On the Cheap: Best Buy to Sell $249 Laptop

By Jane McEntegart
published

Best Buy will today launch its "lowest-advertised-price laptop ever," ringing in at just $249.

The dawn of netbooks has meant getting your hands on a cheap-as-chips computer is easier than ever. Granted, they might be a little on the dainty side, but for $300, who's complaining?

Oh, you're complaining? Well, perhaps you'd like to pick up Best Buy's $249 laptop that the company is launching today as part of "a dynamic holiday computing selection." The exact model is not yet known but we do know it's an Acer machine powered by an Intel Celeron 900 CPU with 2GB of memory, and a 160GB hard drive. Not great but definitely not bad for a laptop that clocks in at under two hundred and fifty bucks.

We'll keep you updated on the exact model when we hear more.

Jane McEntegart
42 Comments Comment from the forums
  • False_Dmitry_II
    I'm wondering how that would match up against, say, a pentium m 1.6 laptop. Those can still be gotten off of craigslist.
    Reply
  • Regulas
    Acer is Linux friendly and this will make descent laptop right after you wipe the DRM infection off the HD and install Linux.
    Reply
  • JonathanDeane
    RegulasAcer is Linux friendly and this will make descent laptop right after you wipe the DRM infection off the HD and install Linux.
    I was going to say the exact same thing only minus the DRM stuff...

    Would make an excellent Linux box. I like the idea of Linux on laptops since most of the time you can't really play games on them anyhow so its the perfect situation to install a nice Linux distro.
    Reply
  • jerther
    Acer machine powered by an Intel Celeron 900 CPU with 2GB of memory, and a 160GB hard drive.
    And Vista bloated with ads and evaluation software, and will blow up in a year or two... And what do people who buy this say to us whet it does blow up? "Hey I know nothing about computers, the guy at the store said it was a really good machine!" and what do we tell them? "Hep, you get what you pay for. And that guy got his commission."

    anyways, +1 to Regulas
    Reply
  • jerther
    I'm sorry for my last post, it's just that I HATE cheap ass products and I wouldn't recommend them to anyone except for really short term use. It's just like that first
    Reply
  • jerther
    huh? something went bad, my last post got cut... Here's what follows:

    It's just like that first under-100$ blueray player we had here on the news last year: just happened to be a darn pile of crap that catches fire after a few weeks/months.
    Reply
  • option350z
    Its not a laptop its a netbook. Laptops a little larger go for about 400-500.
    Reply
  • DAMN!

    I've gotta buy my daughter her first laptop for next school year and I sure as hell ain't gonna wimp out and buy her a piece'O'Crap just cause I could save a few hundred dollars on it.

    I want to make sure I get her something she will be able to use for All her school work no matter what the work may be, whether it's graphics, movie production, Arts, 3-D rendering, Programming, what ever she may need it for.

    After all, you get your child a cheapo laptop, you're only limiting what they can do where as if you get them something really good, at least they may be able to do better than they otherwise would have done.

    Remember, you get what you pay for and education is not something to go cheap on.
    Reply
  • alextheawesome
    I've had nothing but bad experiences with Acer laptops.
    Reply
  • pharge
    I guess this is the one they are talking about.

    "Asus - Eee PC Netbook with Intel® Celeron® Processor - Black: Our Price:$249.99"

    Here is the spec:
    http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Asus+-+Eee+PC+Netbook+with+Intel%26%23174%3B+Celeron%26%23174%3B+Processor+-+Black/9447495.p?id=1218106121199&skuId=9447495
    Reply