Watching Significant Other go through the process of buying her newest computer gave me some insights I’d like to share.

Give the person on the phone or in the chat some room to wiggle. By turning down the offer of the free printer, SO gave the Dell representative some space in which to find other, more meaningful ways to reduce the price of the entire transaction.

Don’t be fearful about expressing how much you want to spend. Because SO stated her price limit upfront, the rep could direct her to some practical computing options.

Figure out what’s most important in the purchase. In SO’s case it was that non-glare screen and a specific version of Office. Yes, she wants a machine with good performance. Yes, she wants some obvious equipment — a DVD burner, a large hard drive, a mouse, wireless. But those are almost foregone conclusions these days. By sticking to two items that were absolute requirements, she could reduce what she spent on the other components.

Accept the fact that you may make an impulse purchase or two. In her case, that was the pink case for the notebook computer and the webcam for me.

For each decision that pushes the price up, ask how the price might be brought down. Make it pleasant for the rep to help you.

Be mentally prepared to sign the deal if you get what you want. Otherwise, you’ll be starting from the ground floor in developing a relationship with a new rep on the phone or in the chat when you’re really ready to finalize the deal.

What have you learned about shopping for big ticket items lately? I’d like to hear your advice.

That pink mouse was when negotiations on price began in earnest. Here’s how it played out.

After agreeing that a pink mouse would be lovely, the chat rep asked Significant Other if she’d like the computer to come in pink too. Doing so would cost a bit but not a lot.

Then the rep asked if she’d like to consider having the laptop come in pink as well. That would be an extra $25. SO hemmed and hawed. OK. She was sounding a bit disengaged from the deal.

Problem was, the price kept going up bit by bit, and pretty soon it would be way beyond the $1,500 price limit SO had set for the purchase, based on the size of the gift her father had sent her.

So SO mentioned all the discounts plastered around on the Dell website. What could the rep do about that? Without missing a beat, the rep offered $150 off the total, which brought the price down below $1,500.

That certainly helped.

And what about the shipping and tax and the rest of it? Tax was what it was. And there was a charge for a California state environmental disposal fee paid up front to cover the monitors. But the rep could provide free shipping. But that was a standard deal with Dell, wasn’t it, said SO. Sure, free shipping was standard, but not two-business-day free shipping. And that would apply to each of the components — computer, mouse and monitor — which would ship separately.

The rep said somebody else would call by phone to go over the complete order and take credit card information. And that’s what happened.

But even then, the deal-making wasn’t done. Suddenly, my SO realized that it would be nice to have a webcam eyeball built into that computer. (My small contribution to her decision-making.) So she called the phone rep back and said she’d like that added. The rep replied, the price would be an additional $25. SO asked if there was any way to get it for less. The rep didn’t hesitate. Yes, she could add it on for only $10.

When the final invoice came back, the tally was $1,596.55. I figure that extra $97 over the original goal will be my graduation present.

Next: What I’ve learned about getting a great deal on computers right now.

So, Significant Other tried out Dell’s live chat function. This function on Dell.com allows you to talk with a rep from the company to get your questions answered. Her primary question was, how can I get a laptop that has a non-glossy 15-inch screen? She likes the idea of working outside, especially during the summer, and most glossy screens, which seem to predominate on notebooks these days, become almost invisible. She has the same problem when she’s working in her too-bright office.

With that bit of information in her hands, the Dell rep led her on a journey of her options, helping her to make choices at each phase of the buying experience. For example, she explained that none of the 15-inch-plus displays came in anti-glare. She’d have to go with a 14-inch display to get that — a tidbit of information she couldn’t discover strictly through Dell’s shopping function.

My sweetheart was quite adamant about staying under $1,500 and told the rep that. Not a problem, was the reply.

She recommended the Inspiron 1420. Seemed like a solid option. That has the Intel Core 2 Duo T5550 processor. She specced it with 2 gigabytes of RAM and an NVIDIA GeForce TM Go8400M GS video card with 128MB of graphic memory. (SO isn’t a game player, but she does work with DreamWeaver, so this seemed sufficient.)

Best, it included a 14.1-inch anti-glare widescreen display.

The rep mentioned the free printer offers that Dell pushes everywhere these days. No interest, said my SO.

But she did want to find out what it would cost to add an external flatscreen monitor too. Would doing so keep the price under the limit? Pretty close! The rep added on a 19-inch Dell UltraSharp 1908FP,Wide Flat Panel. But suddenly, the barrier was breached.

Then came the software. Yes, Vista Home Premium Edition was fine, and she wanted Office 2007 Small Business Edition to go with that.

From there, the shopping covered the hard drive, a 250 gigabyte 5400 RPM no name hard drive, which could have been faster for sure, but helped SO keep the price down. And she needed a DVD with read-write.

Plus, she wanted blue tooth to start taking advantage of all of the great wireless gear out there — though the gear itself would have to wait until a later date. So she settled on a simple wireless mouse. Then the question came up: Would she like that in pink?

If you knew my SO, you’d know that it was just the right thing to ask in the buying cycle. Suddenly, she was emotionally hooked to that computer. A pink mouse? Wow! She did some quick surfing to check out customer testimonials, and the recommendations were almost uniformly positive — except for one reviewer who said the pink was redder than preferred. Best, the price was the same, no matter whether the mouse — from Logitech — was black or pink. Problem was, shortly that pinkiness would help push the price tag well above $1,500.

Next: Negotiations in Earnest!

Significant Other just received a very generous check from her dad as a graduation present to apply to the purchase of a new notebook computer. (She’s getting a master’s in accountancy, a degree she’s been plugging away on since 2005. Yay!) So she went shopping all last week, online of course. Should she go with HP? Should she choose Dell? Was there another company out there people were talking about? Could she find what she wanted for that much money?

Here’s what we learned: Companies are willing to make great deals right now. If you pay sticker price, you’re probably paying too much.

Over the next few days, I’ll describe her shopping journey, in case there’s something useful for your next consumer jaunt too.

Since SO had mostly satisfactory experience with both HP and Dell, she felt comfortable going that direction.

As you probably know, it can be a lot of fun to spec out a dream machine on the HP and Dell sites. You start clicking this radio button over those, specifying this component as an add-on, that application suite over the other one, and as you go along, you get to see the price tag adjust itself.

But it can also be overwhelming. You have to decide if you’re going to shop through the business side or home & home office side of a company’s site, when it’s a machine you’ll be using at home but for business reasons. Then you have a myriad of laptop choices, depending on weight considerations, screen size and a slew of other details.

Plus, those shopping tools don’t always help you get what you’re really looking for. In her case, she wanted at least a 15-inch display with anti-glare.

Next: Live Chat to the Rescue!

The Mini-Notebook is causing a buzz in the PC market. Asus has just started selling the Asus Eee PC Notebook with Windows XP Home installed, and now HP has announced a series of mini-notebooks called the “HP 2133 Mini-Note PC” (see “A Student PC under 3 Pounds and $600“). If I did not already own an Asus Eee PC I would really be tempted, as I own several HP computers, from Pocket PCs to full-size desktop PCs. HP has seen that there is a market for light and cheap notebooks, with around 500,000 Eee PC’s sold last year, according to this article “PC Makers Race to Market With Low-Cost ‘Netbooks’” from the Wall Street Journal.

So what is the attraction of a mini notebook? I’ll use the Asus Eee PC with Linux installed as an example. The biggest attraction next to price is probably size and weight. It is easy to carry around, and ideal for traveling. Connecting to the Internet via Wi-Fi or an Ethernet cable is a snap. The web browser is Firefox, which only differs from Firefox for Windows in the menu layout, but this is a general Firefox for Linux difference. Because it uses a solid state drive for a hard drive, the Asus Eee PC Notebook runs surprisingly quietly. The fast start up and shutdown (with Windows XP it will probably be a slower) is really great. It also supports SDHC Cards, which are up to 16GB, with 32 GB cards on the way – but the latter will cost more than the Eee PC!. There are three USB 2.0 ports available for USB devices. In my experience, using USB Flash drives (for transferring large files) on Windows and using them on the Eee PC is basically the same. If you are not going to do much more than word processing, writing emails or web browsing the Asus Eee PC is ideal. The trade off of course is that the keyboard is small and takes a some getting used to. The 7 inch screen is small, and sometimes requires scrolling to see an entire webpage or a dialog box.

Mini-Notebooks like the Asus Eee PC and the HP 2133 Mini-Note PC are called “Netbooks” (see the “Thoughts on Netbooks” article on the Technology@Intel Blog).

HP sells a lot of different kinds of laptops. A quick search on PriceGrabber.com provides 452 links. Here’s one that doesn’t show up in the list yet, but looks worthy of our attention when it does appear at the end of April.

The HP 2133 Mini-Note PC was announced today as a “student computer.” It’s small — about 2.5 pounds — and it includes a suite of wireless, multimedia and security capabilities.

Best, in the US it will sell for about $600 with Vista Home Basic. As Dave Nagel at THEJournal.com reports, the Mini-Note PC offers an 8.9-inch WXGA scratch-resistant display and full keyboard with a clear coat to resist wear. Although some coverage has reported on the slightly smaller keyboard, Nagel says he can use the keyboard with no problem.

Features include:

• HP DuraKeys, featuring a clear coating applied over the notebook keyboard that protects the finish and printed letters and characters.
• HP 3D DriveGuard, which sends a signal to shut down the hard drive upon sudden movement or shock by using a three-axis digital accelerometer chip.
• A Scratch-resistant display and magnesium hinge bracket.
• The ability to view video, still-image capture, web conferencing or video-enhanced instant messaging with no additional hardware to buy or carry. An optional integrated VGA webcam enables video and still-image capture to allow the addition of photos and video clips to presentations, documents and email.
• Two battery solutions – three-cell for lightest-weight configurations or optional six-cell for longer battery life.
• Wireless technologies including integrated Wi-Fi Certified WLAN and optional Bluetooth, allowing students to access the Internet as well as communicate via email, IM, chat, VOIP and blogging. The wireless technologies also enable connections at hotspots as well as with Bluetooth devices such as printers, mice and headsets.
• The optional Absolute Software Computrace, which allows IT professionals to work with local law enforcement to track and help recover stolen or missing computers, inventory computers district wide and detect changes in hardware and software.

The four basic configurations, according to Nagel’s coverage, encompass:

• 1.0 GHz Via processor, 512MB RAM, 4.0 GB solid-state disk, Novell Suse Linux ($499).
• 1.2 GHz Via processor, 1GB RAM, 120 GB hard drive, Novell Suse Linux ($549).
• 1.2 GHz Via processor, 1GB RAM, 120 GB hard drive, Windows Vista Home Basic ($599).
• 1.6 GHz Via processor, 2GB RAM, 120 GB hard drive, Windows Vista Business ($749).

Here’s why I’m excited about the Mini-Note PC. It sounds like a primo machine to get for my son. He’s a tough user, hard on keyboards and displays. He doesn’t need much storage space at all, since most of his computer use is limited to surfing. And the lightweight nature of the machine means he could hold it in his lap for those longer car rides. Finally, something to replace that Cars cartridge he plays on his Leapster.

A new category of computer appears to be emerging; the MID. Yet another acronym, this one stands for Mobile Internet Device. A year ago, Intel announced a Linux-based “Mobile Internet Device”, referred to in the article “Mobile Internet Devices (MIDs) & Ultra Mobile PCs (UMPCs)” . The reason Intel is behind this is because of the Intel Atom processor technology, on which the new mobile devices are based. While researching MIDs, I came across multiple definitions – from the Mobile Internet Device being a cross between a UMPC and a smartphone to the iPhone being a MID. Intel says that the Mobile Internet Device is a UMPC aimed at consumers and “prosumers” (Prosumer being a Professional Consumer) and a UMPC is a device aimed at enterprise users. Also, MIDs appear to run Linux, and UMPCs run “heavy” Operating Systems like Windows Vista. (see the article “Intel explains: MID vs. UMPC” at Engadget.com).

I guess that would make the Asus Eee PC 4G Notebook a MID, and the Samsung Q1 Ultra Tablet PC (pictured above) a UMPC, although the Q1 looks a lot like early MID prototypes. Of course it isn’t that simple. Microsoft has just given the go ahead for Windows XP to continue to be sold on “ultra-low-cost PCs”, which could be a MID running Windows instead of Linux.

I can almost hear some people shudder at the thought of buying a new notebook running Windows XP. Fortunately the Toshiba Portege R500-S500 series of ultraportable laptops also has the R500-S5002 model which is pre-loaded with Windows Vista Business Edition. For those of us who wish to avoid Vista, the R500-S5002X model is pre-loaded with Windows XP Pro.

The CNET.com review of this ultraportable laptop says:
“Toshiba’s much-anticipated Portege R500 may be the best ultraportable laptop available right now”.

Weighing in at 2.4 pounds, with a size of 11.1 inches wide by 8.5 inches deep by 1 inch in height, this is no toy. The most amazing thing about it is that it features a DVD writer,
which is very rare for ultraportable laptops.

An ultralow-voltage 1.2 GHz Core 2 Duo CPU is complemented by an integrated Mobile Intel Express 950GM graphics card. The 1GB of RAM should have Windows XP Pro running quite nicely. The 12.1 inch TFT active matrix screen has a maximum resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels. Add to that a 120GB hard drive, not bad for an ultraportable, and this is a pretty capable laptop. Naturally it includes wired 10/100 Ethernet, and 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g and 802.11n wireless as well as Bluetooth. To prevent others from using the notebook there is a fingerprint reader.

For expansion options, it has 3 USB 2.0 ports, PC Card, Firewire port, and an SD card reader.

After almost calling this blog posting “U810 > UX50?”, I realized that it may be a bit too cryptic. Actually the Fujitsu LifeBook U810 Tablet PC does remind me of a supersized Sony Clie UX50 dressed in black. It is probably because the screen of this clamshell Ultra Mobile PC swivels to form a tablet, just like the Clie UX40 and UX50. However, the U810 becomes an ultraportable tablet PC.

The specs of the Fujitsu LifeBook U810 Tablet PC are as follows:
Powered by a 800MHz Intel A110 Processor, with 1GB of RAM, it has a 40GB hard drive, integrated Mobile Intel Express 945GM Graphics, a 5.6 inch touchscreen (measured diagonally) and runs Windows Vista Premium. As for size, it is 6.6 by 6.5 by 1.1 inches, and weighs 1.6 pounds. It includes Bluetooth 2.0 and 802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g wireless as well as wired 10/100 Ethernet. Of course there is the obligatory fingerprint reader, microphone, a VGA (0.3 Megapixel) camera and a card reader which supports Compact Flash and SecureDigital memory cards. Oh, and only one USB port, but because this UMPC is actually reasonably priced, small omissions like these can be overlooked.

Unfortunately the processor does seem a little underpowered to run Windows Vista. Apparently you can get the Operating System downgraded to Windows XP Tablet Edition, which would make for a much more pleasant user experience.

Last year I mentioned the Asus EeePC Notebook in “A Second Laptop“. The EeePC is surprisingly capable for such a small notebook. I know this from first hand experience, as I have written and posted blog entries with the Asus. It is aimed at people who already have a desktop or notebook computer though. In fact it ships with a recovery DVD but does not have an optical drive, so you need another PC or an external USB DVD drive.

The reason I’m stressing this point is that some technology writers seem to have missed the point and written than for just a few hundred dollars more you can buy a notebook that is more capable for everyday computing needs. However, then you are looking at a notebook in the budget notebook class which will weigh considerably more. Out of interest I looked around for a budget notebook for less than $600 (since the Asus Eee PC 4G Notebook costs about $399).

There was not much choice in this price range for a new notebook with semi-decent specs. What I found was two notebooks: the Dell Vostro 100 and the Acer Aspire 5520. Obviously other notebooks with better specs may be available on special. Both notebooks have AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core processors, with the Dell Vostro having 2GB of RAM. Unfortunately it only has Windows Vista Home Basic which is the most “basic” Windows Vista edition. The Acer has Windows Vista Home Premium, but is hobbled with only 1GB RAM. Both notebooks weigh three times as much as the Asus EeePC at over 6 pounds, so are not as portable. They do run Windows though, and have built-in DVD writers as well as 120GB hard drives, and are relatively suitable for everyday computing needs.