Laptops Under $200
What to expect from a new laptop you can buy for under $200?
There is no way to really beat around the bush with this one. Unlike a laptop under $300 you are scraping the bottom of the barrel as far as modern laptops are concerned. To get a laptop that has a screen larger than 7 inches you are almost certainly going to need to purchase a refurbished laptop. Sadly though a refurbished laptop might be in the price range of under $200 but it is going to be woefully under powered for any software that has come out in the last 4-6 years or longer.
There is one perk to some of the small laptops under $200, that is that you can get some with solid state disk (SSD) hard drives. An SSD is a hard drive that is extremely quick, it doesn’t use spinning disks like other hard drives so there isn’t the time it takes for the disks to spin, the head to find the physical location of the file you want on the disk, and then to finally read it. The one draw back to them is that large SSDs are still quite expensive, so to this end all the SSDs with the netbooks that are priced under $200 are small, as in the biggest you might find will be 8 GB. This is not something you are going to store all of your pictures and music on, think of it more of a iPod Nano with a keyboard and bigger screen, you can only put some of your favorite songs, not all.
To better help you expect what you should be able to get from a laptop under $200 each component of these laptops have been broken down and the best of each area has been identified. Because the limited options of new laptops for under $200 the components of new and used are mixed together to give you a complete picture of your options.
Brand
Only discount brands are going to be found under $200. There are going to be a few refurbished IBM Thinkpads or a HP Compaq, but as far as new laptops go ASUS and even some you’ve never heard of are going to be far more common.
Operating System
Operating systems come in a wide range of types. None of the new versions of Windows are available however, with Windows XP being the newest and most common. Some of the netbooks under $200 even come with Linux pre-installed, but those laptops are also compatible with Windows XP. You can also find an older mobile version of Windows, Windows CE 5.0, this version cannot be upgraded to XP because of the difference in the underlying hardware.
Processor
Most of the processors are going to be Intel’s Pentium M 1.5 or 1.6 GHz Centrino. These processors however are 5 to 6 years old, which means the refurbished machines are themselves 5 to 6 years old. There is however a few Into Atom’s out there that are a little newer and will provide a slight boost in speed. Of course to get the faster processor you will have to get a laptop with a screen size of 10 inches or under.
Screen Size
Some of the older refurbished laptops will have screen sizes up to 15.4 inches with many coming in around 14 inches. But the newer laptops are going to be 10 inches or less. This however is a very common size for netbooks and is no surprise.
Video Card
Video cards in laptops for under $200 are going be weak and really aren’t worth mentioning. There is practically no chance of finding a laptop this cheap that will be able to produce anything near a full HD quality picture. In fact the max resolution on the small 7 inch netbooks is 480p, which is less than half the 1080p resolution of a full HD picture.
Ram
Ram is going to be limited to a max of 2 GB on most of these machines, but that would be after you add in 1 GB after you buy them. Standard is 1 GB on the newer refurbished laptops, but only 512 MB, or .5 GB, only the older refurbished laptops for under $200.
Hard Drive
The hard drive is one of the areas, as mentioned above, that these small laptops can be really cool. With a SSD the read and write times of these netbooks are going to be significantly shorter than the drives with physical disks in them. But, as reported the size on these drives is going to be from 2-8 GBs only, which is going to limit your ability to store very many picture, music, and videos. But if the netbook is used to surf the net, write emails, and write papers then this size limitation won’t be much of an issue.
The standard hard drives (non SSDs) will range from a capacity of 40 to 160 GBs. The older computer the smaller the hard drive is going to be.
Optical Drive
Only laptops with a screen size larger than 11 inches are typically going to have a CD/DVD drive installed. Netbooks will not have an internal optical drive included. The way to get around this is to use a virtual disk drive or a USB thumb drive to install any software that didn’t come with the netbook.
Wireless
All laptops under $200, that are less than 6 years old are most likely going to be equipped with wireless of some kind. However, only the newer and smaller netbooks are going to come with 802.11n, all others will be b/g or just b. For most people the difference from n to b/g will be unnoticeable because of other, external to the laptop, requirements to get speeds at an n rate. Besides that most internet providers speeds are slower than the top speed of a g wireless signal.
Battery
Battery life on a laptop in this price range are going to be pretty much standard with other laptops. Because of the age of most of the refurbished laptops the batteries may need to be replaced soon after you purchase them because of the decay of the lithium ion battery life. Laptops in this range will come with a 3 to 6-Cell battery with larger batteries available as options, which will however increase the price.
Webcam
New netbooks will all have webcams built into them, with the picture quality being 1.3 megapixels. Older refurbished laptops will not, however, come with a built in webcam and will have to be added on after the purchase.
Other Features
Most newer laptops, within the last 2 years or so will all come with a built in card reader, which allows you to take the memory card directly from your camera and put it into the computer without needing any extra cables. Older laptops will not likely have this option.
Summary
As stated there are basically two types of computers that can be purchased for under $200, the 14-15 inch screen variety or the 7-10 in variety. The reason the 14-15 inch computers are being sold for under $200 is because they are in general five to six years old. The 7-10 inch laptops could be two or less years old or they can be new (most likely this would be a 7 inch model).
If you all you are looking for is a large screen, then go with the older but larger laptops. If not, and you just want a bargain basement computer then go with a refurbished netbook. The screen size is going to be small, but no smaller than netbooks who cost $300-$400. They are going to have newer and faster components. They are also going to be smaller, lighter, sleeker, and generally more appealing to look at. But if you decide you can’t quite get what you are looking for for under $200 then check out all of the laptops under $300.
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Tags: cheap laptops, GB, Hard Drive, laptops under $200, netbooks, Operating System, Optical Drive, range, Screen Size, small laptops, SSD, Video Card
