When you’re looking for a good, cheap laptop, good market insight will allow you to get what you want. Every budget machine (which we’re defining as Windows laptops costing $500 or less) is the product of compromise—corners carefully cut here and there to hit a price point.
I’ll show you what to look for by highlighting which budget laptops among the best-sellers currently listed at Amazon and Best Buy are worth buying. I’ve seen enough similar ones to have a good idea of the pros and cons. I’m also focusing on 14-inch and larger laptops, because part of the great deal should be getting a decent-sized display.
The best cheap laptops on Amazon
HP Pavilion 15
It’s a sliver above $500, but this HP Pavilion 15 is a solid investment given its price tag. Its quad-core Intel Core i5-8250U is a proven workhorse for web browsing and producticity, and it’ll even hold its own when it comes to more CPU-intensive tasks such as video encoding. You also get 8GB of RAM, which should let you run multiple programs simultaneously without hitting any speed bumps. The USB-C port is ideal for connecting the latest external hard drives and peripherals, and there’s even an ethernet port for wired networking. Let’s not forget the roomy Full-HD (1920×1080) display, which just happens to be a touchscreen.
Now, the downsides. Slim though it is at just 0.78 inches, this version of the HP Pavilion 15 tips the scales at nearly four and a quarter pounds, so you’ll definitely feel it in your backpack. Also, the integrated graphics core means you’ll be restricted to the most basic of games, such as Minesweeper and Sudoku. (To be fair, you shouldn’t expect to find a quad-core laptop with a discrete graphics card in this price range.) Finally, the spinning hard drive isn’t nearly as peppy as a solid-state model, but at least its 1TB of storage is big enough for a good-sized photo or music collection.
CPU: Quad-core Intel Core i5-8250U
Memory: 8GB DDR4 RAM
Storage: 1TB HDD
Display: 15.6-inch full-HD (1920×1080) IPS touchscreen
Graphics: Integrated Intel UHD Graphics 620
Connectivity: One USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-C port, two USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A ports, SD media card reader, ethernet, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
Dimensions: 14.9 x 9.9 x 0.78 inches
Weight: 4.21 pounds
The best cheap laptop on Best Buy
Dell Inspiron 2-in-1 I7375-A439GRY-PUS
This 13.3-inch Dell Inspiron manages to pack some decent power into its slim, trim, and 2-in-1 chassis, which lets you swivel the screen all the way around for tablet use or tent the laptop on a table. The quad-core AMD CPU compares nicely with peppy 8th-generation Intel Core i5 processors, which means you should be zipping right along when it comes to day-to-day activities, and you could even tackle some CPU-intensive tasks if you were so inclined.
With 8GB of RAM you’ll have plenty of memory for multitasking, and the 256GB solid-state drive will give you room to breathe storage-wise. Weighing in at less than four pounds, the Dell also features integrated graphics for a little light gaming, along with a USB-C port for connecting newer storage drives and peripherals.
CPU: Quad-core AMD Ryzen 5 2500U
Memory: 8GB RAM
Storage: 256GB SSD
Display: 13.3-inch diagonal width, 1920×1080 resolution
Graphics: Integrated AMD Radeon Vega 8
Connectivity: One USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-C port, one USB 3.0 Type-A port, one USB 2.0 Type-A port, SD memory card reader, HDMI, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
Dimensions: 12.7 x 8.8 x 0.7 inches
Weight: 3.84 pounds
Budget laptops: The features that matter
Based on the current top-selling budget laptops on Amazon and Best Buy, here’s what you should expect to see in the major components:
CPU: Huzzah! Now that Intel’s 9th-gen mobile CPUs are here, we’re starting to see discounted laptops with perfectly good 8th-gen parts in them. Look in particular for the Core i5-8250U, a quad-core processor that can ably juggle mainstream tasks. At the bargain-basement price points, however, you’re still going to see more 7th-gen, dual-core Intel Core processors, and a sprinkling of AMD’s older mobile CPUs. Those older AMD parts tend to perform badly compared to their Intel rivals, so manage your expectations (and stick to basic computing needs).
Memory: You’ll see 4GB or 6GB of RAM, but our top picks focus on 8GB, which will give you better capacity for running multiple applications or browser tabs simultaneously.
Storage: You’ll see a lot of hard drives and some lower-capacity (128GB) SSDs. If you’re on a budget, a slow hard drive with greater capacity could be a better deal than a fast SSD that’s barely got room for the operating system and a few applications.
Display: Display quality is one area where vendors often skimp to hit a price point. Do your best to balance size with resolution. We advocate for a 14-inch or 15.6-inch display size, but a 13.3-inch display results in a more portable unit. An 11-inch display size is a compromise–skimpy real estate for viewing whatever you’re using. An HD resolution of 1366×768 suffices for an 11-inch or 13-inch display, but starts to look grainier (albeit still usable) on 14-inch displays and upward. Get Full HD (1920×1080) resolution if you can. You won’t always see a maximum brightness spec, but we consider 250 nits to be a reasonable level. Anything less will limit your ability to work in brighter environments (let alone outdoors). Viewing angles could be limited, which is tolerable unless you routinely need to share your screen.
Graphics: Expect integrated graphics that will manage everyday imagery well, but not gaming or other graphics-intensive tasks.
Connectivity: Good news: The bulkier laptops you often see in this price range have plenty of room for ports. You should see USB-A ports, but note that those using the USB 2.0 spec are more limited in capability than those using the USB 3.0 or USB 3.1 specs. You might not see USB-C, full HDMI, or ethernet, but we look for models that have those ports.
Dimensions and weight: Many cheaper laptops are larger, heavier models. Anything over 3.5 pounds may not be something you’ll want to carry past the living room.
Condition: Some cheap laptops are affordable because they’re “refurbished”—in other words, they’re used. You actually stand to save a tidy sum by going the refurbished route, and you needn’t worry that it’ll arrive on your doorstep with greasy fingerprints and a crack in the screen. They’re generally cleaned, tested, and restored by the manufacturer or reseller to “like-new” condition, which means you’ll probably have a tough time telling a refurbished item from a brand-new model. Indeed, Amazon has its own “Renewed” program, with stringent standards for selling refurbished products on the site. Keep in mind, however, that refurbished laptops usually have a much shorter warranty than new ones; think 90 days or so rather than a year or two.
Know what you want and shop smart
After seeing what’s popular among cheap laptops, you should have enough insight to shop for yourself. Keep in mind your priorities, whether it’s display size, storage capacity, weight or more, and you should be able to find a good deal.