Just got mine for $449 from Staples Brick and Mortar. They honored a coupon code for $75 that rang up as $150 off their already low price of $599.Personally I don't have any issues with the Atom processor at all. It's excellent at what it does.People just need to be realistic - it's not going to perform like an Intel Core CPU but you're getting double or even triple the battery life.It's also nothing like the Atom processors of old, it's a dual core chip running at 1.8GHz - not a slouch in my book. If anything I think the 2GB RAM is more of a bottleneck factor but it's limited by the CPU architecture so it's the max you're gonna get.If you're not setting your sights too high with these then you're going to be pleasantly surprised - I find it multitasks very well considering.Sent from my Windows 8 device using Board Express Pro