Retail watch: The $400 laptop is back at Staples

Yes bargain hunters, the $400 laptop is back this new week at Staples, with the featured Compaq Presario CQ60-210US for $400 after a $30 EasyRebate. EasyRebates can be submitted online, so it's not as much hassle as mailing things.

But this is not a pre-historic laptop unearthed for this promotion. It has a 16:9 aspect ratio 15.6" widescreen display, a reasonable 2gb of memory, 250gb of hard disk, and even a numeric keypad. That's right! Beat that! It runs Vista Premium and it has the assortment of features you'd expect at this price point. The processor is the AMD Athlon X2 Dual-Core Processor QL-62.

But if you prefer a more mobile yet more powerful solution, the HP DV4-1222 can be yours for $550, and this one requires no rebates. More mobile because of the smaller 14.1" widescreen display, and more powerful because of its 4gb of memory (nice!). Other features include a 250gb hard disk, 64-bit Vista (to make the most of the 4gb of memory), and 165 minutes of battery life. For those who don't want to exercise their brain anad do the math, that's 2 hours and 45 minutes :) The processor by the way is the AMD Turion RM-72, a dual-core of course!

But if you want something even more mobile, they are featuring a netbook as well. Another sign of netbook propagation in the market. Their prices are not exactly cutting edge though, at $300 they are the Acer Aspire One with the 8.9" widescreen, 1gb memory, 160gb hard disk, weight of less than 2.5 pounds, and running the Vista-haters favorite OS, XP Home. It even includes a USB mouse in the box, along with usual wireless and webcam features. The processor by the way is the Atom N270.

The last of the advertised laptops goes to the other end of the size spectrum. It is the HP DV7-1232, going for $650. This Pavilion has the RM-74 Turion dual-core, along with 4gb memory, 320gb disk, 64-bit Vista, numeric keypad, and as teased, a 17-inch display.

Things you may find interesting
Apart from the computers, they are running a promotion on Seagate external hard disk drives. If you purchase one of them from Staples, they'll throw in a free Seagate docking station which goes for about $16.50 on its own. They have disks at different storage capacities, starting, from what I recall at $80 for 250gb.

And next, for the rebate fiends, of the Easy Rebate variety, you can get the QuickBooks® Simple Start 2009 software package for FREE after a $90 Easy Rebate. You still have to pay sales tax of course on the total amount, but still, it may be a good way to give the software a try to see if it is something that can be helpful in running your accounting and finances, whether you have a small business on the side or you are self-employed.