Asus $340 in Best Buy...

The display quality seems very bad. It has a reddish tint. But ASUS has the best warranty right? (i heard they are the only one covering accidental damage??)

 

asus at bestbuy usually doesn't have accidental damage coverage.
look at the fine print.

I dunno how asus has been portrayed as having the 'best warranty'.
the warranty is pretty standard, in line with the industry- you pay for shipping one way, they fix it, and ship it back to you.
multiple rma's can get costly.

 

What would be the best budget computer that you can buy from Best Buy?

I really need that 18month financing no interest..

Should I buy the black tie warranty or no? Or would it be better to just buy a $200 thinkpad because they don't get out of order even if you drop it and even if you spill something on the keyboard?

 

"the best budget computer" ?? You really should decide what you need - what you will use it for and go from there. If you find something that is priced right and looks good to you, if it won't be adequate for your needs, it will be a mistake. You really can't go by price alone - it's just one factor. Besides, if you get 18months of no interest financing, a $10 a month difference in payments (if you can swing that) would get you a computer that would cost almost twice what the $200 computer would be. Unless you really are very informed about hardware, it's easiest to just assume that you will get what you pay for.

If you only need a little netbook for email and for taking notes in classes (or something like that) you may want to consider one of the IPad knockoffs where you can write on the screen rather than type - (it's tedious and slow to type or take notes with an on-screen keyboard - writing is just much faster for most people - pretty much all people).

If you have a home internet connection, that alone is going to cost a lot more than spreading $200 over the course of 18 months....(unless you use a dial up modem - I don't know how many modern laptops or netbooks or pads even have a phone jack or built-in phone modem).

I know the service at Best Buy can be awful - but hopefully you can find someone there that may have some good advice. If you have any knowledgeable friends that would be willing to go computer shopping with you, that could be a big help.

After-market warranties are generally a very bad bet....if you buy one, be SURE you understand EXACTLY what is really covered and for how long. Laptops don't last forever and inexpensive laptops are more likely to become obsolete faster - a one year warranty which is pretty standard might be enough time to cover a $200 machine. I've had 5 laptops in the past 10 years and the only big help has been phone support. None of them needed repairs until after the warranty expired and by that time they were not worth the cost of the repairs (or what an extended warranty would have cost).

Remember that buying a warranty is really just making a bet - the company selling the warranty is betting that you'll pay a premium that will be profitable to them and you are betting it will go the other way. They have all the statistics on their side - otherwise they would not sell the warranties at the prices they do.

My brother works at a car dealership - he's the finance guy and he makes more money selling warranties than the dealership makes on selling the cars (by a good margin).

He's told me too many times to count to NEVER buy any extended warranty no matter how appealing the sales pitch is.

Good luck!

 

most asus has two way shipping i thought, my n53sv has two way shipping and a bunch of my friends that own ASUS does.. maybe its only a bestbuy thing?

 

i don't know if you have a different level of coverage, but it says pretty clear here-
ASUS Service for North America

and last time i called, they confirmed that i would have to ship at my own expense

 

thats really weird..maybe warranty is dependent on distribution chain?
here is the sticker on my box. i live in north america but its different from whats stated on their website.
do note however it says on the box both that they provide one way and two way shipping.. oh well, whatver is the highest counts right?

 

yep. we don't have the 360 sticker or adw.

that's why we pay cheaper price.