The trusty old laptop you've had since college is finally on its last legs. It has trouble keeping up with the dozens of Chrome tabs you have open on a daily basis, and it looks like it's seen the front lines of a battle. But while you'd love to grab a slender rose gold MacBook, right now, that's just not in the budget.
Guess what? That's totally okay. You don't need to spend $1,000 or more to get a good quality notebook. Depending on your needs, you can definitely find a laptop in the sub-$500 range — and there are even solid options at the $300 price point, too.
We've gathered a handful of "cheap" notebooks that, while the price tag is low, don't skimp on quality. Read on for our picks.
At under $200, this pick is the cheapest on our list, but don't let its price deceive you: It still garnered a four-out-of-five-star rating on Amazon. It doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles (there's no touchscreen, and the trackpad doesn't support multi-finger gestures), but if you need a laptop primarily for things like Word and Excel, it'll do perfectly fine.
Lenovo IdeaPad 100s 11.6-Inch Laptop, $168.19, available at Amazon.com.
Photo: Courtesy Lenovo.
If your workload is lightweight — in terms of processing power — Dell's 14-inch touchscreen notebook could do just the trick. The larger 14-inch screen is nice if you're streaming movies, or need to do some multitasking.
Dell Inspiron 14-Inch Touchscreen Laptop, $219.99, available at Bestbuy.com.
Photo: Courtesy Dell.
Asus' 10.1-inch convertible touchscreen Chromebook is perfect for petite typists who like to get their work done from an armchair or coffee shop. It's quite light, at only two pounds, and gets all-day battery life, but if you've got larger hands or broad shoulders, you're better off with a 13- or 15-inch inch notebook.
Asus Chromebook Flip 10.1-Inch Convertible, $239, available at Amazon.com.
Photo: Courtesy Asus.
What do you plan to use your laptop for? Watching movies, catching up on email, checking Facebook and Twitter, and some web browsing? If you just need a little something to use when you're not at the office, a refurbished iPad could suit you just fine. And if you need a keyboard, there are plenty of Bluetooth keyboards you can easily connect to your iPad.
Apple Refurbished iPad Air 16 GB Wi-Fi, $279, available at Apple.com.
Photo: Courtesy Apple.
If you're almost never on the computer without an internet connection and you practically live in Google Drive, a Chromebook is a super affordable way to go. The Wirecutter named Toshiba's Chromebook 2 its top pick for 2016. It's got a 13.3-inch screen, a processor good enough to handle most every task you'd send its way, and it weighs in under three pounds.
Toshiba Chromebook 2, $292, available at Amazon.com.
Photo: Courtesy Toshiba.
Acer's larger 15.6-inch Chromebook 15 is also a smart choice if you live on the web, but want a little more screen real estate than the smaller Toshiba. It gets roughly eight hours of battery life, but it is heftier, weighing 4.85 pounds. This is one you'd want to keep at your desktop, rather than tote to and from work each day.
Acer Chromebook 15, $299.99, available at Acer.com.
Photo: Courtesy Acer.
This convertible notebook can be positioned four different ways, which is convenient if you're traveling and stuck in a cramped economy seat — especially since it gets up to nine hours of battery life. It comes in five colors (silver, gold, blue, purple, and red), and the 11-inch version starts under $400.
HP Pavilion x360, $380, available at HP.com.
Photo: Courtesy HP.Like what you see? How about some more R29 goodness, right here?
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