The computers had evolved so much in the last decades and they become more and more popular and also more complex. And this is because all of their components had developed…the monitors got slimmer, and also with a larger display, the processor, RAM memory and other internal components got more powerful, the hard drives got bigger in capacity but smaller in size and so on. Thanks to all of these evolutions in components, it was possible for the engineers to integrate all of them  into a small, single unit. And this is how the laptops were born. They have the same components as any PC, and they can do the same tasks, only that they are much smaller, lighter and highly portable. They can be taken anywhere, and used anytime, without even needing a power source. And this is because every laptop has a built in battery that can last for a few hours.

If you just have decided to buy a new laptop you should know that there are many good producers on the market, and among them you can find names like: Hewlett Packard, Asus, Dell, Acer, Toshiba, Lenovo, Sony, Fujitsu, MSI and Apple. Each of these companies is offering many models of notebooks, with different prices and technical details. But to benefit from all the advantages offered by a laptop, you will need to pay some extra money compared to the price of a desktop computer. To buy a good new laptop, you will need to have at least 600 dollars. So if you really want a laptop, but you don’t have enough money, a possibility would be to buy an used one. But this is not something very safe, and you won’t know for sure if that laptop works fine or not. But there is a solution between these 2…you won’t have to buy a new laptop because you don’t have enough money, and you also won’t have to buy an used laptop because it may not work properly. What you can do is buy a refurbished laptop. So this means that it is an used one, but all of its problems were fixed, and now it is working just great. So we can say that the best cheap laptops are the refurbished ones.

A site that offers both new and refurbished notebooks is geeks.com, and you will find a lot of good models here. One of them is the Dell Latitude D 630, which can be bought at a price of 399 dollars. It is refurbished, and it even comes with a 90 days warranty, meaning that in this time you can definitely figure out if it is working properly or not. It has a 14.1 inch widescreen display which offers quite a good video quality. It even comes with an installed version of Windows Vista Business, so you can use it just after you bought it. It also has an Ethernet LAN connection and wireless capabilities, meaning that you can connect to the internet right away.

And to make a better idea about its features and capabilities, here are the complete technical details for this laptop:

• Dell Latitude D 630 Core 2 Duo T 7300 2.0 GHz 14.1-inch Notebook
• Grade B (see below for description)
• General Features:
• Magnesium alloy construction
• Microsoft Windows Vista Business 32 Bit SP1 pre-installed w/CoA
• Intel Core 2 Duo T7300 2.0 GHz processor
• 800 MHz FSB speed, 4 MB L2 cache
• 2 GB DDR2 RAM
• 120 GB hard drive
• DVD±RW drive
• Integrated Intel GMA X 3100 graphics chipset
• Integrated HD audio with built-in speaker
• 56K modem
• Integrated 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet
• IEEE 802.11a/g/n wireless LAN
• QWERTY keyboard with Touchpad and pointing stick
• 14.1-inch TFT LCD widescreen display (1280 x 800)
• Expansion Slots:
• One (1) Type I or II PC card slot
• I/O Ports:
• Four (4) USB
• One (1) 9-pin Serial
• One (1) 15-pin VGA
• One (1) IEEE 1394 FireWire
• One (1) RJ-11 modem
• One (1) RJ-45 Ethernet
• One (1) Headphone
• One (1) Microphone
• One (1) Smart Card slot
• Docking connector
• Regulatory Approvals:
• FCC
• CE
• UL
• CSA
• NOM
• VCCI
• GOST-R
• NEMKO
• TUV
• MIC
• C-Tick
• A-Tick
• CCC
• WEEE

Package Includes:

• Dell Latitude D 630 Core 2 Duo T 7300 2.0 GHz 14.1 inch Notebook
• Microsoft Windows Vista Business 32-bit SP1 pre-installed w/CoA
• Operating System Restore CD
• 65W AC Power adapter (Input: 100-240 V ~ 1.5 A, 50/60 Hz; Output: 19.5 V, 3.34 A)
• Power cord
• 9 cell 11.1V 85 Wh Li-ion battery pack

Additional Information:

• Notes:
• Model: Latitude D 630
• Product Requirements:
• Available power outlet
• Refurbished Notebook Grades:
• Grade B
• Notebook is in very good condition (many vendors would sell these as “A Grade”)
• Has cosmetic blemishes, examples of which are (but not limited to):
• Scratches on case
• Scratches in the screen
• Hairline cracks on case or bezel
• Dead pixels (5 or less)
• Missing doors
• Battery is not guaranteed to hold a full charge
• Battery is not covered under warranty

Many years ago it was thought that the laptops won’t have success on great masses and they will be just some fancy devices that will be popular for a short period of time. But this wasn’t true, and the laptops have continually grown in popularity. Today a lot of people even prefer spending their money on a new laptop, rather than buying a new desktop computer. A laptop offers many advantages, and the biggest of them would be the portability. A notebook computer is much smaller, thinner and lighter than a PC, meaning that you can take it with you anywhere you go. And it even has an included battery, meaning that it can work without a power source for a few hours. So this means that you can use it practically anywhere…you can take it with you while traveling with the train and watch a movie, or you browse the internet while being in a coffee shop, or a lecture hall, or listen to some music while staying at a picnic and so on. There are so many things that you can do with a laptop, and it all depends on your personal preferences.

If you are not looking to do some fancy and advanced activities on your laptop (such as playing video games or watching movies in High Definition), and you want one for simple activities such as browsing the internet, then you won’t even need to buy a very powerful laptop. And it doesn’t need to be big either…so this means that the best cheap laptop for internet use would be a netbook.

A netbook is a device that is even smaller than a regular laptop. Since it is smaller it couldn’t have all the exact components, so usually it has a smaller keyboard (all the keys except the numeric ones) and it doesn’t have an optical drive. So in case you need to use a CD or a DVD, you will need an external optical drive. A netbook usually has the size of the screen between 7 and 10 inches in diagonal and the weight between 2-3 pounds. It doesn’t have as many features and as powerful technical details as a regular laptop, but it is not weak either. It is just great for simple activities such as: browsing on the internet, writing mails or documents.

There are many models of netbooks on the market, and today we’ll discuss about one of them. For today we’ll choose the Lenovo IdeaPad S 10 which you can find as a refurbished laptop for 269 dollars on the site geeks.com. It offers quite good technical details that will allow you to easily and rapidly do the tasks we mentioned before, and even many more others. It has a display screen of 10.1 inch and it also features webcam and a microphone. It comes with an installed version of Microsoft Windows XP Home and it also has wireless capabilities, so that you can easily connect to the internet whenever you find the right spot.

But to understand better the capabilities of this laptop, let’s look at its technical details :

• Lenovo IdeaPad S10 Atom N270 1.6 GHz 10.1-inch Netbook
• General Features:
• All black design
• Microsoft Windows XP Home pre-installed w/CoA
• Intel Atom N270 1.6 GHz CPU
• 1 GB DDR2 SDRAM (supports up to 2 GB)
• 160 GB hard drive
• No optical drive
• No floppy drive
• Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950
• Integrated audio with built-in speakers
• Broadcom Fast Ethernet
• Broadcom 802.11 g Wireless LAN
• Built-in Ericsson 3 G Broadband Modem (SIM card and suitable data plan required)
• Built-in SIM card reader
• Built-in Webcam and microphone
• Built-in digital media card reader
• Keyboard with TouchPad
• 10.1 inch WSVGA AntiGlare LED-backlit TFT LCD (1024 x 600)
• 16:9 aspect ratio
• Supported Media:
• Secure Digital (SD)
• Memory Stick (MS)
• Memory Stick Pro (MS PRO)
• MultiMedia Card (MMC)
• I/O Ports:
• Two (2) USB 2.0
• One (1) 15-pin VGA
• One (1) RJ-45 Ethernet jack
• One (1) Microphone jack
• One (1) Headphone jack
• Ericson Mobile Broadband Modem Specifications:
• Form factor: PCI Express mini card
• Modes: HSPA/WCDMA/EDGE/GPRS
• Bands: WCDMA 2100/1900/850 MHz/GPRS/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
• Speeds: HSPA Data speed, D/L 7.2 Mbps, U/L 2.0 Mbps
• GPS: Supports stand alone and assisted GPS
• Antenna: WCDMA receiver diversity
• Connectivity: Advanced receiver – GRAKE2, USB 2.0
• Drivers: MS Windows XP, Vista, MacOS, Linux
• Regulatory Approvals:
• FCC
• cULus
• CE
• BSMI
• VCCI
• CCC
• Gost-R
• NOM
• C-Tick
• WEEE
• Energy Star

Package Includes:

• Lenovo IdeaPad S 10 Atom N270 1.6 GHz 10.1-inch Netbook
• Microsoft Windows XP Home pre-installed w/CoA
• Power adapter (100-240 V, 50/ 60 Hz)
• 3-Cell 11.1 V, 28 Wh Li-ion battery
• Power cord
• User Guide
• Setup Poster

Additional Information:

• Notes:
• Series: IdeaPad S10
• UPC: 8 84343 90187 9
• Product Requirements:
• Available power outlet
• SIM card and suitable data plan required for 3 G sevice

The laptops are quite popular devices these days, and they are used by more and more people from all over the world. They can be used for so many activities, from working and doing business, to watching movies, playing video games or browsing the internet. Some of the biggest producers of laptops in the world are Hewlett Packard, Asus, Dell, Acer, Toshiba, Lenovo, Sony, Fujitsu, MSI and Apple, and each of these companies is offering many good models of laptops.

There are many sources from where you can buy your notebook, and one of them would be from the internet. Whether if you are choosing the official site of a laptop producer, an auction site or the site of a retail store specialized in electronics, you will find a lot of models of notebooks. You can even buy a laptop directly from the internet, but if you don’t trust buying such an expensive device online, you can simply look on the internet and compare prices and technical details for some laptops.

Today we’ll discuss about a Best Buy laptop. Best Buy is a big retails store from the United States of America which sell all sorts of electronic devices. And among them there are many models of laptops, and today we’ll discuss about the Toshiba – Satellite Laptop with AMD Athlon Neo Processor – Nova Black, model T 115D-S 1121. It has quite a good price of 449 dollars and it offers pretty good features. It has a 11.6 inch widescreen display, which also has a built in webcam with microphone, allowing you to video chat with friends and family. It has a 6 cell Lithium Ion battery and quite a good graphics engine. So this means that you can watch movies in high quality, and you can even connect your laptop to a High Definition TV, thanks to its HDMI port. It also has a multi-in-one card reader, a Ethernet LAN connection and also a wireless technology. And it even comes with an installed operating system, which is the latest one from Microsoft, the Windows 7 Home Premium Edition 64 bit.

So now here are the complete technical details for this laptop, so you can make an idea about its features and abilities:

• Warranty Terms – Parts 1 year limited
• Warranty Terms – Labor 1 year limited
• Product Height 1.4″
• Product Width 11.3″
• Product Weight 3.5 lbs.
• Product Depth 8.3″
• Color Category Black
• Processor Brand AMD
• Processor Platform VISION Technology by AMD
• Processor AMD Athlon™ Neo
• Processor Speed 1.6 GHz
• Battery Type  6 cell lithium-ion
• Display Type  High-definition widescreen LED-backlit TFT-LCD with TruBrite technology (1366 x 768)
• Screen Size (Measured Diagonally) 11.6″
• Cache Memory 1 MB on die Level 2
• System Memory (RAM) 2 GB
• System Memory (RAM) Expandable To 4 GB
• Type of Memory (RAM) DDR 2
• Hard Drive Type SATA (5400 rpm)
• Computer Hard Drive Size  250 GB
• Optical Drive Not included
• Digital Media Reader or Slots Yes, digital media card reader
• Graphics ATI Radeon HD 3200
• Video Memory 128 MB – 828 MB dynamically allocated shared
• TV Tuner No
• MPEG No
• Built-in Webcam Yes
• Modem None
• Networking Built-in 10/100 Ethernet LAN (RJ-45 connector)
• Wireless Networking Wireless-B+G
• Bluetooth-Enabled No
• S-Video Outputs None
• Speakers Internal
• PCMCIA Slots None
• USB 2.0 Ports 3
• IEEE 1394 FireWire Ports None
• Parallel Ports None
• Game Ports None
• Laptop Weight Ultraportable (5.5 lbs. or less)
• Battery Life Not available
• Pointing Device TouchPad with multitouch control
• HDMI Output Yes
• Blu-ray Player No
• Operating System Platform Windows
• Operating System Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit
• Included Software Adobe Acrobat Reader
• ENERGY STAR Qualified Yes
• BBY Software Installer Yes
• Graphics Chip ATI

The laptops are becoming more and more popular these days and they are bought by more and more people. They are not just some fancy devices used just by the reach people, but they are quite normal devices used by people of all kind. There are many good producers of notebooks today, and some examples would be: HP, Acer, Asus, Apple, Lenovo, Toshiba, MSI, Fujitsu, Dell and so on. So far, in previous articles we discussed just about these producers and their models of laptops. But for today we’ll choose a different company, one that we didn’t presented so far. And this is Gateway.

Gateway Inc. is a subsidiary of Acer Inc.  and a computer hardware company  which has the headquarters in Irvine, California, United States. The company was founded  in 1985 with the name Gateway 2000 and it produces a wide range of personal computers, monitors, servers and other   computer accessories. It became more and more popular in the 80’s and 90’s and one unusual and interesting feature was that the company was selling its products in cow spotted boxes. So one of the reasons it became so popular was the creative way of advertising. It continued to be a good producer of computers but in the early and mid-2000s it had began a collapse and had some problems. But luckily for the owners of Gateway computers, and the future customers Gateway was bought in 2007 by Acer Inc. and it is still offering some good products today.

To find the best prices in laptops sometimes you will need to make a lot of research. You can search in the local stores from your city, but you can also search on the internet, where you will find many more products. A site that offers both new and refurbished laptops is www.geeks.com and today we’ll discuss about a Gateway laptop found on this site.

We’ll choose the Gateway LT 2032u Atom N270 netbook which is refurbished and has a price of 289 dollars.

Since it is a netbook the display screen is small and has just 10.1 inch in diagonal. So this means that this laptop is very small, so highly portable. It is probably an older model because its technical details are not so powerful compared to the ones found on laptops these days. But we’ll talk about them later. Now let’s see what other features this laptop has. It comes with a Windows 7 Starter operating system and also a DVD writer. But it also has a multi in one digital media reader, which you can use to transfer photos, videos and other files from all sorts of devices much easy. And it also has an Ethernet port and a wireless LAN connectivity, so you can easily connect to the internet when you have the chance. And now here are the complete technical details for this laptop:

• Gateway LT2032u Atom 1.6 GHz 10.1 inch LED-Backlit Netbook
• General Features:
• Color: NightSky Black
• Microsoft Windows 7 Starter 32 bit pre-installed w/CoA
• Intel Atom N 270 1.6 GHz processor
• 1 GB DDR2 RAM
• 250 GB hard drive
• No optical drive
• Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950
• High definition audio support with built-in speakers
• Multi-in-one media card reader
• 802.11 b/g wireless LAN
• Integrated 10/100 Fast Ethernet
• Built-in webcam and microphone
• QWERTY keyboard with multi-gesture touchpad
• 10.1 inch WSVGA High Brightness LED-Backlit LCD Display (1024 x 600)
• Includes 6 cell Lithium ion battery
• Supported Memory Cards:
• Secure Digital (SD)
• MultiMediaCard (MMC)
• Memory Stick (MS)
• Memory Stick PRO (MS PRO)
• xD-Picture Card (xD)
• I/O Ports:
• Three (3) USB 2.0
• One (1) 15-pin VGA
• One (1) RJ-45 Ethernet
• One (1) headphone
• One (1) microphone
• Unit Dimensions:
• 1.0 x 10.1 x 7.8-inches (H x W x D, approximate)
• Weight: 2.95 lbs (1.33 kg)
• Regulatory Approvals:
• FCC
• CE
• CCC
• NOM
• VCCI
• GOST-R
• BSMI
• A-Tick
• WEEE
• Energy Star

Package Includes:

• Gateway LT2032u Atom 1.6 GHz 10.1-inch LED-Backlit Netbook
• Microsoft Windows 7 Starter 32 bit pre-installed w/CoA
• Power adapter (Input: 100-240 V ~ 1 A, 50/60 Hz; Output: 19 V, 1.58 A)
• Power cord
• 6 cell Lithium ion battery

Additional Information:

• Notes:
• Model: LT 2032 u
• P/N: LU.WCR0D.005
• UPC: 8 46154 04347 6
• Product Requirements:
• Available power outlet

If you want to make the best possible deal when buying a laptop computer then you have to make a lot of research first. First of all you need to think which would be the perfect laptop for your needs. If you want to play video games on your future laptop and watch movies in High Definition, then you will need one with a large widescreen display and also a good graphics engine. If you are planning on doing many activities at the same time, or doing some advanced tasks such as video editing then you will need a laptop with a powerful processor and a big RAM memory. Or if you want a simple but highly portable laptop, then you must search for one that is really small, thin and lightweight. So after thinking about which technical details to look for, you can begin searching through the offers of the big laptop producers. There are many companies, and some of the best are: Hewlett Packard, Asus, Dell, Acer, Toshiba, Lenovo, Sony, Fujitsu, MSI and Apple.

After choosing one of these producers, then you have to begin searching for the model of laptop that suits the best with your needs. And after finding the right model, you have to search for the best price. So look through the offers of the official stores and sites of the producers, but also search in other retail stores or sites that are specialized in selling computers. Sometimes the best deal will even be to buy an used and refurbished laptop, for a price much smaller than the official price. If you are lucky you may find a model that is in a good shape, and that will work for several years.

So now let’s discuss more details about a random laptop model, and we’ll choose the Lenovo G 550 2958 A4U, which can be found on the site geeks.com for a price of 594 dollars (new). This model has a 15.6 inch widescreen display and a simple but elegant design.

It is just great for a business man, but it can also be used by a student, or by any type of person, because it is capable of supporting any type of computer activity, thanks to its technical details and features. Thanks to its 16:9 aspect ratio you will be able to watch movies in High Definition, and it also comes with a DVD reader and burner, so you can copy your favorite movies. It also has both Ethernet and wireless connectivity, so that you can easily connect to the internet anytime you have the chance.

And now let’s see the complete technical details for this laptop, to make an idea about what it can do:

Main Specifications

Product Description      Lenovo G550 2958 – C2D 2.2 GHz – 15.6″ TFT

Dimensions (WxDxH)   15 in x 9.6 in x 1.4 in

Weight             6 lbs

Localization      English

Platform Technology     Intel Centrino

System Type    Notebook

Built-in Devices            Stereo speakers, wireless LAN antenna

Processor         Intel Coee 2 Duo / 2.2 GHz ( Dual-Core )

Cache Memory            2 MB – L2 cache

RAM   3 GB (installed) / 4 GB (max) – DDR3 SDRAM – 1066 MHz – PC3-8500 ( 1 x 1 GB + 1 x 2 GB )

Card Reader    5 in 1

Hard Drive       320 GB – Serial ATA-300 – 5400 rpm

Optical Storage            DVD-Writer – integrated

Display             15.6″ TFT 1366 x 768 ( WXGA ) – 24-bit (16.7 million colors) – VibrantView

Graphics Controller      Intel GMA 4500MHD Dynamic Video Memory Technology 5.0

Audio Output   Sound card

Networking      Network adapter – Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11g, IEEE 802.11n (draft)

Wireless NIC   Intel WiFi Link 5100

Notebook Camera       Integrated – 0.3 Megapixel

Input Device     Keyboard, touchpad

Power AC 120/230 V ( 50/60 Hz )

Battery             Lithium ion

Run Time (Up To)        3.8 hour(s)

Operating System         Microsoft Windows 7 Professional / XP Professional downgrade

OS Preinstalled             Windows XP

Environmental Standards           ENERGY STAR Qualified , EPEAT Gold

Manufacturer Warranty             1 year warranty

General

Platform Technology     Intel Centrino

System Type    Notebook

Built-in Devices            Stereo speakers, wireless LAN antenna

Width   15 in

Depth   9.6 in

Height 1.4 in

Weight             6 lbs

Color   Black

Localization      English

Processor

Processor         Intel Core 2 Duo T6600 / 2.2 GHz

Multi-Core Technology             Dual-Core

64-bit Computing         Yes

Data Bus Speed           800 MHz

Features           Intel Virtualization Technology, Intel 64 Technology, Intel Dynamic Acceleration

Chipset Type    Mobile Intel GM45 Express

Cache Memory

Type    L2 cache

Installed Size    2 MB

RAM

Installed Size    3 GB / 4 GB (max)

Technology       DDR3 SDRAM – 1066 MHz

Memory Specification Compliance        PC3-8500

Form Factor     SO DIMM 204-pin

Configuration Features 1 x 1 GB + 1 x 2 GB

Storage Controller

Type    Serial ATA

Serial ATA Interface     Serial ATA-300

Storage

Hard Drive       320 GB – Serial ATA-300 – 5400 rpm

Optical Storage

Type    DVD-Writer – integrated

Card Reader

Type    5 in 1 card reader

Supported Flash Memory Cards           SD Memory Card, Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO, MultiMediaCard, xD-Picture Card

Display

Display Type    15.6″ TFT

Max Resolution            1366 x 768 ( WXGA )

Widescreen Display      Yes

Color Support 24-bit (16.7 million colors)

Features           LED-backlit, VibrantView, glossy

Video

Graphics Processor / Vendor    Intel GMA 4500MHD Dynamic Video Memory Technology 5.0

Audio

Audio Output   Sound card

Audio Codec    CX20561

Compliant Standards    High Definition Audio

Audio Input      Microphone

Notebook Camera

Camera Type   Integrated

Sensor Resolution         0.3 Megapixel

Input Device(s)

Type    Keyboard, touchpad

Features           Built-in numeric keyboard

Networking

Networking      Network adapter

Wireless LAN Supported         Yes

Wireless NIC   Intel WiFi Link 5100

Data Link Protocol       Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11g, IEEE 802.11n (draft)

Compliant Standards    IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11a, IEEE 802.11g, IEEE 802.11n (draft)

Expansion / Connectivity

Expansion Slots Total (Free)     2 ( 0 ) x memory – SO DIMM 204-pin

Interfaces         3 x Hi-Speed USB – 4 pin USB Type A

1 x display / video – VGA – 15 pin HD D-Sub (HD-15)

1 x network – Ethernet 10Base-T/100Base-TX – RJ-45

1 x microphone – input – mini-phone 3.5 mm

1 x headphones – output – mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm

Miscellaneous

Features           Security lock slot (cable lock sold separately), administrator password, hard drive password, power-on password

Compliant Standards    FCC Class B certified, CE, CISPR 22 Class B, IEC 60950, UL 60950, CCC, RoHS

Power

Power Device   External

Voltage Required          AC 120/230 V ( 50/60 Hz )

Battery

Technology       6-cell lithium ion

Installed Qty     1 / 1 (max)

Run Time (Up To)        3.8 hour(s)

Operating System / Software

OS Provided    Microsoft Windows 7 Professional / XP Professional downgrade

OS Preinstalled             Windows XP

Software          Norton Internet Security (90 days subscription), Adobe Reader, Windows Live Toolbar, Lenovo OneKey Recovery, Lenovo Energy Management, Corel WinDVD

Environmental Standards

EPEAT Compliant        EPEAT Gold

ENERGY STAR Qualified       Yes

Manufacturer Warranty

Service & Support        1 year warranty