CHESSNOID

Even though I am not in the market for a laptop with windows 7 preloaded in it, I can’t stop myself from looking.  I promised to wait until an SP1 or even an sp2 comes out before changing to a new operating system.

I wanted to see what prices were now and try to figure out what type of deals will be available at Christmas and the New Year.  You figure it has to be cheaper during the crazy holiday sales.  I didn’t put any links like I usually do because retailers change them from week to week so they would become stale links very fast.

I checked out Bestbuy and I saw a Toshiba priced at $329 regular retail price with these specs: Intel® Celeron® processor 900; 2GB DDR2 memory; DL DVD±RW/CD-RW drive; 15.6″ widescreen; 250GB hard drive; Windows 7 Home Premium. That is a good deal but wish it had a dual core processor, hdmi output, and built in webcam.

At Walmart, they usually have low prices. The Acer is what they had on sale this week at $348 with some type of bundling available. The specs are: # AMD Athlon” 64 X2 dual-core processor L310,# 4GB of DDR2 system memory,# 250GB 5400rpm SATA hard drive, # 15.6″ high-definition LED backlit widescreen display, ATI Radeon” HD 3200 Graphics with up to 1919MB of HyperMemory” (256MB dedicated and 1663 shared system memory),# SuperMulti double-layer DVD drive,# Ports: USB 2.0 (2), VGA Video Output, Headphone Jack & Microphone Jack. Again sounds like that is a good deal but wish it had a dual core processor, hdmi output, and built in webcam.

Of course there is my favorite web site Amazon.com which doesn’t add sales tax and gives free shipping. They have a Toshiba Satellite at $379.99 with the specs: * 1.8GHz Intel Celeron T3000 Processor * 2GB Memory * 250GB Serial ATA Hard Drive, DVD SuperMulti Drive * 15.6″ Diagonal HD TruBrite Diagonal Display * Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, *2 Hours 40 Minutes of Battery Life. Again, the  same stuff missing (hdmi and webcam) I wish were already on there for these prices.

I know eventually I will get a new laptop with windows 7 and it will have an hdmi output and built in webcam. Previous holiday seasons $299 laptops were incredible deals. Now that is near the normal price. How crazy will laptop prices go this holiday season? $199? $149? $99?