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You can get an Everex StepNote VA4101M for $399.97. That’s the lowest price that I can find for a laptop. I know that you can get a desktop for about $269.99 from eMachines though.

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Laptops don’t have internet till you set it up on it.i would recommend a dell laptop as they are a decent brand of computer however it’s unlikely you will get one under 300 quid so i would say one of the other brands you listed as they are quite good also.

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I was also looking for netbook earlier this month.
I got the 10″ hp netbook (red/pink/blue/white/balck) for $255 at Tigre Direct.
There was a cheaper one similar also hp for $199 also at Tigre Direct, however it only came in black.
It’s really light and the battery last for more then a week, which is great!

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The battery thing wasn’t Dell’s fault – Apple is dealing with the same issues with these units sourced from Sony.

But Dell is finally realizing they’ve spent too litle time, resources and attention on two crucial segments of the market:

1) consumers
2) laptops

Historically, Dell’s bread and butter has been desktops for business…and now that the fastest growing segment fo the PC industry is consumers buying laptops (and currently, you can’t find Dell laptops at most consumer retail outlets like you find HP, Toshiba, etc.), Dell is scrambling for a piece of the consumer laptops pie.

Bad for them, but great for consumers like you.

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Trust me, you will never just use your laptop for internet or Microsot Office. One day you will use it for some gaming. So I suggust you buy a better laptop, of course spend a little more money.
I have bought a HP dv4-3010tx, I think it’s great. Enought for games and design drawing. But it is about $800.
When I buy a laptop, I will check the CPU and the graphics card for they are the most important parts of a laptop, and usually they cannot be upgraded.