“The Best Choice You Can Make with $500” Low-Price Laptop Buying Guide

Laptops have come a long way in the past 10 years. There was a time when a $500 laptop broke down in a short period of time and had to be upgraded frequently, or you had to keep using an under-performing piece of junk.

These days, you can buy a laptop with a budget of $500 and it will still be at the bottom in terms of specifications. This is especially true if you shop around in the hope of getting a discount.

Of course, buying a worthwhile computer requires you to be smart and frugal. But if you know what your priorities are and what the minimum specs are that you can’t compromise on based on your needs, you’ll be amazed at how much good you can get for just $500.

How good is a $500 Chromebook?

If all you want to do is browse the web with Chrome, write emails with Gmail, or watch videos on YouTube, there are plenty of affordable Chromebook options. Chromebooks tend to perform better on lower-priced hardware.

For example, the Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook Plus, which was $499 at the time of review, received an impressive 4.5 out of 5 stars and a PCWorld Editors’ Choice award. It has a 2-in-1 form factor and comes with a variety of great features, including a 14-inch touchscreen display, 13th generation Intel Core i3-1315U (although it is a low-end model), 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of SSD storage. It’s a surprisingly good product, and if you wait for the sale, you can get it for as little as $399.

Don’t miss out and take a look at the gaming Chromebooks currently on the market. One of PCWorld’s favorite products, the Acer Chromebook 516 GE, recently saw a slight price reduction. Previously sold for $649, now AmazonIt can be purchased for a little over $500. Performance is also impressive. It supports Intel Core i5-1240P processor, 2560×1600 display with 120Hz refresh rate, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD storage, and Wi-Fi 6. Suitable for gamers.

How about a $500 Windows laptop?

If you need to use Windows-specific software, want to play multiple PC games without relying on cloud streaming, or don’t like Google and don’t want to support Google products, a Chromebook might be out of your consideration.

Fortunately, you have options, but the Windows side of the budget laptop market is a little different. If you’re patient and willing to sacrifice certain specifications, you can find a good laptop for under $500.

Acer’s 2024 Aspire Go 15 is a laptop suitable for light web browsing and video streaming, and at $299, it’s well below the $500 threshold. This is an option for those on a tight budget.

It can be much more advantageous to wait for a discount or find other ways to save money. For example, if you are willing to buy an open box product, Best BuyYou can purchase the ASUS Zenbook 14X OLED for less than $500, which is one-third of the retail price. likewise neweggYou can purchase the ASUS Vivobook Go with an OLED display and 16GB RAM for just $404.

If you want a laptop with decent performance, but don’t want a ‘used’, ‘refurbished’ or ‘opened’ product, you’ll have to wait until it’s on sale. For example, the Samsung Galaxy Book 4 usually costs $899. The latest Intel Core 7 150U processor, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD storage, and primary display are all housed in a metal chassis. The price of $899 may be a bit burdensome, but last August, it was sold for $549 at Best Buy.

You can get great discounts just by finding the right place. lenovo on ebay IdeaPad Slim 5 16The price has been reduced from $749 to $519, providing powerful specifications for the price.

ASUS Vivobook 16X OLED is equipped with a large 16-inch OLED display with 3.2K resolution, various ports, Intel Core i5-1235U processor, 16GB RAM, and 512GB SSD storage. Don’t expect monster performance, but the specifications are sufficient for everyday tasks and use.

Even low-priced laptops are now a good choice

All of this is just a fraction of what you can get with a modern laptop in the $500 price range. With this budget, you can buy a pretty decent laptop.

In fact, there’s almost no need to spend a lot of time looking for a discount on an $800 or $1,000 laptop that’ll bring it down to the $500 range. As of this writing, three HP Pavilion The laptop offers these discounts, and its specifications are not poor.

It’s worth noting the HP Envy, HP Pavilion, Acer Swift, ASUS VivoBook, and ASUS ZenBook laptops. When a newer model of these laptops is released, the price of the previous model is often significantly reduced.
editor@itworld.co.kr