You’re not really getting a deal so much as a bargain bin product. And for laptops, this often leads to heartache and wasted cash.

Best Buy had some of the better notebook deals on Black Friday and the same is true today. Here is the cream of that crop.

Toshiba Satellite C655D — $249 | HP Pavilion 2000 — $299

These two laptops may surprise shoppers with their low prices considering that both have 15.6-inch screens and are thus not netbooks. Thing is, they both have AMD Fusion E series processors inside, which means they have similar power to affordable ultraportables like the HP Pavilion dm1, which are just a step above netbooks in terms of power. So even though these are the same size as “regular” notebooks, you’re not going to get stunning performance out of them. As long as you know that going in, go ahead and get one of these if you want. It’ll be fine for basic tasks like browsing the web, working on office documents, and streaming videos.

Gateway NV55C57U — $309 | Lenovo IdeaPad 1068AFU — $319

These 15.6-inch laptops are so inexpensive because they have Intel Pentium processors inside, which are several years old. Again, you’re not going to see very strong performance from these models, but they’re okay to buy if you’re going for something basic.

HP Pavilion dv6 — $429

This notebook has a pretty powerful processor for the price and should deliver great performance for most mainstream users. And if you love to play casual games or MMORPGs or even other less-intense PC games, this model offers enough oomph for that.

Samsung RC512 — $499

This laptop actually has some good highlights, including a DVD drive that can read Blu-ray discs and built-in Wireless Display technology from Intel. It has 2 USB 3.0 ports, a definite plus, and 4G/WiMAX mobile broadband built-in. The Core i3 processor means it won’t be a workhorse, but for most mainstream users this provides plenty of power.

Apple MacBook Pro 13 — $1,049 | Apple MacBook Pro 15 — $1,599

Best Buy is offering $150 – $200 off these MacBook Pros, which you generally don’t see discounted unless they’re refurbished.

Read Our Notebook Gift Guide For More Ideas

Best Buy Cyber Monday Notebook Deals Roundup is a post by K. T. Bradford from Notebooks.com.

It should have been a quick, straightforward trip to the store. However, when I left, I did so vowing never to buy a computer at Best Buy again.

The netbook we were after is the Samsung N145. The price on the tag is the same price as on the website.

It’s the price one would expect to pay, yes? When we told the clerk, who had helpfully checked to make sure they did indeed have the computer in stock, he informed us that this netbook came with some Best Buy enhancements. They’d done things to make it better (something about software), installed an anti-virus program, and created a set of recovery discs. For this pre-purchase helpfulness they wanted to charge an extra $50.

The “Say What?” look on my face must have been fierce, because he did take a step back at that point. When we said that we did not want these helpful enhancements he said that they no longer had any models in the store that didn’t have this added value and thus we could not get the netbook for $249.

I asked why the tag still said $249 and he said they hadn’t  gotten around to changing it yet. That’s when I asked to speak to a manager.

Having never bought a computer at Best Buy before I had no idea if this is a standard practice. If it is, someone needs to make them stop. It’s bad enough when stores offer unnecessary services such as this after the purchase, but to do so before the computer is even sold, rendering it more expensive by default? That’s a no.

After a few minutes a manager came over and compounded the fail already in play. Because as he approached the area, asking which netbook and such, he did not make eye contact with me or my friend. No acknowledgement at all that we were even there.

He then offered the original salesperson a solution to the problem in a low, mumbly voice. I forced him to speak to me directly and he informed me that he could give me a discount on the extra special extras so it “only” cost $30.

Obviously I did not find this acceptable. I told the gentleman that I did not want to pay for any extras, I just wanted to pay the price on the tag. Another salesperson said something about how a different person (presumably a manager) could work it out to give us the netbook for its stated price. How generous.

After this, the salespeople scattered to go find the manager or whoever to make this right with barely a word to us. We were left standing around waiting with no indication of how long it would take, if we should wait elsewhere, nothing. Essentially, the customer service was super crap on top of everything else.

Eventually one of the employees hailed to us from a register with the netbook and we did indeed get it for the correct price.

Of course, the seal on the box had been broken, there were no papers inside with warranty information, a quick set up guide, or anything one would expect in the box with a new computer. Great.

Readers, if you ever encounter anything like this in a Best Buy or any other store, turn around and walk out if they won’t sell you the computer for the price stated on the tag or online. You do not need a store to create these discs for you. Likely any computer you buy from a big box retailer will come with recovery discs or have a tool that will make them for you. You do not need some random anti-virus installed for you. You do not need anyone to open your computer’s box before you do.

Before you let any of this happen, go to a different location, go to a competitor, or go online. There’s no justification for this policy, nor the bad customer service.

Best Buy Tries To Charge $50 For Creating Recovery Discs On A Netbook I Hadn’t Yet Bought is a post by K. T. Bradford from Notebooks.com.

Instead of the sub-par single core processors and lackluster specs, these new AMD Fusion E-350 powered notebooks are packing a dual core processor, capable graphics card, 3-4GB RAM, 320GB hard drive, built in webcam and Windows 7. These notebooks are available today from Best Buy and Staples for $350.

We recently reviewed the Gateway NV51B05u Fusion powered notebook which has the same specs and were impressed with the value it brought to the table under $500. The Samsung NP-RV515-A01 and Acer Aspire AS5253-BZ692 have the same specs and should provide the same performance for just $350. For just $30 more there is also a similarly spec’d HP 2000-219DX available at Best Buy.

If we were picking out a new notebook for the average home user today, these two notebooks would be at the top of the list thanks to the affordable price that doesn’t cut corners. In short, if we were picking out a new notebook for a PC using family member, we would be taking a close look at these two notebooks and at the collection of other AMD Fusion E-350 notebooks coming to the market soon.

Performance

What type of performance can you expect from a $300 notebook? If there’s an AMD Fusion E-350 APU in there with AMD Radeon HD 6130 GPU, then you can expect quite a bit of power for the price. When we went hands on with a similar AMD Fusion E-350 notebook from Gateway we had the following to say about the performance.

The first test, was to open up an array of apps that home users will find open at the same time. To do this we tried out Word Starter, Chrome with numerous tabs and a few other random apps open in the background. We played Pandora in one of the Chrome tabs. During this standard use scenario, we had no lag or issues with the performance of the Fusion processor.

We also tried doing some light movie editing with Windows Live Movie maker and edited some photos in Windows Live gallery and were pleased with the results. We wouldn’t want to use this machine to edit video professionally, or to edit video every day, but for a few random projects or for splicing and uploading a family reunion clip to YouTube, the NV51 will suffice.

We also tested HD video playback and if you can believe it gaming on a budget notebook,

Thanks to the AMD Radeon HD6130 graphics card, you can actually use this notebook to game and watch HD video content without giving up on too much quality. We tested out the NV51 with HD video and streaming Netflix and had no trouble at all. Normally, when you try to play HD content on a sub $500 system with integrated graphics the video will stutter or drop some frames, but we didn’t notice the issue on this system.

When we started gaming on this notebook we were also surprised. In loading up a demo of FIFA 2011 from late 2010, we were pleased to see that the system performed great with the medium setting which was still a great experience on the go. We could play on High, but there was a bit of lag that detracted from the fast pace of the game.

Value

When you compare these $350 notebooks to the Intel Celeron notebooks you typically find in $300 to $350 price range you’re looking at a noticeable jump in performance that is well worth the $50 price difference for home users.  Whether you’re looking for new notebook for your home office, to take to school this fall or just need a new affordable notebook that won’t leave you hanging, you should definitely check out these AMD Fusion notebooks.

For the average home user, these AMD Fusion E-350 powered notebooks offer much more value than many other sub $500 notebooks and will be a better fit than a netbook for the numerous buyers who look at netbooks for the lower cost, rather than portability. We’d also suggest that budget notebook buyers look at these notebooks over the new Google Chromebooks, which may look sexier, but are getting mixed reviews.

Black Friday Comes Early: $350 Dual Core Notebooks at Best Buy & Staples is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

Google Chromebook Models, Pricing and Specs

The new Google Chromebooks will be available from Best Buy and Amazon.com and prices start at $349.99. The Chromebooks are note yet available for preorder, but you can sign up at Amazon to be notified when the Chromebooks are available to order.

Samsung Chromebook

The Samsung Series 5 Chromebook comes in two models, a WiFi only Chromebook which retails for $429 and a WiFi+3G model which is $499. The 3G model will include 100MB of broadband from Verizon Wireless per month, operating on the Verizon 3G network.

Samsung Series 5 (Samsung Chromebook) Specs:

• 12.1″ (1280×800) 300 nit Display
• 3.26 lbs / 1.48 kg
• 8.5 hours of continuous usage
• Intel Atom Dual-Core Processor
• Built in dual-band Wi-Fi and World-mode 3G (optional)
• HD Webcam with noise cancelling microphone
• 2 USB 2.0 ports
• 4-in-1 memory card slot
• Mini-VGA port
• Fullsize Chrome keyboard
• Oversize fully-clickable trackpad

Acer Chromebook

The Acer WiFi Chromebook looks like it will only be available from Amazon and will retail for $349.99. At this time, the Acer notebook has no mobile broadband option. The Acer notebook has a smaller display and lighter weight, but similar specs to the Samsung Series 5 Chromebook. One notable difference is the inclusion of a HDMI port instead of a Mini-VGA connection.

Acer Wi-Fi Chromebook Specs:

• 11.6″ HD Widescreen CineCrystal LED-backlit LCD
• 2.95 lbs. | 1.34 kg.
• 6 hours of continuous usage
• Intel Atom Dual-Core Processor
• Built in dual-band Wi-Fi and World-mode 3G (optional)
• HD Webcam with noise cancelling microphone
• High-Definition Audio Support
• 2 USB 2.0 ports
• 4-in-1 memory card slot
• HDMI port
• Fullsize Chrome keyboard
• Oversize fully-clickable trackpad

Chromebook Offline Access

In case you missed it, the two cheapest Chromebooks won’t have mobile broadband built in. Don’t worry though, the new Chromebooks will allow for offline access to your Gmail, Calendar and Docs. As Warner Crocker explains at GottaBeMobile this is an incredibly important change to the concept or “web only” which recognizes the fallible nature of mobile connections and consumer desire to have offline access in certain occasions.

What to Expect with Your Chrome Notebook?

The Chromebooks will include many of the features we were expecting from the original launch, but we have highlighted some of the major Chromebook features you will experience if you purchase a Chromebook.

Instant Web - Boot in 8 seconds and start searching

Always on Connectivity – 100MB of 3G included with 3G models.

Online Backup and Convenience – Your documents, settings and more are stored in the cloud so if you lose the Chromebook, just grab a new one and get going

Web Apps – Access to web apps that let you play games (Angry Birds!), work in spreadsheets, edit photos and more.

Automatic Updates – When you login the Chromebook will automatically update your apps. No need to click yes and get pestered to restart.

Built in Security – The Google Chromebooks include sandboxing, data encryption, and verified boot to help protect you from malware.

Google Chromebook Gallery

Samsung and Acer Google Chromebooks Launch June 15th: Details, Specs & Pricing is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

For the numerous features, solid construction and overall value for the price we have awarded the Toshiba Satellite E305 notebook our Editor’s Choice Award.

This notebook delivers in all areas and is one of the few notebooks you can purchase that includes Wireless Display and the Adapter, WiMax, a metal case, solid design, a standard 2 year warranty, 3 years of anti-theft protection, a backlit keyboard, long battery life and the ability to play games like Portal 2 for around $900.

Toshiba Satellite E305 Quick Specs:

The Toshiba E305 comes with a 2.30GHz 2nd Generation Intel Core i5 processor with Intel HD 3000 graphics which provide enough power to play new games like Portal 2 without changing settings. The system comes with 4GB RAM and a 500 GB Hybrid hard drive with a 4GB SSD that provides a boost in performance and boot times. The notebook also comes with a Blu-Ray drive standard.

The E305 has a backlit island style keyboard and a large mousepad with built in mouse buttons and the ability to perform multitouch gestures and multiclick clicks to allow for a two finger right click.

The E305 has Dolby Advanced Audio to deliver great sound on its own and a collection of ports including USB 3.0 port, USB 2.0 ports, VGA, HDMI and audio jacks to connect to other devices. The notebook is WiDi 2.0 equipped and comes with the Wireless Display adapter that allows you to stream in 1080p to your HDTV without any wires.

Who is the Toshiba Satellite E305 For?

The Toshiba E3o5 is a notebook designed for power users or multimedia junkies that want a notebook with all the bells and whistles that won’t break the bank. This notebook would be at the top of my wishlist as a student thanks to the portability, power and battery life. While there is no discrete graphics card, it can handle video editing, photo editing and gaming on a consumer level. Unfortunately serious gamers would be better served with something like the Alienware M14x.

Toshiba Satellite E305 Hands On Video:

Toshiba Satellite E305 Build and Design:

The Toshiba Satellite E305 has a very nice build and design. The metal case provides a very nice look that won’t attract fingerprints and delivers a very sturdy overall feel. The case actually transitions to plastic on the interior, but we wouldn’t have notice if Toshiba hadn’t made it a point to tell us.  The notebook has strong and sturdy hinges that do a good job of keeping the display in place while you are working on the notebook.

The Satellite E305 had less flex than is typical on consumer notebooks both in the lid and on the main body, though the keyboard deck does flex somewhat.

Toshiba Satellite E305 Features:

The features of the Toshiba Satellite E305 are what set it apart from the rest of the notebooks on the market today. Many of these features are owed to the Best Buy Blue Label program which the E305 is part of.

Seagate Hybrid Hard Drive – The E305 comes with a hybrid hard drive that includes the benefits of a Solid State Drive (SSD) without the limitation in size. We recently reviewed this Seagate Hybrid hard drive as a standalone unit and found it delivered great performance. On the E305 you will notice faster boots as well as other small benefits from a hybrid drive.

Anti Theft Technology – The Toshiba E305 comes with a 3 year subscription to Intel’s Anti Theft tech which will help track down your notebook if it is lost or stolen. This is included in the cost of the notebook and includes features such as remote delete, hard drive locking and a timer that can lock your notebook after 2 to 30 days of not being used.

Intel Wireless Display 2.0 and Adapter – The E305 includes Intel Wireless Display for 1080P streaming that includes content from the Blu-Ray drive. This is an awesome feature which you will actually use because the $99 adapter is included in the base price. You can see a demo of Wireless Display on the E205 above which will give you an idea of how the feature works. Keep in mind Wireless Display 2.0 includes numerous improvements over the version demoed above. Our review unit did not come with a WiDi 2.0 adapter, but retail devices will.

Intel WiMax and My WiFi – the E305 comes with Intel WiMax which allows users in covered markets to get embedded mobile connectivity from providers like Clear and Time Warner. This high speed mobile network is even nicer thanks to the ability to use Intel My WiFi to share your connection to other WiFi devices without a router.

Backlit Keyboard on Toshiba E305

Backlit Keyboard – The E305 includes a backlit keyboard as a standard feature which is perfect for working in dim environments at school or in the car while on the go. This is a nice touch and something we are happy to see standard.

2 Year Warranty – As mentioned, the E305 comes with a standard 2 year warranty which is double that of most notebooks and a nice value considering the cost of many third party extended warranties.

7 Hour Battery – Another feature which Best Buy touts is a 7 hour or better battery for the Blue Label 3.0 notebooks. We didn’t hit 7 hours in our battery test, but you should be able to hit this target if you really scrimp and save.

Toshiba Satellite E305 Display:

The Toshiba Satellite E305 has a 14″ display with a 1366 x 768 resolution which is glossy, but comes with decent viewing angles and can tilt to accommodate many use situations such as on a desk or in a car. The resolution is lower than we would like, but par for the course with consumer notebooks. As far as colors go, the E305 provides a good looking screen to watch movies or a slideshow of photos. If you need to use a bigger display, the HDMI port, VGA connector or WiDi can quickly connect you to a larger screen.

Toshiba Satellite E305 Keyboard and Touchpad:

For the most part, the Toshiba E305 keyboard is up to par and shows signs that Toshiba has been listening to consumer feedback, but it is one of the areas where we could see improvement for next year. The key spacing is good as is the travel, though you may notice that the keys are a bit stiff when you first use the E305. The keys are backlit and users are able to control that backlighting to save on battery life or for personal preference. We can’t express how much we like backlit keys, and as for as backlighting goes, Toshiba has done a good job.

The spacebar does take more pressure to push on our review unit, especially on the left side, but we have noticed that some Toshiba spacebars need time to “break in”. Toshiba has been paying attention. Even though the backspace and enter keys are not flush to the right of the keyboard there is a nice gap that kept us from hitting the function keys when we were touch typing. Overall, the keyboard is OK and will suffice for many users, but Toshiba still has work to do to deliver an optimal typing experience.

The mousepad on the Satellite E305 is rather large, almost as wide as you’ll find on a MacBook Air, though a bit smaller from top to bottom. The multitouch mouse is responsive and has a nice feel to it. The buttons are built into the mousepad and worked well during our use. We do like that you can configure multifinger clicks which allowed us to set a two finger click as a right click. In practice this worked pretty well, though we did run into the occasional mis-click which was a right click instead of a single-click . While the mousepad is a step in the right direction, it is an area where we could see improvement.

Toshiba Satellite E305 Processor and Performance:

As far as performance goes, the Satellite E305 didn’t leave us wanting for more power. The 2nd Gen Intel Core i5 processor had enough power to handle powering a second monitor at 1080P, working on several Chrome windows with multiple tabs and listening to music as if we weren’t doing anything at all. The processor also has enough power to work on multimedia such as videos and photos using Sony Vegas movie studio and the built in Windows Live collection which should be enough for most home and student users. Professional video and photo users will likely want something with a discrete graphics card, but for the hobbyist, this notebook has enough power and then some.

One issue users may have on the E305 is the lack of access to the internals. There is RAM slot on the back, but if you want to go inside to upgrade the hard drive or anything else you are looking at a much more involved operation than on standard notebooks. Given the specs, this won’t be an issue right away, but it could be annoying a few years down the line.

Toshiba Satellite E305 Multimedia and Gaming:

When it comes to enjoying multimedia content, the Toshiba E3o5 will support pretty much any video you throw at it from Hulu and Netflix to 1080P videos and Blu-Ray movies. We had a stellar multimedia experience on this notebook in terms of media playback.

As far as gaming, the E305 can play many modern games thanks to the improvements in the integrated Intel HD 3000 graphics, playing Portal 2 perfectly on the default settings. Unfortunately, we did have to dial own the settings to get Just Cause 2 to run at a near playable performance, so you will want to look elsewhere for a real gaming notebook that can handle the high end games.

Toshiba Satellite E305 Audio and Speakers

The Toshiba Satellite E305 has Dolby Advanced Audio and a good pair of built in speakers which are able to drive your sound for a medium sized room and sounded great while gaming. Dolby Advanced Audio does help out, delivering a noticeable amount of depth over most notebook speakers, but we still would pick up a nice pair of 2.1 speakers to keep on our desk at home or we would stream over WiDi 2.0 to our home theater.

Toshiba Satellite E305 Heat and Noise

The Satellite E305 does pretty well on the heat and noise front. During normal use, such as browsing the web, checking email and working in office documents with some music on you won’t need to worry about any issue in regards to heat or noise from the fans.

If you decide to do some gaming though, you better have a table or a laptop cooler handy. After an hour of portal the right rear of the notebook was too hot to touch. The fan was also running quite a bit, but with the audio cranked up we couldn’t hear it. Bottom line, the E305 can get hot, but only when you’re pushing the machine.

Toshiba Satellite E305 Battery Life

Using the Laptop Mag battery testing tool we were able to achieve 6 hours of web surfing on the Toshiba Satellite E305 with the screen set at a still usable 40% brightness. The notebook should be able to hit the 7 hour mark if you dialed back the brightness even further. We found the battery life pretty impressive given the powerful Core i5 processor.

Toshiba Satellite E305 Connectivity:

The Satellite E305 has all of the ports you would expect on a premium mainstream notebook including USB 3.0 and HDMI.

Left: Power, Ethernet, USB 2.0, USB 3.0, Blu-Ray

Right: Headphone, Microphone, USB 2.0, HDMI, VGA, Vent, Kensington

Front: Speakers and SD Card Reader

Rear: Battery

Toshiba Satellite E305 Webcam:

The Satellite E305has a built in webcam that will get the job done, but does deliver a rather dull color spectrum. You can see a sample image below which fails to really pop out at you. We found that the webcam was acceptable for sporadic use, but not one we would want to use for a Skype job interview.

Toshiba Satellite E305 Software:

The E305 comes with the standard collection of Toshiba software including Reel Time and Toshiba Bulletin Board. Our review unit had Norton Internet Security, but the retail version should come with a one year subscription to Kaspersky Antivirus as part of the Blue Label program.

The Satellite E305 also includes the Toshiba Eco Mode software which helps you control your power use to go “green” or just to keep your battery life and power bills in check. The System didn’t come loaded with a lot of the junk we normally find on consumer notebooks. The Best Buy App Store is included, but is easy to uninstall or turn off so that it does not pester you.

Toshiba Satellite E305 Value:

The Toshiba Satellite E305 is available for $899 to $929 at Best Buy and includes everything you need to get started. While the E305 is more expensive than a run of the mill notebook, it offers everything you should expect in a premium mainstream notebook and offers a significant value. It’s quite possible that the E305 is the best Windows notebook you can find on the shelves at Best Buy.

Toshiba Satellite E305 Conclusion:

The Toshiba Satellite E305 is without a doubt one of our favorite notebooks for 2011.  The combination of features and extras come together to deliver an impressive overall package that is available to consumers at $900. Given everything that is included we would expect to see this notebook priced above $1,000 easily, but the Blue Label 3.0 notebooks once again deliver.

Pros:

• Metal Case
• Wireless Display 2.0
• AntiTheft Service
• Hybrid Hard Drive
• WiMax
• Overall Performance
• Backlit Keyboard

Cons:

• Picky Spacebar
• No Easy access to Internals

Toshiba Satellite E305 Gallery:

Toshiba Satellite E305 Detailed Specs:

• 2.3GHz Intel® Core  i5-2410M processor
• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
• 14.0″ widescreen
• 4GB DDR3 1333MHz memory
• 500GB HDD (7200rpm, Hybrid 4G Serial ATA)
• Intel® HD 3000 Integrated Graphics
• Wireless Display 2.0
• 2 Year Warranty
• 3 Year Anti-Theft Protection
• USB 3.0
• WiMax

Toshiba Satellite E305-S1990 Review: Blue Label Notebook – Editor’s Choice is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

The Best Buy Blue Label 3.0 notebooks include the latest 2nd generation Intel Core i5 processors and new features for the Blue Label line, as well as features that you won’t normally see on mainstream consumer notebooks.

• Seagate Hybrid Drive Hard drives for 50% faster booting (see our review of a similar Seagate Hybrid drive)
• Anti Theft Technology from Intel (Hands on with Intel PC Theft Defense)
• 7 Hour or better battery
• 2 year warranty standard
• Intel Wireless Display 2.0 with adapter included (1080P streaming and more)
• Blu-ray Player
• Backlit keyboard

The Sony Vaio Blue Label notebook has a 13.3″ display, 7.5 hour battery life and weighs 3.89 pounds. The Toshiba E305 has a 14″ display, 7 hour and 10 minute battery life and weighs 4.95 pounds. Both of these notebooks have a 2.30GHz 2nd Gen Intel Core i5-2410M processor, 4GB RAM and a 500GB Hybrid 7200RPM hard drive.

Here’s our hands on with the Toshiba E305 notebook from CES 2011. We have one of these one the way to review and will be posting an in depth look very soon.

These new Blue Label 3.0 notebooks are up for pre-order right now at Best Buy and what we really like is that these include everything you need to get going, including the WiDi 2.0 adapter which allows you to actually make use of the built in Wireless Display 2.0 technology.

You can pre order the new Sony Vaio VPCSC1AFM/S for $949 starting today and also pre order the Toshiba E305 notebook for $899 today. Best Buy hasn’t listed a ship date for these notebooks, but we expect to see them arriving soon.

Overall, these notebooks look like they will offer an incredible value to consumers looking for a feature packed notebook, without a huge price tag.

Here’s more information on the Intel Anti Theft technology found in Blue Label 3.0 laptops.

Best Buy Blue Label 3.0 Notebooks Launch With 2nd Gen Intel, Hybrid Drives, WiDi 2.0 & More is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

Lenovo B560

This is the first time that Lenovo notebooks will be sold in Best Buy and is a very important move for Lenovo as many users still prefer to see and feel their notebooks before purchasing. The main focus will be on the IdeaPad line of consumer notebooks, but at the start, the primary notebook will be the IdeaPad V565.

Best Buy has carried the Lenovo ThinkPad Edge notebooks in Best Buy for Business locations since late 2010 and you have been able to order some Lenovo notebooks at BestBuy.com, but this is the first time the consumer notebooks will hit the shelves of Best Buy.

First up will be the IdeaPad Z565, an AMD Phenom II Dual Core powered 15.6″ notebook that is designed to deliver, “the ultimate entertainment experience” with Dolby Advanced Audio and OneKey Theater II.

The Lenovo V560, a 15.6″ metal chassis notebook with WiMAX, will also be arriving at Best Buy, but only at 200 retail locations. This notebook uses a Core i3 processor and has a built-in fingerprint reader.

The Lenovo notebooks are being welcomed to Best Buy with a Reward Zone promotion that will give members double reward zone points for any Lenovo PC purchase made in April.

As we mentioned, this is a big deal for Lenovo, and for any consumers who have been thinking of getting a Lenovo notebook. Even with the many notebook reviews out there, it is still incredibly important for many users to actually touch the notebooks that they want to purchase, and Best Buy is one of the primary places that American’s shop for notebooks, laptops and tablets.

Lenovo IdeaPad Notebooks Arrive at Best Buy Stores April 3rd is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

Asus Eee Pad Transformer with Optional Dock

The Eee Pad Transformer has a 10.1″ IPS touchscreen display with a 1280×800 resolution and is powered by the NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor and 1GB of RAM. For storage there is a 16GB of onboard storage and access to ASUS WebStorage for a free year of additional unlimited storage. The EeePad comes with built in WiFi and Bluetooth 2.1 as well as allows for numerous connectivity options with a 4 in 1 card reader and two USB 2.0 ports. The Transformer also has a 1.2MP webcam for video chat and a 5.0 MP rear facing webcam for recording and taking snapshots. The tablet alone has a claimed 9.5 hours of battery life.

Asus Eee Pad Transformer Side

The Eee Pad Transformer lives most of the time as a tablet, but if you want to use it as a notebook, you can attach an EeePad Transformer base which gives you a keyboard and combines to bring the battery life of the EeePad Transformer up to 16 hours of battery life. The keyboard base isn’t included in the price, which is a bit disappointing since without the keyboard it won’t be doing much transforming. The keyboard dock will likely be available shortly for around $100, bringing the price right in line with the 16GB WiFi only iPad.

UPDATE: We are hearing that the Keyboard dock may retail for $150. Still a decent deal, but not as attractive to potential buyers as coming in at the same pricepoint as the iPad 2.

Asus Eee Pad Transformer Front

The Eee Pad Transformer is powered by Android 3.0 HoneyComb, the same operating system that runs the Motorola Xoom. The Android HoneyComb tablet operating system is still very young and doesn’t have the same number of apps that the iPad App store has, but it may fit the needs of some users off the bat thanks to access to the web for apps like Google Docs and more.

The Eee Pad Transformer may prove to be a good tablet choice for users that want a tablet, but also want a keyboard, and don’t want to spend the $599 that would be required to add a keyboard case like the ZaggMat iPad keyboard case to the iPad or iPad 2.

Asus Eee Pad Transformer Keyboard Via Netbook News

The Eee Pad Transformer keyboard dock has a chiclet style keyboard that looks about on par with a good netbook keyboard and has a mousepad built in for navigating. Additionally, you can use the touchscreen while it is docked.

The Eee Pad looks like it may do what other manufacturers are having trouble with, beating the iPad on price, even with the keyboard dock. Since this will be available at Best Buy, we may see more consumers looking at Android Tablets instead of netbooks and the iPad 2 pretty soon.

Asus Eee Pad Transformer Back

Best Buy and ASUS have not announced a U.S. release date, but we expect to see the Eee Pad Transformer hit Best Buy shelves within the next few weeks.

Check out the NetbookNews ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Hands On Video:

via NetbookNews

EeePad Transformer Notebook/Tablet Coming To Best Buy for $400 (video) is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.

Over at our sister site, Gottabemobile.com, the team put together some great coverage of the day as well as what to do when you get yours home.

Our editor Josh Smith posted some video of interviews he took of would-be iPad buyers in line at an Ohio Apple Store.

We were also on hand at the Best Buy in Hickory, NC where the buying experience was pretty smooth except for one poor customer who despite being first in line was didn’t get an iPad because they ran out. Check out that sad story.

Lines were pretty long at most Apple stores. Including the New York store where a woman who got their early cashed in by selling her place in line for $900. Our publisher Xavier Lanier went buy one in San Francisco and found 200 people already waiting at 2:00 PM.

200 in Line at San Francisco Mall Apple Store

With iPads in hand the team went to work checking out Apple’s new tablet. Warner Crocker watched as a friend unboxed his first ever iPad and got some first impressions.

They also have some good advice coming on what to do with your new iPad 2. Josh posted the Top 5 Things to make sure you do before downloading some of the new apps and games that take advantage of the great iPad 2 hardware.

Apple iPad 2 Has Arrived at Gottabemobile is a post by Kevin Purcell from Notebooks.com.

Gateway NV50A02u Quick Specs:

This budget notebook from Gateway has a 2.1 GHz AMD Phenom II Triple Core processor, 4GB DDR3 RAM and a 500GB hard drive. The 15.6″ display has a 1366×768 resolution and is powered by an ATI Radeon HD 4250 GPU with 256MB video RAM.

What can the Gateway NV50A02u Do?

The NV50A02u is suited for the needs of home, student and some small business users. The Triple core processor should provide enough power to handle web browsing, office documents and the photo and video editing needs of average users. With this combo, you will notice an impact in performance while doing intensive tasks like processing a video file to share on YouTube.

Gateway NV50A02u Features:

This notebook has a wave pattern on the lid, similar to the Gateway NV51B05u which we have in for review with the AMD Fusion processor, which looks nice and keeps fingerprints at bay. The laptop has a webcam and comes with Skype preinstalled. The HDMI port makes it easy to connect to your HDTV.

The NV50A02 has a Social Media button which is to the right of the number pad and provides one touch access to the social networking sites.

Gateway NV50A02 Battery Life:

The battery is rated for just under 4 hours, but it will likely come in closer to 3 hours with normal use.

Gateway NV50A02 Gallery:

Gateway NV50A02 Specs:

• 2.1GHz AMD Phenom™ II triple-core processor N830
• 4GB DDR3 SDRAM , expandable to 8GB.
• Multiformat DVD±RW/CD-RW drive with double-layer support
• 15.6″ TFT-LCD high-definition widescreen display with Ultrabright technology and 1366 x 768 resolution
• 500GB Serial ATA hard drive (5400 rpm)
• ATI Radeon HD 4250 graphics with 256MB dedicated video memory for lush images and HDMI output for connection to an HDTV.
• Social Media key - Allows easy access to popular Web sites, such as Facebook, YouTube and Flickr.
• Built-in 1.3MP high-definition webcam with 1280 x 1024 resolution and built-in microphone
• 2-in-1 digital media reader
• 3 high-speed USB 2.0 ports
• Built-in wireless LAN (802.11b/g/n)
• Built-in 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN with RJ-45 connector
• Weighs 5.7 lbs. and measures just 1.3″ thin
• Dedicated numeric keypad for easy number entry.
• Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Edition 64-bit operating system

Gateway NV50A02u at Best Buy for $399: Details, Specs & Pics is a post by Josh Smith from Notebooks.com.