Places To Buy Laptops Online
To evaluate which stores on this list were the best possible place to buy a laptop on the web, we personally bought laptops from each of them and recorded a series of metrics which fed into the overall performance score they received.
places to buy laptops online
Taking all of these different factors into consideration we were able to test and review many of the top portals and whittle down our options from around 12 different major stores on the web down to five. These five exemplify everything you should look for when you want to optimize your laptop buying experience, and represent the peak of buying a laptop online!
Shipping Insurance: Also, since we were shipping laptops which are both fragile and expensive, we wanted to make sure that all the stores chosen for this list offered some level of insurance that could be purchased during checkout. The last thing you want to open up your box to is a shattered screen or a busted hard drive with no option for recourse, especially if you just invested in a specialized model like a 2-in-1 gaming laptop.
Selection: This metric was measured in two separate areas: actual number of models they have in stock, as well as the frequency at which they update their stock with new models. Laptops are one of the fastest evolving technologies on the marketplace today, with bigger hard drives, better graphics cards, faster processors and higher-resolution webcams being added to them upwards of twice or three times per year. This means we only considered outlets that are constantly refreshing their available options, and made a special note to keep track of the number of laptops they would get in for each tech refresh.
Bottom Line: Though physical Best Buy stores have suffered from a major drop in quality in recent years, their online business continues to set a gold standard for laptop buying. The company offers a 15-day return policy with no restocking fees to be found, and also runs a robust search option that comes close to rivaling what we found at Newegg. The company offers a large number of available support options, however the one drawback we noticed was that our over-the-phone experience was more frustrating than it needed to be. Aside from that small complaint however, Best Buy easily glides into the #2 slot for our dollar as one of the best places to buy a laptop online today!
There are plenty of companies where you can sell electronics -- places that'll happily buy old fitness trackers, smartwatches, gaming consoles, laptops, digital cameras and other electronic equipment. In exchange, they'll send you cold hard cash, often in the form of a gift card or PayPal transfer. (Not too shabby for that MacBook gathering dust in your closet.) You can even sell your old electronics without having to visit a physical location such as a pawn shop, now that used electronics website options are becoming more popular. And you won't have to worry about paying for shipping or shouldering the cost of a fee, which is somewhat commonplace with services that sell electronics and old equipment.
The prices offered with trade-in programs on an old device are usually a little lower than what you could sell electronics for, but the reduced price is worth forgoing the headache of trying to sell on your own. Some places will even take broken items, but keep in mind that broken tech will sell at a much lower cost than a gadget that is still in good working order.
Apple states it will take two to three weeks to complete the online trade-in process. If you want to place your order for a new device right now, the company will credit your payment method with the trade-in value once it's processed. Alternatively, if Apple Stores are open in your area, you can visit the store and get an instant store credit for your trade-in. It's especially helpful with the launch of the iPhone 14.
More and more, laptops are becoming an essential item to have with you when you leave the household. The lightweight models are ideal for people conducting that list minute piece of work before boarding a flight, or school kids who need to be able to slip it into a backpack.
Finding the perfect laptop that fits all your requirements can sometimes be a challenge. We are always on the lookout to land a deal on a laptop with the latest features within our budget. At Target, find a wide range of laptop models from top brands such as Apple, HP, Dell and Lenovo. Look through a collection of Chromebooks and Notebooks which are easy to carry around making them ideal for light users and students. Gamers need a sturdy, powerful laptop. Explore a variety of gaming laptops with high-end processors and graphics that are on par with your traditional desktop computers. If you are in two minds about choosing a laptop or a tablet, go for a 2-in-1 model. You can use it as a tablet that flips into a laptop when you want. Whether you want to run Windows 10, macOS, or Chrome OS, make a checklist of the specs and browse through a large collection of laptop computers and find the right one for you.
Dell has been offering Ubuntu laptops for several years now. Their flagship product XPS features a Developer Edition series with Ubuntu preinstalled. With this edition, the laptop has been certified to work perfectly fine with Ubuntu.
Lenovo ThinkPads are quite popular among Linux users, even with mixed feelings about them for its compatibility with Linux in the past. And, now that most of the Lenovo laptops will be Linux certified, it could be one of the best choices to go with to get a Laptop. And, you can order one for yourself through their official site or Amazon.
The flagship models are definitely expensive, but you will find a wide range of variants available starting from $500 range. Of course, the pricing will vary depending on your country but Lenovo laptops or ThinkPads in general is considered as a durable machine.
These laptops come pre-installed with Trisquel, endorsed by Free Software Foundation, which means that you can be sure that their computers adhere to the guidelines and principles of Free and Open Source Software.
They focuse on providing you a good out-of-the-box privacy and security (thanks to coreboot) along with great compatibility. You can opt for premium laptops with maxed out specs and latest processors or go for an affordable one.
I have listed 13 places to get Linux computers, but there are several other such shops available. I cannot include all of them on the main list, and a couple of them seem to be out of stock for most products. However, I am going to mention them here so that you may check them on your own:
At first blush, it might seem like a good idea to buy your laptop at a brick-and-mortar store. After all, if you can visit the store, you can personally look at the screen, type on the keyboard and swipe on the touchpad to make sure all of those features all meet your needs. Still, in most cases, you're better off shopping for and buying your computer online.
If you want to see all the latest and best laptops, you probably won't find them on display at your local branch of Best Buy, Staples, Walmart, Costco or other big box retailers. But you will find pictures, videos and descriptions of all those laptops if you search the web or visit online retailers. When I checked the inventory of local Best Buys in Nassau County (Long Island), New York against our Laptop Mag list of Best Laptops, only 4 out of 13 were in stock. Among those absent were our favorite laptop overall, the Dell XPS 13, the best laptop for college students (ThinkPad 13), the top Chromebook (Asus Chromebook Flip C302CA), the best gaming rig (Alienware 13 OLED) and our top choice for kids (Asus Chromebook C202). Staples didn't list even one of our best picks as available in-store. Microsoft Store had only the Surface Book, a Microsoft product, and the last-gen version of the HP Spectre x360, our favorite 2-in-1. Image Credit:Sorbis / Shutterstock
Even if you can buy a laptop at the store, you can often find a better deal online. For example, at publication time, I found an HP Spectre x360 selling for $899 on hp.com with a Core i5 CPU and $1009 with a Core i7. On Best Buy, the cheapest model was the Core i7 for $1,159. If you happen to see a good deal on a store's website, don't assume you can just pop into the local outlet to get the laptop at that price. In many cases, the brick-and-mortar store has a different set of prices than its online companion. You can sometimes get a store to price match its website or even competitive websites if you go to the customer service desk and inquire (Best Buy has a price matching policy for its own site, Amazon, Newegg and a few others). However, if you don't want to have to wait in line and potentially argue your case with sales people, the hassle-free way is to order online for in-store pickup.
Shopping online is like ordering at Burger King: you get it your way. While a local store may have a few configurations of the laptop you want, e-tailers may carry dozens. If you're buying a Dell, Lenovo or HP laptop, you'll find a lot more choices if you buy directly from those companies' sites. For many models, you can even custom configure the laptop, choosing the processor, screen, battery, RAM, storage and Wi-Fi card to suit your needs. For example, on Lenovo.com, you can configure your ThinkPad T460 with a high-capacity battery for an extra $15 at purchase. Even at B&H Photo, a local New York City retailer which has five different T460 configs in stock, you can't get one that comes with the 6-cell battery.
In lieu of experiencing laptops in-person, you can read some very detailed and trustworthy reviews on sites like this one. We perform objective tests and spend quality time with each laptop to tell you not only how it performs but how it feels. Since we test hundreds of laptops a year, we can tell you how a particular model stacks up to everything else on the market, rather than just comparing it to the two similarly-sized models on the shelf next to it. If you shop online, you'll also find a lot of great user reviews from people who have bought the product and spent time with it. While most consumers haven't used all the competing products or run laboratory tests, they may have found quirks and defects they weren't present on the one or two units we saw. Amazon, Newegg, Bestbuy.com, Lenovo and Dell are among the many e-tailers that allow visitors to put up their own ratings. When you look at both the highest and lowest ratings, you can see patterns. Perhaps 70 percent of consumers gave a product high marks, but another 30 percent got units with serious defects. Seeing those numbers might tell you that there's a quality control problem. 041b061a72