Prices of Laptops, Refurbished Tablets, HDTVs Falling Through the Floor

If you're looking for a new laptop, a 46-inch HDTV or refurbished tablet, June will be a good month for you, according to the price watchers at DealNews.com.

Laptop deals during the month will be driven by the introduction of new models sporting Intel's Ivy Bridge processor, DealNews noted in its monthly "Best and Worst" report.

The price watchers explained that new notebooks with Ivy Bridge will push prices down for laptops with that processor's predecessor, Sandy Bridge. Prices for desktop replacements with Sandy Bridge are already at all-time lows, they observed, and the new Ivy Bridge systems will further chop prices.

"Best of all," DealNews reported, "since their debut on April 30, 16-inch Ivy Bridge-based laptops have also dropped 23 percent in price (falling from $1,010 to $770 in a span of weeks)."

In mid May, a 16-inch Ivy Bridge systems with 8GB of RAM, dedicated 1GB video cards and 1TB hard drives, and in some instances built-in Blu-ray players, sold for $770, the price watchers said.

If you can't afford to buy a new Apple or Android tablet, you'll be able to take advantage in June of slipping prices for refurbished slates, DealNews predicted. Apple's already clipped the price to $319 on the base configuration of a refurbished iPad 2, it said, and prices for previously-owned Motorola Xooms, Samsung Galaxy Tabs and Blackberry PlayBooks have reached all-time lows.

When buying a refurbished unit, you should pay close attention to the warranty on the device. A one-year warranty is ideal for a refurbished device.

Although June isn't typically a good month for buying an LCD HDTV, DealNews has spotted some softness in the price of name-brand 46- and 47-inch HDTVs. The price hawks have eyed deals during the last two months on 46-inch sets selling at $490.

Those deals, they said, are better than bargains during what's typically the best time to buy a TV: the holiday season. They noted that in November 2011, similar sets sold for $598 and in December for $549. "Look for models from Sharp or Toshiba priced at $490 or lower," they advised.

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