One of the most popular laptops on sale for students is the Toshiba Satellite. You will find several great features such as the 15.6 inch screen that will help you to have everything that you need for typing notes and doing research. This laptop comes with the latest version of Windows which is Windows 7 and has all of the storage you need for saving your documents that will be important for your classes. You will have 500 Gigabytes of storage which means that you will be able to store four years worth of notes. You will also get a DVD drive, an Intel Core processor, and a great graphics package making this one of the best cheap laptops to study for finals on.

Another great laptop for sale that college students like is the Compaq Presario. You will get many similar features that you will get with the above Toshiba including Windows 7 and a 15.6 inch display, but this laptop has a few different features. One thing you may notice is that it has half of the storage capacity of the Toshiba with a 250 Gigabyte hard drive, but that is still more than enough space to store your notes for the four years you will be in college. Also, instead of just having a DVD player you will get a DVD +/- R burner. That means you can make backup copies of your favorite movies or make presentations for your classes on a DVD disc.

There are a lot of other very cheap laptops that are perfect for college students that you may want to check out, but these two will give you plenty to make it through all of your classes and perform all of the tasks and assignments that you will have. If you are going to be attending college you will need to have a good laptop with you at all times.

Update: One of our long time readers, ‘Rick TLA’ gave us his suggestions for five of the cheapest laptops currently on the market.

1. 7” laptop by Ubisurfer: This 7” screen laptop is a product from Ubisurfer, a UK based company. They are offering free internet with the laptop. School students normally needs laptops for writing, painting and for doing internet browsing. So they don’t need any high quality laptops. The ubisurfer laptop can be used for all the purposes. There is no in built CD/DVD optical drive with the laptop. The specifications are, it comes out with 128MB RAM and 1GB hard drive. The cost of the laptop is just $180.

2. Laptop from Champion brand: This is one of the most cheapest mini laptop. Its been on the store with a one year warranty. Laptop has got a wider screen about 10.2”. the specifications are, N270 Intel Atom processor with 1GB RAM and 250 GB hard disk.Its cost is $328

3. ASUS Eee Pc 1005HA: This laptop has got lot of advanced techniques than the above ones. It has got 6 cell battery, used for playing videos. This laptop also has got 1 year warranty. The specifications are , a N280 processor with 1 GB Ram and 160nGB hard disk space.Its cost is about $383

4. Aspire One Laptop-AOD250: this laptop has got an in built multiple card reader and a wide display 10.1”. The laptop also got a web camera. The specifications are, a N280 Atom processor with a speed of 1.66 GHz and 1 GB RAM and 160GB hard disk space. It costs $428

5. Lenovo Ideapad S10 Laptop: This laptop is available in two colors, black and grey. The major advantage is that it has got 6hrs of battery power. The screen size is 10.1”. The specifications are, a N280 Atom processor, 1Gb RAM and 160GB hard disk space. The operating system installed is windows Vista, which can change according to the user need. The cost of the product is $437.

Reader Question: What is the most inexpensive laptop (brand and model) that you’re bought and were you satisfied with it?  

If you are like me, you probably don’t have a whole lot of money to spend on a new laptop. If you don’t get caught up in all the different features, there are some good quality, very cheap laptops on the market.

I highly recommend buying a laptop from a brand that you are familiar with. You can find brand name laptops that don’t cost much more than no-name brands, but you’ll have much better luck when you need to find a part for your laptop.

If your main purpose for the laptop is to check emails and use the internet, go for less memory. When the salesman says you must have 3 GB of memory, explain what you need the laptop for. Hard drive is another issue when looking for cheap laptops. A high capacity one is not needed if you’re browing some sites and answering a few emails each day.

To save money on a laptop, it’s very important to spend time thinking about what you will be using it for. If you will be using it on long trips, a laptop with a longer battery life will help a great deal. What size of screen do you want, the smaller they are , usually the cheaper they are. Do you want a bulky laptop or one that is slim and light in weight? Are you starting college and looking for deals on cheap laptops for students? Will it be used by your kids, your spouse or just yourself? These are all things to consider before shopping.

Pick and choose which features are most important to you because you will not get everything in a low priced laptop. Just remember the features that should be the most important are the ones that are almost impossible to change, or would be very expensive like the screen size, the design, the hard drive, the weight of the laptop, CPU etc. Cosmetics like memory, the battery, and DVD player can all be changed in the future and added for a low cost. If you are looking for the best cheap laptops, make a list of all the functions you will be performing before you shop. This should give you a good idea of what you need.

Another possibility is to consider a refurbished laptop. I don’t know much about them, but I know a few people who own one and they’re all very satisfied with their purchases.

Just do a little bit of research before shopping at a very cheap laptops sale, and always remember if you buy the older model there’s a good chance you will get it a whole lot cheaper than the newer one.

Update: One of our readers, Joe L. Allen, submitted his picks for five of the cheapest laptops on the market today:

1. The current leader in the low price laptop market is the Acer Aspire One at about $275. Originally a much smaller unit, the Aspire One now has a friendlier 10.1 inch display. Although this reviewer laments the passing of Windows XP Home (available on earlier models), Windows 7 Starter is an acceptable substitute on in-stock Acers currently sold.

2. Toshiba’s mini NB255-N240 Netbook PC shares much in common with the Aspire One. Both are netbooks; both also have the same display size, memory capacity, and hard drive capacity. The Toshiba has a slightly different Intel Atom N455 processor. How to choose? The tactile feel of the keyboard can make a huge difference. A buyer would be wise to try both keyboards if possible.

3. The ASUS 10.1″ Eee PC is a netbook very similar to the Aspire One. It has 1 Gigabyte of memory, a 10.1 inch display, a 160 Gigabyte hard drive, and Windows 7 Starter. The 6-cell lithium-ion battery in the ASUS is an excellent advantage that this model has over the Aspire One, the latter having a battery capacity of only half that of this ASUS.

4. The Silver Acer Netbook PC, is very similar to its earlier cousin, the Aspire One. The Silver One doubles the Aspire One’s battery capacity, however, opting for a 6-cell battery. This makes the Silver competitive with the ASUS. Another advantage of the Silver is a third USB port. For these two benefits, you will likely pay more for the Silver than the Aspire or the ASUS. Much of the issue comes down to price, especially if you don’t need the second port.

5. Be on the lookout for a newer Aspire One model. Slightly more expensive than the Intel Atom-equipped Aspire One netbook, the newer model (about $350) features an AMD processor with more cache and DDR 3 memory. If you are interested in a more robust Acer Netbook and are willing to pay $50 to $100 more for that power, the Aspire One with it’s AMD Athlon processor is the one to seek out.

Question for our readers:
What was the cheapest laptop you ever bought and were you satisfied with it?