I'm thinking about buying a new laptop for my wife as a Christmas present.

Here are the parameters I am using to narrow down my choices:

1. It cannot be a Mac. (She doesn't like 'em)
2. The monitor has to be < 13"
3. The OS has to be Windows 7 Home Premium
4. It has to have a DVD+/-RW
5. Cost has to be < $700

Is there anything in available in the market that fits these parameters? Any help is appreciated.

TIA.

 

Acer Aspire at Best Buy. My wife just bought one. 15.6" wide screen, 3gigs of memory, 160gig hard drive, Windows 7 Home Premium, DVD-RW/CD-RW. All for $349. If she's just using it for surfing the net and doing Microsoft Office stuff it's an imposible deal to beat.

Check it out here

 

^^^ thats a good deal.

 

^
Saw that one. But, I'm looking for a laptop that has a screen smaller than 13" if possible.

 

NetBook?
go to www.slickdeals.net. Have some deals there.

 

Smaller than 13, damn thats gonna be tiny. Does she travel a lot?

 

Raymond, netbooks don't come with DVD Drives.

Sean, she doesn't like big laptops? She's been using a laptop that's got a 12" screen for over 2 years now.

 

I wouldn't get an Acer. Is a 14" screen still too big?

 

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss?ur...meline&x=0&y=0


It will be tough to find a <13" laptop with a DVD drive for less than $700.

 

Probably.

Well, as long as it's relatively close, I'm willing to consider it.

 

what laptop is your wife currently using?

 

She's got a Dell Inspiron 710m. She LOVES it.

 

The Inspiron 13 has everything you ask for except for Windows 7 $549.

I can always load that for you.

 

Any coupons?

 

Any other laptops that I can look at?

 

Lenovo Ideapad U330 has all the specs you want and starts at $650.

 

14" are easily had for <$700. you should consider a 13.3" since that will fit the parameters. i think right now 14" have dropped in price but 13" and under are still not cheap. i never shopped the market for a 12" but i imagine one with an optical drive is probably no less than $1k, a vaio comes to mind.

 

Nice find. But, it would be even better if it came with Windows 7.

Thanks, Ted. Give me some specific models!

 

I believe it qualifies for the free windows 7 upgrade.


http://www.lenovo.com/us/en/windows7...free_win7.html

 

Nice find. I'm going to highly consider this.

 

Toshiba Satellite U500

http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/...to?poid=457412

and according to a recent study Toshiba's are more reliable than Apple and they cost much less



http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/17/l...-win-hp-fails/

 

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/...52921644667495

Splurge...

 

You gotta have $$ to splurge in the first place. If you donate the difference from the VAIO's minus my $700 limit, I'll do it!

 

Nice! I think this is the frontrunner at this point.

 

 

I just got Lenovo x200s 12.1" led screen 1440x900 resolution for $900, optioned the way I wanted. Lenovo's starting price was $670. It doesn't have CD/DVD drive, but I picked up ASUS usb drive for those rare occasions when I need one. Most stuff you can download anyway. Over all I like it very much, weight @ 3.2 lbs with 9 cell battery and last @ 9-10 hours on one charge. I got my deal trough the American Express at 50% off. you just have to check deal sites.

Lenovo/AMEX

 

That's a hell of a deal. We use those machines at work and they are great.

 

yeah you might want to look into getting an add-on USB dvd drive you can pick one up for about $50 online. If you went that route then I would HIGHLY recommend the Acer Aspire Timeline 1810TZ. It's got a 12in screen, dual core, bluetooth, 320gb hard drive, 802.11n wifi, multi-touch trackpad. I picked it up for $550 and I would say this is a better choice than the Toshiba I picked out. It's thin and very portable, it's small but not too small like a netbook. It gets about 9hr battery life and I'm VERY happy with it. It exceeded my expectations and my expectations were pretty high.

11.6in Acer
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834115647

If the 12in is too small there's a 13in too, but it's a pretty popular item it's on backorder until the beginning of dec
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834115672

 

http://slickdeals.net/forums/showthread.php?t=1679438

Caution: The notebook had a recall recently, but Acer should take care of it for you asap.

 

that's two recommendations for the 13in Acer Timline

 

i was actually using my friend's acer timeline earlier today. it's nice and the price is good, i'd recommend it.

 

My wife already has a Dell Mini 9 netbook. It's got all of the programs she needs already on there (the full version of MS Office Professional 2007).

So which USB optical drives can you recommend if I decide go that route? I know STUNNA said I can get one for $50 online, but I've done some research on it and some of them cost into the hundreds. I'd like to get an optical drive that has an "external case and an internal DVD drive".

Recommendations? (I'd like a pretty good quality drive that'll last).

 

Wha?! Hundreds of dollars for an optical drive!?!? The most expensive one on Newegg is $160 but that's a blu-ray drive, the next most expensive is $120 but that one is for macs (typical) and comes with toast 9. Other than that you can get one as cheap as $30. To me optical drives are about all the same but one that doesn't require an AC adapter and is powered via USB would be best. The more expensive ones seem to be faster at burning DVDs and can probably burn dual layer dvds as well. I doubt your wife really cares about that plus your mac can probably handle that duty anyways if it was really necessary. if I were to recommend a brand I guess I'd say Samsung but to me they're about all the same.

http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCateg...-CD-DVD-Drives

 

Scott, you can always go to Fry's to check them out in person.

If you want, if we finish early Saturday, we can go.

 

I got this Asus drive from Amazon.com for $49, Newegg has similar price, but it does fluctuates up to $60. Both places have good rating for it.

 

I have just received e-mail from Lenovo with Black Friday deals, so if anyone wants Lenovo it looks like OK deal. eCoupon: USPBLKFRIDAY

Page did not open for me in IE, so use Firefox.

 

Also two good sites for info on any laptop are NotebookReview.com Forum and Laptop magazine.

 

Saw this this morning. I know it is about $30 over your budget but seems perfect for you.

Lenovo Thinkpad X200 UltraPortable 12.1" WXGA $729

Link

Hmm, maybe it is just the 14.1" that has the DVD drive but it is under your budget at $573. It will come up at the same link and is a bit bigger but everything you want for way under price