Notebooks are always a volatile purchase. It is practically inevitable that on the way home from picking up your hot, new, great value notebook, you will see or hear an advertisement for a better, cheaper, sexy notebook. The best compromise deal (balancing features, performance and price) I have found recently is the HP Pavilion dv6-1030us Entertainment Notebook PC at Staples for a final down and dirty price of $599.98. I found the 
same notebook at Amazon for an additional $200.00. The price involves rebates so be prepared to wait for some of your money back. This notebook is a better value than the one Staples seems to be pushing for $50.00 less which doesn’t have as large hard drive, has no bluetooth and a smaller screen. If you don’t need the size and the DVD burner, I would look at some of the netbooks. They are pretty darn sweet and in the $299.00 range.
Specifications
Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor T6400
16.0" Diagonal High Definition(8) HP BrightView Display
HP Mesh Imprint finish & HP Webcam with integrated digital microphone
Memory (RAM) 4GB
Memory Type DDR2
Memory Expandable to 8GB
Hard Drive Size 320GB
Hard Drive Type SATA
Optical Drive LightScribe SuperMulti 8X DVD R/RW with Double Layer Support
Display Size 16.0"
Display Type High Definition HP BrightView Display
Operating System Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit with Service Pack 1
Battery Type 6-Cell Lithium-Ion
Network Card Wireless LAN 802.11a/b/g/n WLAN & Bluetooth
Video Graphics Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD
Other ports 5-in-1 integrated Digital Media Reader
Bluetooth Enabled Yes
Dimensions 14.9" (L) x 10.15" (D) x 1.33" (min H)/1.61"(H)
Weight 6.34lbs
Warranty 1 year
same notebook at Amazon for an additional $200.00. The price involves rebates so be prepared to wait for some of your money back. This notebook is a better value than the one Staples seems to be pushing for $50.00 less which doesn’t have as large hard drive, has no bluetooth and a smaller screen. If you don’t need the size and the DVD burner, I would look at some of the netbooks. They are pretty darn sweet and in the $299.00 range.Specifications
Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor T6400
16.0" Diagonal High Definition(8) HP BrightView Display
HP Mesh Imprint finish & HP Webcam with integrated digital microphone
Memory (RAM) 4GB
Memory Type DDR2
Memory Expandable to 8GB
Hard Drive Size 320GB
Hard Drive Type SATA
Optical Drive LightScribe SuperMulti 8X DVD R/RW with Double Layer Support
Display Size 16.0"
Display Type High Definition HP BrightView Display
Operating System Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit with Service Pack 1
Battery Type 6-Cell Lithium-Ion
Network Card Wireless LAN 802.11a/b/g/n WLAN & Bluetooth
Video Graphics Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD
Other ports 5-in-1 integrated Digital Media Reader
Bluetooth Enabled Yes
Dimensions 14.9" (L) x 10.15" (D) x 1.33" (min H)/1.61"(H)
Weight 6.34lbs
Warranty 1 year
Comments
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