With curved edges and a silver hue, the Samsung Chromebook 4 looks a lot like the many MacBook copycats we've seen over the years. Don't bid or participate at all. Fortunately, it is possible, but there are some trade-offs. TIRED: What you don't get in the Pavilion is great battery life. See what's between the lowest price and that average price. Please also consider subscribing to WIRED. It also packs a decent number of ports as well, including two USB Type-C ports, a USB Type-A port and a microSD card slot. But it has a bigger full HD screen than the Chromebook model. These tests are complemented with extensive hands-on testing from our reviewers who critique everything from the laptop's materials to the feel of its touchpad. Visit our corporate site (opens in new tab). You also get some decently loud speakers and a very nice keyboard with this one. The Stream boasts a portable, 11-inch chassis, weighing in at 2.5 pounds and measuring just 0.7 inches thick. It survived a whole 10 hours and 36 minutes against our battery test, making it the best laptop under $500 with the longest battery life. The 360-degree hinge converts it to tablet mode or stand mode for watching movies. The latter gets our vote as an inexpensive option for getting school work done while still being light enough to carry around campus for the day. I've also used the Intel i5 model, which gets even better battery life but with a noticeable loss of computing power. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Cond Nast. Even for a laptop, $500 can be a lot of money, and you'll likely be holding onto it for at least three years, if the statistics Intel and PC manufacturers hurl at us are correct. The Duet 5 still features a fabric rear case and keyboard cover like the previous model, but open it up and the 13.3-inch OLED display will make you check that sub-$500 price again. Josh Goldman helps people find the best laptop at the best price -- from simple Chromebooks to high-end gaming laptops. If your budget is tight and you want the most bang for your buck, or you just want to keep something out of the landfill, the used or refurbished laptop market is worth considering. All I want is something portable enough that I don't get back strain from toting it around all day, and powerful enough to get some basic work done. The attention-grabber is the Intel Core i5 processor that provides reliable performance, despite being paired with cheaper components. Shop your favorite products and well find the best deal with a single click. I've been writing about and reviewing consumer technology since before the turn of the century. WIRED: If you're all-in on Google's Chrome OS, Acer's Chromebook Spin 713 offers the best experience you'll get outside of Google's much more expensive Pixelbook laptops. If you want great battery life and something that doubles as a way to browse the web from the couch, watch movies in bed, and still get a bit of work done during the day, the iPad fits the bill. 11 Rapid At-Home Covid-19 Testsand Where to Find Them. If you're looking for the cheapest Windows laptop you could possibly buy, then the HP Stream 11 will satisfy you with its long battery life and solid performance. There are ports galore (Ethernet, USB, USB-C, HDMI, headphone jack), and it's powerful enough to watch 4K video. How accurate are over-the-counter swabs? See our full Lenovo Flex 5 Chromebook review. Read more: Best Monitors Under $200 You Can Get Right Now. The best laptops under $500 are the cheapest laptops that don't suck. Heres why you can trust us. Updated March 2022: We've updated several models to their latest versions and updated prices throughout. But if your internal storage is the type of slow-spinning hard drive that comes in a lot of cheap laptop models, fast external storage is unlikely to help speed up loading Windows or applications. This budget laptop also features a USB 3.2 Gen 1 USB-C port, two USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports, Ethernet and an HDMI port. It'll also let you know what to look for if you want to continue your budget laptop hunt on your own. It wraps a powerful Intel Core i7 chip, 8 gigabytes of RAM, and a 256-gigabyte SSD in a thin, no-nonsense design with a 1,920 x 1,080-pixel IPS LCD display. You can't edit videos or play hardcore games on these machines. The Swift 3 scored well for battery life in our video-based battery drain test, and it boasts four USB ports, including one USB-C port. Additionally, the Chromebook x2 offers a comfortable keyboard and a battery that lasts nearly 9 hours on a single charge. To revisit this article, select My Account, thenView saved stories. We also run heat tests by playing a 15-minute full-screen video and measuring temperatures in different areas of the laptop. TIRED: The battery life is worse than the Surface Go 2. But thanks to how light it is, and its decent performance, it's a solid ultraportable laptop. Get coverage and hassle-free claims. Lighter weight, smaller screens. Scroll down and check the option to show only "sold listings." If you're looking for a new e-reader, check out our Kindle Paperwhite (2021, 11th Gen) review. The review process for laptops, desktops, tablets and other computer-like devices consists of two parts: performance testing under controlled conditions in the CNET Labs and extensive hands-on use by our expert reviewers. There is an audience for the Chromebook 317, and its targeted at large-handed folks who are tired of feeling as if theyre typing with thick, meaty sausage links. Keep in mind that all convertibles work as both laptops and tablets. Ad Choices. The display emits an impressive 276 nits of brightness, which gives the screen some decent contrast. Does your insurance cover them? There was a problem. HD, which has a resolution of 1,920x1,080 pixels, is called "Full HD" so marketers can refer to lesser-resolution displays (1,280x720 pixels) as HD. The Intel Celeron 3000N processor and 4GB of RAM driving the Samsung Chromebook 4 provides decent power for multitasking, especially at this price. Make easy monthly payments over 3, 6 or 12 months. Extra savings up to $15 with TurboTax discount, $10 off $100 Student Finish Line promo code, DoorDash promo code July 2022: $10 with no minimum order, Extra 30% off your online order with Groupon promo code, Exclusive Expedia coupon code: Extra 5% off your hotel reservation, 2022 Cond Nast. Still powerful. You can always add an external drive or two (or five, if you're me) at some point down the road. Also, if a tablet might be the answer for you check out our Apple iPad mini 6 review (2021), which starts at $499, or the new Amazon Fire 7 tablet (2022) is a great device for content consumption starting at just $60. For MacBooks and premium Windows 10 laptops, a runtime of over 9 hours is considered a good result whereas gaming laptops and workstations that can stay powered for longer than 5 hours deserve praise. Plus, the battery lasted a couple minutes shy of 10 hours on our streaming video test. Need something superportable? Considering all specs and options -- battery life, storage space, screen resolution, screen size, core processor performance, general machine and battery performance -- you'll find some of our top picks for 2022's best Windows laptops and Chromebooks under the $500 budget in the list above, along with their pros and cons. But the Duet is a budget-friendly Chromebook, so we can concede the lack of slim bezels as a reasonable trade off. WIRED: The Lenovo Chromebook Duet (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is the most fun you'll have with Chrome OS. Protection plans for portable and home tech, mobile devices and TVs. You should get the model with an Intel Core i5 (or AMD 5000 series chip), integrated graphics, 8 gigabytes of RAM, and a 15.6-inch IPS display (1,920 x 1,080 pixels). The Aspire 5 is one of the best cheapest laptops currently available. Unfortunately, that's one of the trade-offs: A lot of these use TN (twisted nematic) screen technology, which is cheap but meh. The easiest to come by, and therefore (usually) the best deals, tend to be on more boring, business-oriented models. The 4GB RAM and 128GB solid-state drive storage don't allow you to have many programs or lots of browser tabs open simultaneously but you can add more of both down the road. Built with the graphics cards & processing power to drive the biggest games. The Lenovo Flex is not a great choice for outdoor use, since the display is pretty dim. In the budget price range, you have to watch out for screen terminology when it comes to specs: An "HD" screen may not always be a truly high-definition screen. Unfortunately, Amazon is charging a bit more for Windows 11, but it's probably worth it, since Windows 10 won't be supported forever. That also means if you spend most of your time roaming the web, writing, streaming video or playing Android games, they're a good fit. Also, if there's something you really want in a laptop, like a touchscreen, a backlit keyboard, DDR4 RAM, an HD webcam, Intel UHD Graphics, AMD Radeon Vega Graphics or an HDMI port, check the manufacturer's specs closely to make sure it has it. Those models were recently updated with 11th-gen Intel processors and we tested both15.6-and 14.1-inch models. That's because Google's Chrome OS isn't nearly as power-hungry as Windows (check the specs), so you can get by with a lower-end processor, slower storage and less screen resolution or RAM -- just a few of the components that make a laptop expensive. The HP Chromebook x2 offers quite a few things that other budget laptops dont, such as a colorful 2400 x 1600 display and a solid pair of speakers. If you're mostly working with word processing documents, web-based tools, and other tasks the iPad is good at, it works great. To top it off, the bezels on the display are surprisingly narrow for a laptop this cheap. If you're flush with cash, the even more powerful Ryzen 7 version can be had for a little more ($789). Special offer for Gear readers: Get a 1-Year Subscription to WIRED for $5 ($25 off). Those are the deals you can consider. Laptops like the HP Chromebook 15, HP Chromebook x2 and Samsung Chromebook 4 are examples of great chromebooks you can buy under $500. Here are our recommendations if you're looking for the best gaming laptop under $1,000. You'll regret it if you don't. Hes the best at every game and he just doesnt lose. Whether you want to run Windows 10, macOS, or Chrome OS, make a checklist of the specs and browse through a large collection of laptop computers and find the right one for you. Remember, Chromebooks are designed to work predominantly over the internet, so Wi-Fi speed and stability are crucial. Keep an eye on the OS of the machine; most of these still come with Windows 10, but some offer a free upgrade to Windows 11. Let us help. A touchscreen is a prerequisite for tablet operation, and many support styluses (aka pens) for handwritten and sketched input. Even if these laptops are slightly out of budget right now, you should consider saving if you can, as they boast Intel Core i3 processors, which you wont find in most laptops under $500. Laptops with the convenience of touchscreen functionality. TIRED: The rub, or potential rub, lies in getting work done during the day. It quickly made rank as one of the best laptops under $500. While its keyboard can be a little cramped, it offers decent key travel. The breakthroughs and innovations that we uncover lead to new ways of thinking, new connections, and new industries. It is the essential source of information and ideas that make sense of a world in constant transformation. TIRED: There's no SD card slot to expand your memory, so go for the more expensive model with a 1-terabyte drive. The right laptop is the best tool for navigating everything college has to offer. Samsung Chromebook has a fantastic screen and nearly 10 hours of battery life.