Best Laptop Under 500

Best Laptop Under 500 Dollars – Our Reviews and Choices

Recently, there’s been a definite trend towards people buying laptop computers instead of desktops. For most people, the affordability of newer laptops combined with portability just makes a lot of sense. For many people, keeping to their budget is still important and finding the best laptop under 500 dollars is for most people, a challenge because there are so many to choose from.

In our reviews, we’ve found a number of outstanding choices in this price range, each excelling in certain features, buyer ratings and price. Surprisingly, there are smaller, lighter laptops in this price range that are great alternatives to the pricier ultralights being offered well above our $500 price limit and so we’ve chosen two winners – a traditional laptop and a smaller ultralight alternative.

Our Choices for Best Laptop under $500

The ASUS A53U-ES21. This 15.6″ laptop tied with the HP Pavilion dm1-4142nr in ratings, but unlike the HP it is a full sized laptop with combination DVD player and larger display/storage for about the same price. It’s our choice for best full featured laptop under $500 Read more….

The HP Pavilion dm1-4142nr. Tied for the highest rating in this price range, this is more like a super netbook because its smaller than most and doesn’t have a built in DVD player. Our choice if portability and size are most important to you. At $400 (a savings of $100 below retail), it has the power of a laptop with size of a netbook. Read more…

The Samsung Series 3 NP305E5A-A03US. This 15.6″ laptop came in third in our ratings and is over $70 more than our top choices. Read more…

The Toshiba Satellite C655D-S5540. While this 15.6″ laptop was rated considerably lower than the other choices, it’s still a very good laptop. Even at $50 less than our top choices, we aren’t recommending it primarily because the others are worth the extra money. Read more…

Overall, there’s great value and utility in our choices, so check out the reviews by clicking on the links above. We will periodically update this review as new models arrive. If you’re like us, you probably have more than one notebook in your household, so please bookmark this page so you’ll remember where to check the next time you’re shopping.