Lenovo SL500 27464TM, marked as a "special" at $1179 (it's a pic, so search doesn't work!)
C2D P8600 2.4Ghz
2 Gb RAM
250 Gb HDD
Nvidia 9300 256 Mb graphics
Vista Home Premium
$1179
Plus get one of the following free:
Anti Virus software
4G USB Key
Carry Bag
Optical Mouse
$239 for Office Small Business (save $30)
Was inspired to post given the Dell Vostro 1510 "specials".
SL500 with nvidia 9300 here is at a better price than the EPP website.
Pretty good deal at $1099. I posted this, though if I was buying now, I'd stretch and buy the 14.1" BenQ S42 P8600 for ~$1300 with it's hybrid graphics Nvidia 9600M GT AND x4500. Get up to 5 hours battery life.
The BenQ S42 looks like a good laptop.
There is one review that steers me away:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=4599898
Under the battery section.
Quote:
"On integrated graphics, the computer reports battery life of around 4 hours. On dedicated, perhaps a little over an hour. "
Nowhere near the 5+ hours on integrated and 3.5 hours on dedicated.
There are way too many laptops out there with heaps of configurations.
Searching through every sub-$1500 laptop will make you go crazy.
BenQ S42 has all the right ingredients for maximum battery savings with a performance config: P8600 (25W TDP) processor, hybrid graphics, LED backlit LCD. Undervolting the CPU would give more gains using Rightmark/Notebook Hardware Control. There is no way of getting any more significant battery life unless going a LV or ULV processor.. then would be sacrificing performance. MAYBE the ATI powerplay offers better battery life, but the Thinkpad U330 has hybrid ATI plus X4500 as well.. for battery saving!! BenQ offers incredible bang for buck, competing with much more $$ units.
Not a bad deal since you can choose one free item if buy the laptops.
Bought the same laptop from MSY over a month ago for 1099.
IBM or Lenovo EPP is never a good deal, even if you include the $500 salary sacrifice…