Great deals: $50 off any tablet or computer at Staples

staples-coupon-2011-07-16 — Image used with permission by copyright holder

In the market for a new tablet, laptop, or desktop computer? Well, Chris Chavez of Phandroid has found a Staples coupon that gives you $50 off of any of these items, if you purchase them in person at a Staples store. For your convenience, here is the Staples store locater and here is a link to the coupon, which is valid through 7/16/2011 (Saturday). So if you want to take advantage, you’ll have to get moving. We have not tested the coupon, but it does appear to be legitimate and comes directly from Staples.com.

We did a quick perusal of the Staples online catalog. Our recommendations are below, though please do your own ancillary research before purchasing anything. Unfortunately, Staples doesn’t appear to carry the iPad, but it does have most of the major Android tablets, some of which are very good.

Tablets

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1: It’s as thin as an iPad
Toshiba Thrive: We’re reviewing this tablet right now, but like the Acer Iconia Tab A500 (also a decent tablet), it has a full USB port, but Toshiba takes its PC qualities further, offering a removable battery, full HDMI port, and full SD card reader.
Asus Eee Pad Transformer: We haven’t spent too much time with this device, but we love the idea of having a tablet that has a good keyboard attached to it. If you’re mostly interested in browsing and light activities like email, this can probably suit most any need you have. With the keyboard, it gets amazing battery life as well.

Laptops

All three of the High Performance laptops from Staples appear to be decent deals, offering 750GB hard drives, 6GB of RAM, and Intel Core i5-i7 processors, which should do you well for the $650-$700. If you want something lighter, there are other options.

Desktops

Not interested in a laptop, huh? Well, there are a few reasonable desktop computers, but pickings are slim. The full list is here.

If you have any recommendations from Staples, or tablets and computers others should steer clear of, let us know in the comments below.