Best Laptop Under $1,000

[Paulonius]

Looking for a laptop for my mother in law. 

I could build it I suppose, but since she is willing to spend the money, I would rather buy finished with pre-loaded software.  She will need Microsoft Office (Word and Outlook).

She has been using Dell for while.  Any suggestions?

[Masscre]

When does she want it? I recommend waiting for Black sunday sales in november if she can wait to november?

[Paulonius]

She won't want to wait.  She doesn't have an alternative and the one she was using appears to have just died.

[12TimesOver]

I just bought a new Dell laptop and I love it. It's a Studio 1558, i5, 6gig ram, 500gig hd, 1080p, surround sound, 1 gig radeon and I got it for just over $800 + tax with free shipping.

I would recommend watching Dell Outlet for refurb/extra's and keep an eye on the Dell Outlet Twitter page for coupon codes. Actually, on slickdeals.net there was just a code for 20-25% off any Dell Outlet laptop purchase. These come with full warranty's, some are even new builds that people cancelled after the build was done. Great discounts.

You don't want to build a laptop, it's not cost effective like a desktop can be. Also, you will probably be better off not getting Office packaged on the device but get it from somewhere else cheaper. Especially if you can get hold of a .edu email address (education discounts 4TW!).

Just my .02

Black Friday is great if you can wait but the best laptops never go on frigging sale LOL!!! doesn't stop me from spending too damn much money though

X

[Masscre]

Dell Studio 1555

Might want to check it out!?

NoteBook Intel Core 2 Duo T6600(2.20GHz) 15.6" 4GB Memory 500GB HDD 7200rpm DVD±R/RW Intel GMA 4500MHD

579.00 $
 

[Paulonius]

I did some poking around on consumer reports and they like the HP Pavilion dv7-4070us. Rates higher than any other laptop on their site, which surprised me. She wants the bigger laptop, so this might be what we end up getting.

http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/product/WQ635UA%2523ABA  

Consumer Reports has repair rankings for systems based on 75,000 user reviews that I thought were Interesting:

Brand Reliability

No one brand stood out as the most reliable among laptop brands. That's what we found out when we asked more than 75,000 readers who bought a laptop between 2005 and 2009 about their experiences.

This graph shows the percentage of brands that have ever been repaired or had a serious problem. We've adjusted the data to eliminate differences due to age or whether the computer was covered by an extended warranty. Differences of fewer than 3 points aren't meaningful.

Models within a brand might vary, and changes in design or manufacture might affect reliability. Still, choosing a brand with a good repair history can improve your odds of getting a reliable model.
 
Brand Repairs and Serious Problems
Laptop computers  
Toshiba 16  
Sony 17  
Compaq 18  
Acer 19  
Apple 19  
HP 20  
Gateway 20  
Dell 21  
Lenovo 21  
Source: Annual Product Reliability Survey, Consumer Reports National Research Center

The number is the percentage of computers that required some form of repair.

[Masscre]

Aren't HP and Compaq now the actual same company?

[Cerveza]

HERE is a new article about laptop choices.