Laptops Under $500
What to expect from a laptop that is under $500
Laptops under 500 dollars are approaching the price range that gets you a decent screen size and some of the newest technology in laptops. They can come with the newest processors, come in a 64 bit configuration, and have screens in the 13 to 17 range. If your budget is only $500 you aren’t going to have to sacrifice much to get a machine that you will love.
You can also buy refurbished laptops for under $500, however many of these are older computer that just don’t seem to compete with the newer computers out there in this price range.
Brand
This is one area where if you have a brand you like you can pretty much find a laptop in this price range that they make. With the only exception being Apple, if you want one of those, you are going to have to pay double the price, $999 for the lowest on the low end models, while getting almost the same hardware as the laptops that will be cover here which are all under $500. But if you really want your Macbook you will have to shop the refurbished laptop websites and you might find one sneaking in for $500. There are also many older Apple laptops like iBooks and G4′s that are under 500 dollars too.
Operating System
In every new laptop PC you buy these days you are going to get Windows 7, the only question is what version and is it 32-bit or 64-bit. If you get a netbook, a laptop that’s screen size is 11 inches or under, then you are probably going to get Windows 7 Starter Edition. This is a stripped down version of Windows 7 that doesn’t have some of the fancy animation features or allow built in automatic backups. But if you are getting a netbook you probably don’t want all the extra animations slowing down the processor.
If you are buying a new laptop, screen size larger than 11 inches you should expect to get Windows 7 64-bit. The 64-bit means that the information highway between the processor and the rest of the computer is wider, which allows for more traffic. It also lifts the restriction on the maximum capacity of RAM from 4 GB to 16 GB in Windows 7 Home Premium.
Processor
Processors in laptops under 500 dollars can be anything from a low end Intel Atom processor to a new i3 mobile, or maybe even an i5 processor if you can catch a good sale. The current best processor that is in the price range that doesn’t need a special sale to get, the i3, is a very good processor which can have a clock speed of up to 2.4 GHz and has a dual core, but it is hyper threaded so it can act almost like a standard unhyperthreaded quad core.
If you prefer to get an AMD processor there are plenty of those in this price range, so don’t feel like you are stuck with just Intel.
Screen Size
The screen size of laptops in this price range can be just about any size manufacturers make laptops in. Of course if you buy a laptop with a 17 inch screen you are likely going to have to sacrifice processing power to stay under your $500 budget. Resolution on these screens, even the netbooks and their 10 inch screens is going to be up to 720p HD standards. Though its unlikely you are going to find one that is 1080p capable.
Video Card
Almost all of the video cards in laptops and netbooks under 500 dollars are going to be integrated into the motherboards and share RAM with the processor. This is done largely so that the computer uses less power, so its battery can last longer. But as stated earlier, even the integrated video cards can support 720p HD. So there really isn’t a need to get a high power video card in your laptop. Now if you are a gamer and are looking for a budget computer with a powerful graphics card you are almost certainly going to need to shop around for a used laptop that meets you specifications for it be under $500.
RAM
For under $500 your laptop should come with more RAM than most people will need. 3 or 4 gigabytes is a standard among most newer laptops. Also, the RAM that these laptops come with DDR3 as the standard RAM. This is good because that is the current standard for RAM so the replacement or upgrade parts that you might choose to buy in the future will be cheaper than the DDR2 or DDR counter parts.
Hard Drive
The hard drives on these cheap laptops come standard at at least 250 GB but up to 500 GB without having to pay extra. With a hard drive this big you can fit just about everything you can think of on it without any sort of problem. Now if you are big into recording TV or movies or ripping your DVDs onto your laptop you are going to have space issues and might want to pay for the upgrade.
Optical Drive (Blu-Ray, DVD, or CD)
When you buy a laptop under $500 if you choose a standard sized laptop you will most certainly have a DVD burner as a piece of the standard equipment. But if you go with a netbook you are out of luck and will need to get an external optical drive for you DVD needs, unless you have a second computer from which you can transfer an ISO file of the DVD you want to use.
Wireless
Most of the laptops in this category will have standard 8012.11g/n which is the most up to date wireless technology so nothing to worry about there.
Battery
Standard battery size is a 6-cell battery. In fact this is the best battery available without paying extra on a sub $500 laptop.
Webcam
Webcams are common in almost all modern laptops, however you are going to purchase a refurbished laptop for under $500 a webcam is not likely going to be a standard option. But you can get a 1.3 megapixel webcam as the premium webcam and a 0.3 megapixel on the rest of the laptops that have a standard webcam.
Other Features
Most of the laptops will come with a card reader if they are new, but unlikely if they are refurbished. Other features like mobile broadband and GPS can also be available in this price range but they are not common features and will most likely be added on to the system for an extra charge.
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Tags: Hard Drive, laptops for less than 500, laptops under 500, Operating System, refurbished laptop, Screen Size, Video Card
