Back in April I talked about how the industry is stuck in low gear and the future looks bleak, well I have confirmed it by trying to purchase a lower cost laptop recently and here are the details.
Being the geek I am, I thought with huge amounts of stock sitting getting a great deal on a Laptop would be a snap, boy was I wrong! You see Intel and AMD both have slowed the production down on lower margin processors, which are the type of processors I wanted. You see the parts going into most Laptops are very similar except from SPEED A to SPEED B. The same 15.6” display is used in most laptops from SHARP ELECTRONICS and while hard drives or memory varies they are all similar. So the sweat spot in laptop which was the 300.00 range before has moved to the 500.00+ range now. Some people like HP and LENOVO are moving last year models in bundles and having the software side help pay (subsidized) the sell price. This method is great if you want two year only technology, and a boat load of junk software but I want a clean ready to rock, and at a real price.
So here is what I did for my College heading Child (College cost a lot). I purchased a bundle and uninstalled 12 programs which yes took me about an hour. So the computer is vintage in speed 2.2Ghz and doesn’t support high end graphics like the new processors out, but hey he’ll have to live with it because I’m not speeding 600.00 to get that cool laptop, unless it is for me – LOL!
CAW (Cool Application of Week) Well I have been using Windows 8 for over a year now adding this and that and frankly I’m waiting on 8.1 (BLUE) to be released. I use CLASSIC SHELL for my missing start menu and it just brings back the old friendly menu system we all love. I have also started a new project with MINT 15 Linux and I can say if you’re into LINUX this is for you. Okay be safe and have a great summer!
