I need a laptop ASAP!

[Speedyv]

School is gonna start in a few weeks. I need a laptop with an i5-i7 (preferably i7) with good battery life, and build quality. I don't want a gaming laptop. Should be somewhat light and thin. Preferably around 13".

 

I've looked at the XPS lineup but it is too expensive for what it gives me. Any suggestions would be appreciated.  

[themctipers]

Iirc mobile (u) i5 and i7 have 2 cores. 

[19_blackie_73]

the lenovo stuff is also pretty awesome (sth from the thinkpad lineup)

[Mark77]

Have you given thought to buying your laptop through Dell Outlet instead?  Usually the discounts are pretty good over list, and you can watch their Twitter for coupons which are like additionally 20-30% off.

 

BTW, I'd suggest a proper business laptop like the E7470, rather than the XPS for school use.  XPS is really a consumer product and not built to be carried around all the time.

[Speedyv]

20 minutes ago, themctipers said:

Iirc mobile (u) i5 and i7 have 2 cores. 

I'm aware I'd just prefer the better single core performance 

[Mark77]

Actually some laptop i7's are 2/4 core, but some are 4/8 cores.  The latter tends to be really expensive and rarely, if ever found on the "thin and light" laptops. 

[Speedyv]

12 minutes ago, Mark77 said:

Have you given thought to buying your laptop through Dell Outlet instead?  Usually the discounts are pretty good over list, and you can watch their Twitter for coupons which are like additionally 20-30% off.

 

BTW, I'd suggest a proper business laptop like the E7470, rather than the XPS for school use.  XPS is really a consumer product and not built to be carried around all the time.

What exactly is the outlet for? Is it refurb stuff? Do you have experience buying from it?

 

The problem with business stuff is that it gets ultra expensive when you get to good specs.

[Mark77]

The outlet is where Dell sells machines which have been returned by customers (Dell's return policy is fairly generous, after all!).  For example, I'm looking at an E7470 on there right now, with the 1080p screen and a 128gb SSD for $970.  If you could find a 30% coupon, that would get your price down to around $700, and that probably would have a 3 year next business day warranty with it as well.  I think they even sell the open box XPS's there. 

 

I've never personally bought from there as I don't live in the USA, but have bought laptops from eBay which were acquired by people who basically trolled the Dell Outlet looking for bargains to resell.