DealWatch: Price trends on 10" and 9" Netbooks

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Even if you're not a student, back-to-school season can be an excellent opportunity to purchase an additional computer, such as a netbook. In light of the upcoming back-to-school sales (check out our back-to-school guide for the latest deals), we revisited our netbook price trend feature to predict what kind of netbook deals you can expect in the coming weeks.


Overview: Since our last netbook price trend in May, deals on 10" hard drive-based Windows XP netbooks and 9" SSD-based Linux netbooks have fallen in price. Prices on 10" XP netbooks in particular have plummeted to as low as $200. Likewise, deals on 9" SSD-based Linux netbooks have dropped to $175. (The best deals tend to be for older models, but newer models aren't always better.) Currently, the premium for a 10" Windows XP netbook is about $30, compared to a 9" Linux netbook. This makes Windows XP netbooks a far better value since they include a larger hard drive, a bigger screen, and arguably a more useful OS.

Normally, back to school sales bring additional cost cutting of 10% to 20%, as you can see in our graph on the left. However, prices have fallen so much this year, they may be bottoming out. (Notice the uptick in July 2009, on the right.) We recommend jumping on the first $199 or lower 10" netbook deal that suits you, because even if prices drop another 10% in August, the amount you'll save isn't that much compared to a year ago.

Click here to see the latest deals on 9" SSD Linux and 10" Windows XP netbooks.

Shipping prices (where applicable) were factored into the pricing in our data. This data is based on deals listed on dealnews.com, which represent low points, not averages.

Louis Ramirez is dealnews' Features editor.

DealNews may be compensated by companies mentioned in this article. Please note that, although prices sometimes fluctuate or expire unexpectedly, all products and deals mentioned in this feature were available at the lowest total price we could find at the time of publication (unless otherwise specified).

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