Snag a Quality Laptop on Cyber Monday
The gadgets advertised in Black Friday door-buster deals don’t always stand up to close inspection. You never know what’s inside unless you can read the fine print on those Cyber Monday laptop deals. Sometimes, manufacturers try to liquidate overstock laptops with outdated features, but those can still be a good deal if you know what to look for:
- Memory: Look for 2 -3 GB of RAM, minimum, hopefully with additional capacity for later upgrades.
- Hard drive: 40 GB hard drives can get filled up quickly. Look for at least 250 GB.
- Connection ports: Two or more USB ports will let you connect plenty of devices. HDMI is an added bonus if you want to port HD movies from your computer to a larger screen.
- Webcam: A built-in webcam is a good indication of a feature-rich computer, letting you make video calls and recordings.
- Operating System: Windows 7 currently dominates on new laptops. Lesser laptops might leave you stuck with Windows Vista (generally panned by critics as inferior) or not even include OS software.
If you pay attention to the countdowns on Black Friday deals, make sure you know how that actually translates into real-time in your time zone. Keep in mind, also, that a lot of sales are pushing back their start-times earlier this year; some sales are even starting on Thursday night. You don’t want to log on, trying to find a stellar deal on a laptop, only to find that the sale opened early and the good models are all gone.
So, know what to look for. Sign up for RSS feeds and alerts on Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. And good luck on hunting down those coveted deals!
Author Byline: David works with Dell and enjoys writing about technology, computers, and saving money.
Great tips, David, I’m one of those dummies that just love to get up in the middle of the night and go nail the sale! It’s kind of a sport! LOL But with the time getting rolled back to midnight at a lot of these stores I may have to beg off this year. Being in line at 2 AM is already quite a feat, if I have to shoot for midnight I might as well just stay up!
As early as I’ve gone, I’ve never been able to get close enough to the front of the line to secure any of the awesome laptop deals, those are usually snatched up within the first five or ten people. The more popular electronic stores in my neighborhood have people actually camping out (with tents) the night before. While one of the party holds their spot in the line, the rest are free to get some shut-eye. Sorry, I’m not willing to make that big of a sacrifice!
At the risk of dating myself, I will say that it’s a lot easier now with cell phones! In the old days….. (uh, oh, here we go) when we didn’t have cell phones, my wife and I used to try to split up and conquer, we’d line up our battle plan the night before, she’d head for certain stores with a list and I’d head for a different group of stores with a different list. Then we’d try to find each other and boast about our victories over breakfast! The cell phone has certainly made that a lot easier.
Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Hunting!
Frank
Frank, you are so much more dedicated to finding sales than I am! I have never gone Black Friday shopping. The crowds freak me out, and I am way too impatient to stand in line all night. I have a friend who lives for BF though, she gets a major thrill out of the hunt. I always give her my Toys R Us wishlist and some money, so she gets the stuff I want if she can. Happy Thanksgiving!