This is a guest post by Rob C, one of our new readers.
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 $100 more for that power, the Aspire One with it’s AMD Athlon processor is the one to seek out.
Question for our readers:
What was the cheapest laptop you ever bought and were you satisfied with it?
I bought a Compaq laptop a few years ago, because Compaq is made by HP but cheaper than HP branded laptops. I was very satisfied with it, it was reliable and fast with a decent amount of memory. I was great until about three years after I bought it when it crashed due to a virus. However my partner has the next model up from mine and it is still going strong after more than three years. A branded laptop on sale is definitely better than a cheap no-brand – you get better quality and a more reliable warranty.
I was very skeptical when I bought my Gateway NV53, but overall I have been VERY satisfied with it. It does get a bit hot on occasion, but still is yet to overheat. I have had it for 7 months now without any problems. I did have to download a driver for my touch pad, as my cursor would jump all over the screen making it impossible to type. It was roughly 450.00$ at best buy. I am shocked and amazed, at how great this laptop is. I am very happy I didn’t go with a refurbished one. It was incredibly cheap for a 500gb hard drive, and I would recommend it to anyone who uses their computer just for browsing and downloads.
Cheap laptops are what many are looking for these days for two reasons.One ofcourse means less spending and the other not all advance features are being used on a day to day basis.
The Gateway NV 53 is compact,cheap and has adequate memory.It does the fundemental functions expected of it,downloading and browsing.
My experience with high end models is that very few features are used and these are available in cheaper models too.For those with limited useage I would recomend my model.
The article has many good suggestions! When I was shopping for my own laptop several years ago, I did not take some of these into consideration. Some of the items I did consider were ability to play video games, built in Wi-fi, and CPU. I decided on a Dell and still use it today.
Several of my friends purchased refurbished laptops and have been very pleased with the value. Very low cost, but meets their performance requirements. Make sure to do online research before making any purchase.
My husband bought me a Gateway and I love it! We got it on sale at Best Buy. You can get a really good deal on things if you just ask, usually the prices are negotiable.
Make sure that you do your research though, I have no clue which laptop to purchase so my husband did it all for me. It’s so easy to research the right lap top for you, just go online and google cheap laptops. You can usually use free wi-fi in just about every area and restaurant now adays.
The laptop is so light and easy to use, I love mine! You don’t have to spend a fortune to get a good laptop.
I bought an MSI laptop which is on sale so it’s price is very cheap and affordable. At first I thought I won’t be satisfied because it’s specifications are not quite what I’ve been looking for but after using it for a few days I’ve realized that I did the right thing on buying the laptop. I was very satisfied with its performance, its very fast and it can handle some tough games which requires a high video card. The laptop is very lightweight and easy to carry anywhere. Until now I’m still using it and its still in a good shape.
I recently brought one HP G62-223CL Notebook PC from US, that was very cheaper compared to India Price. First, i thought that the laptop is not worth full but now it best suts me for its features and usage. I was very satisfied with its speed, performance and usage. Actually it as only in-built Graphics card only, but it supports all latest games and so on. only dis advantage is the size of the laptop.
When I was in school, I had bought a very basic laptop of Compaq, but I was not really satisfied with it. The battery life of the laptop was very less and had to be used on continuous charging. The price of the laptop at that time was $225, but today I totally feel it was not worth it. It supported windows XP and the configuration made the speed of the laptop very slow. On the whole, I prefer HP laptops to Compaq.
I bought a Acer laptop which was the cheapest of my two laptop. Its an Aspire 5738 and I am totally satisfied with my choice. It has a good Battery Back-up which I find very useful wile travelling long distances.It has a Intel core 2 duo processor 3 GB memory and 360 GB hard disk which is enough for my assignments and entertainment storage. i find it useful and it serves my purpose well . But the only thing lacking is the graphics card that i think would have made it a better laptop.
I bought an Acer Aspire One on sale at a local computer store in Orange City, FL. They were selling it for only $150 because the salesman said it did not have lots of power and would not be able to handle any hard core usage like video games or wi-fi. That suited me just fine because all I wanted to use it for was to write stories and download to a printer. I still use it today for my writing. My main function is writing stories, get my assignment and check my e-mails.
Don’t overlook eBay and other auction sites, or manufacturer’s closeouts – even Dell has one. Sometimes you can find an astonishing deal. I purchased a used 15 inch HP laptop running XP with a full installation of Microsoft Office for about $300. It’s been durable, easy to use and handles everything I throw at it. Of course there’s the downside of no warranty, but for what I paid I’d gladly replace it after 4 years solid use. As always with auction sites, it’s buyer beware, but I’ve been lucky.