Back-to-School Notebook Deals for the Plundering, Pt. 2
August 14th, 2008 by Kenneth Butler, LAPTOP Web Producer/Writer 
If school hasn’t started for the student in your life, there’s still hope you can send them back to class with a top-notch PC for a good price.
Last week we skimmed discount electronics sites and online big-box retailers to find the best deals for back-to-school notebooks (in addition to our top ten list and other back to school round-ups). Sales change week-to-week, so for the new business cycle we’ve gathered more price-slashed laptops, each less than $700.
If you’re in the market for a student-friendly piece of hardware, look no further than what’s below.
Acer Aspire 5520-5156
This 15.4-inch Acer system is great for getting assignments scratched off the ole to-do list. It comes pre-installed with Windows Vista Home Premium and saving and archiving large files onto the 250GB hard drive or to data DVDs with the included DVD±R/RW optical drive 
will be a breeze. Conversely, kicking back with a relaxing movie screening will work just as well.
Find it here: TigerDirect
MSRP:$699 Instant Savings: $100 Bottom Line: $599 What it’s Packing: 15.4-inch Display 2GB RAM 250GB HDD DVD and CD Burner Windows Vista Home Premium
Gateway T-6836 Read our Review of the similar Gateway T-6828
Find it Here: Best Buy Online
MSRP: $799.99 Instant Savings: $200.00 
Bottom Line: $599.99
This 14.1-inch Gateway comes with a 2-GHz Core 2 Duo processor, a whooping 4GB of RAM, and a 250GB HDD. That means this quick-loading machine has the volume to store programs, music, and video files and the power to do it fast. Throw in a DVD/CD burner, Windows Vista with Service Pack 1, and the now-standard 802.11 a/b/g Wi-Fi support, and you’ve got a machine that’s well worth the discounted price.
What It’s Packing: 14.1-inch display 4GB RAM 250GB HDD DVD/CD Burner Vista Home Premium
Acer Aspire One Read our review
Find it here: OnSale.com
MSRP: $379 Bottom line: $372.99 Onsale.com isn’t offering much of a discount for this mini-notebook with an 8GB solid-state drive, but with an MSRP of $379, the discount is already built in. Weighing in at just 2.2-pounds, this 8.9-inch netbook is great for easy-peasy portability. The installed OS is the impressive Linux-based Linpus Lite, but fret not, standard productivity software comes pre-installed, so taking notes and saving papers will be just as much of a no-brainer as buying this handy low-cost machine.
What it’s Packing: 8.9-inch display Intel Atom 512MB RAM 8GB SSD Linux Linpus Lite
HP Pavilion dv6910us
Find it here: Circuit City
MSRP: $779.99 Instant savings: $180.00 Mail-in rebate: $50.00 Bottom Line: $549.99
It was a little surprising to see this notebook hit the market for less than $800. Now that it’s priced at $550, we can’t help but recommend taking advantage of this deal. Here’s why: the thin-and-light notebook comes with a 200GB hard drive, 3GB of RAM, a 15.4-inch display, DVD/CD burner, and built-in webcam.
What It’s Packing: 15.4-inch display 200GB HDD 3GB RAM DVD and CD Burner Built-in Webcam Microsoft Vista Home Premium
HP Pavilion dv9910us
Find it here: Circuit City
MSRP: $879.99 Instant Savings $180.00 Mail-in rebate: $50.00 Bottom Line: $649.99
With this deal, the HP Pavilion dv9910us costs just $100 more than the dv6910us but the gap in cost is filled by the presence of more robust features. The dv9910us has a 17-inch screen, a more spacious 250GB HDD, 3GB of RAM, a DVD/CD burner and comes with a webcam, microphone, and Bluetooth.
What it’s Packing 17-inch screen 250GB HDD 3GB DDR2 RAM DVD/CD Burner Built-in Mic and Webcam Built-in Bluetooth Microsoft Vista Home Premium
HP Pavilion dv2910us
Find it here: Staples
MSRP: $849.98 Instant Discount: $75.00 Instant Discount: $95.00 Bottom Line: $678.98
This 14.1-inch dv1910us has the same fixin’s as the above Pavilions but adds 802.11n wireless to the mix. It also comes with a free trial of Microsoft Office 2007 Student and Teacher Edition and bonus perks like 3GB of RAM, a 250GB HDD, and DVD/CD burning capability don’t hurt it’s strength as a strong choice for a budget thin-and-light notebook, either.
What it’s packing: 14.1-inch screen 250 GB HDD 3GB RAM DVD R±RW Optical Drive Microsoft Windows Vista Home
Our Related Content
- Gateway's NV Series Starts at $499, Targets Back-to-School Crowd
- Tips for Buying Back-to-School Notebooks
- Best Back to School MP3 Players
From Other Sites
Related Deals
- HP Pavilion dv6 Quad Edition Core i7 "Sandy Bridge" Laptop w/8GB RAM, 750GB HDD & Blu-ray $770.49 FREE SHIPPING (via LogicBUY)
- Samsung NP300V4A Series 3 14-inch Core i5 Laptop + $50 Amazon Gift Card $549.99 FREE SHIPPING (via LogicBUY)
- HP Pavilion dv6t 15.6-inch "Sandy Bridge" Core i3 2.2GHz Laptop w/Free 6GB RAM Upgrade $529.99 FREE SHIPPING (via LogicBUY)
- HP Pavilion dm1 11.6-inch 1.6GHz Dual-core AMD Fusion Laptop w/4GB RAM $374.99 FREE SHIPPING (via LogicBUY)
- HP Pavilion g6z 2.5GHz Dual-core AMD Laptop w/6GB RAM [AMD A8 Quad-core $504] $439.99 FREE SHIPPING (via LogicBUY)
August 15th, 2008 at 6:07 am
Why is the Asus EEE pc 901/900A not listed?
The EEE pc 901 has around 6 hours of battery life.
That’s really important for a MOBILE school laptop, otherwise you could better take a dekstop.
August 21st, 2008 at 4:17 pm
Make sure you protect you new laptop with a Rock Soxx Laptop Sleeve.
Rock Soxx
The only Rock & Roll Laptop Sleeve.
http://www.rocksoxx.com