**What to Look for When Buying a Budget Laptop**

When it comes to buying a budget laptop, there are several things you need to keep in mind in order to find a device that meets your needs and won't break the bank. First and foremost, you'll want to make sure the laptop has enough RAM. "I would say eight gigs of ram is the minimum for running windows" says our expert. "However, if you can get at least 16 gigs, that's gonna run better and last longer." In fact, having more than 8 gigs of RAM is recommended, especially if you're a heavy user or plan to use the laptop for resource-intensive tasks like gaming.

Another important thing to look for when buying a budget laptop is storage. While it's tempting to go for a cheap laptop with a small hard drive, this can quickly become outdated as your needs grow. "Historically, I am not a stickler for a lot of storage," our expert notes. "Most people store everything in the cloud anyway, and you're streaming movies - you're not downloading them." However, if you do need more storage, look for laptops with Solid State Drives (SSDs), which are much faster and more efficient than traditional hard drives.

**Things to Avoid When Buying a Budget Laptop**

When buying a budget laptop, there are several things to avoid in order to ensure that you get the best device possible. One of these is holiday doorbuster deals that sound too good to be true. "I would say watch out for those," our expert advises. "They're usually old stock, and they're super underpowered." These deals can also be a sign that the laptop is being cleared out quickly - which may indicate that it's time to upgrade.

Another thing to avoid when buying a budget laptop is low-resolution displays. While 4K resolution may seem like a good idea, for a small screen like a laptop display, regular HD (also known as Full HD or FHD) is more than sufficient. "I know we all have 4k TVs now," our expert notes, "but for a little screen that's right in front of you, regular HD is fine."

**Where to Buy and What to Look For**

When shopping online for a budget laptop, it can be tempting to check out third-party sellers who may not always be reputable. However, our expert advises sticking with electronics sold by Amazon or Walmart on their own websites. "I would suggest looking at the seller," they note. "Is it Amazon? Is it Walmart? Or is it some other third-party seller that's just using them as a shopping platform?" This can help ensure that you're getting a genuine product and avoiding any potential issues.

**The Best Time to Buy a Budget Laptop**

Finally, when it comes to buying a budget laptop, there are certain times of the year that may be better than others. While holiday sales like Black Friday and Cyber Monday can be great for snagging deals, they often feature older models or less powerful laptops. Instead, our expert recommends looking at back-to-school season in the summer, when new laptops are typically released.

In addition to these sales periods, it's worth checking out deals that come up around May or June of each year, as well as during major tech conferences and trade shows. By doing your research and staying patient, you can find a great budget laptop that meets your needs without breaking the bank.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: eni'm about to host a master class in how to buy a budget laptop sometimes you just need a cheap laptop and i don't mean cheap in the pejorative sense what i mean is an inexpensive laptop that performs well offers good overall value despite the low cost now colloquially people say cheap so that's what we're going to go with just roll with it okay now as part of this lesson i'm actually going to spend less time talking about individual brands and models because these change all the time and especially because of all the supply chain issues and everyone needing extra laptops for work for home and school from home it's hard to keep these in stock so we're just going to focus on broad concepts rather than get this exact model at this exact price so instead we're going to talk about what you need to know when shopping for a budget laptop what to look out for what to avoid so you can go into a store or shop online and know what you're looking for and know what you should buy now the first question is what defines a budget laptop now i used to use five hundred dollars as a cutoff point for a budget laptop over time the laptops available for five hundred dollars have started to look a little underpowered to me i'd say now a budget laptop is unofficially anything under about seven hundred dollars for five hundred dollars or less your options are going to be very limited and frankly there's a good chance you're not going to be entirely happy with the overall experience now there's an exception under 500 for a chromebook and you're all good if you give yourself on the windows side a little more breathing room and get closer to 700 well then the possibilities open up and it's much easier to get something that's going to last a long time and that you're going to be happy with but that brings me to my next big question should i just get a chromebook well the answer is actually yes probably frankly most people are going to be fine with a chromebook which is a laptop that runs google's chrome os which itself is basically the chrome web browser and a few extras although now newer chromebooks also have the ability to run android apps from the google play store and linux software so there's a lot more you can do with them you just have to do a little extra work to get there because think about it what's most of what you do on a laptop email web surfing streaming videos social media shopping all that stuff is usually done by the web browser and if you're looking to spend under 500 for sure you're going to end up with a much nicer machine that feels more responsive compared to a budget windows laptop at the same price and that is a strong argument to get a chromebook if you're only going to spend 500 bucks or less but there are also reasons why you wouldn't want a chromebook yeah maybe have some special software for work or for school that has to be installed locally on your machine maybe it's windows only software i could say the same thing about programs like photoshop or video games but if you're buying a 500 laptop i don't think you're going to have a lot of luck with photoshop and video games anyway so a very important question is what specs should you be looking for if you go right around 500 just a bit below it's going to be pretty bare bones i would say generally stick it out until you find a decent cpu that's going to be the single most important thing now intel is up to the 12th generation of courtships now so ideally you want one from within the past couple of generations otherwise you're getting old stock now you're probably going to have to go past the 500 mark but i would default to an intel core i5 again for the past generation or two under 500 it's gonna be hard to get past that cheaper core i3 version and i would generally skip anything with an intel pentium celeron an atom or an m3 chip on the amd side look for an amd ryzen 4000 series instead of something like an amd athlon and again this is just my advice to you on what i think is going to make a satisfying budget laptop now if you're running windows 11 meaning you're getting a windows laptop instead of a chromebook you really want 16 gigs of ram it's going to be hard to find that though until you hit about 700 maybe a little bit more again i say save up a little bit and get that core i5 16 gigs of ram combo because that's gonna run better and last longer now if you can't get at least eight gigs of ram i think that's the absolute ceiling for running windows especially on a cheap laptop but if you do have to go low on the ram look for a laptop that lets you add more down the road by opening up the back and actually installing more ram there actually are a lot of lower end laptops and gaming laptops that still let you do this if the laptop memory is on board in the description that probably means you can't add more to it later now historically i am not a stickler for a lot of storage most people store everything email photos etc in the cloud anyway you're streaming movies you're not downloading them so get a solid state drive they call that ssd not a spinning platter one hdd 256 gigs capacity is great 512 is fantastic it's gonna be very hard to find in our price range settle for 128 gigs of storage only if you really have to and if you mainly use cloud storage and you know that for a fact but i'd say if it comes down to it go for more ram over larger storage if it comes down to that although like ram budget laptops can sometimes be opened up and you can swap out for a larger hard drive if you need to later get not every case but sometimes okay so we've talked about what to look for specs wise in a budget laptop but what should you avoid i would say number one watch out for those holiday doorbuster deals that sound too good to be true they're usually old stock they're super underpowered a 200 black friday laptop is going to wear out it's welcomed by cyber monday displays are typically where pc makers cut a lot of costs on cheap laptops so look for a display resolution of 1920 by 1080 also known as full hd or fhd that's the same thing as a traditional hd tv i know we all have 4k tvs now but for a little screen that's right in front of you regular hd is fine i've already talked about what cp used to look for but i'd also mentioned you should skip anything that has a low power arm processor like something from mediatek or something like that unless it's a chromebook there you can kind of get away with it i could also be talked into a laptop with a qualcomm snapdragon chip but those are usually for laptops with always-on mobile data connections and they're usually much more expensive okay so here's one of my tips if you're shopping on amazon or walmart's website or something like that look and see who's actually selling the laptop you want to buy is it amazon is it walmart is it some other third-party seller that's just using them as a shopping platform now listen you can do what you want but i'm going to suggest you stick with electronics sold by amazon on amazon's website and by walmart on walmart's website and finally let's figure out what the best time to buy a cheap laptop is now personally i like some holiday promotions like black friday you do have to look over the office very carefully as some stores like to take old junk and shovel it out there out of the warehouse and hopefully you'll buy it on a black friday or cyber monday sale but there's still some excellent deals you can find especially if you get closer to the five to seven hundred dollar range not that like two hundred three hundred dollar doorbuster style special that early summer back to school season is also a hot time for buying laptops everybody's getting ready for the fall semester they're going to college they're going to high school there are a few of those kind of phony door busters and again make sure that you check how old the laptop on sale is and what parts are in it but if you do that that is usually a good time to buy a laptop as well to answer a question i get all the time if you're worried that whatever you buy is going to be replaced by something new as soon as you open the box number one that's probably true but i usually advise people not to worry about it unless there's a brand new version coming in like a couple of weeks or a month and for pcs new models are generally announced a little bit in advance so you do have some buffer there i would say just go with what works for you and your budget at the time listen every tech device is going to be replaced or retired eventually some sooner some later so spend less time worrying about that and more time just using your new budget laptop if you want to find out more about budget laptops where to buy them what kind to buy check out the links below youi'm about to host a master class in how to buy a budget laptop sometimes you just need a cheap laptop and i don't mean cheap in the pejorative sense what i mean is an inexpensive laptop that performs well offers good overall value despite the low cost now colloquially people say cheap so that's what we're going to go with just roll with it okay now as part of this lesson i'm actually going to spend less time talking about individual brands and models because these change all the time and especially because of all the supply chain issues and everyone needing extra laptops for work for home and school from home it's hard to keep these in stock so we're just going to focus on broad concepts rather than get this exact model at this exact price so instead we're going to talk about what you need to know when shopping for a budget laptop what to look out for what to avoid so you can go into a store or shop online and know what you're looking for and know what you should buy now the first question is what defines a budget laptop now i used to use five hundred dollars as a cutoff point for a budget laptop over time the laptops available for five hundred dollars have started to look a little underpowered to me i'd say now a budget laptop is unofficially anything under about seven hundred dollars for five hundred dollars or less your options are going to be very limited and frankly there's a good chance you're not going to be entirely happy with the overall experience now there's an exception under 500 for a chromebook and you're all good if you give yourself on the windows side a little more breathing room and get closer to 700 well then the possibilities open up and it's much easier to get something that's going to last a long time and that you're going to be happy with but that brings me to my next big question should i just get a chromebook well the answer is actually yes probably frankly most people are going to be fine with a chromebook which is a laptop that runs google's chrome os which itself is basically the chrome web browser and a few extras although now newer chromebooks also have the ability to run android apps from the google play store and linux software so there's a lot more you can do with them you just have to do a little extra work to get there because think about it what's most of what you do on a laptop email web surfing streaming videos social media shopping all that stuff is usually done by the web browser and if you're looking to spend under 500 for sure you're going to end up with a much nicer machine that feels more responsive compared to a budget windows laptop at the same price and that is a strong argument to get a chromebook if you're only going to spend 500 bucks or less but there are also reasons why you wouldn't want a chromebook yeah maybe have some special software for work or for school that has to be installed locally on your machine maybe it's windows only software i could say the same thing about programs like photoshop or video games but if you're buying a 500 laptop i don't think you're going to have a lot of luck with photoshop and video games anyway so a very important question is what specs should you be looking for if you go right around 500 just a bit below it's going to be pretty bare bones i would say generally stick it out until you find a decent cpu that's going to be the single most important thing now intel is up to the 12th generation of courtships now so ideally you want one from within the past couple of generations otherwise you're getting old stock now you're probably going to have to go past the 500 mark but i would default to an intel core i5 again for the past generation or two under 500 it's gonna be hard to get past that cheaper core i3 version and i would generally skip anything with an intel pentium celeron an atom or an m3 chip on the amd side look for an amd ryzen 4000 series instead of something like an amd athlon and again this is just my advice to you on what i think is going to make a satisfying budget laptop now if you're running windows 11 meaning you're getting a windows laptop instead of a chromebook you really want 16 gigs of ram it's going to be hard to find that though until you hit about 700 maybe a little bit more again i say save up a little bit and get that core i5 16 gigs of ram combo because that's gonna run better and last longer now if you can't get at least eight gigs of ram i think that's the absolute ceiling for running windows especially on a cheap laptop but if you do have to go low on the ram look for a laptop that lets you add more down the road by opening up the back and actually installing more ram there actually are a lot of lower end laptops and gaming laptops that still let you do this if the laptop memory is on board in the description that probably means you can't add more to it later now historically i am not a stickler for a lot of storage most people store everything email photos etc in the cloud anyway you're streaming movies you're not downloading them so get a solid state drive they call that ssd not a spinning platter one hdd 256 gigs capacity is great 512 is fantastic it's gonna be very hard to find in our price range settle for 128 gigs of storage only if you really have to and if you mainly use cloud storage and you know that for a fact but i'd say if it comes down to it go for more ram over larger storage if it comes down to that although like ram budget laptops can sometimes be opened up and you can swap out for a larger hard drive if you need to later get not every case but sometimes okay so we've talked about what to look for specs wise in a budget laptop but what should you avoid i would say number one watch out for those holiday doorbuster deals that sound too good to be true they're usually old stock they're super underpowered a 200 black friday laptop is going to wear out it's welcomed by cyber monday displays are typically where pc makers cut a lot of costs on cheap laptops so look for a display resolution of 1920 by 1080 also known as full hd or fhd that's the same thing as a traditional hd tv i know we all have 4k tvs now but for a little screen that's right in front of you regular hd is fine i've already talked about what cp used to look for but i'd also mentioned you should skip anything that has a low power arm processor like something from mediatek or something like that unless it's a chromebook there you can kind of get away with it i could also be talked into a laptop with a qualcomm snapdragon chip but those are usually for laptops with always-on mobile data connections and they're usually much more expensive okay so here's one of my tips if you're shopping on amazon or walmart's website or something like that look and see who's actually selling the laptop you want to buy is it amazon is it walmart is it some other third-party seller that's just using them as a shopping platform now listen you can do what you want but i'm going to suggest you stick with electronics sold by amazon on amazon's website and by walmart on walmart's website and finally let's figure out what the best time to buy a cheap laptop is now personally i like some holiday promotions like black friday you do have to look over the office very carefully as some stores like to take old junk and shovel it out there out of the warehouse and hopefully you'll buy it on a black friday or cyber monday sale but there's still some excellent deals you can find especially if you get closer to the five to seven hundred dollar range not that like two hundred three hundred dollar doorbuster style special that early summer back to school season is also a hot time for buying laptops everybody's getting ready for the fall semester they're going to college they're going to high school there are a few of those kind of phony door busters and again make sure that you check how old the laptop on sale is and what parts are in it but if you do that that is usually a good time to buy a laptop as well to answer a question i get all the time if you're worried that whatever you buy is going to be replaced by something new as soon as you open the box number one that's probably true but i usually advise people not to worry about it unless there's a brand new version coming in like a couple of weeks or a month and for pcs new models are generally announced a little bit in advance so you do have some buffer there i would say just go with what works for you and your budget at the time listen every tech device is going to be replaced or retired eventually some sooner some later so spend less time worrying about that and more time just using your new budget laptop if you want to find out more about budget laptops where to buy them what kind to buy check out the links below you\n"