Staples ups notebook war with $399 unit plus printer

Sound the horn and unleash the hounds of bargain hell!

Earlier this month, Wal-Mart unfurled a $398 Compaq notebook. Staples is now doing them one better by offering a similar notebook for the same price but tossing in a free printer, according to Black Friday 2006. The regular price for the laptop is $730. Consumers have to put up $69.98 for the printer but you get a rebate for $70. Despite the bad reputation for rebates, I've received every one I sent in for in the last two years.

The notebook comes with a Turion processor, a 60GB drive and 512MB of memory. And dig the photo. It looks like this is the Sunday newspaper equivalent of the Shroud of Turin.

Dell, meanwhile, is sporting a $499 laptop today. Expect the Big D to try to regain market share this holiday season with loopy deals.

The site also reports that Amazon is selling a discount 42-inch plasma like Wal-Mart. At Wal-Mart, the TV costs $1,294. At Amazon, it's $1,359 but it comes with free shipping and no tax (at least up front). Amazon will probably throw in a coffee cup too.