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Please, when posting a link to a laptop listing, make sure to include the price at time of posting. It helps.
Requesting help with a purchase? Please post here: https://forums.dansdeals.com/index.php?topic=135662.msg2794782#msg2794782

Dell:
Precision - Very powerful desktop replacements - great warranty, ridiculously expensive - Usually overpriced or overkill

Latitude - Good Laptops - Great warranty! Highly recommended for any Business environment - Sometimes expensive.

Vostro  - Lower end Business Machines - Better Priced - still durable - Usually 1 Year warranty.

XPS - The nicer looking dell machines, Some are better than others...

Inspiron - YMMV Every model is different

(Plain) Insprion Series - Dells lowest end laptop
(R) Insprion Series - Perfect Home use, dependable, decent build quality, recommended
(Z) Insprion Series - A little slimmer than the R series, Some are Ultrabooks (Very often don't include Optical Drives)

HP:

Spectre - Top of the line personal (dragonfly is the top of the line for business) - lightest laptops, and beautiful!

Pavilion - YMMV (Some better than others)

Probook - Stable durable business systems - Usually a little on the heavy side.

Elitebook - Business Higher end systems, usually pretty expensive

ENVY - Used to be the HP sleek and nicer systems, they pretty much replaced most of the standard pavilions now and call them either ENVY or sleekbooks

Sleekbook - like it sounds slimmer line of laptops

Lenovo:

Thinkpad Series - Very Dependable Business Machine, Expensive (Not Pretty but Durable)

IdeaPad Series -

S Series
U Series - Usually the slimmer line Ultrabooks, Doesn't always include DVD Drive
Y Series - Nice machines with good specs and features (Cool Backlit Keyboards)
Z Series - Step up from the G Series, all around decent build, priced nicely, great home use laptop
G Series - Lower end

Samsung:

Series 3
Series 5
Series 7
Series 9 - The nicest, sleekest looking laptops I've seen in a long time - Can pass for a Macbook!!


HT: Dh Data Recovery & Name Changed


A great post by caliheat:
I believe that there are many factors when deciding what laptop to purchase.
1) What is your intended use and necessary features. e.g. light use vs. heavy use & optical drive, computer speed etc.
2) As mentioned several times in this thread, RAM itself is very easy to upgrade after you purchase.
3) Brand - IMHO this is pretty important as well - which do your prefer vs. which brand do people recommend.
4) Price - you should decide a price range that best suits your needs.
5) Operating System - Many people like myself prefer Windows 7 vs. 8.1, so this would be another consideration.
6) Warranty - does it include 1 year or more, cost for extending warranty.
7) Detailed Specs:
  Processor  - model and speed i3, i5, & i7 2.0 Ghz, 3.0 Ghz etc.
  RAM - This IMHO should be minimum 8GB, especially if running 8.1, however can be added easily.
  Hard Drive - SATA vs. SSD, the latter being much faster. SATA itself offers 5400 RPM vs. 7200 RPM again, the latter being faster.
  Screen Size - this is a personal preference as you can always attach a larger screen in an office setting.
  Battery & Weight - overall laptop weight preference & battery life.
  Graphics - Integrated graphics vs. dedicated graphics, e.g. Intel 4400 vs. Nvidia GTX etc.

In summary, you have to decide what are you priorities, what can be upgraded and what you are flexible on.



Excellent article about the differences between the Intel processor suffixes.

Excellent "Laptop Buying Guide" by @dailykasha, written for Black Friday 2021, updated for holidays 2023

Author Topic: Laptop Deals Master Thread  (Read 3185992 times)

Offline WonderingYid

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13040 on: October 06, 2021, 08:29:49 PM »
https://ebay.us/tX2tws

100% positive feedback, but a scam.

Offline cozmohoot

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13041 on: October 06, 2021, 10:04:39 PM »
It’s a very big seller and he offers free returns for any reason. eBay always lets you return if it’s NAD.
Its antonline's ebay store.
Bestbuy also has a store on ebay.

If you were going to buy from antonline.com then this is same thing

Offline WonderingYid

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13042 on: October 06, 2021, 10:05:25 PM »
Its antonline's ebay store.
Bestbuy also has a store on ebay.

If you were going to buy from antonline.com then this is same thing
You get additional eBay protection.

Offline cozmohoot

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13043 on: October 06, 2021, 10:13:09 PM »
You get additional eBay protection.
My point was that you didnt mention it's the same store just different platform.
You only wrote about the ratings..
Carry on

Online Yo ssi

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13044 on: October 06, 2021, 10:29:55 PM »
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Offline YG

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13045 on: October 07, 2021, 02:50:11 PM »
Lenovo IdeaPad 5 15.6 Laptop AMD Ryzen 7-5700U 16GB RAM 512GB SSD $649.99 Antonline via eBay

Thanks again for posting this! It's a steal. Ordered 1.

I submitted a ST 119.1 sales-tax-exemption certificate to Ebay last night to be able to purchase without sales tax (it is legit being purchased for non-profit work) and they said 10-15 days till it is approved.

I don't specifically need it before then, but if it sells out before then I'll be disappointed -- its still a steal even with tax (Total 707.68), so I purchased it meanwhile so I don't lose out if it sells out before my tax exempt status is approved. If the listing is still active when the tax exemption is approved I will return the one I just ordered (it has free returns for 30 days) and will purchase another without tax, and will leave this one unopened in the box until then so i fi do return it they will have no issues reselling it easily.

It's interesting, this specific model is listed on all the big platofrms -amazon, ebay, newegg, Walmart, all by Antonline. Most places it is 729.99. On Antonline's website it is 699.99, and on ebay it is 649.99. Their listing on Ebay has sold more than 1K units, probably totalling several thousand accross all the platforms. This model with these exact specs doesn't seem to be available anywhere else from any other seller. Lenovo has the same model with the same specs but in a different color listed at 879.99.

Could it be that Antonline had a custom model built for them by Lenovo and ordered so many units they got them at a price that allows them to sell them so competetively?

Stam curious . . .
« Last Edit: October 07, 2021, 02:58:38 PM by YG »

Offline stooges44

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13046 on: October 07, 2021, 03:04:49 PM »

Stam curious . . .

Quote
this specific model is listed on all the big platofrms -amazon, ebay, newegg, Walmart, all by Antonline. Most places it is 729.99
- Antonline has to markup the amount that will go to the host (amazon, newegg, etc..)

Quote
On Antonline's website it is 699.99
- the real amount that they have chosen to sell it for a given profit.

Quote
and on ebay it is 649.99
- ebay will incentivize sellers (sometimes heavily and in this case it's a large and longtime seller) because without sellers there is no ebay. Much like amazon incentivizes bloggers because with the lack of b/m stores without a strong digital presence, there is no amazon.   
If it's not free shipping it's not worth it.

Offline WonderingYid

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13047 on: October 07, 2021, 03:06:53 PM »
- Antonline has to markup the amount that will go to the host (amazon, newegg, etc..)
 - the real amount that they have chosen to sell it for a given profit.
 - ebay will incentivize sellers (sometimes heavily and in this case it's a large and longtime seller) because without sellers there is no ebay. Much like amazon incentivizes bloggers because with the lack of b/m stores without a strong digital presence, there is no amazon.
Correct. Many times eBay will pay sellers to lower their price.

Offline YG

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13048 on: October 07, 2021, 04:00:34 PM »
- Antonline has to markup the amount that will go to the host (amazon, newegg, etc..)
 - the real amount that they have chosen to sell it for a given profit.
 - ebay will incentivize sellers (sometimes heavily and in this case it's a large and longtime seller) because without sellers there is no ebay. Much like amazon incentivizes bloggers because with the lack of b/m stores without a strong digital presence, there is no amazon.   
Interesting! That makes sense, thank you for clarifying.



The part I was really curious about was the fact that Antonline are selling this model all over the place, and seem to be the one and only vendor selling it. כדלקמן

Could it be that Antonline had a custom model built for them by Lenovo and ordered so many units they got them at a price that allows them to sell them so competetively?

Stam curious . . .
« Last Edit: October 07, 2021, 04:50:26 PM by YG »

Online Yo ssi

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13049 on: October 07, 2021, 04:58:14 PM »
@YG it should be possible to get tax refunded once approved
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Offline YG

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13050 on: October 07, 2021, 06:47:09 PM »
@YG it should be possible to get tax refunded once approved

Through Ebay?

That’s good to know, thank you!
I’ll look into it.

Offline YG

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13051 on: October 07, 2021, 07:45:31 PM »
@Yo ssi I looked around for info on getting sales tax refunded through eBay and the following is what see on eBay’s sales tax info page at the moment:

Quote
eBay's Buyer Exemption program for sales tax

If you are a tax-exempt buyer, we have a buyer exemption system that allows you to submit sales tax exemption certificates to eBay and make purchases without paying sales tax.

Alternatively, you may be able to get a credit for sales tax paid to eBay directly from your state. However, you should consult a tax advisor or contact the Department of Revenue for your state for further details as policies are different for each state.

It doesn’t mention anything about getting sales tax refunded through eBay so it seems that there isn’t an existing system for requesting sales tax refunds. How does one go about getting the refund that you’re referring to? Reach out to CS about it once approved and ask them to refund sales tax?
I’m definitely not interested in the headache of dealing with the state to get it back.

Online Yo ssi

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13052 on: October 07, 2021, 07:51:20 PM »
@Yo ssi I looked around for info on getting sales tax refunded through eBay and the following is what see on eBay’s sales tax info page at the moment:

It doesn’t mention anything about getting sales tax refunded through eBay so it seems that there isn’t an existing system for requesting sales tax refunds. How does one go about getting the refund that you’re referring to? Reach out to CS about it once approved and ask them to refund sales tax?
I’m definitely not interested in the headache of dealing with the state to get it back.
You can reach out to CS (an perhaps the seller), if they won't do it then I guess you can return.
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Offline YG

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13053 on: October 07, 2021, 08:08:45 PM »
You can reach out to CS (an perhaps the seller), if they won't do it then I guess you can return.

Thanks!

Offline Sammy82

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13054 on: October 07, 2021, 11:51:25 PM »
https://www.dell.com/en-us/member/shop/dell-laptops/new-inspiron-14-laptop/spd/inspiron-14-5410-laptop/nn5410esfqs

$485 (make sure to decline premium support).
Metal, seems to be a pretty good deal. only an i3, seems to be a quad core

minus Amex offer etc
Considering this one. Thank you
Is there any reason not to get the Windows 10-S version which I could then upgrade to Pro for not much? Will save some money doing that way.

Offline Sammy82

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13055 on: October 07, 2021, 11:53:29 PM »
https://www.officedepot.com/a/products/5052629/Lenovo-IdeaPad-nbsp5-Laptop-156-Screen/ $500
15.6 inch. Metal build. 300 nits IPS 45% NTSC screen
Solid deal for a decent all rounder. It has gone down to $450 in the past, but doubt it'll happen again for a while, we'll see what happens black Friday.
I stopped buying AMD processors years ago. Did they get good again? Is this one decent? Also my past few experience with Lenovo have been pretty bad (although for many years I had no problems).
Any insight is much appreciated.

Offline Chuchum Ainer

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13056 on: October 08, 2021, 02:11:28 AM »
Considering this one. Thank you
Is there any reason not to get the Windows 10-S version which I could then upgrade to Pro for not much? Will save some money doing that way.
That's the default on my end. whats the other option?
Note the price is down to $465. minus amex etc

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13057 on: October 08, 2021, 02:18:52 AM »
That's the default on my end. whats the other option?
Note the price is down to $465. minus amex etc
Home is usually the standard. Here the cheap one is Home S-mode.
I just dont understand why Home Smode is $200 cheaper than regular Home if I could disable the S-mode and make it into regular Home (unless things changed from when I last bought a Home S computer a few years ago).
Either way, post purchase I plan to upgrade them to Windows Pro.

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13058 on: October 08, 2021, 02:19:17 AM »
I stopped buying AMD processors years ago. Did they get good again? Is this one decent? Also my past few experience with Lenovo have been pretty bad (although for many years I had no problems).
Any insight is much appreciated.
As far as I'm aware, the AMDs are generally better than their intel counterparts at mulit core functions and have longer battery life. The equivalent intel is better at single core, and supports thunderbolt.
They don't release at the same time, so it really depends which one is newer.

in practice, on a sub $700 computer i wouldn't worry too much either way.

On this particular laptop, I'd get the $650 version posted earlier. More ram and better processor is worth the $150 imho

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Re: Laptop Deals Master Thread
« Reply #13059 on: October 08, 2021, 02:21:31 AM »
Home is usually the standard. Here the cheap one is Home S-mode.
I just dont understand why Home Smode is $200 cheaper than regular Home if I could disable the S-mode and make it into regular Home (unless things changed from when I last bought a Home S computer a few years ago).
Either way, post purchase I plan to upgrade them to Windows Pro.

Ah. when selecting home mode here, you are actually changing which computer you are buying, getting an i5-h processor and more storage for $200 more. not worth it imho.

Can easily move out of s mode for free (but not back in).