Dell or no Dell

The weekly Dell sales rotation is driving me nuts! I've been going back and forth (and back and forth, again and again) about whether to buy now or wait a week or two (or three or four...). The Dell coupon/sale game is just a nightmare...maybe I should just buy what I want right now and not worry about it?

(But do I even want a Dell? Aren't IBMs so much better quality for a few hundred more bucks? And what is this Vista64 that everyone is talking about?! It goes on and on and on...)

I've already posted on this, but here it is again: I'm shopping for a new laptop, want to spend as little as possible (max $800), like light and portable with good battery life, and use my computer for word processing, internet, music and the occasional dvd (no gaming). I came up with the e1405 as my best choice, edging out the e1505 because of battery life. I want the 9-cell battery and a Duo Core, would prefer a dvd burner and a 60 MB hard-drive and 1 GB RAM, but can do without the latter for now. With current sales ($300 off $999+ and ebay $35 off $300), I came up with $723 for all of the above minus the 1 GB hard-drive. This seems more expensive than last week, where folks were discussing similar computers--plus the 1 GB RAM but minus the 9-cell battery--for about $100 less (which I suppose with the 9-cell would make the deal the same).

So my question is probably the Eternal Dell Question: Wait for the next sale change (which is Wednesday early AM, I believe, or Thursday?), or buy now? It is a bit like "deal or no deal" (but Dell or no Dell, instead...sorry, bad joke). If I buy now, worst case scenario is that I spend too much and the same computer could be had for $100 less in just a couple days. But if I DON'T buy now we could go through a cycle of a week or two or more of Dell deals that are a bit higher. So what are the chances?

Or to put it another way, what is the LONGEST I would have to wait to equal the $723 price for the e1405 I want? I know the prices tend to go lower over time, but it does seem that they fluctuate a bit and I would really like to get this ordered by the end of May.

Is there a method to Dell's weekly sales madness? Anyone have a clue what's coming next?

Any advice or guidance would be appreciated. I suppose the bottom line is that we're only talking about a $100 give or take, so maybe I'm worrying too much and should buy...

 

You just have to wait and see what Dell is doing. They change their prices every week (more like every day it seems)

 

I agree - Dell of late has been playing chicken with their pricing structure, at least on the consumer/home section, and their price points are all over the place. Speaking of IBM/Lenovos - Abaxter has detailed new ones coming out today: http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2936

I have a Dell and I can attest that their support quality of service have dropped off markedly over the last 2.5 years. They are cheap and sometimes cheap comes at a cost.

 

here's the deal...

if you wait, it will become cheaper. this is true for all notebooks.

what you need to do is decide what specs you want, what you are willing to pay and then commit. once you are happy, then buy it and don't look back because someone will literally pay less than you did in a month's time.

this is true for any notebook and applies with dell's pricing strategies as well.

 

Intel is supposed to be cutting their prices for the Core Duo processors on May 28 i believe. This will likely lower the price from Dell, but it all depends on their coupon offers for that week.

 

I am sure that Dell will wait until they have passed on the higher costs of what is in inventory before they pass the savings to us. That may be a few weeks or a couple of months.

 

With HP posting 20+% gains on the notebook sales to consumers (vs. 1% on their desktop) I think Dell will be early in their discounts in hopes to snare the summer holiday market.

 

The day after buying mine the same spec was UK £150 more (I paid circa £717) and I now refrain from looking as I've got what I wanted.

You get far more for your money in the US though, in some cases people have paid around UK £80 more compared to what I got and their specs included the 2GB Duo Core, ATI X1400 and UltraSharp screen; those three upgrades alone would have added around UK £450 to my above price, so I would have happily paid £80 for those even if I don't really need them.

 

For me,i think dell has better laptops compare to HP. I was just looking at HP, and a similar model thats compareable to my e1505 is atleast 500 dollars more then what i paid for my e1505
and also it seems to me that dell laptops are lighter then HPs books