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Lenovo, Dell, and more: This week's best deals on laptops

It is among the best times of the year to buy a new laptop, Ramirez says. He shares the best deals on Lenovo, Hewlett-Packard, and Dell laptops of the week.

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Jeff Chiu/AP/File
An Acer Aspire laptop, left, and a Lenovo IdeaPad U310 Touch are displayed at a demo table at a Microsoft event in San Francisco, Calif. in June 2013.
  • By Louis Ramirez Contributor

We are entering the best weeks of the year (besides Black Friday weekend) to buy a new laptop. As such, this week's top laptop sales include a desktop replacement showdown between HP and Lenovo and (point, Lenovo) a new price low on Lenovo's just-released "twist-and-rip" Helix laptop/tablet hybrid.

1. Lenovo Helix Intel Ivy Bridge Core i5 1.8GHz 11.6" LED-Backlit Convertible Ultrabook

Store: Lenovo
 Price: $1,477.52 via coupon code "THINKBTS" with free shipping
 Lowest By: $202
 Expires: August 14

Is It Worth It?: Announced at CES 2013, the Lenovo Helix is a laptop/tablet hybrid with a "flip-and-rip" system, meaning you can rotate the laptop's display 180 degrees and use it in "presentation mode" or remove the screen completely to use as an independent tablet. And because it's part of Lenovo's ThinkPad line, it's one of the few business hybrids we've seen. CNET calls it a "solidly built laptop-tablet hybrid with all the security features your IT department needs," though they also question the Helix's high price, especially since it's running last year's tech. However, this 3.7-lb. machine remains at an all time low price. Features an Ivy Bridge Core i5 dual-core 1.8GHz CPU, 4GB of RAM, and a 128GB SSD.

2. Lenovo G780 Intel Ivy Bridge Core i7 2.1GHz 17.3" LED-Backlit Laptop

Store: Lenovo
 Price: $629 via coupon code "BACKTOSCHOOLIDEA" with free shipping
 Lowest By: $370
 Expires: August 14

Is It Worth It?: At 6.6 lbs., the Lenovo G780 is the heaviest system in our roundup this week. However, this desktop replacement also packs some of the best hardware including a quad-core Ivy Bridge Core i7 2.1GHz CPU, 8GB of RAM, and a 500GB hard drive.

3. HP ENVY 17t-j000 Intel Haswell Core i7 2.4GHz 17.3" Laptop

Store: HP Home & Home Office
 Price: $866.14 via coupon code "MU4836" with $9.99 s&h
 Lowest By: $153
 Expires: August 18

Is It Worth It?: Need more horsepower than what the G780 offers? For about $15 more, the ENVY 17t-j000 trumps the G780 in every category. The 6.3-lb. desktop replacement features a 1080p display, a current-gen Haswell Core i7 quad-core 2.4GHz CPU, 8GB of RAM, and a 1TB hard drive with a 24GB SSD. Even better, the 17t-j000 also packs a Blu-ray/DVD combo drive, proving that desktop replacements are still alive and kicking.

4. ASUS Intel Celeron 1.5GHz 11.6" Touchscreen Laptop

Store: Best Buy
 Price: $329.99 with free shipping
 Lowest By: $20
 Expires: August 17

Is It Worth It?: With its 1.5GHz Celeron processor, the ASUS Q200E isn't going to break any speed barriers. However, this $330 laptop packs something few budget laptops do — a touchscreen display. The 3.1-lb. machine, which is the cheapest touch-capable ASUS laptop we've seen, features 4GB of RAM and a 320GB hard drive.

5. Lenovo IdeaPad U510 Intel Ivy Bridge Core i7 2GHz 15.6" Laptop

Store: Lenovo
 Price: $599 via coupon code "USPU564808" with free shipping
 Lowest By: $400

Is It Worth It?: A popular system in our weekly roundups, this Core i7-based IdeaPad U510 is tied with last week's mention as the cheapest price we've ever seen for this laptop. The 4.9-lb. notebook packs a dual-core 2GHz Ivy Bridge CPU, 6GB of RAM, and a 500GB hard drive.

6. Dell Inspiron 15R Intel Pentium 1.9GHz 15.6" Laptop

Store: Staples
 Price: $299.99 with free shipping
 Lowest By: $80
 Expires: August 17

Is It Worth It?: Dell's Inspiron 15 is one of the most ubiquitous machines in the industry and although we've listed it countless times, this configuration is particularly noteworthy as it's one of the cheapest we've seen. The 4.9-lb. laptop packs a Pentium 2127 dual-core CPU clocked at 1.9GHz, 4GB of RAM, and a 500GB hard drive.

Louis Ramirez is a senior features writer at dealnews.com, where this article first appeared. Original article: http://dealnews.com/features/best-laptop-deals/

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