Some good news for financially stressed business owners: HP is introducing a new line of relatively inexpensive laptops. To learn more, read this posting from FierceMobileIT.com.
Cheap Laptop Reviews
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Price Range
Cheapism
Mid-range
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$300
$600
$1200...+What To Expect: Cheap Laptops Performance
One of the challenges of finding a good inexpensive laptop, and finding timely laptop reviews for the current crop of machines, is that there are simply so many brands and models to choose from. This is further complicated by the many configuration options available for notebooks, and the fact that some manufacturers may use the same model name for PCs with different hardware configurations.
Inexpensive Laptops General Performance.
Budget laptops may not have the latest and greatest hardware, but they still get the job done. Low-cost notebooks are perfectly capable of handling everyday tasks, such as email, Web surfing, creating office documents, and the like. cnet shoppers applaud the Gateway NV7802V's all-around performance and sharp display, and one even calls it "astonishing" for the price. Customers posting laptop reviews on Amazon, for example, praise the performance and under-$400 price tag of the Toshiba L455-S5975 notebook, an Intel Celeron 900 system with 2GB of memory. A laptop user review on Newegg.com raves about how the Lenovo G530 never lags. Owners of the Asus K60IJ-RBLX05, also commenting on Best Buy, note the generally impressive performance of this low-cost, basic laptop; a student majoring in computer science says it neatly handles large programs and many games and its display is excellent for movies.Still, notebooks in this bargain price range aren't exactly high-performance systems. The more resource-intensive a program is, the more difficulty a budget laptop will have running it, due to its lighter hardware. This is particularly true when working with video- or graphics-intensive tasks. For example, a laptopmag.com reviewer notes that a version of Dell's Inspiron 15 performed below average in several tests although the system handled everyday tasks, such as Web surfing, without incident.
Cheap Laptops Multimedia/Gaming.
Budget notebooks can handle most multimedia tasks pretty well, such as playing music, playing photo slideshows, and watching videos. Some budget systems can even handle games, to a point, although games with demanding graphics will overtax a budget laptop's resources. One customer laptop reviewer on Walmart.com notes that she was able to play music while running several other windows without trouble on her Acer Aspire AS5335-2238 (starting at $448, Amazon
). More than one new HP G60t owner raves on the company website about the laptop's crisp screen and excellent graphics for games.
We noticed several comments from users and reviewers in various places lamenting the lack of HDMI ports in budget laptops, including a laptopmag.com review of Dell's Inspiron 15. We won't be surprised, though, if manufacturers start adding this feature to lower-priced notebooks in the future.
Inexpensive Laptops Battery Life.
The length of time a user can run a laptop on one charge never seems to be long enough, especially when low-cost notebooks tend to use only 4-cell or 6-cell batteries. Don't pay too much attention to manufacturer claims regarding the length of time you can operate your laptop on one charge. You'll find that, in real-world conditions, your uptime will be considerably less. For example, a customer review on Circuitcity.com of HP's 550 Notebook PC KS158UT(starting at $350, Amazon
) complains that the system's battery life was only about 2 hours, rather than the advertised 4.5 hours. Still, with a bit of tweaking, you can extend a laptop's battery charge. A notebookreview.com writer managed to keep his Lenovo G530 running for nearly 3.5 hours by adjusting the screen brightness and energy profile settings.
Inexpensive Laptops Keyboard/Touchpad.
A laptop's keyboard and touchpad are your physical connection to your system, so naturally you want a keyboard and touchpad that have a nice "feel," and are a comfortable size. A user laptop review on Pricegrabber.com notes how responsive the Toshiba Satellite A205-S7468's keyboard feels, and HP G60t users commenting on the HP site mention how well they like having a separate number pad to the right of the system's keyboard. The Asus K60IJ-RBLX05 keyboard scores with the experts on Technotalks, although some consumers posting on the Best Buy site find the keyboard a bit awkward. A few user laptop reviewers writing about the Inspiron 15 on the Dell site like the system's keyboard but felt the touchpad was a little too "touchy". At the other extreme, some users posting on Amazon and cnet say the touchpad on the Gateway NV7802V isn't responsive enough.Keep in mind, though, that you can (and many budget-minded users do) plug in a mouse and full-sized keyboard to your inexpensive laptop. That may not be an ideal option for travelers, but if you use your laptop at home, you're not chained to its input devices.
Our final word: A cheap laptop's combination of portability and performance is very attractive to many users, especially those of us who always seem to be on the go. There are a lot of variables to consider when you're shopping for a low-priced notebook PC, not the least of which is price, but as you can see, you don't have to spend a lot to get a good deal on a nice budget system.
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Products Mentioned in This Review
Lenovo 3000 N500 4233-52UHP 550 H24-15055
Lenovo G530
Toshiba L455-S5975
Gateway NV7802U
Asus K60IJ-RBLX05
Thrifty Resources
Article Sources
Consumer Search Laptops Magazine How Stuff Works Hot Hardware The Simple Dollar's Frugal Laptop NoteBookReview.com Hot Hardware PC Mag CNETManufacturers
Dell.comPrice Comparison
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