Not all users can afford or might be needing the high-end laptops that we showcase on our website. Some might as well have their budget fixed for finding and buying the best laptops under 500 dollars. We handpicked the best and the cheapest laptop under $500 both for everyday work purposes.
As we said earlier not all users can have the fortune to get the highest of the highest-end laptops for their daily activities and workloads. Most of us have a budget of around 500 dollars and according to google trends, the best laptops under 500 dollars is the most searched term versus best laptops under 1000 dollars. So if you are on the lookout for a budget and good laptop this holiday season then you are absolutely on the right path. Although it is important to mention that Gaming laptops with the recent cryptocurrency and chip shortage fiasco might not come under your regular 500$ budget. But that doesn’t stop us to fetch you the best laptops under 500 with capabilities that would serve you as your daily driver for all the tasks you are assigned with.
The best budget laptops under $500 that we chose in this list won’t leave you thinking twice about your purchase decision because you actually didn’t pay much and got a very premium product. These notebooks would include Full HD Displays along with solid performance and huge battery life. It has all the ports lined up properly and you can even get a touchscreen display at this price point.
Although the screen will be on the smaller side you can actually use the touchscreen really comes in handy in all your daily activities. There are a ton of laptops that retails for less than 500$. But the tricky part is finding the most value for money and powerful laptops as there are chip supply shortages due to the Coronavirus pandemic where everyone had to start working from home. So the demand for cheap windows laptops and Chromebooks spurred up rapidly along with the best work from home gadgets that you can buy for your laptop.
The best laptops that come under 500 are obviously not of extremely premium quality but the notebooks we have chosen are well worth the price both in performance and build quality. Yes, the pandemic did push the laptop prices much higher, and reviewing the current scenario the price is going to be like this until we will be picking the best laptops in 2023. Then we can see some price changes. As of right now, the Omicron virus is still looming at large and we might as well go back to work from home this year as well. price range.
With that being said, our lineup of laptops under $500 we have handpicked the best ones from various different brands like Asus, HP, Lenovo, and Acer out of which two of the laptops are from ASUS. You are obviously not going to get a cutting edge performance and the best industrial designs overall but it is going to serve as a reliable laptop for getting your work on the go. It is going to be sturdy to withstand all the shocks and can easily be given to children for their online classes and to be on the safe side, even if they break it, you won’t face much of a loss as most laptops of this price range are repairable unless they are completely shattered to pieces.
Chromebooks are the best cheaper alternative to higher-end Windows laptops with premium build quality and performance versus the windows laptops at the same Owning the best laptop under 500$ might be good for budget-centric users but you have to accept some of the compromises that come along with it! So without further ado let’s check out the top 5 Best laptops under 500 dollars.
Cheapest laptops under 500 dollars – ASUS L510 Ultra-thin Laptop
Intel Celeron N4020 Processor/ 4GB RAM/ 512 GB Storage/ 8Hrs+ Battery Life/ Backlit Keyboard/ Windows 10 Home + 1 Year Microsoft 365/ Star Black
The first laptop on our Top 5 Best laptops under 500 dollars in 2022 is the ASUS L510 Ultra Thin Laptop with a 15.6 inches Full HD display with Nano-edge thin bezels on all 4 sides.
The laptop is powered by an Intel Celeron N-4020 Dual-Core Processor which runs at a turbo boost frequency of 2.80GHz. The laptop features an extremely low TDP 6W CPU with a 4MB Cache. The processor is designed to handle multiple workloads with its true machine intelligence and a newly designed architecture from Intel. The processor learns and adapts the tasks according to your daily needs flawlessly. It also features 4GB DDR4 memory with 512GB NVMe Storage for mass storage. You can work with multiple applications and tabs opened at once. It not only saves time but also improves your work efficiency.
The laptop features a 15.6-inch Full HD display with a resolution of 1920×1080. The Nano-edge display which was earlier reserved for high-end ASUS devices makes its way to the low end as well. This new display features an extremely thin narrow bezel design which lets you focus more on work and studies. You can enjoy watching movies on this display as it is extremely immersive and the colors are vibrant.
The display also has a 178 degrees tilt. It has the required number of ports for your everyday workloads like the USB 3.2 Type C, USB Standard Port, an HDMI Port, and one MicroSD Card Reader. Considering the weight to be just around 3.59lbs this laptop is extremely easy to carry around and get your job done without a hitch. The webcam is really good on this laptop for your zoom meetings, online classes, and other video calls. The photos which we took are decent for the price this laptop comes at.
You get a free copy of Microsoft Windows 10 Home along with this laptop along with a free copy of the Office 365 Subscription which would include Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, Excel, etc valid for a year. You can use this laptop for video projects, zoom meetings, and even word processing applications in the productivity area. This cheap laptop under 500 would also serve you in entertainment as well. The battery life is really impressive and you can last a day without charging it. The biometric fingerprint scanner works flawlessly but there is no option of face recognition on this laptop. Another thing to note is that this laptop doesn’t come with a touchscreen so if you are looking to get a touchscreen display look further down the list.
Best Laptop for under 500 – Acer Aspire 5 A515 Laptop
11th Gen Intel Core i3-1115G4 Processor/ 15.6″ Full HD Display/ 4GB DDR4/ 128GB NVMe SSD/ Acer 15.6″ Gray Travel Backpack
The second laptop on our top 5 best laptops under 500 dollars in 2022 is the Acer Aspire 5 A515 Laptop. A full HD laptop with the latest generation Intel Core i3 11th Gen Processor.
The all-new Acer Aspire 5 A515 Laptop is powered by the all-new Intel Core i3-1115G4 Processor. This latest generation processor delivers excellent speeds and enables impressive performance out of the box. It also has a turbo boost of 4.1Ghz whenever you are running high intensive workloads. This is a dual-core processor with hyperthreading i.e two cores and four threads. The laptop features Intel UHD Graphics perfect for your daily workloads.
The 4GB DDR4 Memory is capable of multitasking like working on different applications or working with multiple tabs opened at once. These entry-level cheap laptops come with a pre-installed 128GB SSD. An SSD makes a major difference in computing nowadays. As more and more brands are pushing towards including an SSD into the cheaper laptops as well, modern computing took a huge step forward in terms of speed and system responsiveness. If you think you are losing out on space you can easily swap in a 1TB Hard Drive without having to take off the SSD.
The laptop has a traditional 15.6 inches display with thin bezels. It also features a Full HD 1920×1080 display with an aspect ratio of 16:9. The narrow bezels add to the aesthetics of the laptop. The display is clear and the colors are really vibrant. The hinge lifts up the keyboard for more comfortable typing and better cooling and audio experience. The body is made out of hard plastic and it does have a little bit of flex to it. It has all the necessary ports required for your daily use as the USB 3.2 Type C, USB 3.2 Gen 1 for Charging, USB 2.0, HDMI 2.0, headphone microphone combo jack, and an ethernet port as well for wired internet connectivity. Acer claims that this laptop would last around 8 hours on a single charge.
For the software side of things, you get a free copy of Windows 10 Home along with it. Acer has built-in Alexa on the laptop so that you can ask Alexa about creating calenders, lists, playing music, etc. Apart from that Acer also incorporated their own Purified Voice technology which features an enhanced digital signal which cancels out the background noise which improves the speech accuracy even if you are a little away from the mic.
This makes talking to Alexa much easier and better than before and uses the laptop like an Amazon Echo-show like a notebook. The Acer color Intelligence makes more intense shades for your light photo editing work on this laptop and also the use of Bluelightsheild which protects your eyes from blue light when you are working in the dark. The laptop doesn’t feature a backlit keyboard. If you want a laptop with a backlit feature, check out this list!
Best laptop under $500 – HP Pavilion 2022 Laptop
15.6″ FHD Display/ Intel Celeron Processor/ 8GB DDR4 RAM/ 128GB SSD/ Online Conferencing/ Webcam/ HDMI/ WiFi/ Bluetooth/ Wins 10 + Office 365 1 Year License
The third laptop on our top 5 best laptops under 500 dollars in 2022 is the HP Pavillion Laptop. This is a 15.6-inch laptop perfect for traveling and multitasking fully geared for 2022.
When it comes to consumer laptops, HP has to be on the list. the all-new HP Premium laptop features an Intel Celeron N4020 Dual-core Processor. The Processor runs at speed of 1.1Ghz while it boosts up to 2.8Ghz on full load with 4MB Cache. The 8GB DDR4 memory is a must in 2022 in order to perform all the multitasking. The high bandwidth RAM is installed to smoothly run multiple applications and open multiple browsers at the same time. You also get a 128GB NVMe SSD over 64GB memory in last year’s models. Installing an NVMe SSD into the system makes the laptop much more responsive and smooth. Although you do have the option of installing a separate 1TB Hard Disk into the system as you will be running out of space really quickly with preinstalled storage size.
The all-new HP Pavillion 2022 laptop features a 15.6-inch display. It is a full HD 1920×1080 display with 45% NTSC nits of brightness. It also features an anti-glare display. The brightness is rated at 250nits which is okay at this price point. The screen covers 81% of the display which resulted in having micro-edge bezels. The viewing angles are pretty nice and the color reproduction is really good in this year’s models. We also get to see IPS panels on laptops of this price range which we didn’t have in the previous year’s models. The full keyboard with the integrated numeric comes extremely handy for these kinds of laptops.
On the software side of things, we get a free copy of Microsoft Windows 10 Home and a copy of Office 365 which is valid for 1 year. It would include Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, Excel, etc. The laptop features all the wireless connectivity options like WiFi and Bluetooth. The 720p webcam is good enough for video calls, online classes, and zoom meetings. The 720p webcam can shoot decent quality videos as well. There is the usual number of ports available on this laptop like HDMI, Type C Port, USB Ports, and Ethernet port as well. The laptop is sleek and smooth and is very easy to carry around.
The battery is pretty good on the laptop with an average of 7-9 hours runtime depending upon your usage. The speakers are nice and it’s pretty much audible in a normal-sized room. Although we would suggest you use Bluetooth speakers or headphones while using it for entertainment purposes. Yes, this laptop also doesn’t feature a touchscreen so that might be a letdown for some users for sure. Other than a solid laptop with the reliability of HP as a brand both in quality and service. You get a free Oydisen microfiber cloth along with the device. But here are some of the essential laptop accessories that you need to buy when purchasing the best laptops under 500 dollars.
Best Laptops under 500 – ASUS Chromebook Flip C433 2 in 1 Laptop
14″ Touchscreen FHD NanoEdge Display/ Intel Core M3-8100Y Processor/ 8GB RAM/ 64GB eMMC Storage/ Backlit Keyboard/ Silver/ Chrome OS/
The fourth laptop on our top 5 best laptops under the 500 in 2022 list comes the ASUS Chromebook Flip C433. It’s a 2 in 1 laptop with a touchscreen and a Full HD Display.
The all-new ASUS Chromebook Flip 2 in 1 Laptop is powered by an Intel Core m3-8100Y Processor. The processor is a dual-core with up to 3.4Ghz for super fast and snappy performance. You can run multiple apps and open up multiple windows and tabs at the same time which is a must for 2022. We use our laptop for various different reasons and that’s why need to have a processor which can handle multitasking with ease. It also features an 8GB DDR3 Low Profile memory for faster performance even under extreme workloads. the 64GB eMMC storage is fast storage although we would have preferred a good SSD under the hood. The laptop has a very good build quality and since it’s a 2 in 1 one laptop, the hinge is 360 degrees rotatable.
On the display side of things, this Chromebook features a 14 inch full HD Display. The touchscreen is very responsive and as we mentioned earlier that this cheap laptop features a durable 360-degree hinge that can be used to flip the laptop screen and use it as a tablet. It’s an excellent device for both students and professionals. On the wireless side of things, we get to see the WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity present.
The ports present here are USB Type C Gen 1 and Type-A Gen 1 Ports. The keyboard is a backlit chiclet keyboard and it feels good while typing. You don’t get to see a full length keyboard as the device is really small optimized for traveling. The aesthetics are great. It’s a beautiful device and the white screen cover looks lovely, and the silver body matches it pretty well with the overall color scheme. The fingerprint reader is a good addition to Chromebooks for swift login.
The Asus Chromebook flip lasts around 8-9 hours at a full day charge. That is pretty much a whole day of productivity. For the OS, since this is not a Windows Laptop, you get the Chrome OS. It is an operating system by Google, very popular among the lower-end and lower-priced devices. It has built-in virus protection and it updates periodically. The system boots up really fast and stays fast throughout your work process. You also get the Google Assistant on your ASUS Chromebook. You can email, find documents, listen to music using only your voice commands. Along with it, you are entitled to a free 1 Year, 100GB Google One Cloud Storage account to keep all your files safe and secure.
Overall this is one of the best Chromebooks under 500 dollars that you can buy right now!
Laptops for Cheap – Lenovo Ideapad 3 Laptop
14.0″ FHD (1920 x 1080) Display/ AMD Ryzen 5 5500U Processor/ 8GB DDR4 RAM/ 256GB NVMe TLC SSD Storage/ AMD Radeon 7 Graphics/ Windows 11 Home/ 82KT00GVUS/ Abyss Blue
The fifth laptop on our top 5 best laptops under 500 dollars in 2022 is the Lenovo Ideapad 3 Laptop. A 14-inch Laptop powered by a very powerful AMD Ryzen 5 5500U Processor. This is the best and the cheapest laptop in 2022 with the most modern specs built in it.
The all-new Lenovo Ideapad 3 Laptop features an AMD Ryzen 5 5500U Hexa core processor with 12 threads. This processor is a powerhouse of performance and can be used both for daily workloads and a little bit of content creation. As the laptop is also equipped with AMD Ryzen 7 Graphics, you can run photo editing apps on this laptop with ease. The 8GB RAM is perfect for laptops of this price range and performance grade. You can run multiple apps or open up multiple windows, and tabs all at once while working.
The 256GB NVMe storage is a good addition to the Lenovo Ideapad 3. The SSD makes the whole system snappier and more responsive. These AMD Ryzen 5 series processor improves your overall workflow. It keeps the system cool via Lenovo’s intelligent thermal controlling feature while letting the processor perform at its peak without thinking much about thermal throttling. You can run some basic games as well which was not possible for any of the laptops that are mentioned above. The laptop is an all-rounder for under $500.
The Lenovo Ideapad 3 boasts a 14-inch full HD display with a display resolution of 1920×1080. The full HD display on the 14-inch screen looks wonderful and the colors produced are very crisp and vibrant. The laptop also features a wide-screen viewing experience. You can typically see this more when you are using the laptop for watching movies or high-quality videos. The four-side narrow bezels make the display much more immersive to look at. The viewing angles are pretty good and the display coles with smart learning solutions such as Eyecare to reduce the low blue light from hurting your eyes.
On the Wireless side of things, you have the all-new WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity. You also have your regular USB, USB Type C, and your HDMI ports for connecting an external display. The Ideapad 3 features an intelligent cooling system which makes the laptop run much quieter and cooler. The performance can also be calibrated with the Q-control which has 3 modes to match the performance that you need for both your Working and gaming needs. The webcam is of decent quality and can be used for video calling purposes like online classes and zoom meetings. Lenovo did a great job of adding a privacy shutter in order to protect your webcam lens and your own privacy as well in times of need. Overall an excellent laptop if you are looking for cheap laptops under 500 dollars.
ALSO READ | Dell Inspiron 15 AMD Ryzen 7 5700U Laptop Review
Cheap Laptops in 2022 – Verdict
So which laptop to buy in 2022? Well, it’s a tough choice, to be honest. Choosing the best laptops under $500 really depends on your budget and it gets tricky sometimes. Yes, you won’t be getting top-of-the-line performance and design, You might have to make compromises on aspects like display, the color reproduction, keyboard, etc. But that doesn’t mean that cheap laptops under $500 are bad. It is basically about buying what you actually need on day to day basis.
For example, you won’t be buying a 2000 dollar laptop for a student for online classes. That is completely absurd. So it depends on the situation. If you are buying this for a child for their online classes then you should go for Chromebooks rather than windows laptops. But on the other hand, if you want something for working purposes then definitely you should opt for a Windows-based laptop as they support a wide variety of applications that you will use in your day-to-day life.
So which OS to choose? Chrome OS or Windows? There are two types of OS. One is the Chrome OS which is a lightweight operating system designed to run on basic hardware but still provides good performance and get the daily day-to-day computing done. Windows on the other hand require a little more horsepower to run smoothly. But it supports a huge range of software and is much faster than the Chrome OS. All the laptops are now available on Amazon right now.
So this concludes our Top 5 list for the best laptops under 500 dollars. Make sure you comment down below if you have any suggestions that I might have included in the list.
Also don’t forget to pick up a good quality water-resistant laptop backpack, just in case!
That’s all for now
Until next time.
A 30-year-old avid gamer by choice dabbles in all things tech. Whether spending hours in single-player narrative-based games or going through the latest innovation in technology and chip manufacturing, he prefers to stay on top of things. At the other times, you’ll find him tucked away drumming and headbanging to Rock and Roll Classics.