For a list price of $478—the price you might pay for a refurbished machine on one of those deal-of-the-day Web sites—you get a fairly well-equipped notebook with a 15.6-inch screen, an Intel Core i3 processor, 6GB of RAM, and other mainstream-grade goodies. ( When we wrote this, we saw this model as low as $429 on Walmart.com.)
Granted, its plain-Jane looks underwhelm, and performance falls short of more expensive machines, especially when compared to newer models equipped with Intel “Ivy Bridge” processors. But its speed is more than adequate for most users.