Should I wait for Back to School sales?

Hi,

Need to buy a basic notebook for a college student attending this fall. Budget is $500, have found a few that meet this criteria...

But, I think I need help resisting the temptation to buy now... Give me some moral support and tell me that there will stil be good bargains in the back to school sales that will be more up-to-date....

Or, tell me from experience, you wish you had brought at this time of year, or wish you had waited....

So, question, Should I buy the basic Word processing, browsing laptop now? Or should I wait 2 months??

Help me pull the trigger or wait till I see the whites of their eyes.

Thanks,
Larry

 

if you can wait then it's usually wise to do so. However since you're going fot the cheaper word processing only laptops it probably won't matter too much. The price probably won't get any lower though there might be some slight improvement in the features. Anyways if you really want the cheapest stuff possible and you're willing to buy used then probably a good time is around May-June when students are graduating. That way many will be trying to sell off their old stuff they used in college. Otherwise you'll probably want to wait for new models to come out so you can snap up one of the older ones the companies will be trying to dump. And of course there is always ebay.

 

Back to school sales aren't only hardware but bundles.

Do you want MS Office software bundle, i.e. MS Word?
That's normally $150 for Student/Teacher version,
and can be put on up to 3 PCs.
In heavy sales, it goes for $49.
XP Pro, on some campuses, is actually required for connection
to a network.
That is sometimes offered at a steep discount, like $50,
and sometimes for $200.

Old model sales may happen earlier, e.g. 1st week of July or last
week of June.

 

Just to be more specific, the college recommends:

Windows Laptop 1.5 GHz 256 Mb 20 Gb DVD/CDRW Windows 2000 or XP Zip Drive, Ethernet Card

(Zip drive????? That really confuses me, they still make them?, I would do backups on CD-RW.....)

Anyhow, I would add wireless as well ad CDRW. and a DVD...

Office Depot had one I was too late for, a Toshiba Satellite M35X-S114Laptop M35X S114
Celeron M350 1.3GHz/256MB/40G/CDRW/DVD/XP2/WIFI

$499 after rebates.... Seemed like a sweet deal, can't get that even on EBAY.... (I am not too concerned with the 1.3ghz being less than the 1.5ghz....)

This notebook was large though.... Is a wxga machine too large to lug to the library for working?

But looking at (Compaq?) Sempron based laptops too.

Larry

 

Office Depo offers lower end notebook PC under $599 usually. You might to get one now, and familiar yourself with the notebook before school starts. When your classes starts in the fall, you will be able to use it with ease.

 

Hey Guys,

I am also in same dilema. I was all set to buy new laptop from Hp Shopping. I called the sales rep about back to school offers. He didnot commit anything when will it start.

Anyone has a clue about back to school offers. Its very tempting to buy a laptop immediately especially after doing weeks of research on internet.

Any insight would be appreciated.

 

At least one big store has begun "Back to School" with last Sunday's circular.

hpshopping.com's $50 discount that's been there for many weeks will end on Aug. 2.
Perhaps their back-to-school begins on August 3?

Local stores have told me "beginning of August" and "Middle of August."

Note that early sales, e.g. last weekend, appear to be unloading inventory, e.g. pre-Sonoma chipsets.

And - on hpshopping.com
- free shipping
- XpPro: $29.
Try finding that at Gateway or elsewhere.