Best Laptop for $500

[qwerty1358]

I am looking to purchase a new laptop that is around $500 at BestBuy. I would prefer either Samsung or Asus as my number one choice. If it is neither of those 2 then I'd like Dell then HP. Thanks

 

[jmsellars1]

What is the laptop to be used for?
Do you care about size/portability and battery life?
What programs will you run?
Do you care about aesthetics?

 

[qwerty1358]

Laptop will be used for mostly basic computing needs. Web browsing, videos, editing words docs. Nothing too extensive. I would still like at least a 2nd gend i3 and 4 gigs of ram.

I would like a 13-15.6" screen. Preferably under 6 lbs. Battery life should range from 5-10 hours

Programs: Microsoft Office, IE, Firefox, Maybe a few games like Minecraft. Shouldnt be anything that requires a high end pc

Yes i care about aesthetics. I would like a laptop that looks nice and is comfortable to use.

 

[jmsellars1]

An i3 based laptop isn't going to give that kind of battery life unless you find one with a particularly big battery.

Your ideal laptop would be something like this I think:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834214595

The cheapest you will find one of those is ~$700 though. To get something at $500 you will either need to make a compromise in performance or battery life. If you prefer good battery life, an E-450 based laptop would be fine. I have the MSI X370 myself and the battery life is insane, I can get 10 hours of light use if I'm careful.

You should be able to find the X370 for $500.

If you would prefer to sacrifice battery life for performance, you could go for basically any i3/i5 or A6/A8 laptop.

 

[qwerty1358]

I said 5-10 hours. I didnt really expect that I would get a laptop with a 10 hour battery, it was more of a hope. Also I said that I was going to buy a laptop at bestbuy and that the companies i prefer were in this order samsung, asus, dell, and hp as a last resort. I think I have already made my decision but I wanted a second opinion.

 

[jmsellars1]

Yeah even 5 hours is going to be hard with a standard i3 laptop, think you would be looking at 2-4 hours depending on usage.

I'm just making suggestions, I know every single criteria wasn't correct. Just trying to help.

I just used Newegg for reference because they have a lot of different stock.

 

[qwerty1358]

When I said 5-10 hours I didn't mean I was going to sit there and use it for 5-10 hours straight. That was also including standby and sleep mode, etc. There are i5 laptops that can get 7-8 hours on a single charge so I dont know why an i3 would. Of course those laptops are usually not $500 and the laptops I want probably have smaller batteries. Thanks for you help though

 

[epr]

hi qwerty this is my choice in your specifications it is a nice Samsung laptop with 6GB ram it has windows 7 and 5 hour battery life. see what you think

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Samsung+-+15.6%22+Series+3+Laptop+-+6GB+Memory+-+500GB+Hard+Drive+-+Black/Titanium/4707182.p?id=1218512740491&skuId=4707182

 

[qwerty1358]

I was looking at that before and it seems to be a good choice except for the following:

1. It is not available at any retail Best Buy stores near me

2. It has no usb 3.0 ports (not a big problem buy usb 2.0 is already obsolete)

3. Also not a big problem since every laptop around this price range has a 13366x768 resolution on a 15.6" screen

The only reason I can't get it is because its not available to me and I don't want to buy it online. I would like to try the laptop and see how well it works before buying it.

 

[jmsellars1]

I wouldnt worry at all about USB 3 in terms of compatibility, it is backwards compatible.