The Best Laptops Under 500 Dollars

The Best Laptops Under $500

If you're looking for one of the best laptops under 500 dollars, we highly recommend you check out Toshiba and their Satellite line of notebooks.

The Toshiba Satellite series has graced our sub 500 dollar laptop list two years in a row. You'll find a solid selection of sub 500 dollar laptops offering great build quality, and well equipped features to choose from.

One of their top rated sub 500 dollar Satellite laptops during our latest roundup offered a powerful second-gen Intel Core i3 dual-core processor, a widescreen high-definition LED screen, and the latest Wireless-N (Wi-Fi) to keep you connected when on the move. In addition to other great features, the laptop also has a stellar battery runtime rating of up to 5.75 hours.

Other Satellite models during our 500 dollar laptop roundup offered similar features and build quality, so you can be reset assured your going to get your money's worth by choosing Toshiba.

All in all, Toshiba laptops are the perfect digital companion for school, work or play. If you're looking to not only save money, but also future proof your investment with a quality, well equipped laptop, we highly recommend you check out Toshiba.

HP offers a gracious selection of sub 500 dollar notebooks, including both the ProBook and Pavilion series to choose from.

HP build quality is a step above much of the competition, and the ProBook and Pavilion laptops you'll find for under 500 dollars also offer the technologies you'll need to be productive at home or on the move.

Like most of the other sub 500 dollar notebooks in our roundup, the HP ProBook and Pavilion laptop we tested had a large but crisp 15.6-inch LED screen, Intel's fast but budget line i3 processor, and the latest wireless technologies.  

Other features across the board were nearly identical to other brands in this price range too. Pair these great features with HP's top notch build quality and you have a winning combination.

Overall, both the HP ProBook and Pavilion line of laptops under 500 dollars are a great bargain if you want a low cost, full featured laptop that will last you well into the future.

During our roundup there weren't nearly as many sub 500 dollar Dell laptops to choose from compared to Toshiba or HP, but like Toshiba and HP, Dell's sub $500 Inspiron laptops offered great features.

We personally have been fans of Dell for some time and have always had pretty good luck with our Dell laptops, and as anticipated, the newer Intel equipped Inspiron laptop we tested met our expectations beyond just fit and finish.

When compared to other laptop models in our lineup, the Dell Inspiron we tested was surprisingly lacking an LED display, but since we don't anticipate Dell not offering an LED screen equipped sub 500 dollar model in the very near future, we couldn't quite knock it.

On the other hand, like the other brands in the sub $500 dollar range, features across the board are pretty much right on the money so you're going to have plenty of flexibility by purchasing a low cost Dell laptop in this price range.  

All in all, if you're looking for one of the best laptops under 500 dollars, the Dell Inspiron is another fantastic option that we highly recommend you check out.

Asus offers a good selection of laptops for less than 500 bucks, and for this price range their entertainment laptops are nice versatile mobile computing machines.

Feature wise, Asus laptops offer many of the latest mobile technologies like the other laptops in our roundup, and typical Asus fashion, the laptops also include Asus branded goodies.

Quality wise Asus laptops are more often than not rated well, though this may be up for debate with some models. We're basing this off some recent user feedback we've received and because we haven't personally owned one long term, we also can't elaborate from a personal account on how their quality will stand the test of time.

We can however say that our current test model looked and felt good overall, though it is worth noting the laptop did feel a bit on the flimsy side in certain areas, due to the lightweight materials used for the laptop shell. Sometimes this is a necessary trade-off to keep laptop weight low so we can't knock off any points.

One big thing you may not like with Asus laptops is the amount of pre-installed software. Asus sure packs a lot of software on their systems so it may overwhelm an average computer user. Tech savvy users probably will find themselves doing a lot of uninstalling. On the other hand, most consumer laptops tend to install hordes of bloatware so this isn't necessarily that out of character.

All in all though, if you're looking for the best laptops under 500 dollars, definitely give Asus a look for they currently offer a decent selection of low cost laptops. We also anticipate Asus to expand their selection of sub $500 laptops in the very near future.

Best Laptops Under 500 Dollars - Final Thoughts:

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