Any recommendations on good laptops for less than $500?

[pika2000]

Absolute requirements:
- SSD
- 14 to 15" 1080p screen (at least) IPS

This is for work, so no need for some fancy GPU or Core i9 marketing BS.

Haven't been looking into the laptop market for quite some time. I'm disheartened that there are TOO MANY laptops, some even costing almost $1k, still sporting a stupid spinning platter (I guess selling a 1TB slow hard drive is easier than fast but less storage SSD, because consumers only see the larger number, 1TB).

But I hope I'm wrong.

 

[SDColorado]

Absolute requirements:
- SSD
- 14 to 15" 1080p screen (at least) IPS

This is for work, so no need for some fancy GPU or Core i9 marketing BS.

Haven't been looking into the laptop market for quite some time. I'm disheartened that there are TOO MANY laptops, some even costing almost $1k, still sporting a stupid spinning platter (I guess selling a 1TB slow hard drive is easier than fast but less storage SSD, because consumers only see the larger number, 1TB).

But I hope I'm wrong.

I am sure that there are others out there, but the Asus VivoBook 14 comes to mind as a sub-$500 model that meets the requirements as long as 256 SSDGB is large enough.

 

[pika2000]

I am sure that there are others out there, but the Asus VivoBook 14 comes to mind as a sub-$500 model that meets the requirements as long as 256 SSDGB is large enough.

Any specific model number? Asus model numbers is not really user friendly, and so far what I've seen on the Vivobook are still sporting 1366x768 crap (yes, in 2018, how can this be?) and 1TB spinning platter (even the $800+ models).

 

[SDColorado]

Any specific model number? Asus model numbers is not really user friendly, and so far what I've seen on the Vivobook are still sporting 1366x768 crap (yes, in 2018, how can this be?) and 1TB spinning platter (even the $800+ models).

Yeah, sorry I should have been more specific. Asus has about a billion models give or take.

You can find them cheaper than the $499 MSRP

https://store.asus.com/us/item/201802AM070000004/A50074-ASUS-VivoBook-F441BA-DS94-14

Edit: I should add I don’t know anything about this laptop from first hand experience. I came across it while doing some research for a friend who is looking to buy a sub-$500 laptop with an SSD for a mobile dog grooming business. It would get jostled around a lot so the SSD was key.

 

[pika2000]

Yeah, sorry I should have been more specific. Asus has about a billion models give or take.

You can find them cheaper than the $499 MSRP

https://store.asus.com/us/item/201802AM070000004/A50074-ASUS-VivoBook-F441BA-DS94-14

Edit: I should add I don’t know anything about this laptop from first hand experience. I came across it while doing some research for a friend who is looking to buy a sub-$500 laptop with an SSD for a mobile dog grooming business. It would get jostled around a lot so the SSD was key.

Thanks. That would be nice, but unfortunately it's not available in all region.

Any other suggestions are welcomed.

 

[Mikael H]

If it's a work computer, please have your boss consider the TCO, not just the up-front money. If you spend twice as much on the computer I can almost guarantee that it'll still feel nice to use three times longer...

 

[koyoot]

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834850877&ignorebbr=1

 

[Gaprofitt]

Asus

 

[pika2000]

If it's a work computer, please have your boss consider the TCO, not just the up-front money. If you spend twice as much on the computer I can almost guarantee that it'll still feel nice to use three times longer...

Considering the tasks that will be done on the computer, spending $1k on it is not wise imo. I don't need Core i9 or whatever. The problem is, nowadays it seems OEMs are pushing you to pay more for what you don't need just to get a computer with SSD. Heck, even at $1k there are still too many OEMs still using spinning platter. It is easier to upsell for a core i9 and 1TB hard drive than a core i3 with a fast SSD (but less storage). Really annoying.

 

[sracer]

Considering the tasks that will be done on the computer, spending $1k on it is not wise imo. I don't need Core i9 or whatever. The problem is, nowadays it seems OEMs are pushing you to pay more for what you don't need just to get a computer with SSD. Heck, even at $1k there are still too many OEMs still using spinning platter. It is easier to upsell for a core i9 and 1TB hard drive than a core i3 with a fast SSD (but less storage). Really annoying.

What I end up doing is buying a low-end Lenovo computer and a separate SSD and using one of those USB drive adapters, clone the internal harddrive to the SSD and install the SSD. It's pretty surprising how well one of those Black Friday/CyberMonday doorbuster laptops perform for run-of-the-mill office work when an SSD is installed.

I suspect that any laptop above those bottom-feeders would work even better.

 

[cube]

You can buy a used Thinkpad.