DealWatch: Price trends on 15" Core 2 Duo Laptops

Published
Thanks in part to netbooks, the average price for a laptop has fallen considerably. But what can you expect to pay for a capable, Core 2 Duo-based laptop? We tracked the best deals for a 15.4" 2GHz or better Intel Core 2 Duo laptop (with a minimum of 2GB of RAM) over the last 10 months to find out.

Verdict
Need a new laptop? Get your credit card ready because August and September (the classic back-to-school season) are among the best notebook-buying months, if last year's trends are any indication. November (i.e., Black Friday) and April are the other months for the best deals. Surprisingly, deals jumped up in December and didn't fall again until April. Although it's possible to find deals close to the $500 mark, deals at or below $500 are so far extremely rare, so snatch one up the minute you see one.

By comparison, 10" netbooks with Windows XP average around $300, a savings of about $240 from the average price listed in our chart. (See our DealWatch on netbooks for netbook deal trends.) But remember, netbooks rely on Intel's Atom processor, which is embarrassingly outperformed by the Core 2 Duo chip. Click to see the latest deals on all laptops.

Shipping prices (when applicable) were factored into the pricing in our data. Laptops must have included Windows Vista or better to be considered. 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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