There are users who are looking for gaming laptops to play, others are clear that they need a computer for photo and video editing, but … what happens when what you want is a laptop for general uses such as surfing the internet and office automation with Windows as a system operational and also have a tight budget?
In this guide to buying Windows laptops for less than 500 Euros, we propose minimum and adequate specifications to carry out office automation, content reproduction and navigation tasks with ease, but with an eye toward the coming years. Likewise, we offer you a series of models that meet these criteria, seeking to offer the greatest possible diversity.
How to get it right by choosing a Windows laptop for less than 500 Euros
We are looking for a Windows laptop that offers us a satisfying experience now and in the near future for less than 500 Euros.
In this case, the idea is to run regular programs with ease and fluency for a basic user – medium such as Microsoft Office, Chrome, Mozilla, VLC, Audacity, GIMP and Photoshop suites – for specific uses at the amateur level -, Acrobat Reader , Caliber, Skype, among others.
As when choosing any other computer, we will pay special attention to the hardware taking into account that the budget is limited: CPU, RAM, type and storage space … leaving aspects such as design, screen, in the background connectivity dimensions and weight. However, in this range of prices there are careful and interesting options.
CPU
Regarding CPUs, both Intel and AMD have in their catalog very attractive microprocessors for basic laptops. JaviPas anticipates that in a couple of lines the state of the art of laptops in this price range relating hardware to design and which ones to bet on if we want fluency:
“Unless we go to Chinese manufacturers with processors from the Intel Celeron or Atom families – with very limited performance – we will find 14 and especially 15.6-inch computers from brands such as HP, Lenovo and Asus.”
It is the latter that offer a proposal more capable of moving Windows and general software. Pastor marks a line of minimums: “a good option is a Core i5-8250U along with models such as the Ryzen 5 2500U, which can also raise decent power in these proposals.”
Juanky is more demanding and, considering that in this price range it is practically impossible to find the models with more cores such as the latest generation Intel Core i7 or AMD Ryzen 7, he urges us to look for the latest releases from both manufacturers:
Memoria RAM
“beware of the offers of Best laptop for lawyers with 4 GB that can fall short in scenarios such as surfing the Internet with many open tabs.”
From here, he explains that around 500 Euros the proposals for 8GB of RAM are common and it is a good number:
The main memory has an important impact on performance, so some gives us a note in case we have to choose: “It is worth sacrificing some CPU power if we are going to be able to jump from 8 to 16 GB of RAM. This simply means that it makes sense to choose a laptop with an Intel Core i5 processor and 16 GB of RAM, and not one with a Core i7 and 8 GB, as long as, yes, the rest of the components are up to the task. . “
Storage
Although SSDs are already fully consolidated in the proposals of the main notebook manufacturers, there are still computers with classic mechanical hard drives, which offer more space in exchange for a drastic reduction in their data transfer speed.
For less than 500 Euros we will not find combinations of both, so expert is clear: “I would not give up an SSD with an NVMe M.2 interface under any circumstances. Its impact on machine performance, regardless of its capacity, it’s huge, so I would rule out a mechanical hard drive “
“in a low-priced laptop the usual capacity is 256 GB, a figure that is not very pleasant, but can be complemented by an external hard drive.
However, some offers us more options: “We can buy them with those drives and then invest a little more in a separate SATA SSD that we can install on the computer: most laptops give relatively easy access to that change of storage drives . “
And the Rest?
With the limitation of 500 Euros, with some exceptions, we will have to give up the most opulent finishes, the most sophisticated cooling systems and the most ambitious screens.
However, as JaviPas has anticipated us above, the most frequent diagonal at these prices is 15.6 “, but beware because it urges us to pay attention to the resolution” in many cases we will be presented with HD resolution (1,366 x 768) instead of Full HD (1,920 x 1080) “, a leap that we will notice if we spend hours in front of the screen.
