Laptop Advice - Urgent (Please)

[amjedm]

Need some urgent advice please - I have to order today as one of the Dell offers is due to expire.

Which one should I go for, mostly surfing etc so nothing too tasking, but want to get something that's going to last a few years .

Would there much difference in speed - one is Pentium Dual Core and the other is Core 2 Duo?

£426.53 gets you the following spec

Vostro™ 1500 NB(N0115011)
Core™ 2 Duo processor T5270 (1.40 GHz, 800 MHz FSB, 2 MB L2-cache)
Windows Vista® Home Basic - English
2048MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM (2x1024)
Integrated Intel® Graphic Media Accelerator X3100
120GB (5400rpm) SATA Hard Drive
8X DVD+/-RW Drive
Intel® Pro Wireless 3945 802.11a/b/g Mini-Card
2 year warranty - Next Business Day
Primary Battery Free upgrade from 6 cell battery to 9 cell battery
LCD 15.4" Wide Screen WXGA (1280 x 800) Display with TrueLife™


£438.24 gets you

Inspiron 6400
Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core T2080 Processor (1.73GHz,533MHz,1MB L2 cache)
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium - English
3 Year Consumer Hardware Support
15.4" Wide Screen WXGA (1280 x 800) Display with TrueLife™
2048MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x1024]
160GB (5400RPM) SATA Hard Drive
Intel® Media Accelerator 950 Graphics
8X DVD+/-RW Drive
6 cell Lithium-Ion Battery
Dell™ Wireless 1390 802.11b/g Mini-PCI Card

Thank you.

[Webby]

The C2D should run cooler than the Duel core which in turn means that the battery life would be longer coupled with the larger battery that would be tempting to me. If all your doing is surfing/office type work then I cant see the 1.4GHz being an issue.

Worth noting that the more expensive one comes with Vista Home Premium rather than Basic not sure how big a difference this is (still tied to XP) but could be worth considering upgrading it though if you plump for the cheaper one which may then no longer be cheaper...

Personally I would probably go for the C2D for battery life but upgrade to Home Premium if thats no to much more (assuming this can be done).

[wombar]

I'd say print out the spec you want and give them a call. The sales people in India all want your money and you can usually get things like accidental damage and extra warranty thrown in for free as long as you have the cheek to keep asking for more. Don't ask for money off until you're sure they won't throw anything else in.

Seriously, I have never seen a web offer with Dell that I couldn't get at a cheaper price over the phone. I saved my brother about £300 (+ extra warranty and accidental damage insurance) on his laptop and I got a free USB tape drive thrown in for free on the last laptop I negotiated for a friend. If the first sales person won't play ball, call again and try someone else.

There's always one sales rep who will go a bit lower than the last

[amjedm]

I'd say print out the spec you want and give them a call. The sales people in India all want your money and you can usually get things like accidental damage and extra warranty thrown in for free as long as you have the cheek to keep asking for more. Don't ask for money off until you're sure they won't throw anything else in.

Seriously, I have never seen a web offer with Dell that I couldn't get at a cheaper price over the phone. I saved my brother about £300 (+ extra warranty and accidental damage insurance) on his laptop and I got a free USB tape drive thrown in for free on the last laptop I negotiated for a friend. If the first sales person won't play ball, call again and try someone else.

There's always one sales rep who will go a bit lower than the last

As these are lower priced/budget laptops I thought haggling wouldn't work?

Do you have some special wording you use or just come straight out and ask for a discount?

[staffsMike]

Normally tell them what you want spec wise and then say.. and i'm willing to pay this.

Spec first, price second

the 6400 looks to be the better deal but the vostro is higher quality.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The first notebook is running Vista Basic so the spec is more than enough. It also has better graphics too. The Vostro are better built too as they have a magnesium alloy chassis. The larger capacity battery and more efficient compoeents of the first notebook coupled with the fact it is running the less demanding Vista Basic ,will mean it will have a much longer battery life than the second notebook and run cooler too!

[wombar]

As these are lower priced/budget laptops I thought haggling wouldn't work?

Do you have some special wording you use or just come straight out and ask for a discount?

staffsMike is right (as usual ), just tell them what you want and ask them "what is the best price you can do that for?" they'll give you the same price as the website initially, but just say that you want to order today (if you do) and that you were really looking to pay less than that.

You're really better off asking for extras to be thrown in like memory upgrades, bags (they'll always give you a free bag ) extra years on warranty etc, then go for the jugular by asking for money off. Search for some of my posts on getting a good deal with Dell because I think I've probably been over it a few times. You won't get a massive discount as it's not a massively expensive laptop, but you could do very well out of getting some extras thrown in.

[amjedm]

I'll see if I can call them to have a haggle

Thank you for your advice chaps.

[StevenF]

I'll see if I can call them to have a haggle

Thank you for your advice chaps.

Let us know how you get on! I just bought a laptop from dell a few days ago, but just done it over the net.

[Fraz]

The C2D should run cooler than the Duel core which in turn means that the battery life would be longer

Is that right? I was under the impression that the Pentium dual cores were just Core Duos (as opposed to Core2 Duos). So a 32-bit chip as opposed to the 64-bit C2D? Or are Intel's totally haphazard naming schemes fooling me again?

[amjedm]

Let us know how you get on! I just bought a laptop from dell a few days ago, but just done it over the net.

Just spoke to 'Kumar' at Dell Home Sales.

We didn't get off to a good start as the spec I had online for £414 (the price has come down since I posted yesterday - spec is the same though) he told me was £438!

He then 'sorted' the price so we both had £414.

He wouldn't budge at all, (even mentioned cash back) nope, nada, nill

So from the above I guess we don't have much chance of haggling when it comes to base spec laptops

[Agent]

On of my friends had his gorgeous XPS come yesterday and managed to knock around £250 off the website price, got an extra year warranty and a better screen by haggling.

He had a good deal but then phoned to cancel and told them he was buying a rock. Thats when the big discounts happened.

Like you said, I don't know if they will budge much on the lower end ones, but the Dell 'offers' never actually change much. They just reorganise them in a different way: The overall price rarely changes.
Don't be scared to order, then phone up to cancel to try and get a better deal. The worst that can happen is you have to reorder it (and its very easy to get it at the same price as you have now)

[wombar]

Give them another call and speak to someone else, there are some people who will do a deal and others who just won't. I was ordering a £2k laptop for a friend and the first person I spoke to was actually pretty rude when I asked what extras he could throw in. To top it off, he rang back the next day and wanted to know when I would be placing an order, needless to say I told him I ordered from one of his colleagues who had been willing to negotiate.

Like I said, you aren't going to get much money off (if any) for the kind of laptop, but if you ask for extras like a bag, extra warranty, bigger HDD, you should end up with a better laptop that you can get online. The sales people always try to avoid giving actual money off because it eats into their commission, extra warranty etc doesn't cost them as much is the impression I get.

[staffsMike]

I got my £1800 (at the time) xps M1330 down to £1100 but via a business contact. They sell it for near enough that price now anyway.. meh lol

£414 seems like a nice enough deal though, try for extra's as a last resort. Also, mention that the laptop (6400) is surely EOL and they could do with shifting them

[timread]

Don't get Vista Basic. It's more hobbled than XP Home. My .02c

Windows Vista: Compare Editions

[amjedm]

Don't get Vista Basic. It's more hobbled than XP Home. My .02c

Windows Vista: Compare Editions

I think Vista Basic is a bit on the power side for what the laptop is going to be used for