Oy! I jinxed it. As of late night on 6/27/17, they got sold out. Someone probably post them on a big deal website or something…
Chromebooks instant savings end 12/31/16
IF you need a Chromebook right away, and don’t want to wait for the newer CES 2017 models that may have support for the “Chrome Droid” (Android app support), there is an instant savings promotion running that can get you up to $50 off select models by ASUS, Acer and HP through amazon.com.
If you are not sure which existing models support (or will support) “Chrome Droid”, check (and bookmark) this support page at the Chromium project.
TIPS: even though ChromeOS is a lightweight OS, the web itself is getting more and more bloated, which increases the minimum specs necessary for a lower-frustration web browsing experience. As such, I would recommend avoiding 2GB RAM models unless you plan to use them in a uni-tasking type of fashion. Touchscreen still adds significantly to the price, but if you are not interested in running Android apps, the lack of a touchscreen opens the door to even lower prices.
New $200 Windows 10 laptop released: ASUS E200HA-UB02-GD
If you are looking for a budget SSD-based Windows 10 laptop, yet another option has been unleashed to the shopping world. It is the 11.6″ ASUS E200HA-UB02-GD (such a memorable name!) in a gold color scheme as the “GD” in its name semi-hints at. It has a 11.6″ non-touchscreen display with the same old resolution of most budget laptops of 1366 x 768. It has 4GB RAM which is a plus if you plan to do more than one thing at a time. It is an Atom Ant 🙂 And by that I mean it is running on the Atom Z8350 quad-core processor.
Other specs include 32GB on-board storage, 802.11acM MiMo WiFi, two full size USB ports (one of each, and by that I mean 3.0 and 2.0), card reader, HDMI, Bluetooth 4.0, and such. The description says it has a full size keyboard and “large” trackpad and promises an “all day” battery on a 2-cell lithium polymer. It has eight reviews so far, all 5s and 4s except for one short 1-star.
You can scoop it as of the time of writing for $199 at Amazon.com.
PS: it also comes with a 1-year subscription to Office 365, which on its own right costs about half as much as the laptop 🙂
PS2: the processor is so new it’s not even listed in the rankings at cpubenchmark.net. There are two other Z83xx Atoms there that rank between 1600 and 1800. Keep in mind, more and more processors come out over time, so a #500 rank five years ago is not the equivalent of a #500 rank today.
10-inch ASUS Chromebook Flip (4GB RAM) for $265 [limit 3]
In a sea of Chromebooks, the ASUS Flip managed to climb to star status without actually doing anything. The reasons for its claim to fame are existential, it’s the only Chromebook at the moment that is capable to receive Google builds that allow it to officially run Google Play apps. Google is working to make this feature mainstream, and more new Chromebooks will come out in the next few months/years that are optimized for this.
But if you don’t want to wait until then, and you want to boldly try out Google Play on Chrome OS right now, the ASUS Flip is where it’s at. Which means sales are going to be harder to come by for it, and smaller discounts will be the norm until competing and better models are released.
To cut a long story short, the 4GB RAM with 16GB on-board storage model is currently going for $265 with a limit of three units per customer at Amazon by Amazon actual. This has a 1280 x 800 IPS touchscreen, flipping all the way to touch the back of the keyboard to form a “thick tablet”. This has a Rockchip quad-core processor.
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.
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.
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.
ASUS M32CD Win10 Desktop with DDR4 memory for $450
I have an on-going (and slow-moving) review (five parts so far) of the ASUS M32CD Windows 10 Desktop PC going on. The one I purchased for $430, when it came out in the Fall of 2015, had DDR3 memory. Now there is a new version out with DDR4 memory instead, on sale for $450 at the moment with a limit of five per customer at Amazon by Amazon actual.
I only have the DDR3 version, and I’m a poor blogger, I can’t just buy the DDR4 version just so I can do a side-by-side comparison. I went back and looked at my CPU-Z results, indeed, the one I received was DDR3.
NOTE: as you can see at the Amazon page over there, in addition to the DDR4 PC on its own, Amazon is also bundling it with the 23.8″ Acer R240HY bidx computer monitor, however, at least as of the time of writing, there is no bundle discount. You pay the same price whether you buy them together or separately.
PS: yes, the irony is not lost on me, bundling a PC and a monitor from two bitter Taiwanese rivals 🙂
Back In-stock: ASUS M32CD Win10 Skylake i5 PC for $410 [updated]
If you are looking for a bang for the buck i5 Skylake Desktop PC, the ASUS M32CD is back in-stock at Amazon.com for $410 (was $430) with free shipping. It is powered by the i5-6400 quad core, with 8GB RAM, and 1TB hard disk, DVD burner, lots of USB ports (3.1, 3.0, 2.0), and Windows 10 out of the box… Price updated here 11/16/15…
If you are interested in this, we have a slow-moving on-going review of it at our brand new content blog:
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.
Win10 Skylake Desktop Deal: ASUS M32CD for $430
If you are looking for a brand new Windows 10 desktop computer using the brand new Skylake i5 processors and want to stay under $500 even after sales tax, Amazon has a potentially great deal for you. For $430, you can get the ASUS M32CD Desktop. As of the time of writing, it is in-stock.
UPDATE 10/14/15 – the REVIEW has just began!
+ Part #1: Unboxing – what’s included in the box?
+ Part #2: Turning it ON for the FIRST TIME – Surprise: No trialware!
+ Part #3: The Specs
+ more coming soon
+ if you have any questions or things you want me to check, please leave a comment at the review posts over there!
Below I highlighted the different ports from the back of the desktop (this is using the Amazon gallery picture, since mine hasn’t arrived yet)
So what makes this interesting?
- Intel i5-6400 Skylake processor – ranks #252 at cpubenchmark.net – pretty good for the price!
- this is the entry-level of the Skylake i5 line-up but they are all 4/4 (Cores/Threads) – see Wikipedia)
- 8GB DDR 3 1600MHz RAM
- 1TB 7200rpm
- DVD burner (Super Multi)
- Intel Integrated 530 HD Graphics
- HDMI and VGA ports (no DVI)
- all USB formats includes: USB 3.1, USB 3.0, and USB 2.0
- 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Gigabit Ethernet and Bluetooth 4.0
- keyboard and mouse included
- and more
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.
Google Nexus Player by ASUS for $67 [Android TV]
Apple accidentally started a streaming box price war when they discounted their prehistoric Apple TV earlier in the year. As a result, there are some good news on non-Apple streaming boxes as well. Case in point, the Google Nexus player (Android TV) made by ASUS is currently on sale, in new condition, for around $67 at Amazon.com. A gamepad is available but it is sold separately and it is optional for the operation of the device.
Refurbished 11.6″ ASUS X205TA for $160 [W8]
On the budget laptops front, among the anti-Chromebook SSD-Windows 8.1 options, eBay seller “voodublu” (99.4%) is offering the manufacturer refurbished 11.6″ ASUS X205TA for $160 with free shipping, with 90 day warranty from ASUS. There are over 700 units available as of the time of writing.
It has 2GB RAM, 32GB on-board storage, microSD storage (up to 64GB), quad-core Atom processor, battery life estimate of up to 12 hours, 2.2 lbs, etc.
13.3″ ASUS Zenbook UX305FA-ASM1 for $700 [SSD]
If you like SSD-only laptops, and the $600 price range, the 13.3-inch ASUS Zenbook UX305FA-ASM1 is currently on sale for $700 with free shipping, with a limit of three per customer at Amazon.com by Amazon.
This has a 1920×1080 resolution with a 170-degree viewing angle, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD storage (no spinning hard disk), Intel HD Graphics 5300, eight hour battery life estimate, three USB 3.0 ports, 2.6 lbs weight, and such. To achieve lightness and slimless, it uses the fanless Intel Core M 5Y10 processor. It averages 4.2 out of 5 based on 57 customer reviews and if you are curious abut it, it has over 100 questions answered by your internet peers.
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