Hey guys. With Black Friday starting tomorrow, I’m sure your out hunting for good deals on netbooks, mini laptops, tablets and all other sorts of portable computers. That’s why I’m going to help you by listing the good deals I could spot online, plus mention some of the ones retailers are going to offer in their brick-and-mortar shops.
Now, I’ve never been a fan of Black Friday mob-hunting for deals, I’d rather shop online from the comfort of my home than having to fight others for some bargains. Still, shops try to make you actually go to their places by promising excellent in-store only deals. You might see some amazing bargains from Best-Buy, Walmart, Target and others, but if something sounds too good to be true, there’s usually a catch.
In this case there are more: first, these deals are usually offered as early doorbusters only for a limited number of units, so unless you plan waiting in line for hours, you won’t get them. Second, the deals come with either mail-in-rebates or gift cards. So, in practice, you’ll have to pay more than advertised for the product, but you’ll get rebates and gift cards that you can later use for other busying, and usually can’t redeem for money. Last but not least, if shopping in regular stores, you have to add taxes, while if buying things online, you might now, depending on the state you’re living in and the shop your buying from.
Those being said, I’m going to focus mainly on Black Friday and Cyber Monday online deals, the ones you can find on Internet stores. The list is going to be continuously updated though the weekend, and prices might not be always up to date, as with deals, things change fast, products run out of stock, offers expire fast, etc. So if you happen to find something you consider worthy, act fast.
Enough chatting, let’s see the deals:
Netbooks
- Asus 1001PXD – from $249 – the Standard EEE PC, with an Atom N455 1.66 Ghz processor, 1 GB of memory and Windows 7 starter, this one also packs a 3 Cell battery. Howeve,r unlike most netbooks, it comes with a matte screen and matte casing available in three different colors.
- Toshiba NB505 – from $249 – for sure a top netbook, with standard hardware, but with a rough case, excelelnt keyboard and a 6 Cell battery that can offer up to 8 hours of life, something most mini laptops in this price range cannot give.
The Aspire happy line of colord netbooks
Acer Aspire One Happy 2 – from $248 – available in multiple colors, this mini laptop packs powerful dual-core Intel Atom N570 processor, Widnows 7 Starter and only a 3 Cell 4 Hour battery. The body and the screen are glossy, which can make it prone to scratches, but if you want something cheap and more lively than the standard netbook, this can be a good pick.
Portable laptops
- Acer Aspire One Ao722 –
$329$287 – a cheap 11.6 inch laptop for basic tasks and some multimedia, able to run light games and up to 1080p content.It’s also fairly portable and light, plus decently built, although the case is glossy, and so is the screen.
- Asus EEE PC 1215B – from
$449$387– the good 12 inch mini laptop with an AMD e350 APU inside, able to play all kind of multimedia content, some games and also cope with daily multitasking. All these while offering a rough case, a matte display and a decent keyboard, plus up to 5-6 hours of life, for less than $400, is fairly good. Careful though: some users reported touchpad problems with some of the ealier models, but since you can buy this online, you can always return it and get your money back in 30 days if not satisfied.
- Apple Macbook Air 11.6 – from
$999$849 – this is the standard 11.6 inch Apple Macbook Air, with a Core i5 processor, 2 GB of memory and 128 GB SSD storage, plus a 5 hours battery. It’s available right now with $150 discount and act quick, I’m sure this discount won’t last for long.
- 13.3 inch Apple Marcbook Pro – from $1049
$1199– the 13.3 inch MacBook Pro also comes with a $150 price cut for a limited time, with a Core i5 processor, 4 GB of RAM, 500 GB storage and OSX Lion, plus the excellent screen, the illuminated keyboard and proper conectivity options.
Tablets
The Kindle Fire is versatile and cheap – for sure a best buy
Kindle Fire 7 inch tablet – $199 – Amazon’s new 7 inch tablet, with powerful hardware, excelent screen and access to countless movies, books, magazines, songs and all kind of content
- Nook Tablet – $249 from Barnes and Nobles, also a 7 inch tablet, a bit snappier and easier to root than the Kindle, also offers access to all kinds of content
- Asus Transformer + docking unit – $359 + $99 – my favorite Android HoneyComb tablet PC, the Asus Transformer is now available with a nice discount. The docking unit is also available with a price cut.
- Acer Iconia Tab A100 – from $299 – the cheapest Android HoneyComb tablet on the market and the only 7 inch slate running this OS, the Iconia TAb A100 is an excellent portable and powerful tablet, running on a Tegra 2 platform
- Lenovo IdeaPad K1 32 GB – from $299 – a 10 inch Tegra 2 tablet with an excellent price
- Coby Kyros 7 inch tablet –
$229$99 – a cheap 7 inch tablet running Android 2.3 Gingerbread on an ARM
- Blackberry Playbook – from
$499$239 – the classic 7 inch Playbook, an excellent built tablet with good performances, able to multi-task smoothly and run 1080p video content, plus games. Its biggest problem though, the lack of dedicated apps in the store, and that’s why it is so heavily discounted right now
Other good tech deals you might be interested in
- Latest Kindle reader – from $79 – the basic ebook reader, now more compact than ever and also cheaper
- The new Touch Kindle – from $99 – also a 6 inch ebook-reader, but one that no longer uses buttons, but offers a touch-screen. It’s just up to you to decide if you really need a touch-screen on such a device though.
- Toshiba Satellite C655 – $349.99 – a regular sized 15.6 inch laptop with an AMD e450 APU and an excellent price. Definitely a good pick if you need a cheap laptop for standard daily tasks.
Accessories
– to be added soon
All the deals above are hand-picked by me from various online stores. As a disclaimer, in some cases , if you happen to buy anything, I’ll get a small commission (from the store, you won’t have to pay extra or anything like that). However, if a product is included in here, it’s going to be good and you should be happy with it as long as you know what to expect. The details I added next to each listing should help.
Anyway, you don’t have to trust me on this, feel free to check other sources as well, but remember, these deals will be updated in the next days and they tend to run out fast, especially the good ones, thus act quick or you won’t get any piece of the pie this Black Friday to Cyber Monday.
