Best Budget Laptop PCs

If you are looking to get a full featured laptop PC for as little as possible, then the Lenovo G530 is certainly what you are looking for. For just under $500, it is possible to get a 15.4-inch laptop that comes equipped with a Pentium Dual-Core T3400, 3GB of DDR2 memory, 250GB hard drive, dual layer DVD burner, 802.11b/g wireless and Vista Home Premium. This makes the system much more capable then netbooks costing just $100 less. There are a few downsides to the laptop including a less than average battery life and no support for the 802.11n wireless standard. Most people will be able to live with these handicaps for such a low price tag.

If you want to get the most for your money when buying a $750 laptop, Toshiba's Satellite A355-S6925 provides a long list of features and solid performance. It uses a slightly larger 16-inch display that makes the laptop a bit bigger and heavier than the typical 15-inch size screen laptops. It features an Intel Core 2 Duo T6400 processor, 4GB of PC2-6400 DDR2 memory, 320GB hard drive, dual layer DVD burner, 802.11a/g/n wireless and Vista Home Premium 64-bit. It even has on it a FireWire and eSATA port that most budget systems don't have. The downside is that there is no HDMI output for external digital displays. Still, this is one of the best overall performance systems to be found in this price range.

If you are more concerned about the size of a budget laptop but don't want to have to sacrifice features by buying a netbook, then the 12-inch Hypersonic Avenger AG2 is a solid choice. The system has been produced for some time but it provides a solid level of performance that can't be found in a netbook. It uses an core 2 Duo T8100 processor, 4GB of DDR2 memory, 160GB hard drive, dual layer DVD burner, 802.11b/g wireless, Bluetooth and Vista Home Premium 64-bit. It is even offered in five different colors. The system is a bit thicker than many ultraportables with its 1.4-inch thickness and is slightly heavier at 4.2 pounds. Buyers can tweak the configurations a bit as it is fully customizable. Priced around $600 to $700.

One of the biggest problem areas for budget laptops is 3D graphics. The low costs don't allow companies to typically use anything beyond integrated solutions. Cyberpower's Xplorer X5-2900 manages to get a dedicated NVIDA GeForce 9600M GT graphics processor with 512MB of memory. This gives the system some capability of playing many 3D games that integrated solutions cannot. It comes with Core 2 Duo T5450, 2GB of DDR2 memory, 250GB hard drive, dual layer DVD burner, 15.4-inch display, 802.11a/g/n wireless, eSATA connector and Vista Home Premium. The system is customizable but prices start between $700 and $750 leaving little room for changes without going over a $750 price.

For anyone out there that is looking to get a low cost laptop to do graphics work, the display and its color representation is going to be critical. Many of the low cost laptops sacrifice screen color by using low cost panels and backlighting. Dell's Inspiron 15.4-inch WLED display provides it with some of the best overall color and brightness available in the under $750 price range. Dell offers a wide range of parts configuration but it is possible to get a Pentium Dual-Core T4200, 3GB of DDR2 memory, 160GB hard drive, dual layer DVD burner, 802.11b/g wireless with a Vista Basic OS for around $600 to $650. Be warned that the small 4-cell battery in the low cost configurations provides below average running times.