It’s hard to choose the best laptop under 500 dollars sometimes considering the amount of choices you have available. You also need to make a decision based on what you think is right for your own personal needs. I mean there’s no point looking for gaming laptops under 500 if you’re not going to play games on it – you’ll just be sacrificing parts that you would use. And vice versa you shouldn’t be getting yourself a work laptop if you really want a cheap gaming laptop.
So the first step to choosing the right laptop for you is think what you actually want from it. What are you going to use it for? What’s the main thing you’re looking for in a laptop?
And don’t rush your choice buying whatever laptop a salesman is showing you. I once bought a netbook on a whim without really thinking it through. A week later I realized it wasn’t going to meet my needs and had to come back and spend another few hundred dollars on a laptop. So we’ve reviewed some of the best laptops under 500 dollars which are available now, but take your time and carefully pick the one you think is for you. These are all good quality laptops, but it’s not a race.
Choosing Best Laptop Under $500
First up you need to choose if you want a laptop or a netbook because people confuse them a lot and actually, they’re pretty different things. Once you’ve decided between the two you need to start narrowing down your list.
- What do you want to use your laptop for?
- What’s more important- performance or battery power
- What are you going to use it for mostly?
There’s a lot of good deals on laptops available online but if you really want the best laptops then you need to consider what you want from it personally. The laptop should meet your needs, not someone else’s.
That said, there’s some laptops out there which are worth looking at more than others. Once you have an idea of what you’re looking for you need to shortlist it from there. Now we look at some of the best rated laptops which helps you filter the list down already, but what kind of thing do we look for?
- Performance
- Battery Life
- Trusted brand
- Lightweight
Searching for a new laptop online can become a hassle very quickly with lots of old and outdated information. So we try to keep this page updated as soon as we find new laptop deals under $500.
1. Best Gaming Laptops Under $500
A lot of people love gaming on the PC and buying a laptop for gaming is the best choice a gamer can make. A good gaming laptop can prove to be alternative to a standard desktop for gaming. Now when you’re looking for laptops at this price, trying to find gaming laptops under 500 is harder than trying to find a laptop for office or general use. Gaming can really put a significant level of strain on computer hardware.
Note that we’re not talking about games like Farmville or anything here, those will run fine under normal laptops. But for actual gaming you need to pick the laptop you want carefully. You’re still going to be limited with what you can do, it’s a real challenge getting a good laptop under $500 built for gaming but we will try to find it nevertheless.
The main thing you should be looking for when trying to short list a gaming laptop is a dedicated graphics card. There’s very few instances where an under $500 laptop is going to be able to run games with an integrated graphics card.
Acer Aspire E 15
A gaming laptop need to pack a good processor and a capable graphics card to play all the modern gaming titles available today. Acer Aspire E 15 is the one such laptop which can be purchased with just a little over the budget of $500 and it packs the new Intel Core i5-8250U 8th Generation Processor with Turbo Boost which delivers seamless multitasking for greater productivity with advanced graphics and visuals for unmatched gaming performance. Intel Core i5-8250U is clocked at 2.3 GHz which is the base clock speed but it automatically overclocks up to 3.4 GHz by Turbo Boost Technology when you need more power for playing your favorite games. It also packs 2GB DDR5 NVIDIA GeForce MX150 Graphics along with 8GB DDR4 RAM and 256 GB Solid State hard disk. A backlit keyboard will come handy while playing your favorite games with lights off.
Key features of Acer Aspire E 15 Laptop
- 15.6″ Full HD LED-backlit Display (1920 x 1080 resolution; 16:9 Aspect Ratio)
- Intel Core i5-8250U 8th Generation 2.3GHz Processor with Turbo Boost (up to 3.4 GHz)
- 8GB DDR4 Dual Channel Memory
- 256GB SSD
- NVIDIA GeForce MX150 with 2GB of dedicated DDR5 VRAM
- Backlit Keyboard
- 1 – USB 3.1 (Type C) port, 2 – USB 3.0 Ports (One with Power-off Charging), 1 – USB 2.0 Port
- Windows 10 Home
- 8X DVD-Super Multi Double-Layer Drive
- Multi-in-1 Digital Media Card Reader
- 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi
- Built-in 1.3 Megapixel HD Webcam
- 2 USB 2.0 Ports
- 1 – HDMI Port with HDCP support
- 6-cell Li-Ion (2800 mAh) Battery
- 5.27 lbs
2. Best Laptop under $500 for Daily Use
When choosing the best laptop under $500 for daily use you need to focus more on the buying a laptop with a powerful processor and system RAM rather than graphics card. Daily use programs like browsing web, mild gaming, working with documents are better handled by Intel Core i3 and Core i5 processor than its AMD counterpart. The only good laptop under $500 for daily use we could find for you is ASUS VivoBook F510UA which is powered by Intel Core i5 -8250U processor running at 1.6 GHz speed and comes with a 14.2” Full HD display. It also packs 8GB DDR4 RAM and Intel UHD 620 graphics. When comparing the AMD A8 processor to other Intel processors like Core i3 and Core i5 for running programs like Photoshop, even the core i3 beats its AMD counterpart in every aspect. You can also see the comparison of AMD A8 vs Intel Core i3 at cnet. It is a great laptop for both home, office and for college with solid performance with 5 hour battery life on battery saving mode. Also, Windows 10 is a breeze to work upon with a touch screen. You can also visit this page to view the list of all Intel core i5 laptops under $500
Key Features of ASUS K550CA-RS51T Laptop 
- 15.6” HD Touchscreen display
- Intel Core i5-8250U 1.6 GHz
- Windows 10
- 1TB Hard Drive
- 8 GB DDR4 Memory
- Intel UHD 620 Graphics
- DVD-Super Multi Double-Layer Drive
- 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi
- 2 USB 3.0 Port
- 1 USB 3.0 Port
- 5 hour battery life
3. Best Laptop Below $500 for Watching Movies
If you looking to buy a laptop for watching movies then a big screen is a must have.HP Pavilion 17-ar050wm is one of the best budget laptop under $500 which comes with 17.3″ diagonal FHD IPS anti-glare WLED-backlit with the resolution of 1920 x 1080 perfect for watching High Definition movies with stunning clarity, contrast and color along with wider viewing angles for dazzling imagery and eye-popping detail. This laptop is powered by AMD Quad-Core A10-9620P APU with 8GB DDR4 RAM and AMD Radeon R5 Graphics with 2158MB of dedicated system memory.
If you love watching movies on the go then this laptop with its big 17″ backlit LED screen, huge 1TB hard drive, 4GB of memory, a quad core processor and discrete graphics, is a perfect buy under five hundred bucks. AMD Quad-Core A10-9620P processor does a fine job and offers speedy solid performance, especially when combined with 8GB RAM and discrete graphics memory.
Key features ofHP Pavilion 17-ar050wm Laptop
- 17.3″ LED-backlit display (1920 x 1080 resolution)
- AMD Quad-Core A10-9620P APU (2.5 GHz base frequency, up to 3.4 GHz burst frequency, 2 MB cache)
- Windows 10
- 1TB Hard Drive
- 4GB DDR4 Memory
- AMD Radeon R5 Graphics with 2158MB of dedicated system memory
- 8X DVD-Super Multi Double-Layer Drive
- Multi-in-1 Digital Media Card Reader
- 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi
- Built-in 1.3 Megapixel HD Webcam
- 2 USB 2.0 Ports
- 1- HDMI Port
- 6-cell Li-ion Battery, 5.5-hour battery life
- 6 lbs