So Friday night, I ran over to a Washington, DC Best Buy, just a mile from my home. (Not saying I would, just that I knew I was supposed to.)īefore buying, I wanted to put my hands on the keyboard and mouse pad, see the screen and listen to the sound. I also knew I was supposed to send the sales tax (technically use tax) directly to my state if I bought on Amazon or from another on-line only retailer which didn't collect it from me. Since I’ve covered the Internet sales tax issue extensively, I knew that Maryland, where I live, is not one of the growing number of states where Amazon collects sales taxes, but that Dell has collected sales taxes on line nationwide since 2006 and that Best Buy, Staples, OfficeDepot and Micro Center all have Maryland stores and thus would charge the state’s 6% sales tax whether I bought in person or on line. Mentally, when comparing prices I added in whether there would be sales and delivery charges.
I wanted a low price and I wanted my new laptop sooner, rather than later. A backlit keyboard seemed like a good idea for my middle aged eyes and the touch screen seemed desirable given my injured right thumb (long story), which can make using a mouse for hours on end painful. But I wanted a lot of RAM and adequate (not lightning fast) performance, plus a decent screen and sound. I’m no gamer, so I didn't need a fancy video card.
My specs were determined by the fact that I use my personal laptop for finances ( Intuit’s Quicken and TurboTax) watching DVDs listening to music watching CSpan and CNN and for web browsing and research (with lots of screens open in multiple browsers and reading stuff like 568 page reports on tax reform which gives my old Forbes Dell laptop a nervous breakdown). (It said put off buying a new laptop if you can I couldn’t.) Then I read reviews on, and checked prices and user reviews on and looked up the current deals at Best Buy, Staples, Office Depot and Micro Center.Īfter a few hours, I more or less knew what I wanted: a Windows 8 machine with a 15 inch touch screen and an optical drive, meaning I didn’t have a huge number of choices. To start my shopping, I went online to read Walt Mossberg’s latest laptop buying guide.
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