Smaller and more convenient weighing in at 2 and a half pounds each, they feature a 10 inch screen and both come in a variety of bright colours. One would be surprised at how easy they are to use as well, seeing as they both feature a keyboard that is about 90% the size of a normal one.

Now for the differences folks. Price: Dell costs $239 and boasts 24 hour shipment and HP costs $229 and is available locally. The slight difference between the two does not indeed change the fact that these netbooks which work as well and as fast as a basic laptop cost half as much as their larger counterparts. Shopping for cheap new laptops is not hard when you know what each company offers.

One thought is that although they are a bit less beefy than larger screen laptop computers they are still only about a year behind and have a great price for the service they offer. RAM on each is 1GB and hard drive for each is about 60GB, great for a normal computer user.

The best function besides price is style. Compact, attractive and available in many colors they look great and somewhat futuristic at any age. WiFi makes it an ideal toy for checking email at the cafe or looking up quick facts at the lunchroom or library before a meeting.

Yes, there are a lovely variety of protective cases available for 10 inch netbooks, many of which are designed to look like a purse with art or floral patterns. If I were to choose a brand I would choose the HP in pink.

Although the Dell netbook has convenient options like payment plans, 48 hour delivery and a toll free technical assistance line for Dell owners, the HP has a slight edge in price and is generally of better quality and longevity. Dell has much better choice of colour in a multitude of strong candy-coloured casings but overall HP is still thinner, sleeker and more attractive. There are some cheap Dell laptops on the market though that might be just what you need.

If this does not sound like the type of device for you, then consider it for a young one on your gift list, as it is cheap and a fun starter computer. The best of luck selecting your next computing device.

When comparing laptops, not only do you need to look at GB’s, MB’s, MHZ’s. How about the CD/DVD? Are they both of the same caliber? Let’s not forget the programs too. Make sure that they both are using the same OS. Look into the spyware programs, there seems to be many of them that ain’t worth the box their packaged in. McAfee and Norton are two of the well known ones, I like both of them so I don’t favor one over the other.

If you were to go on Dell‘s or Gateway’s website, you would see that they both offer the basic programs (some on 30-60 day trial period), but do you really need them after the trial period ends? After that period ends those files take up space on the hard drive unless you remove the program. Hopefully you won’t accidentally erase a shared file. Save yourself the time with Dell. You can select to have no productivity software installed and if you talk to an operator, you can go through the list of other programs that you’ll never use, especially those trial ones.

You can visit many sites to download free programs, but again you need to watch where you get them from. There are a few site that are well trusted that you can use, the one I’ve used in the past is download.com. Why pay for the same program when another trusted site offers it for free?

If you’re in the market for very cheap laptops, I hope this article has given you some direction. Buying laptops for sale doesn’t have to be hard. Follow your instincts and do your reaserch and you’re half way there.