Netbooks Shoved Aside By Notebooks Less Than $300

Posted by | Cheap Desktop Computers | Thursday 9 July 2009 4:07 pm

Netbooks Shoved Aside By Notebooks Less Than $300.

Drivers do it with their cars. People do it when purchasing homes. People are likely to do it with end user electronics purchases such as laptop computers: They tend to super size it up. You may fancy all of the bells and whistles, but just what do you really need?

A low-end notebook or cheap desktop computer has pretty much all nearly all people require for day to day use. If you're not into playing games or searching for a heavy duty multimedia console, why spend more than you have to? That was my plan as I began shopping for a substitute for my five-year-old Gateway desktop computer.

Ok, I may be cheap (I prefer the term "thrifty"). I bought my current cheap desktop computer from Gateway online, on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, in 2004. I paid around $300 after incentives, in a desktop computer deal that included a monitor and printer. It wasn't a powerful machine in its day. But guess what? As a general Windows XP powered cheap desktop computer, it's been very dependable, and plenty good enough for some Web surfing, checking e-mail, using home finance software and other family computing chores.

I was thinking about a less than $300 netbook this time around. The systems I looked at have about 1 GB of RAM, run Windows XP, and generally have pretty tiny keyboards and screens. But I thought I could make it work. I'd just hook up my external keyboard and monitor when it's at home.

If you do a little homework, however, you can find a cheap laptop for less than $400. This weekend I wound up buying an Acer Aspire 5516 at my local Office Depot for $299.99. That puts the unit squarely into netbook territory.

The 5516 is no speed demon. It has a single core Athlon processor. It's simply an OK cheap desktop computer. But it's more than enough for my needs. And I bet it would meet the basic needs of 95% of users out there who spend $600 to $1,200 for a new notebook. In these difficult economic times, why spend more?

What this system does offer for under $300 is remarkable. It runs Vista, not the older XP (that could be a pro or a con, depending on how you feel about Vista and I for one, don't like it. It has a rather large laptop keyboard, a bright, 15.5 inch high resolution display, 2 GBytes of , Wi-Fi, a 160 GB hard disk drive and a CD/DVD reader/writer. You can get this model online for $349 or less. I got mine for less from Staples, which said Acer was no longer marketing this specific unit (AS5516-5474) to make way for a new model.

The sales man then used that fact to try to sell a two-year "protection plan" for $60. Since it was being discontinued, he argued, Acer's one year warranty might not be enough. Nice try, but that didn't work with me.
While the warranty is most likely fine for the first year, notebook computers aren't easy to repair and do tend to fail more often than desktops. If you shift yours around quite a bit the $60 payment - 20% of the purchase price - might be worthwhile. I decided to pass. Honestly, at 300 bucks the Aspire 5516 is almost a disposable item.

My expectations for the unit weren't high. So far, though, I have been pleasantly surprised at the performance and versatility of this machine. That's not to say that it's perfect. It's limited to two multifunction USB/card reader ports, an external VGA connector, Ethernet jack and a microphone and earphone connector. No fancy stuff like HDMI output here.

Like most notebook computers, this model has all the usual crapware on it (Works, a trial edition of Office, and other sundry programs I don't need). I'm still in the process of stripping all of those off. In general the fit and finish is fine, with one exception. The outer skin on the top of the clamshell case, which protects the rear of the LCD panel, is a bit flimsy. So I'm cautious when opening and closing the unit.

I also had my first run-in with Vista. Shortly after powering the device on for the first time, I closed the lid, putting the machine in suspend mode. When I returned a few hours later Vista Home Basic had gone down. (Fortunately, that hasn't happened since. And there's always Linux).

In spite of those little problems, however, I still the Aspire will be a good enough home office machine.