Great laptop deal

I just bought this laptop for my college bound son:

http://www.bestbuy.com …d=bb5216700&sku​Id=5216700

13" screen, i7 CPU, 12gb RAM, 512gb SSD, touch screen, backlit keyboard, $850.

He wanted something a little smaller to carry around so we were looking for a 13" screen, this one weights about 3.5 lbs. Most of the laptops we found that were 13" screens had 128gb SSDs and and i3 or i5 for just about the same price. Plus, Best Buy has a college student discount of $150 right now for qualifying laptops so we got it for $700. I think that's a great deal for the specs.

For an i7 + SSD that large, that actually looks like a pretty good price. Maybe I haven't done much price shopping for laptops lately but last time I did anything that came with a preinstalled SSD was >~$600 and usually the SSD was a 128GB, so to see a 512GB is awesome.

Most laptops have a display out and if he wants something light for travel, an additional 24" monitor+KB+Mouse (Easily <$150 extra) will quickly turn it into a desktop-like solution if needed.

I think it is the same machine, refurbished from the Dell Outlet store at $859.

http://outlet.us.dell.​com …NhNSDSgo%3d&pui​d=6d95b6a5

My last laptop was a Dell refurbished and because Dell only had one left, they threw in all kinds of optional accessories at no charge. And like Canon refurbs, except for the external packageing, I could not tell it from new.

Supposedly, as indicated at the top of the page there is also this deal which I might just have to pursue later

Strikethrough pricing at Dell Outlet!
Grab a Latitude E7240 for your business. Price New: $1295. Now: $585! Today's Sale Price: $375!
Use coupon: Lat7240210. Limited time only! Sale expires on

Review of the E7240 at http://www.pcworld.com …all-fast-and-elegant.html should anyone be interested.

I have an unfortunate update on this laptop. Yesterday it just shutdown and stopped working. My son spent time with Dell tech support and they want him to send it back to them for repair. Luckily he can rent a laptop by the month from the school store. I don't know if he had anything stranded on it or not yet.

We had some doubts about buying another Dell. We had a 15" laptop, pretty basic model that about 18 months after purchase, and 6 months after the warranty expired, started to develop a white vertical band in the screen. Now 3 years after purchase it is a strip about 1/2 inch wide of almost pure white.

But I figured that one example didn't make a rule, that Dell is a major company, etc, etc, and we bought another. Now that we are batting .000 with Dell laptops I can say that I won't be buying another one.

Kent Clark wrote in post #18161121
I have an unfortunate update on this laptop. Yesterday it just shutdown and stopped working. My son spent time with Dell tech support and they want him to send it back to them for repair. Luckily he can rent a laptop by the month from the school store. I don't know if he had anything stranded on it or not yet.

Keep us posted as to what you learn. As a point of interest, did the Dell tech walk your son through the removal of the battery and then holding the power switch down for about 15 seconds? After that the battery is reinstalled, the charger connected, and a retest is accomplished.

When you get the laptop back, insure that hibernation is turned off. I am not referring to "Sleep", true hibernation which can give issues and prevent a PC from powering ON. IMO, it is a useless utility anyway for the long battery life that many modern laptops have.

My personal feelings are Dell laptops are very reliable. I used to manage about 100 engineers who traveled extensively and got new laptops about every 2-3 years. We rarely had issues but they were "workplace" laptops in the Latitude line as opposed to "Home" laptops in the Inspiron line.