During the last couple of years mobile handset costs have come down, whilst the cost of mobile contracts sold by the networks has remained largely unaltered (although you now get more inclusive inclusive minutes and text messages). This means the value of a cell phone is proportionally lower than it was when compared against the overall price of a mobile contract. In the past mobile phone retailers would provide free handsets by way of an inducement for buyers to purchase a contract. In the past some retailers would even charge for the mobile in addition to the price of the contract. Cell phones were, at that time extremely expensive, and often seen as a premium product or status symbol. Today with more widespread use and resulting economies of scale even the top cell phones are affordable.

Strangely this presents something of a dilemma for mobile retailers who are trying to market cell phone deals by way of of incentives offered to their customers. The result has been increases in the number of different deals with incentives, for example mobile phones with a free broadband dongle, mobile phones with fee TV sets, mobile phones with free instant cash back, and even mobile phones with free laptops.

Laptop computers are another example of a product that was once very expensive, but due to increased sales and the resulting mass production are now relatively cheap. As laptops tend to need upgrading frequently, with a life cycle that matches that of a mobile phone, the odds are that by the time your mobile phone is out of date, your laptop will as well.

Thus mobile phones with free laptop computers have become the most sought after deals on offer at the moment. There are a range of different deals on offer, but the most popular are those offering low cost laptops by manufacturers like HP, Acer, HP and Fujitsu Siemens. More recently it has become possible to find Sony laptops available as Sony have moved into the low cost sector.

When searching for a mobile phone with free laptop the important thing is to find out the true value of that particular laptop computer, and compare that to the other deals with incentives available, specifically, find out whether there are any instant cash back incentives given on the contract. It may be that you may be able to get a better deal if you take a mobile phone with instant cash-back, or a 12 month free line rental offer and use the money to buy a laptop from an online computer store.

Make sure you do some background research into the laptops themselves. Try looking at some of the e-commerce stores that contain customer reviews. For example, you can find customer reviews of laptop computers on Amazon and many other stores. Weblogs and forums are also another place you can look for consumer reviews, but remember, a lot of these customer reviews are personal opinion, so be sure to read as many as you can for a more accurate picture of the product.

When researching which free laptop computer to go for, you will observe there are many differences between the manufacturers. For instance Acer make highly featured machines at low cost, but, the overall quality is poor. Fujitsu Siemens and Toshiba laptops are often better build quality, but will not be as well featured as an Acer when comparing laptops of the same value. There are also some other more obscure brands available such as E-Machines which may be worth considering. The main thing to watch out for with the lesser known budget brands is the type of CPU installed. Try to stick to a machine equipped with Intel or AMD processors as these processors are the industry leaders and you are unlikely to encounter any problems when with these brands.

Whether you are looking for a new mobile phone, or a new laptop the enhanced cellular phone deals with free laptop computers are well worth a look. There are some exceptional offers to be had, but, you have to be prepared to do a little background in order to get the best out of them.