Consider the following scenario, please: your budget is close to 500 dollars, and you’re looking to buy the best laptop under 500 dollars you can get, right? The next step would be to search online for some laptops and then filter your results by price. You will probably get a list of few dozens of laptops for your selected price criteria, and you have to decide on the one that is right for you.

My question to you is the following: which one should you choose? And to make things even a little more complicated, you also need to determine what compromises in features you have to make. Assuming that you’re interested in the absolute best performance you can get for under $500 price, this entire research process is much simpler than you think.

I always start my research with the processor’s performance (aiming for the best value for money option), amount of RAM (at least 8 GB) and dedicated video cards (if available). Provided you know how to set your game settings, even these 500 dollar laptops can suit your gaming needs.

Best Laptops Priced Around $500 This Month

Considering the budget is slightly more than the most affordable options, we can now also start having more options for specific purposes. I’m giving you an option for each of the important factors in laptops.

ASUS VivoBook 15 Slim Laptop

The best overall package this month is the ASUS VivoBook 15 Slim Laptop.

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ASUS VivoBook 15 Thin and Light Laptop

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ASUS is well-known for its thin and light laptop models. The VivoBook 15 is no exception. It packs a lot of performance in a very slim package. It is equipped with the very recent Intel 12th generation Intel Core i5, 8 GB of RAM and a large and fast 512 GB SSD. As a bonus for our work from home times, it comes equipped with a Webcam Shutter and a fingerprint reader. It is perfectly suited for use as a work laptop.

Lenovo Flex 5

A slightly different but also very capable laptop model is the Lenovo Flex 5 2-in-1 laptop.

The Lenovo Flex line has historically been excellent portable note-taking machines. Thanks to the stylus and touchscreens, they’ve been loved by many. This version is no exception. It comes equipped with AMDs’ mid-range Ryzen 5 5500U Processor, a good 16 GB of RAM and a 512 GB SSD.

Lenovo IdeaPad 3i

For those looking for a classic essential laptop that’s well-built and affordable, they can have a look at the IdeaPad 3i from Lenovo.

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Lenovo IdeaPad 3i 15.6″ Laptop

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The Lenovo IdeaPad 3i is what the typical laptop in the 500 dollar range should look like. It features all the important business and home office related features. It features plenty of performance, thanks to its 12th generation Intel Core i5 processor and 8 GB of RAM. Compared to most other laptops in this price range, it comes with the Professional version of Windows 11. This makes it a very corporate friendly device.

Who can use these budget laptops?

These budget devices can be used by a wide range of people. They are useful for all purposes. They can even be used for a moderate amount of gaming or multitasking. I wouldn’t recommend using these devices for Power Gaming or heavy multitasking, as if you truly need a laptop for that purpose, you should go with one designed especially for that particular purpose. If you want the best performance, build your own with what you need (in the eventuality that whatever you find is displeasing to you, of course).

Great Laptops for Students

A student doesn’t really have the time for gaming or serious demanding activities with their laptops, therefore not a lot of performance is needed. These budget laptops offer more than enough performance for students to run their school programs. Storage space is usually fairly adequate and should be enough for most. Therefore, these laptops are perfect for students. You will definitely not regret your purchase.

More than enough power for Casual Users

A casual user requires even less or similar hardware performance than most students. All the casual users I know of only use the PC for Facebook or other social network websites and the occasional movie watching.
The point I’m trying to reach here is: while these affordable laptops offer you the ability to do all of the above tasks, so do the even cheaper laptops. However, considering most casual computer users don’t change their laptops as often, it can make sense to spend a little more and have a device that lasts a few years longer.

Suitable Laptops for Business

If most of the laptops that cost under 400 dollars could do really well for a business user, imagine what these could do. In essence, a business user requires a ton of storage space and enough hardware performance to run all of his required programs and / or applications. For most business-oriented laptops, multitasking ability is key. You need to focus on more RAM and, since home office has become a more common place, a good webcam.
This is the price range where most basic business laptops start and have most of the required features.

Decent performance for Power Users

A power user is someone who requires a ton of performance for genuine productive tasks. Things such as extreme multitasking are the ones that a power user requires. Sadly, not many devices can provide the required performance for such demands.

With the limited budget, we’re currently looking at, you should be focusing on the best performing CPU and the highest amount of RAM you can get in the budget. If your day to day also involves looking at code all day, but you don’t need to compile anything, then maybe a better screen is a much better compromise. Compromise is the main characteristic of devices in this price range when it comes to raw performance.

Good Gaming Laptops Under $500

Over the years, gaming has shown to be the most demanding use-case for laptops. Gaming will drain the battery on a laptop faster than anything. The demands typical gamers have related to screens and GPU performance also pose an issue for this price range. Fortunately, the demands related to CPU performance are not as high. If you’re okay with a mid-range CPU from either of the 2 main manufacturers, you could stretch the budget to also include a dedicated GPU. The GPU is the main part of the laptop you need to focus on, and sometimes, there are models that land in this price range.

Conclusion

In conclusion, if you find yourself in need of a laptop that can just about do anything you can think of and have around 500 dollars handy (give or take 50 bucks), don’t hesitate to think about these devices. It is guaranteed that most of these cheap laptops will be able to handle most tasks out there. They may not offer a great deal of total performance, but focusing on the important specifications can make even the more complex tasks a smooth experience.