$600 - $650 laptops

E

easymon1

$600 - $650 laptops that catch my eye include the
Toshiba Satellite L670-BT2N25, Dell Inspiron 17R-2nd Gen , and the HP dv7t.

Discouraging info exists about HP quality and Dell sevice.
I wonder what's the story on Toshiba? Are there any others in this range that I should look at?
 
My opinion:

I have used Toshiba laptops before but it was long time ago. Toshiba Tecra 8000 and 8100. No problem with either one. Company-assigned. Only upgraded because of refresh after a couple of years.

This satelite you sited may be a gem. The only thing I see is: This Toshiba is using first generation i3 chip while the Dell and HP offers second generation i3 or i5. From a technology stand point the second generation is more desirable. Faster and uses less power - thus your laptop battery should last longer between each recharge.

The Passmark score for Intel Core i3 380M @ 2.53GHz is 2336. Which is not that different from Intel Core i3-2310M @ 2.10GHz (second generation), at 2695.

If it is up to me a 17.3" screen is better than 14". (But smaller screen size is more convenient some times.)
 
I got this a while ago - I like it. Caveat: The touch pad is shit. I use a Bluetooth mouse. The laptop has no built in Bluetooth support. I am using this Bluetooth dongle. Happy with the setup. 3GB RAM seems enough - will upgrade later if I need it. Hard to find a 17.3" screen at this price. And about 3 hours of battery life, which is great
 
I just bought a Toshiba laptop. It's a top shelf machine. I had an Acer before that and the Toshiba puts the Acer to shame. Just the way the machine is built and assembled is impressive. It's solid, solid, solid. Highly recommend.
 
I haven't used a MSI laptop but I recently bought a desktop motherboard made by MSI. "MSI Big Bang Xpower". I like that motherboard. It looks like a good quality product. Hopeful good quality is on all their products.

MSI has a user forum. Perhaps Google on your laptop model and see if there are complaints. If there is a detect those are usually places where notes will pop up.

http://forum-en.msi.com/
 
Because of your notes, I browsed around a bit and found this HP dv7t model:

HP Pavilion dv7t Quad Laptop: Core i7-2630QM 2.0GHz

http://slickdeals.net/permadeal/487...-1gb-radeon-hd-6490m-bluray-wifi-n-win-7-prem

$875, featuring the processor i7-2630QM. Which has a Passmark score of 6327.

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-2630QM+@+2.00GHz

Holy cow! It is as fast as my i7 desktop. And twice faster than my dv8t 1100 laptop! I bought mine 1 year ago and it was north of $1100. The display of dv7t is a little less than my dv8t (17.3" versus 18.4", 1200 x 900 versus 1920 x 1080). But still pretty good. I hope this HP laptop doesn't suffer from the quality problems that I had experienced on other lines of HP laptops.
 
Thanks, I appreciate it.
That's tempting but my requirement is below i3 1st gen so I gotta look away.

These Cheap Laptops are returnable for two weeks at a brick and mortar location. They look decent...no?

$549.99 HP Pavilion G7-1075DX, AMD Phenom™ II, 17.3", 4GB, 500GB
AMD Phenom II P960 Quad-Core - PassMark = 2223, (i3 380M = 2334)
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/HP+-+Pa...18237922&skuId=2285026#tabbed-customerreviews

$598.00 Dell i17R-1408MRB, i3-380M, 17.3", 4GB, 640GB, 7 Premium,
http://www.walmart.com/browse/Compu...2529393&search_sort=4&selected_items=+&depts=
 
The best deal if you have access to it is to buy from Costco, Dell or HP, and you get 2 year warranty service and North American support not punjab.
 
Dell Small Business Vostro. Just got one. They'll overnight it to you. Great machine; no bloatware. Mine is super lightweight. Win7x64 dual core with hyperthreading; four logical cores. DDR3. Great machine. Paid $650.
 
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