Walmart offers decently-spec'd Compaq laptop for $300

Not sold on the whole netbook craze? Then you might want to consider paying a visit to your local Walmart, which is set to offer a surprisingly well-spec'd Compaq Presario laptop for the low, low price of $298. As you might expect however, that model (the CQ60-419WM) isn't entirely new, but it did just debut in January of this year with a significantly higher $470 price tag, and packed enough features to make it a not terrible deal even at that price. That includes a 15.6-inch 1366x768 display, an AMD Sempron SI-42 processor, NVIDIA GeForce 8200M graphics, 3GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, a DVD burner and, of course, Windows Vista for an OS. Good enough for ya? Then look for it to hit Walmarts on July 26th and be available "while supplies last."

[Via FatWallet]

[Waffle Slayer Posted Jul 24th 2009 4:55PM]

Taking a shit and tweeting/emailing/foruming on my G1 is one of my favorite hobbies. +1!

[bill cant fart Posted Jul 24th 2009 10:56AM]

Anyone know how the build quality is? Can't imagine it would be all that great...

[t1616 Posted Jul 24th 2009 11:39AM]

I have a Compaq laptop similar to that one and the build quality is actually pretty good. The new Compaq laptops are built on about the same chassis as the middle-price range HPs, just with different components. It feels more solid than other brands of laptops in the same price range.

[Jorvay Posted Jul 24th 2009 1:12PM]

@t1616
Just wait until your southbridge chip goes...well...south. Don't worry, it typically doesn't happen until your machine is just outside of warranty.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 24th 2009 12:41PM]

But... But.... IT'S A COMPAQ!

This is HP's low end, budget brand! I have never had a Compaq work for more then 2 years! Now you can get to the point that you can just buy a new one since this crappy $300 one will break soon and be out of date anyway, BUT you also forget that it may break at a horribly inconvenient time. Not to mention recovering all of your data, then transferring it to a new machine is never as easy as one would hope.

Screw Compaq (unless you are dangerously low on cash) and just buy a proper HP/Toshiba that will last for years so come.

[mazzthepianoman Posted Jul 24th 2009 1:12PM]

When will people realize they get what they pay for at Walmart? With their buying power they force manufacturers to produce cheaper goods just so they can get the lower price point. Less features, less quality, lower quality materials etc is what you pay less for with them.

[splam Posted Jul 24th 2009 2:41PM]

Who's the genius that thought reducing the height resolution to 768 would be a good idea? What is this, 1999?

[Level 5 Posted Jul 25th 2009 3:35AM]

I mean.. it's a budget laptop, brah. I'm not sure what you were expecting, especially when alot of 15" lappies still come with a 1280x800 display. To me 1366x768 is no better or worse. This is a glorified, larger version of a netbook. It's perfect for alot of folks (even me, I'm probably getting one), so much as you don't expect the machine to be a beast, because it's not.

[Jon55 Posted Jul 25th 2009 2:48PM]

@Level 5

Cool story brah.

[(Unverified) Posted Jul 24th 2009 2:56PM]

Hey I have this laptop!

I bought it a year ago and it's great. It runs most games with medium graphics. Anything high will make it chug- shadows really give the graphics card a hard time. I have mine partitioned for Windows 7 and Windows XP, don't bother with Vista you won't like it on this computer because there's a black screen flash that will annoy the heck out of you every time a message duologue box pops up. The only really sucky part about this computer is the 2 hour battery, but it's well worth your money for $300! I bought it for $400 last year at Fry's Electronics.