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I have been spending weeks looking for a laptop for school to do my papers on that wasn't too big. I haven't bought a laptop in years and had no idea what the market had in store for me. A couple of things about the laptop market confuse me and annoy me to wholly hell.
1. Why are bigger screen laptops cheaper than smaller screen laptops? I am not talking about your budget laptops vs ultrabooks, but what I am saying is that if I was looking for a cheap computer for school that was about 14" in screen size which is the sweet spot, then all of the ones I have found are about equal price (but worse specs), or more expensive.
2. Why do almost 90%+ of the laptops I find have numeric keypads? Back when I bought a HP Laptop at Best Buy for close to $1000 that had a 900mhz processor (yeah, that long ago), none of the laptops had numeric keypads. Has the market really shown over the years, that people need that? I mean, how often do you really use it or need it? They always had USB numpads you could buy if you needed it, but why do almost all the laptops under $500 have that? Makes no sense. More cost in material, and more bulk and size in the laptop.
3. Where are the backlit keyboards? Back when Macbooks were coming out, that was always a standout feature but when you go to HP's website and are configuring a laptop, you have the option of a backlit keyboard (for the DV6T series which is the cheapest laptop from HP that you have a backlit keyboard as a option) for only $20. So why isn't this in more laptops? The laptop I had to settle for now, I am using a USB LED light I bought from Ebay for $3 so I can type at night. You would assume after so long that this would be a standard feature in all laptops. LEDs are cheap. And as far as I am aware, Sony is the only laptop maker where pretty much every laptop series of theres has backlit keyboards.
So what am I left to do? Of course I had to settle. And even when I go back to the slickdeals forums, people are telling me I didn't get a good deal for what I paid but at the same time didn't offer me any other ideas on what would be a better deal for my money. These last 3 weeks have been infuriating after searching all the inventory of Newegg, Tiger Direct, Fry's, Ebay, Target, Walmart, Office Depot, Staples, Best Buy, and finding literally nothing that was a good compromise or that was worthy of my money.
I know when you are working with a budget you have to settle sometimes, but there is no excuse to the amount of sacrifices that have to be made in the price range of $500. If i had to add an additional $50 to get that sweet spot then I would, but I found nothing. So I find myself at Target after taking back a 11.6" Asus Vivobook I had bought to Staples because it was too small for my huge hands, and the computer kept shutting itself off, and I was looking at their small selection of laptops and found a 15.6" Gateway for $369 that was temporarily marked down from it usual $429 price so I picked that up thinking I found a good deal but nobody I have asked thinks it's a good deal. I posted the link and specs below, but i am kind of forced to settle at this point. It's too big to be really portable which is what I need and the screen is pretty low quality but it has multi-tasked so far pretty well. I would rather settle with a i3 processor than a similar speced laptop with a A6-4400 laptop or some such equivalent. Maybe a year or two down the road I will be able to afford the perfect laptop for my portable years. I just feel quite ridiculous with this monstrosity in my backpack.
My perfect laptop would be at the least be like this:
14" screen @ least with 1366 x 768
At least 6 hours battery life
At least 4gb Ram (would love 8)
320gb SSD at least)
Core i5
backlit keyboard
solid/good construction
no numeric pad
Anyway, here is what I got. I am leaving town this Friday for two weeks and needed a laptop to do my work while gone so it's pretty impossible for me to exchange at this point. But if anyone has any suggestions, I will be going up to Ohio so I could probably take it back to a Target up there if I find a good enough deal to exchange it for. Or, if you have any comments about what I have then let let it rip.
http://www.target.com/p/gateway-15-...-memory-black/-/A-14293001#prodSlot=large_1_4
Gateway NV Series (NV56R14U-US)
Screen Resolution: 1366 x 768
Intel Core i3-2328M @ 2.2GHZ max
RAM: 4096 MB
500GB Hard Drive
Windows 8 64bit
Ethernet
3 USB Ports (NO USB 3.0 )
Intel HD 3000 Graphics
802.11b/g/n
DVD-RW 8x
1. Why are bigger screen laptops cheaper than smaller screen laptops? I am not talking about your budget laptops vs ultrabooks, but what I am saying is that if I was looking for a cheap computer for school that was about 14" in screen size which is the sweet spot, then all of the ones I have found are about equal price (but worse specs), or more expensive.
2. Why do almost 90%+ of the laptops I find have numeric keypads? Back when I bought a HP Laptop at Best Buy for close to $1000 that had a 900mhz processor (yeah, that long ago), none of the laptops had numeric keypads. Has the market really shown over the years, that people need that? I mean, how often do you really use it or need it? They always had USB numpads you could buy if you needed it, but why do almost all the laptops under $500 have that? Makes no sense. More cost in material, and more bulk and size in the laptop.
3. Where are the backlit keyboards? Back when Macbooks were coming out, that was always a standout feature but when you go to HP's website and are configuring a laptop, you have the option of a backlit keyboard (for the DV6T series which is the cheapest laptop from HP that you have a backlit keyboard as a option) for only $20. So why isn't this in more laptops? The laptop I had to settle for now, I am using a USB LED light I bought from Ebay for $3 so I can type at night. You would assume after so long that this would be a standard feature in all laptops. LEDs are cheap. And as far as I am aware, Sony is the only laptop maker where pretty much every laptop series of theres has backlit keyboards.
So what am I left to do? Of course I had to settle. And even when I go back to the slickdeals forums, people are telling me I didn't get a good deal for what I paid but at the same time didn't offer me any other ideas on what would be a better deal for my money. These last 3 weeks have been infuriating after searching all the inventory of Newegg, Tiger Direct, Fry's, Ebay, Target, Walmart, Office Depot, Staples, Best Buy, and finding literally nothing that was a good compromise or that was worthy of my money.
I know when you are working with a budget you have to settle sometimes, but there is no excuse to the amount of sacrifices that have to be made in the price range of $500. If i had to add an additional $50 to get that sweet spot then I would, but I found nothing. So I find myself at Target after taking back a 11.6" Asus Vivobook I had bought to Staples because it was too small for my huge hands, and the computer kept shutting itself off, and I was looking at their small selection of laptops and found a 15.6" Gateway for $369 that was temporarily marked down from it usual $429 price so I picked that up thinking I found a good deal but nobody I have asked thinks it's a good deal. I posted the link and specs below, but i am kind of forced to settle at this point. It's too big to be really portable which is what I need and the screen is pretty low quality but it has multi-tasked so far pretty well. I would rather settle with a i3 processor than a similar speced laptop with a A6-4400 laptop or some such equivalent. Maybe a year or two down the road I will be able to afford the perfect laptop for my portable years. I just feel quite ridiculous with this monstrosity in my backpack.
My perfect laptop would be at the least be like this:
14" screen @ least with 1366 x 768
At least 6 hours battery life
At least 4gb Ram (would love 8)
320gb SSD at least)
Core i5
backlit keyboard
solid/good construction
no numeric pad
Anyway, here is what I got. I am leaving town this Friday for two weeks and needed a laptop to do my work while gone so it's pretty impossible for me to exchange at this point. But if anyone has any suggestions, I will be going up to Ohio so I could probably take it back to a Target up there if I find a good enough deal to exchange it for. Or, if you have any comments about what I have then let let it rip.
http://www.target.com/p/gateway-15-...-memory-black/-/A-14293001#prodSlot=large_1_4
Gateway NV Series (NV56R14U-US)
Screen Resolution: 1366 x 768
Intel Core i3-2328M @ 2.2GHZ max
RAM: 4096 MB
500GB Hard Drive
Windows 8 64bit
Ethernet
3 USB Ports (NO USB 3.0 )
Intel HD 3000 Graphics
802.11b/g/n
DVD-RW 8x
