Best Buy offers $350, $380 Sandy Bridge notebooks

Matthew DeCarlo

Posts: 5,271   +104

Intel's Sandy Bridge architecture has trickled down to the sub-$400 notebook segment courtesy of two machines from HP and Toshiba. Listed at Best Buy for $350, the 4.7lb Pavilion g4-1104dx is potentially the cheapest Sandy Bridge notebook around with a 2.0GHz dual-core Pentium B940, which carries a 650-1100MHz IGP (Best Buy's product page claims it's the HD 3000, but we're not sure if that's accurate).

It also features a 14-inch 1366x768 LED-backlit display, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, a 320GB 5400RPM hard drive, and a DVD burner. There's wired and wireless network connectivity, three USB 2.0 ports (no USB 3.0, but again, we're talking about a $350 notebook here), HDMI and VGA outputs, a card reader, a built-in webcam and mic, Windows 7 Home Premium, and a six-cell battery that offers up to 4.25 hours of battery life.

sandy bridge

Meanwhile, the pricier $380 Toshiba Satellite L755-S5216 comes in a slightly larger 15.6-inch, 5.7lb package (same resolution) that gets up to 5.75 hours of battery life, but the core configuration is largely identical. Again, neither system is equipped for heavy media consumption or gaming, but they should prove adequate for basic productivity sessions, and it's no coincidence that the back-to-school season is underway.

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Sorry, but I didn't really like the article. It seems more of like an ad than actual valuable content. Most TechSpot readers are not looking for dirt cheap computers either, so I'm not really sure that this would even be effective as an ad. I know everyone wants to save money, but without compromising performance.
 
Is this better than Intel Core 2 duo? Because a few days back, I saw a Gateway laptop with 17" screen and a Core 2 duo processor for $399 at a local Best buy store.
 
@Win
Not everyone need or want an ultra expensive solution. Most probably the article is targeted at students who are heading back to school and need a reasonably priced notebook.
 
It's not a matter of liking or not, we were simply reporting on very cheap notebooks that are carrying Sandy Bridge-based tech for less than $500. Same as when we report on new Macbooks or more expensive Windows-based desktops/laptops. Feel free to skip the story if you don't mind about new PC models getting released.
 
I don't think he meant it to be harsh and it doesn't read that way to me at all. I did a quick post on the notebooks because they seemed like solid budget systems that might be of interest to TS readers, especially because it's the back-to-school season. Nothing more, nothing less. Julio is saying if that doesn't interest you, just ignore the post. Perfectly sensible advice.
 
Oh, I didn't mean to be harsh at all, I just meant to say it was a simple report, no ads involved.
 
This came at the perfect time. It has just the specs I was looking for for just the price I wanted to pay. I just bought one.
 
Sorry, but I didn't really like the article. It seems more of like an ad than actual valuable content. Most TechSpot readers are not looking for dirt cheap computers either, so I'm not really sure that this would even be effective as an ad. I know everyone wants to save money, but without compromising performance.
And they call me a "crank"! Hey wait, I call me a crank too.....

And on that note, perhaps you shouldn't take it upon yourself to speak for "most" of our members.
 
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