3. Notebooks

By Ed Tittel

HP Pavilion dv5t-1140US-E Notebook

$870 at Sears.com

While the dv5t is no bleeding-edge notebook, it’s got plenty of productivity power, thanks to its 2.0 GHz P7350 processor, 4 GB of DDR2-667 RAM and a 250 GB hard disk. The Intel GMA 4500 MHD isn’t exactly a screamer, either, and the 1280x800 WXGA display is plain-vanilla, but adequate for normal desktop activity and viewing DVDs. What’s cool about this Black Friday deal is that Sears offers price protection where it’ll refund the difference between its price and any lower price you can find for the same model, plus 10%, for up to 30 days after purchase. It’s already $140 cheaper than HP’s best deal ($1,010) — at least, as we write this story — and a good price for good performance. If the rumors we hear about Circuit City’s pricing apply to this model, there could be some sorry execs at Sears after the holidays!

Dell Inspiron 1525

$549 from Dell.com

3GB Configuration: use Coupon Code 16254-DNPHPD5 to get $150 off list price ($699)

The Dell Inspiron 1525 is a nice little 15” notebook PC. This particular configuration comes in basic black (lots of other colors are available for $25 more), and includes a 2.0 GHz T5800 Core 2 Duo, Vista Home Premium, a 1280x800 glossy 15.4” display (a 1440x900 model costs only $50 more) and 3 GB of DDR2-667 RAM. The 320 GB 5,400 RPM SATA drive is pretty generous, but the basic Intel X3100 GMA is…well…pretty basic indeed. Other features are also basic or standard, but put them all together and you’ve got a sweet little notebook at a sweet price — as long as you remember to use the coupon code (from a Dell Black Friday advance e-mail) to get that price.

Asus Eee PC 900a

$129 from Amazon.com

By now, everybody’s heard of the category defining Asus Eee PC->Product page , which helped to bring the term netbook into the geek lexicon. Amazon.com is taking an XP-equipped model with 1 GB RAM and a 12 GB solid state drive and selling a few of them at $129. You have to register for the Amazon Customer Vote and indicate interest in this specific device, but what the heck: How can you turn down an opportunity to buy a great little box like this one for such a mere pittance? Spend another $131 on a 32 GB SDHC memory card and you’ve got something with a reasonable amount of storage for nearly $200 less than the usual price. There’s no guarantee that Amazon will invite you to purchase the Eee PC 900 at this low-ball price, but we figure it’s worth a try.

MSI Wind Netbook

$349 at SuperBiiz.com

Though it’s neither the first nor the best equipped of the so-called netbooks, the MSI Wind u100 has wowed plenty of reviewers, including our own. With a Windows XP OS, a 120 GB HD, 1 GB DDR2-667 RAM, a 1.6 GHz Atom processor and Intel 945GSE and ICH7 chipsets, the Wind offers basic productivity in a small (10.23”x7.08”x0.75-1.25”), light weight (2.3 lbs.) package. Of all the netbooks we’ve seen it offers the most notebook-like environment: Windows XP, a larger display (1024x600), a real HD (120 GB) and terrific battery life (over five hours as configured). Be sure to download and install the 1.09 BIOS update if it’s not already installed to obtain substantial performance improvements. At $100 off the going rate (MSRP: $450 with Windows XP) for this nice little netbook, the SuperBiiz Black Friday deal is a good one!

HP Compaq Presario C717NR

$300 at Best Buy

(after $350 discount)

Every year, there’s a “killer notebook deal” on Black Friday that gets people lining up before midnight on Thanksgiving day, ready to break down the doors by the time the store opens the next morning. This year, the store is Circuit City, and the notebook is a $300 Compaq Presario C717NR notebook (a holdover from HP’s acquisition of Compaq, the Presario name has stuck around). In this case, $300 buys you a 1.46 GHz Core Duo T2310 CPU, Intel GMA X3100 graphics, 1 GB of DDR2-533 RAM, a 1280x800 WXGA display, an 80 GB, 5,400 RPM IDE hard disk and 802.11b/g wireless networking. Its weight (6.3 pounds), battery life (under 3 hours) and typical 15” notebook dimensions are the only negatives when compared to the MSI Wind at $50 more—if you’re lucky enough to score one, that is. They’re normally $649. See you in line at the store!