Best cheap Laptops of 2017

Best cheap Laptops of 2017

You don't have to spend thousands of dollars to get a capable PC

 

Budget is always a major concern when you want to buy a new laptop. Although there is a large selection of the best budget laptops with price that is around $300, their low price is a clear compromise of quality. There are many features that have to be sacrificed. Your selection may include cheap reincarnations of netbook, Celeron-powered laptops, and the trending Chromebooks. At this time, your chance to find a budget notebook with Intel Core processor might be minimal, although not completely absent. Style also often has to be sacrificed. If you are looking for a sleek gaming laptop with exhaust pipes on the back that resemble those of a jet plane, you can hardly find one within budget price range. However, budget-friendly laptops don’t necessarily perform poorly and look bad. The best affordable laptops that are reviewed here are some of the best notebooks that are both affordable and reliable.

It wasn’t long ago that the “under $500” batch of laptops were thought to cheaply made, with poor battery lives and underpowered processors. But in 2017, this couldn’t be further from the truth, and the current crop of fully loaded affordable laptops can make you wonder why you would even need to pay an arm and a leg for the latest gadget.

If you're after a cheap laptop for web browsing and other simple tasks, or you need a new laptop for school or work, or you simply need a really powerful laptop for as little money as possible, we have options for you.

All of the laptops on our list can be used to browse the Internet, play high-definition movies and edit office documents without skipping a beat. For many consumers, this is more than enough.

1. Lenovo Ideapad 510 | $779.99

There have been some generous offers lately for this popular Lenovo laptop series. Any choice between the 4GB and 12GB RAM options should run multiple applications at once. Hard drive sizes vary from 256GB SSD to 1TB in regular form. Some options also include dedicated Nvidia GeForce GTX 940MX graphics.

2.Acer CB3-131-C3SZ Chromebook | $169.85
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Budget laptops have become very popular lately. Some people buy them because they’re looking for a second, more portable computer. Others may want a cheap laptop because they don’t want to spend much and only need to do basic computing tasks. Whatever your reason is, you should still thoroughly research a budget laptop. You’d be surprised what you can get at a low cost.

For example, the Acer CB3-131-C3SZ 11.6″ Chromebook stands out as the best budget laptop. At less than $200, it’s easily affordable. However, don’t discount its performance just because it’s affordable. This Chromebook won’t be able to run high end games, but it has more than enough power you’d need for daily computing tasks such as browsing the internet or working with word documents.

The Acer CB3-131-C3SZ 11.6″ Chromebook is also extremely portable, which is great for a budget laptop. It comes in at 11.5 inches long and 8 inches wide, and only an impressive 0.7 inches thick when closed. This is a computer that can easily fit in your bag. And at only 2.4 pounds, you won’t even feel its weight as you carry it from place to place.

3.Samsung Chromebook 3 | $169

Chromebooks are generally seen as the reigning kings of the budget laptop market. Sure, there are plenty of budget Windows laptops, but the Windows platform occasionally struggles on lower end machines. The Chrome OS, however, is built from the ground up for minimalist, budget laptops.

So if you’re considering a Chromebook for your cheap laptop, you have to consider the Samsung Chromebook 3. Samsung has been in Chromebook market since the very beginning in 2011, and they’re still running at the top.

This Samsung Chromebook 3 comes with 2GB of RAM, 16GB of SSD internal storage, and an Intel Celeron N3050 1.6 GHz processor. You can get all this for less than $200, as you can see below. There are plenty of other cheap laptops with 4GB of RAM or 32GB of storage, but if you’re shopping for a budget laptop then you’re probably only looking to do basic computing tasks like word processor use and internet browsing. There’s a good chance you don’t even need that extra hardware.

The Samsung Chromebook 3 finds a great spot between quality hardware and value, and truly is one of the best cheap laptops.

4. HP Notebook 15 | $259.99


The latest edition of the HP Notebook 15 is a surprising Windows 10 laptop that packs a lot of features into a sub-$300 machine. This laptop may not impress power-hungry users, but it will do the job for casual users that need to accomplish basic tasks in a timely fashion.

The Notebook 15 has a 15.6-inch screen with 1366-by-768 resolution, a 500 GB hard drive, an SD media card reader, a DVD/CD burner, as well as a VGA webcam with a digital microphone. For ports, there’s one Ethernet, one HDMI, two USB 2.0, one USB 3.0 and a headphone/microphone combo jack. One of the standout features of this model is its 4GB of RAM, which is incredibly important for keeping your machine running smoothly and not something we often see on models in this price range. (Usually you’ll see models with a paltry 2GB of RAM, which is often not enough to keep things running at a fast clip.)

This machine measures 10 x 15.1 x .9 inches and is a little heavy at 4.74 pounds, so it’s probably not one you’ll want to carry around everywhere. It would make sense as a home or work laptop that’s mostly used in one place. Thankfully, it does offer 5.5-hour battery life, so if you do need to take it anywhere, it shouldn’t be a problem.

5.Microsoft’s Surface 3 | $312.95

Microsoft’s Surface 3 has the perfect combination of power, portability and popularity. The magnesium-alloy body holds a 10.8-inch 1920 x 1280 display, Intel Atom Z8700 processor, 2GB of RAM and a 64GB flash storage drive. The Intel Atom processor can’t match up to the Pro’s Intel Core-series, but it offers more than enough speed to perform all the daily tasks you want and then some. With Windows 10 on board out of the box, it’s pretty much “touch” and go right when you receive the Surface 3 in the mail.

Microsoft has positioned the Surface 3 as a tablet that can replace your laptop and portability is a central piece of that argument. At 1.37 pounds before the keyboard, the Surface 3 feels premium and now includes a more user-friendly Micro-USB charging port. The adjustable kickstand on the rear works at three separate angles. Perhaps the lone drawback of the Surface 3 is the separate purchase of the keyboard.

Portability aside, the Surface 3 retains a slew of ports to help you not miss a beat while traveling, including a microSD card reader for extra storage and MiniDisplay port for connection to a larger monitor. Microsoft includes a one-year subscription to Office 365 alongside a bevy of other applications that are must-haves. Additionally, with 10 hours of battery life, there’s enough juice for a full day at work and Netflix at night. 

6.ASUS E200HA-UB02-GD 4 GB RAM | $199


Inexpensive laptops generally hover around $200 or less. For this price, the majority of the market is dominated by Chromebooks with limited internal storage and running the minimalistic Chrome OS, or Windows based laptops with limited hardware. But the ASUS E200HA-UB02-GD offers an alternative to the Chromebooks and limited Windows machines.

This ASUS E200HA-UB02-GD runs Windows 10, which many users might prefer over Chrome OS due to familiarity alone. Yet it also doesn’t sacrifice hardware performance to bring you a Windows platform. It comes equipped with 4GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage. All this runs on an Intel Quad-Core Atom Z8350 1.44 GHz processor. _ 11 inch notebook

While this isn’t hardware that will get you running top end games, that’s not the kind of machine you’re looking for with a budget machine. What it does mean, however, is that you’ll have more than enough power to make using this ASUS E200HA-UB02-GD smooth and hassle free. Unlike other budget laptops, you won’t have a problem with having multiple programs open on this machine. This ASUS E200HA-UB02-GD clearly earns its spot among the best cheap laptops.

7.Dell XPS 13 | $949.55


The Dell XPS 13 is, bar none, the best laptop you can buy today. It features a revolutionary design that's astonishingly thin and light. Fitting a 13.3-inch screen into such a small frame means Dell has created a nearly borderless Infinity display. It's a powerful and long lasting machine even by today's Ultrabook standards. The XPS 13 comes outfitted with Intel's latest Skylake processors plus lighting, quick storage and memory, all while coming in at a very affordable starting price. For these reasons, it easily takes the top slot as the best Ultrabook, the best Windows laptop and the best overall laptop.

8.Toshiba CB35-B3340 13 Inch Chromebook | $210

Our first pick is a laptop with all features typical of a cheap laptop: Chrome OS, Intel Celeron processor and 16 GB of SSD. Although Toshiba CB35-B3340 13.3-inch Chromebook seems to be an ordinary cheap laptop, you will be surprised when you see how crisp and clear its screen is. IPS screen is a technology that even expensive laptops do not always have. With this HD display technology, no washed-out image will appear on the screen and it will remain crisp and clear even if seen from different angles. The screen of this Toshiba CB35-B3340 truly makes it a special one.

9.Microsoft Surface Pro 4 | $699.99

The tablet that can replace your laptop. Can a tablet really replace your laptop or home PC? That's still up for debate, but the best tablet trying to make that happen is the Microsoft Surface Pro 4 - and it does a fine job with the full blown version of Windows 10, an integrated kickstand and optional keyboard attachment. Great for for creative professionals, students and everyday folks alike - it's only the premium price that push it down the list, but if you're willing to pay for it, you're getting a lot of power. A LOT.

10. Dell Inspiron 15 Gaming | $723.94

This gaming that doesn't cost a fortune. Looking for a quality gaming laptop but want to keep things under that unappealing £1000 mark? Then Dell has you covered with the Inspiron 15 Gaming range.