Retailers continue to liquidate last year's goods — this week, we've got almost $200 off the iPhone 5c and even larger savings on a semi-rugged Samsung Galaxy S4. Also featured are a super cheap SSD, RAM and a Surface Pro, among other wallet-friendly options.

Tablet and Smartphone Users

Looking for high end smartphones at cut-rate prices? This week we've got a Samsung Galaxy S4 Active (water resistant) and an iPhone 5c at a bargain!

16GB Virgin Mobile Apple iPhone 5C [No Longer Available]

2014-02-26_20h32_39
  • Price: $359.99; compare to $549.99 brand new
  • Retailer: Virgin Mobile – Buy it Now!

This deal remains the best I've ever seen on the iPhone 5c. Unfortunately, it comes locked to Virgin Mobile. Virgin Mobile, in my opinion, ranks among the best MVNOs (what's an MVNO?) offering prepaid service on the Sprint network.

Their monthly plans begin at $35 per month, offering 300 minutes of talk time and unlimited data (throttled after 2.5GB) and messaging. It also includes 4G, wherever the Sprint network offers 4G. Check your coverage, here.

Samsung Galaxy S4 Active 16GB [Broken URL Removed] (Refurbished and Unlocked)

samsung galaxy s4 active
  • Price: $389.99; compare to $699.99 MSRP
  • Retailer: eBay — Buy it Now [Broken URL Removed]

The Samsung Galaxy S4 Active is a semi-ruggedized phone, offering water resistance, a quad core Snapdragon 600, 2GB of RAM and LTE connectivity. The phone comes unlocked so you can add service to it using an MVNO (what's an MVNO?) and save a huge amount on your monthly cellular bill. According to the seller, these are manufacturer refurbished units, offering a "Samsung warranty" – that could mean a full year, but I have my suspicions about that. Refurbished warranties typically hover between 60 and 90 days.

Also see:

  • Apple iPad 2 16GB from $259 via Walmart [No Longer Available]

Laptop Users

Ever want to try out the Surface Pro but couldn't stand the price? Well now it's finally affordable!

Microsoft Surface Pro 64GB (Refurbished)

surface pro
  • Price: $479.99; compare to $799.99 MSRP
  • Retailer: Microsoft — Buy it Now

The original Surface Pro offers very good specs and build quality. It includes a 10.6-inch screen with 1920x1080 resolution, 4GB of RAM and a low voltage variant on the Ivy Bridge (2012) Core i5 CPU. As far as hybrid laptop-tablets go, the Surface remains one of the best. While it was initially overpriced when it entered the market, the Surface Pro now offers a very good price for the hardware. It also includes a one-year warranty, despite it being a refurbished model.

On the downside, the nearly half of the 64GB hard drive is consumed by Windows 8, which doesn't leave much for software. Fortunately there's a similarly discounted 128GB model, for $549.99, found at the same link above.

System Builders

This week, we've got great deals on a cheap SSD boot drive and 8GB of RAM!

8GB Patriot Viper Xtreme (2x4GB Stick)

patriot vipre xtreme
  • Price: $54.99 after $30 MIR; compare to $84.99
  • Retailer: Tiger Direct — Buy it Now
  • Rebate: Download

It's hard finding good deals on RAM nowadays. The timings on this particular brand are CAS10 – not particularly great, but unless your system build incorporates an APU (what's an APU?) RAM timings don't make that large a difference for most kinds of operation.

Keep in mind that rebates require that you process paperwork. Download the rebate form and fill it out as soon as possible. There are a few tricks to getting rebates properly paid.

SanDisk 64GB SSD

sandisk
  • Price: $54.99; compare to 89.99 MSRP
  • Retailer: Newegg – Buy it Now

Recently a lot of good deals on solid state drives popped up (how do SSDs work?). Finding a really low price isn't all that easy. While you can get a 120GB SSD for about $20-30 more, if you only need a small amount of storage (for a boot drive), these well-priced SanDisk drives offer the best value. Over a traditional hard disk drive, an SSD delivers astounding performance and can make many slower machines much snappier.

However, you will want to optimize your system for SSDs. And for many Windows users, you will want to slim your installation size down.

Also see:

  • AMD FX-8320 8-Core AM3+ CPU for $149.99 via Tiger Direct
  • Kingston SSDNow V300 120GB SSD for $65.99 via Newegg
  • Samsung 840 EVO 250GB for $144.99 via NCIX (this deal is HOT!)

Conclusion

The iPhone 5c from Virgin Mobile is a really killer deal for anyone looking for an unlocked smartphone. I also love the deals on the Surface Pro and the Samsung Galaxy S4 -- although they come refurbished, they both include (supposedly) a year-long warranty, which is as good as new.

That's it for this week! Check back in next week for the same low prices.