best laptop under $500?

fjjbnjn

fjjbnjn

Member
The laptop would just be for general use. I might do some photoshop on it, and some light rendering. No gaming.

I've been looking at a few here:
https://www.amazon.com/Acer-15-6-inch-Performance-Touchscreen-Processor/dp/B0197Z2MN6/?tag=tdrvr-20
https://www.amazon.com/HP-15-ay011nr-Full-HD-Generation-Windows/dp/B01CGGOZOM/?tag=tdrvr-20
https://www.amazon.com/F555LA-AB31-15-6-inch-Full-HD-Laptop-Windows/dp/B011KFQASE/?tag=tdrvr-20
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01B9APNG0?tag=laptop-magazine-20
https://www.amazon.com/Acer-Cloudbo...=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=B014YN6YZ8

They're different price ranges and specs of course because I'm honestly not sure what I want atm. I guess I'm just looking for good bang for my buck. I'm not sold on any one of these, so if there's another one you would recommend, please do. I would also be willing to upgrade ram and maybe hard drive myself if it would be worth the money.
 
To me this depends on what you are wanting to do with your computer and are you willing to learn new products? I ask for the fact that I have worked on a great deal of computers in this price point and they end up costing more then what they worth in the long run. So usually for most people that are wanting a computer in this price point I do recommend Chromebooks, Chrome OS is lighter then Windows and the hardware is not fast by any means but due to how they are sold (Google subsidize) the quality is decent and you can expect to get a few years out of it.

I mention software as a Chromebook can do just about anything a Windows PC can do as long as you don't mind living in the world of Google. You have Google play which offers a tone of content for music and video, you have Google Docs that give you a full productivity suite and after that it is up to finding web applications to fill in the rest. I have found web application that gave me a full video editor that linked to my google drive and a tone of Web games that actually exceeded my expectations of what could run in a browser.

If not an option I would opt for the Asus F555LA as the hardware is decent and Asus builds a better machine then Acer and the HP's you will find at that price point.
 
I have always had good luck with Dell. Granted I did a fair amount of research before I bought a model, but all I have owned had performed well and never gave me an issue. With that I would recommend a Dell Latitude E6520 or E5410 from ebay. I know it won't be new, but you're looking at around $250 max and it will perform just as well as a $500 Acer or HP which IMO are inferior manufactures. Just look at the feedback when biding/buying.

I'm actually using a Dell Precision M6300 2.4 GHz dual core right now and it works well. I can watch YouTube vids, etc. I'm going to pick up a newer Dell sometime, but right now it's at the bottom of the list.
 
Every company makes good and bad laptops. In my personal experience, ASUS machines are generally of good quality and usually my preference. Dell makes some good machines, particularly in the Latitude line, but a lot of their Inspiron products are mediocre to downright crappy.
 
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