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Best Laptops Under $500 – Choose the Best Budget Laptops in 2023

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best laptop under 500

Introduction

In the vast array of laptop models and price points available, it may not be easy to know where to begin when looking for a new laptop. A laptop’s functionality and usefulness will differ even if it’s tough to tell the difference between an expensive and an inexpensive one simply by looking at it. Fortunately, many high-quality laptops are available for less than $500, thanks to the wide variety of models. If you’re a gamer, a workaholic or just looking to find yourself a value-priced general computer, find yourself one of the best laptop under $500.

Below are the finest options currently on the market if you’re looking for a laptop that costs less than $500. Check out our purchasing tips below our suggestions if you’re unsure what to look for in a decent budget laptop other than price.

We’ve developed this suggestion based on our years of expertise in testing and reviewing laptops under $500. Make use of these recommendations to sift through. Without further ado, here are your Best Laptops Under $500!

What are the Best Laptops Under 500?

Laptops under $500 are in great demand, so it’s a good idea to start searching early.

The Microsoft Surface Laptop is our current recommendation for the best laptop under $500. The built-in kickstand and retractable keyboard cover make it a two-in-one tablet for Windows. In most cases, the display’s 12.4-inch IPS screen provides enough brightness and clarity to be usable. For those who need a portable device for watching videos or accessing the web, Microsoft’s Surface Go is a great option.

One of the finest laptops under $500 is the Acer Aspire 5, which has a strong AMD Ryzen 3 engine, a vibrant 1080p display, and long battery life. AMD Ryzen 3 3350U is a desktop-class processor in a laptop compact factor. Its long battery life and tiny size make it perfect for regular use.

Last but not least, the Lenovo IdeaPad Flexi i5 is a fantastic Chromebook option if you’re looking for one. However, that’s not the end of it all. We highly recommend you go through the complete list to find the best laptops our experts have reviewed.

How We Tested Best Laptops Under $500?

Our staff runs a number of benchmarks on each Windows laptop to evaluate its overall performance in various categories, including battery life, CPU and GPU speed, and more. The plan is to test the laptop’s capabilities to their absolute maximum and then compare it to other models we have examined.

On the other hand, Chromebooks are put through a battery of tests that are conducted online. Because Chromebooks run Chrome OS, it would neither be reasonable nor practicable to do the same sorts of testing on one of these devices.

Top 10 Best Laptops Under $500

1. Microsoft Surface Laptop— Top Choice in Best Laptops Under $500

Overview

It is a 2-in-1 Windows tablet with a built-in kickstand and removable keyboard cover. The display is a 12.4-inch IPS screen that appears crisp and bright enough to be useful in most situations. Get the Microsoft Surface Go if you want something small that you can use for video consumption or web surfing on the go.

Key Specifications

Processor Intel Core i5
Memory 4GB
Storage 64GB
Screen Size 12.4-inch
Battery Life 7 hours

Microsoft Surface Go is a 2-in-1 Windows tablet with a built-in kickstand and removable keyboard cover. You must purchase the keyboard separately, but it is well worth it since it is an excellent keyboard and helps protect the display from scratches. The Intel Pentium variant with 4GB of RAM is enough for basic online surfing, email, and video playing, but don’t expect to edit 4K video or play games.

The display is a 12.4-inch IPS screen that appears crisp and bright enough to be useful in most situations. And although its screen isn’t as detailed as that of a specialized tablet like the iPad, it’s still one of the nicest we’ve seen for a convertible laptop at this price.

The large bezels surrounding it seem old-fashioned, but they give a place to grip the device when used as a tablet and contain a great 1080p camera, making it better than the Microsoft Pro 7.

There’s also an IR camera, so you can use Windows Hello to log in. The battery lasts around seven hours of light work or slightly more than three hours of movie playing, so keep the charger nearby.

Pros

Cons

2. Lenovo Ideapad 3 – Runner-Up in Best Laptops Under $500

Overview

It’s a compact Windows laptop with a solid design and a battery lasting more than nine hours of light usage. Its 14-inch screen provides enough area for multitasking, is bright enough for usage in most contexts, and is flicker-free, reducing eye strain during lengthy school or workdays. Its 8GB RAM and 256GB memory rank second on our list of the best laptop under $500.

Key Specifications

Processor AMD Ryzen 5
Memory 8GB
Storage 256GB
Screen Size 14-inch
Battery Life 9 hours

 The Lenovo IdeaPad 3 is a basic Windows notebook powered by AMD Ryzen 5000 CPUs. Despite being primarily made of plastic, it feels well-made and is simple to transport due to its thin and light design. It has an excellent battery life, lasting more than 9 hours of light work and about 8 hours of the movie playing.

The display is bright enough for most applications, but its limited color gamut causes most material to seem washed out, making it unsuitable for work that needs precise picture accuracy. The camera’s video quality is adequate, the touchpad tracks quite well, and the keyboard has well-spaced buttons but may be exhausting to text on after a while.

It’s Ryzen 5 5300U CPU performs well in light productivity activities like text editing, spreadsheets, and online surfing. It can even do some 3D rendering jobs if the content isn’t too sophisticated, making it better than the Lenovo IdeaPad 1’s Intel Celeron N4020. However, its integrated GPU is insufficient for visually intensive applications like gaming or high-resolution video work.

Pros

Cons

3. Acer Aspire 5 – Best for Everyday Use

Overview

The Acer Aspire 5 is one of the best laptops under $500 because of its powerful AMD Ryzen 3 processor, vivid 1080p display, and extended battery life, all at a cheap price. In a small laptop, AMD Ryzen 3 3350U provides desktop-class performance and incredible battery life. It is ideal for daily usage because of its extended battery life and small design.

Key Specifications

Processor AMD Ryzen 3
Memory 8GB
Storage 128GB
Screen Size 15.6-inch
Battery Life 9 hours

 The AMD Ryzen 3 3350U, included with the Acer Aspire 5, offers performance comparable to that of a desktop computer while maintaining an incredible battery life in a compact notebook. Your high-demand applications may gain up to 3.5 GHz of additional processing power with the help of Precision Boost. Its Quad-core central processing unit and four-thread processing deliver the possible power with maximum efficiency.

Even though it is much more svelte than its sibling, the Aspire E 15, the Aspire 5 still manages to pack in a battery with a runtime of over 9 hours on a single charge. Even though it does not come with a DVD writer, it still has a sufficient number of ports.

The screen has a respectable level of contrast thanks to the display’s high brightness level, measured at an amazing 276 nits. Even the hood is made out of metal. The bezels around the display are impressively thin for such an affordable laptop to put the icing on the cake. One of the greatest and most affordable laptops on the market right now is the Acer Aspire 5.

Pros

Cons

4. Lenovo Flex 5 – Best for Gaming

Overview

The Lenovo Flex 5 has a 13.3-inch screen size for a bright 1080p display. It has a 2.10 GHz refresh rate, which allows the CPU to run faster and provide maximum performance. The Lenovo Flex 5 features SSD storage that helps the laptop to run at a better speed. Moreover, this refresh and SSD make the CPU cope with heavy games.

Key Specifications

Processor Intel Core i3
Memory 8GB
Storage 128GB
Screen Size 13.3-inch
Battery Life 6 hours

 It’s practically hard to get a 13-inch laptop for less than $500. That’s unfortunate since it’s the most common laptop size. But, owing to Chrome OS, it’s not impossible, as the Lenovo Flex 5 continues to bring in under $500 while providing amazing performance, 2-in-1 versatility, and great value. That makes this excellent Chromebook the best budget laptop.

It should be no surprise that a Chromebook occupies this category, and the Flex 5 is a lot of computing for a small amount of money. Lenovo Flex 5 features a Chrome OS and an LED display technology, making it better than the Lenovo Flex 5 2-in-1 convertible, which comes with a Windows OS.

Inside is a 10th-generation Intel Core i3-10110U CPU, which is fairly fast for Chrome OS. 4GB of RAM is sufficient for acceptable speed and modest multitasking ability, and 64GB of storage is plenty if you make good use of the cloud.

Pros

Cons

5. ASUS VivoBook 15 – Best for Business Use

Overview

The Asus VivoBook 15 is a low-frills yet competitively priced solution for weary customers looking for a super-affordable workstation. It’s somewhat faster than most of its similarly priced rivals, has an above-average array of connectors, and has reasonable battery life. The ASUS VivoBook 15 is the best for business use.

Key Specifications

Processor Intel Core i3
Memory 8GB
Storage 128GB
Screen Size 15.6-inch
Battery Life 5-7 hours

 The ASUS VivoBook 1 is a Windows notebook featuring an OLED display. Its 15.6-inch 1080p display is bright enough to battle glare, and like all OLEDs, it can generate deep, inky blacks for a terrific viewing experience in low-light conditions. This 15.6-inch display elevates it over the ASUS VivoBook 14.

It also completely covers the sRGB, Adobe RGB, and DCI P3 color spaces, making it suited for color-critical applications. The touchpad reacts well to all motions and gestures, the camera provides sufficient video quality for video conversations, and the keyboard is big yet tiresome to text on for long periods.

Its Intel 10th Generation CPU can handle mild to moderately demanding activities; however, its entrance NVIDIA GPU is insufficient for graphically intense applications like video editing or AAA gaming. Unfortunately, the battery lasts only about 7 hours of light work or 5 hours of movie playing, and the laptop cannot be charged through its USB-C connector.

Pros

Cons

6. HP Pavilion – Best for Office Use

Overview

The HP Pavilion 2022 is a Windows 11 laptop with a 15.6-inch display with an always-on blue light filter built into the screen to limit blue light output. It also contains a webcam with TNR for noise reduction during video chats. Moreover, its battery life can last up to 11 hours, making it the best laptop for office use.

Key Specifications

Processor Intel Celeron
Memory 16GB
Storage 1TB
Screen Size 15.6-inch
Battery Life 11 hours

 HP Pavilion 2022 has been completely customized with an Intel Celeron, 16 GB of RAM, a 1 TB PCIe SSD, and dedicated Nvidia graphics. Its features are greater than those of a normal budget Ultrabook, particularly in graphics, since many in this category lack Nvidia support.

HP has upgraded the chassis and the 8th generation Whiskey Lake-U CPU and GeForce MX250 GPU to the 11th generation Tiger Lake-U and MX450, respectively. Compared to the higher-end Envy and flagship Spectre series, the Pavilion moniker is associated with some of HP’s cheapest laptops.

Other entry-level 15.6-inch multimedia laptops that compete with the Pavilion include the Lenovo IdeaPad 5 15, Dell Inspiron 15 5502, Honor MagicBook 15, and Asus VivoBook.

Pros

Cons

7. Acer Aspire 5 A515 – Best Sub-Budget Option Under $500

Overview

As a cheap laptop, the Acer Aspire 5 avoids the usual traps. The manufacturer typically has to take corners to get a Windows laptop at this low price. Even with a dual-core CPU and 4GB of RAM, they can only have 128GB of storage space. None of it is possible with this laptop. At the cost of tens of dollars more than less competent options, it provides the essentials for a pleasant Windows 11 experience. At $499, the best sub-budget laptop of this quality is hard to find!

Key Specifications

Processor Core i5 Family
Memory 8 GB
Storage 256 GB
Screen Size 15.6 Inches
Battery Life 6 Hours and 30 minutes

With some versions costing as little as $369.99, Aspire laptops are consistently the most popular on Amazon’s best-seller list. As a result of testing this concept, we can say it’s the best of both worlds. It’s an excellent value for the money, and it performs well.

Windows laptops with the most modern Core i5 processors for less than $499.99 can seem too good to be true, but it isn’t necessarily so. Acer is willing to give up a lot to get there. Despite this, the Acer Aspire 5 remains a capable and fun laptop. There is a PCIe solid-state drive and an Intel Core i5-1135G7 CPU in the Acer Aspire 5.

The keyboard on the Acer Aspire 5 is excellent. The arrangement of the keys is large, and each key has a substantial amount of travel. It’s a little hazy, but not enough to ruin the experience.

The 14-inch, 1080p display of the Acer Aspire 5 is matte-coated. Only 64% of the sRGB color space is covered by the display, limiting the display’s color accuracy. The color accuracy is also somewhat below average, but it’s still not terrible.

A single microphone and a 720p webcam are all you get with the Aspire 5. For a reasonable price, the Intel Core i5-1135G7 CPU in the Acer Aspire 5 should provide acceptable performance. Bear in mind, this is one of the best cheap laptops under $500 for that level of performance.

Besides the Iris Xe graphics with 80 execution units, four cores, and eight threads, it also contains an Intel Iris 4000 processor. In terms of RAM, Acer hasn’t skimped, as the laptop boasts 8GB and with a battery capacity is 53-watt hours.

Pros

Cons

8. Lenovo – IdeaPad Flexi 5i – Chromebook – Best Lenovo Laptop Available Under $500!

Overview

On the IdeaPad Flex 5i, you’ll find USB-C and USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 connectors and an audio/mic combination port. Battery charging and data transmission are both made possible via USB-C connectors. Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1 provide a quick and stable connection to the internet and your favorite wireless gadgets.

Key Specifications

Processor Core i3
Memory 8GB
Storage 256 GB
Screen Size 13.3 Inches
Battery Life 10 hours

Much affordable than the Lenovo ThinkPad and boasting incredible performance, The IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook Gen 6 (13-inch) is both a tablet and a laptop “With an 11th Gen Intel Core i3 CPU, Intel) combines power and adaptability to perform even the most demanding tasks.

An FHD display with minimal boundaries and a user-facing dual speaker system ensures that you’ll be able to see and hear everything. Because of Chrome OS, the IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook Gen 6 (13-inch diagonal) is quicker, easier to use, and more secure than previous models. “For a fantastic user experience, Intel) is packed with the most up-to-date capabilities.

This gadget allows you to do anything you want, whether working, playing, or just browsing the web. When you’re not making a video call or recording anything, slide the privacy shutter over, and your camera will be concealed from view.

Distraction-free watching on a 13.3-inch screen owing to its thin bezels and broader viewing angles. Display technology: Full-HD IPS. The IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook 13 has a touchscreen. Additionally, it makes navigating around the site a lot easier. A built-in amplifier and stereo speakers that have been approved by Waves Audio complete the package.

There are few gadgets more secure than Chromebooks. For example, harmful alterations are automatically detected and reverted to a safe version when the system is booted up. If you want to cooperate with others, generate content, or meet new people, you can do it using various tools from Microsoft Word to Google Docs to Google Meet.

Pros

Cons

9. Dell Inspiron 15 3511 – Best for Everyday Work and Play!

Overview

The new Inspiron 15 3511 non-touch laptop, powered by the newest Intel® processors, is intended to keep you connected. The design of this laptop was made with the user and the environment in mind, made from recycled materials. And it has an ergonomic raise hinge to keep you connected all day long, as well as Energy Star certification, the best sub-budget option under $500!

Key Specifications

Processor Core i3 Family
Memory 8 GB
Storage 256 GB
Screen Size 15.6 Inches
Battery Life 7 hours 38 minutes

Dell’s brand new Inspiron 15 3511 laptop, which does not have a touch screen and is powered by the most modern processors from Intel®, is designed to keep you connected to the world. This laptop, which was created with you and the environment in mind, used polymers recycled from previous electronic devices.

In addition, it has been given the Energy Star 8.0 certification and was created with an ergonomic lift hinge so that you can remain connected throughout the day without experiencing any pain. The Comfortview reduced blue light solutions aid in minimizing the potentially dangerous emissions from blue light and promote eye comfort for long periods of continuous screen usage.

Choosing a laptop with a screen that is 15.6 inches in size and has thin borders on three sides will provide you with a Full High-Definition viewing experience that is more immersive.

The battery on this laptop can be quickly recharged in a condensed amount of time, thanks to ExpressCharge technology. This feature will minimize the amount of time you need to spend connected to an electrical outlet and will do so in a shorter time.

Pros

Cons

10. 2022 New HP 15 Laptop – Best Laptop for Regular Use!

Overview

It’s rare to find a $500 laptop with impressive hardware and excellent performance. HP seems to have prioritized the hardware of this laptop above its aesthetics. The 2022 HP Laptop is a powerful laptop that can give you the epic experience of real-time laptop usage at a lower price than a premium laptop.

Key Specifications

Processor Dual-Core Processor
Memory 8 GB
Storage 1 TB
Screen Size 15.6 Inches
Battery Life 11 Hours

HP has entirely revamped the laptop’s chassis to make this 15.6-inches laptop stand out from the rest of the laptops. A few elements remind us of its predecessor, but they are minor. Laptops like the 2022 New HP Laptop’s chassis are made of plastic and available in matte black.

HP has included some green patches to break up the all-black design. We were taken aback by the design of the machine’s backside air outlets. The battery cannot be removed from the Pavilion 15 gaming laptop since it does not have a maintenance cover. This one incredibly boasts an 11-hour battery life, much more than the famous HP Envy X360 laptop.

This laptop’s battery can only be accessed by removing the bottom cover; we don’t know why HP made this decision, but it would have been much more practical and straightforward if it had the basic technique of taking the battery out like typical computers.

Display with a 144Hz refresh rate, and the 2022 New HP Laptop boasts a 15.6-inch display with 1920 x 1080 resolution. With an average maximum brightness of 324 cd/m, this is the brightest screen we’ve ever tested. Since most laptops in this price range have a problem with a poor display, it’s positive that this one comes in at around $500.

In terms of display quality, the 2022 New HP Laptop has an 821:1 contrast ratio, making it an ideal choice for gamers. Performance in the Face of Heavy Demand The 2022 New HP Laptop fared rather well in our benchmark test, which was anticipated given its specifications.

Pros

Cons

Buying Guide – How to Choose the Best Laptop Under 500

While buying a laptop, make sure to look for the following features and scenarios:

Storage

Two storage devices are often found in laptops: HDDs and solid-state drives or SSDs. HDDs read and write data using actual rotating platters and a magnetic head.

They’re less fast and less durable, but they’re also less expensive. There are advantages and disadvantages to using an SSD over a traditional hard drive.

RAM

As of this writing, the maximum amount of RAM available is two terabytes (Tb). Most of the machines on this list have between 4 and 8 GB of memory.

To find out how much RAM you have, look for terms like “Memory,” “Installed Physical Memory,” and “RAM” in product descriptions or the settings of your laptop.

Use Case-Scenarios

Will your laptop be used for internet sleuthing, or will you avoid it? For streaming and video conferencing, yes. Do you want to color online coloring pages on your laptop instead of a tablet?

Depending on your needs, you’ll require a certain kind of laptop that can fall in the category of best laptops under $500. If you want to perform video editing, gaming, or music creation on your laptop, you’ll want to be sure it’s strong enough.

For the price of a tablet, you can unleash your inner Picasso by using a 2-in-1 laptop with a touchscreen.

Budget

Even though the finest laptops under $500 exist, the cost is a consideration for many people. Fortunately, you can get a high-quality laptop at a lower price than expected.

Conclusion

You shouldn’t buy most laptops with a display resolution of 1366 by 768 pixels unless you are severely pressed for the budget. We are sure the Best Laptops Under $500 covered here are all worth the price!

A large selection of inexpensive notebooks begins with a display resolution of 1080p, which will make a significant difference when watching programs on Netflix or working on projects in Word for extended periods.

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