Laptop Comparison popular laptop brands: Dell, Toshiba, HP, Compaq, Sony

My cheapest laptop comparison chart should help you decide which laptop brand offers the best value for the money. You do it by considering the Overall Score and the price. This comparison doesn't consider reliability or looks; an Overall Score was calculated for each laptop based only on technical features and performance. A combination of Overall Score and a price is your pure value for the money. The chart is designed to compare cheapest laptops from the 5 most popular laptop brands, Dell, Toshiba, HP, Compaq, Sony. It compares these 5 low-end cheapest laptop buys at the prices that are current as of June 2007, and with the base configurations: Dell Inspiron 1501, Toshiba Satellite A133, HP Pavilion dv6000z, Compaq Presario C500T, Sony VAIO N Series.
What I discovered - See the comparison
I believe this laptop comparison gives away some interesting insight on ... laptop brand competition. Wow, it appears that HP now competes with Toshiba (at least in the low-end laptops) and lets its cheaper brand Compaq compete with Dell, while Sony stands apart. A proof to it is the prices!!! Dell price is close to Compaq, HP is very close to Toshiba, and Sony is priced way higher. Compaq is willing to slash $200 of the price to compete, just to match the low-end laptop offers from Dell. What also became apparent is what was expected: the lower the price the less value you get - Dell and Compaq present the least value for the least money.
What else is interesting is that they score the same but based on different features, so it looks like one brand is trying to offer an overall value similar to another brand but at the different marketing angle. For example where Dell is trying to offer a more versatile laptop (ability to read many media formats, more USB ports, cheaper extended warranty), Compaq offers a more powerful laptop (a slightly faster processor, bigger hard drive, more cache memory and a longer battery life). Sony holds its prices while the rest are engaged in the out-right war slashing prices and coming up with new incentives every week. Brand recognition is everything. Sony's cheapest laptop starts with the Intel Pentium Dual-Core processor - Sony doesn't go as low as Dell or Toshiba or HP. This is reflected in Sony laptop prices. See chart for complete comparison.

Specs	Dell	Toshiba	HP	Compaq	Sony
Cheapest Laptops at base prices as of June 15, 2007
Model	Inspiron 1501	Satellite A133	Pavilion dv6000z	Presario C500T	VAIO N
Price	$499 (w/$100 instant rebate)	$599 (w/$50 instant rebate)	$589 (w/$100 instant rebate)	$449 (w/$200 instant rebate)	$899
Display	15.4"	15.4"	15.4"	15.4"	15.4"
CPU Processor	Mobile AMD Sempron 3500+	Intel Celeron M 440	Mobile AMD Sempron 3500+	Intel Celeron M 440	Intel Pentium Dual-Core T2060
Speed	1.80 GHz	1.86 GHz	1.80 GHz	1.86 GHz	1.60 GHz *
Hard Drive	60 GB SATA 5400RPM	60 GB SATA 5400RPM	80 GB SATA 5400RPM	80 GB SATA 5400RPM	120 GB SATA 5400RPM
Main Memory	512 MB	512 MB	512 MB	512 MB	1 GB
Cache Memory	512 KB	1 MB	512 KB	1 MB	1 MB
Video Card Memory	256 MB (Shared)	256 MB (Shared)	256 MB (Shared)	224 MB (Shared)	224 MB (Shared)
CD, CD-RW, DVD	CD-RW/DVD Combo	CD-RW/DVD Combo	CD-RW/ DVD+/-R/RW w/Double Layer	CD-RW/DVD combo	CD-RW/ DVD+/-R/RW w/Double Layer
Battery Life (max)	2.0 hours	3 hours	3.5 hours	3.5 hours	4.0 hours
Weight	6.19 lbs	5.83 lbs	6.09 lbs	6.6 lbs	6.5 lbs
10/100 Network Card (RJ45 port)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
56K Modem	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Wireless Card	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Mobile Card *	No	No	No	No	No
Integrated Audio	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Floppy Drive	No	No	No	No	No
Media Card Reader	3-in-1	1-Type II PC Card Slot	5-in-1	none	3 incl. ExpressCard 34
USB Ports	4 USB 2.0	4 USB 2.0	3 USB 2.0	3 USB 2.0	2 USB 2.0
FireWire Port (iLink)	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Operating System	Vista Home Basic	Vista Home Basic	Vista Home Basic	Vista Home Basic	Vista Home Premium
Anti-Virus Software	Not included	Not included	Not included	Included	Included
CD/DVD Burning Software	Not included	Not included	Not included	Included	Included
Standard Warranty	1 year	1 year	1 year	1 year	1 year
Return Policy	21 days	up to 25 days	21 days	21 days	30 days
Extended Warranty (max)	4 year - $340	3 year - $179	4 year - $329	3 year - $349	5 year - $349
Free Internet Shipping	Yes	No	Yes	No	No
Overall Score	5	8	8	5	13

Recommendations
What else is interesting is that Dell or Compaq are only 1.8 times cheaper than Sony, but they present 2.6 less value than Sony. (Also, Sony is only 1.5 times more expensive than Toshiba or HP but presents 1.6 times more value.) This makes Sony a very good buy, in my view. In fact, I recommend this Sony laptop as a best college laptop for students.(give link to college laps?). The extended warranty options are unmatched. Vaio N has extensive connectivity options including ExpressCard, up-to-date fast dual processor, large hard drive and plenty of memory. Gives you some prestige, too ;). Providing Sony's well-known quality, Sony Vaio N is my laptop of choice this June 2007.

How brands/models were picked
I picked these 5 cheapest laptops based on my previous observations about laptop brand popularity. Cheapest model from each brand out of the first 4 on the 15 best laptop list; Compaq got included with HP. I run a value comparison chart by features between Dell, HP, Compaq, Toshiba and Sony laptops.
Score Calculation
How I decided on Overall Score ... Each model was given an initial score of 0. For each compared option I determined its bottom line value, and then added 1 point for every above bottom value. Whenever all models have the same option, they each get 0 points. So, for example, Sony VAIO N, Toshiba Satellite A133 and HP Pavilion dv6000z get +1 point for the FireWire port, the other get 0.
Additional Feature Details
* Mobile Broadband Express Card to establish wireless connection via cell phone tower. Requires wireless subscription similar to a mobile phone plan through Verizon or Cingular.
* Like Roxio Creator 9 Premier: Burn CDs and DVDs, Edit Video.
* 1.6 GHz on Dual-Core CPU equates to close to 3.2 GHz on Single-Core CPU.