has 32GB on-board storage, and loves to eat celery (aka a Celeron processor, the N3060 which is apparently new enough that is not listed yet at cpubenchmark.net).

It also has two USB 3.1 ports and the latest Bluetooth (4.2 or so). However, some compromises had to be made: no touchscreen!

It is now available for pre-order for $300 at Amazon.com (no date provided yet).

March 29, 2016 Filed Under: 14-inch laptops Tagged With: , ,

[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…]

March 21, 2016 Filed Under: 15-inch laptops Tagged With:

11.6-inch HP Stream 11-p010nr x360 Convertible for $200

Once upon a time people needed four figures to get a laptop. Not so anymore. You can find laptops for $200 these days, and in new condition. You can even get convertibles at this price range. Case in point, the convertible 11.6-inch HP Stream, with 1366×768 non-touchscreen, 2GB RAM, 32GB on-board, one year of Office 365, and free upgrade to Windows 10 (comes with Windows 8.1) is on sale for $200 with free shipping at Amazon by Amazon actual with a limit of three per customer.

The processor is a Intel Celeron N2840 which as of writing time ranks #1420 (a magic number!) at cpubenchmark.net, and combine that with 2GB RAM, this is for email and lightweight web browsing and video. There’s only so much multi-tasking you can do on 2GB of RAM and a slower “Celery” processor. But it has a 360-degree rotating screen, so it can fold all the way under the keyboard, making it a thick tablet.

Not only that, but this laptop is a portaholic’s paradise considering the price. You get three USB ports, an Ethernet port, an HDMI port, and a memory card reader. Not bad, and the three USB ports come a long way towards making up for the 32GB on-board storage. You can always get some of those tiny USB flash drives.

The full name of this is “HP Stream 11-p010nr x360 Convertible”. It averages 4.3 out of 5 based on 77 customer reviews and has 46 questions peer-answered.

October 30, 2015 Filed Under: 11-inch laptops Tagged With: ,

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.

October 18, 2015 Filed Under: 15-inch laptops Tagged With:

Refurbished 13.3″ Toshiba CB30-A3120 Chromie for $140

Chromebooks are great if you are a big fan of the Google ecosystem and bargain laptops with SSD drives without bloated OS hogs. If so, you can get the 13.3-inch Toshiba CB30-A3120 Chromebook for $140 with free shipping from VooduBlu via Rakuten’s.

This Chromie eats celery. And by that I mean it is running on an Intel Celeron processor (2955U). It has the expected specs, 2GB RAM, 16GB SSD, 1366×768 on a 13.3″ screen, card reader, two USB 3.0 ports, HDMI output, Bluetooth, etc. You also get the 100GB of Google Drive bonus.

PS: once upon a time, Bluetooth Audio wasn’t even working on Chromebooks. They’ve come a long way since 🙂

September 15, 2015 Filed Under: 13-inch laptops Tagged With: , ,

Aug 30 – Sept 5: Extra $50 off on Computers for College Students at Staples

At Staples brick and mortar stores, college students with valid college ID or a qualifying .edu email address are able to get an extra $50 off discount on the current prices of laptops and desktops offered by Staples. This offer is mentioned in their weekly ad, it runs from August 30 until the close of business on Saturday the 5th in 2015. Select computers are excluded from this offer (ASUS X305TA, and select HP PCs and Chromebooks). Check stores or website for details after it goes live…

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August 27, 2015 Filed Under: laptops Tagged With:

Staples Stores only: $100 off Clearance PCs with $200+ regular price

Good until the close of business on Saturday August 29, 2015, at Staples brick and mortar stores only (not their website), you can get (via coupon) $100 off on clearance computers regularly priced $200 or more. The “regularly priced” is crucial here, it means something can have a current price under $200 but still be eligible for the coupon. This means you can get some really good deals, but the big IF here is whether they have any computers available in-store that fit the bill.

Since this is a brick and mortar only promotion, it is a big YMMV, and I obviously cannot magically check the clearance inventory of every single Staples store 🙂 You can find the coupon at the Staples coupons website. You don’t have to print it, just load the page on your smartphone or take a screenshot with the coupon number visible so the cashiers can enter it.

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August 27, 2015 Filed Under: laptops Tagged With: ,

11.6-inch Lenovo S21e for $150 (Windows)

The Windows Industrial Complex took the Chromebook challenge very seriously, because now Windows laptops are even beating Chromebook prices regularly. Case in point, the 11.6-inch Lenovo S21e, model 80M4002DUS, is currently going for $150 with free shipping at amazon.com. Needless to say, you are not going to be running Photoshop or scientific simulations on this one, but it should be fine as a casual email and web checker. It has 2GB RAM, 32GB on-board solid state, Celeron N2840 2.1 GHz processor, the screen resolution that will be posted on Windows’s tombstone in the next century (1366×768), and things like that.

Makes one wonder how much ground Microsoft lost with Windows RT on mobile and with Windows 8 on desktop. On the plus side, it is day #2 for me with Windows 10 and I am actually liking what I see (despite some hopefully-fixable knucklehead decisions (Wifi Sense, data hoarding, etc)).

July 31, 2015 Filed Under: 11-inch laptops Tagged With:

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!

July 25, 2015 Filed Under: 15-inch laptops Tagged With:

Now shipping: 10-inch ASUS Flip Touchscreen Chromebook for $260

Do you flip for Chromebooks? *insert canned laughter here* If so, the brand new 10-inch ASUS Flip Chromebook, model C100PA-DB02, is now in-stock and ready to ship to your door for $260 with free shipping at Amazon.com by Amazon actual.

This is ChromeOS’s answer to tablets and Windows 2-in-1s. It has a touchscreen and the screen flips but does not detaches. It is a 10-inch 1280 x 800 IPS display. The screen has the usual modes of this design, the conventional laptop, the screen-front (aka Stand mode), the Tent mode (no juvenile jokes please!), and the tablet mode where the keyboard folds under the display making it a think faux-tablet.

Other specs include 4GB of RAM, quad-core processor, 16GB on-board, two USB 2.0 ports, microSD, microHDMI, with up to 9 hours of battery life.

July 21, 2015 Filed Under: 10-inch laptops Tagged With: ,