Circuit City to Sell $99 Notebook Next Friday (with catches)

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Next Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is typically a big shopping day in the U.S. and many retailers offer insane discounts to get people into the stores. Circuit City is pulling a $100 notebook stunt next Friday, but there's a lot of hoops you'll have to jump through to get this deal on a Compaq Presario 512MB, 15.4-inch screen 60GB notebook.

The site Black Friday Ads dug up this scan of a Circuit City flyer for next week:

As you can see, you have to subscribe to a Vonage phone plan for 12-months in order to get this notebook for $99.99, but if you refuse to sig up for that you can still get it for $299 after some rebates.

This Compaq Presario is the same v5000 series that Wal Mart is going to be selling for $398. Wal Mart will offer the Compaq v5000 with the following specs for $398:

• 15.4-inch WXGA BrightView widescreen monitor
• AMD Sempron 3300+ 2.0GHz processor
• 512MB of RAM, max supported 2048MB
• 24X DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive
• 60GB (5400RPM) Hard Drive
• ATI RADEON XPRESS 200M IGP with 128MB DDR (shared)
• Integrated 10/100Base-T Ethernet LAN (RJ45 connector)
• 54g 802.11b/g WLAN with 125HSM / SpeedBooster support
• High Speed 56K modem
• PC Card Slots: 1 ExpressCard/54 Slot (also supports ExpressCard/34)
• Available External Ports: 2 USB 2.0, Headphone out, microphone-in, 1 VGA (15-pin) 1 TV-Out (S-video), 1 RJ-11 (modem), 1 RJ-45 (LAN)
• Software Included: Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition (Windows Vista Capable)
• 1 year HP Total Care Help &amp; Support Center
• Dimensions: 10.2&quot; (L) x 14.1&quot;(W) x 1.38&quot;(min) /1.77&quot;(max)
• Weight: 6.4 lbs

Compaq Presario v5305WM (v5000) (view large image)

HP offering v3000z for $399 ($359 for students or those in academics)

Compaq v3000z available via HP.com for $399 (view large image)

HP is also offering an amazing deal for a notebook on their own site. They've got the popular and new Presario v3000z notebook available for $399 after rebate at HP.com. To see a review of the Compaq v3000z notebook with an AMD Turion X2 processor click here. You can also customize at HP.com to get a few better options and pay a bit more than $399. The specs for the v3000z as configured at $399 are:

• AMD Sempron 3500+ 1.80GHz processor
• 14.1&quot; WXGA widescreen
• Nvidia Go 6150
• 512MB of RAM afer free upgrade
• 40GB hard drive
• DVD-CR/RW
• Black shiny finish
• 802.11g wireless

But wait, there's more! HP offers discounts if you buy online via HP.com and you're a student. To get the student/academic discount, called Academic Purchase Plan (APP), use the following link to sign up: https://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/register_app.do

As you can see above, the Compaq v3000z is $359.19 after the APP discount, instant savings and mail-in rebate.

 

It seems as if alot of retailers want to get rid of . ....

single core w/mem under 1gb as fast as they can.

Disguising it as a special when it will be worth that value in 7 months.

 

These notebooks should be good enough for many people who don't need something on the cutting edge of computer technology.

 

I bought my sister the A31p in my signature for $350.

I am still trying to determine if it was a better deal then buying a new $350 laptop. I think so, because she's pretty hard on equipment and the thing is a tank. The P4-M 1.7 is a little poky, but with 1GB RAM WinXP runs great and she's no power user... I doubt she will need Vista anytime soon.

She really likes the high resolution screen though, since she uses it to do a lot of songwriting and mixing music tracks (with external sound equipment) and needs to see a lot of different things on screen at once. It's a beautiful screen, I was kind of sad to let it go.

I have mixed feelings about cheap laptops. They are the reason I was really skeptical about LCD screens for a long time, and experiences with Toshibas falling apart kept me away from buying my own laptop until I picked out my Asus. I guess I'm just not a fan of cheap, disposable goods...

 

A $100 laptop is a great loss-leader. I guess it's only a matter of time before we really do see $200 and cheaper laptops.

I still really like that Compaq V3000z for $399 deal.

 

Canadian never has these offers even they has these stores open in Canada

 

couple years ago I was in line at Circuit City behind a girl who came down from Canada for Black Friday.

 

Circuit City is always pulling stunts like this. I for one hate reading a great price and then this giant catch in tiny lettering. Normally it's an AO"hell" (AOL) deal and a real rip off. But, given that I have Vonage right now, I'd have to say this is actually a sweet deal. I hope they run this in the next couple of future years.

 

well, i've had experience with an Intel Celeron M processer and it has really suprised me.

my dell 600m which is a 1.4ghz celeron M works flawlessly. Got the deal here at slickdeals about 9 months ago.

With multiple tabs and windows open while browsing in Firefox, instant messenger on, winamp, and spyware + antivirus processes running in the background...system performs smoothly and works very quick. And yes, i've played a few games of counter-strike on here on decent res, no problems. Although coming from a Dell 20" widescreen it's not as exciting.

Mind you I have 1GB of DDR ram. A 1GB stick is really a good investment IMO. You will get a much better performance...512mb is a bottle neck
I would just purchase some from newegg or something...pretty easy and cheap to install. Seriously, a caveman could do it.
Don't be intimidated about getting and installing memory. If you're reading this, chances are you will have no problems. Go to crucial.com to find out what type of memory it takes, go to newegg and find a match. The company website or support forum will have perfect info how to install this, very simple.

Yeah so, that's a good "beginner" laptop if you are getting Vonage anyways. But i have no experience with THAT laptop...just dells mostly. But it looks good to me.


Oh, and vonage is pretty good. Been using it for the past few months and it has worked great. My upload is 512kbps with Cox cable. If I upload at full capacity the phone won't work right (the person is heard just fine but they can't hear you.) Which makes sense because all your upload speed is being used. But don't be deterred. Heavy downloading is NOT affected...from what I've noticed.
I rarely upload at full capacity...plus, if I ever need to I can usually just "pause" the heavy upload when a call comes.

It's pretty cool how you can log on to your account and see all your call info...even check voicemails online while you're away.

Yeah anyways, I think that's a good deal.
I wouldn't get their extended warranty, I'm sure they will try to push that one hard....but I wouldn't be tempted

hope that helped. by the way I'm stoned but my info is accurate.

 

oh, just to add a WARNING.

If you want to transfer your home number to Vonage, which I'm sure most want to do, it will take a minimum of 20 days. It took me 2 and a half weeks, or 3...cant remember. If you call somebody from your vonage phone, it won't show up as your home number. But vonage will get all your incoming calls...so that's cool....gives you an immediate opportunity to test the vonage service
In other words, you will have to use your cable telephone for people to see your home number (it's not transfered yet, remember.)
But if you don't care and can wait (which I was able to do with little problem) then go for it!



How Long Does it Take?

Transferring your number will take a minimum of 20 days once you start the transfer process. But don't worry! During the number transfer process, we provide you a temporary number so that you can begin to use our service and all its included features immediately.

http://vonage.com/features.php?feature=lnp

 

oh btw, you'll also need to take out all the bull sh*t software and clean it out and take care of it for it to run it's best.
but that's easy...I recall a "newsposting" about that on here.

 

Hmmm...the transfer of my family's home number took about a week. It went rather smoothly although we did have a temporary number for about 2 days. The service had a ton of bugs in it at first, but it seems those got ironed out after about 4 months or so.

 

straight from my account info online.....
______________________________

Status History for: 1480XXXXXXX

Current Status: Transfer Completed Temp Virtual Number : 1480XXXXXXX Transfer Date: July 31, 2006


Updated Date: Number Transfer Progress History: Required Action
July 18, 2006 Awaiting Letter of Authorization
July 18, 2006 Letter of Authorization (LOA) Received
July 18, 2006 Letter of Authorization (LOA) Accepted
July 18, 2006 Transfer Sent to Carrier
July 31, 2006 Carrier Approved Transfer
July 31, 2006 Completed LNP Transfer

_______________
so that's 13 days...faster than I thought

 

Hi All,
I would be VERY suspicious of the Circuit City rebates. They stuck it to me on a fifty dollar rebate on my DV5030Z. Personally because of their dishonest dealings with me I will no longer do business with them.
If this is something some of you would do may I suggest that you make copies of everything you get from the stores and send no original materials as they will then say they can't give you the rebate unles you have the original this or that after at their request you already sent it to them. That is exactly what they did to me.

 

Black Friday's so fun! Too bad no one I know needs a laptop this year... My cousin couldn't wait a few months so I had to do shopping for her in August... I asked her if she liked it and she said, "YES, it's a laptop!!" ha.....

Oh yeah I got a laptop for my bf last yr for what was supposed to be 425 but Dell screwed up and allowed me to trick them, and it took months but it eventually ended up pretty much $300. ha ha ha ha ha... so if you ever get an email saying that Dell received your $50 rebate submission and it's now pending waiting a month to be mailed, even though the rebate was instant and you weren't supposed to get anything additional back, you know what to do! I confused the hell out of the Dell peeps and not only did I get my $50 but I also got a DJ Ditty which I went and sold on craigslist for $75 - suckahs!

Malia

 

It's not a bad deal, I couldn't use a computer that slow, esp with that celeron M (just the name celeron makes me cringe.) That is a pretty good deal for someone wanting a basic laptop though.

 

I've had no problems with Circuit City's rebates, and my sister got her's from an Acer a few weeks ago - she screwed up the submitted materials, and they allowed her to correct it and get the rebate.

making a copy of all materials is always a good idea - a couple years ago it took over a year to get a rebate on a hard drive from Black Friday, but I did eventually get it.

 

Hi Strikeback,
I am glad that you had better results than I did. I bought a $1300 NB from CC in CT, from a store in CT and I live in CT. There was a rebate for this particular machine in two states CT and NJ. I got the rebate from the manufacteror in less than a month and a month after that I got a letter from CC about the rebate. I called the number and they said that if I would send them their rebate form again they would give me the rebate. When I called them back they said that the rebate was only available in CT and NJ. I explained that I live in CT, I bought the machine iin CT, from a store in CT. I was then told in so many words, too many words, sorry sucker. So I bought a 32 inch lcd TV from someone else, I bought a bunch of accesories and upgrades for my desktop from someone else, etc etc. I told the service rep that I really hope they enjpy that $50 because it will be the last they get from me.
So as I said in my previous post be WARY of the CC rebates.