X

Staples selling Dell, HP Core i5 laptops for $649

Fully loaded Intel Core i5 laptops from Dell and Hewlett-Packard are on sale for a few days for as little as $649.

Brooke Crothers Former CNET contributor
Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.
See full bio
Brooke Crothers
2 min read

Thought spanking new Intel Core i5 laptops would command a price premium? Not this week at Staples, where fully loaded Core i5 laptops from Dell and Hewlett-Packard are on sale for as little as $649.

Dell 17-inch laptop with Intel Core i5 on sale for $649 at a Staples in Southern California.
Dell 17-inch laptop with Intel Core i5 on sale for $649 at a Staples in Southern California Brooke Crothers

Staples is selling a Dell 17-inch system with the Core i5 430M for $649. The Dell system is regularly $799. The $150 discount (which is "instant savings"--not a rebate) ends later this week, according to a sales representative who said prices will go up again at the close of business on Saturday.

Dell Insprion 17.3" Laptop at Staples:

  • Operating system: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
  • Processor: Intel Core i5 430M processor (2.26GHz)
  • Memory: 4GB
  • Optical drive: 8X Dual Layer DVD+/-RW Drive
  • Dislpay: 17.3" HD+ WLED display
  • Hard disk drive: 320GB hard drive
  • Price: $649 (this week only)

Staples is also offering a 14-inch HP DV4-2170 laptop for $649 with the same Core i5 processor, 4GB of memory, a 320GB hard disk drive, and Windows Home Premium 64-bit. Staples lists the system at a regular price of $809.98 with $110 of "instant savings" and a $50 rebate, which brings the price to $649.

Intel's Core i5 mobile processor, based on the latest "Nehalem" chip architecture, was just rolled out at the beginning of this month. Typically, laptops built around new Intel mainstream mobile processors are priced at least a couple of hundred dollars above the prices Staples is listing.

Core i5 processors feature a technology called Turbo Boost. For example, a 2.26GHz Intel Core i5-430M processor is automatically overclocked to 2.53GHz as needed by the application. This feat is not possible with laptops packing the Core i3 chip, which doesn't feature Turbo Boost.