Think you know what a $500 laptop looks like? We're in a new era now

Laptops have come a long way in the last decade. There was once a time when $500 laptops would bite the dust in record time, forcing you to upgrade frequently or suffer with an underperforming hunk of junk.

These days, you can shop for laptops with a $500 budget and get away with something that’s far from the bottom of the barrel in terms of specs, even more so if you’re willing to shop around and score a deal.

Related: The best laptops under $500

Sure, you still have to be smart and thrifty to make sure you’re getting a worthy machine. But if you know what your priorities are — and if you know which specs are non-negotiable for your needs — then you’ll likely be pleasantly surprised by what you can get for half a grand.

How good are $500 Chromebooks?

Let’s start with something easy: if all you’re going to do is browse the web with Chrome, write emails in Gmail, and watch videos via YouTube, then you have plenty of affordable options, particularly among Chromebooks. Chromebooks tend to perform better with lower-end (i.e., cheaper) hardware compared to budget Windows laptops.

IDG / Ashley Biancuzzo

For example, the Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook Plus was $499 when we reviewed it and we gave it a spectacular rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars and our Editors’ Choice award. It has a 2-in-1 form factor and lots of great features, including a 14-inch touchscreen display, a 13th-gen Intel Core i3-1315U (admittedly on the low end), 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of SSD storage. It’s surprisingly good — and if you wait around for a deal, you can snag it for as low as $399. (Avoid paying full price on a laptop if you’re shopping on a tight budget.)

Matthew Smith / IDG

And don’t sniff at some of the gaming Chromebooks available on the market today. One of our favorites, the Acer Chromebook 516 GE, has seen some cuts lately. It was already a steal at $649, but you can now grab it for just a hair over $500 on Amazon. It’s no slouch, either! You get an Intel Core i5-1240P processor, a 2560×1600 display with a 120Hz refresh rate, 8GB of RAM, 256GB of SSD storage, support for Wi-Fi 6 (a solid perk for fast streaming). Solid for gamers.

Related: Are Chromebooks good for gaming? No… but actually yes

What about $500 Windows laptops?

Maybe a Chromebook is off the table for you, whether it’s because you need to use Windows-only software, you want to play lots of PC games without relying on cloud streaming, or you just don’t like Google and don’t want to support their products.

Fortunately, you do have options — but the Windows side of the budget laptop market is a little different. You can find good laptops under $500 if you’re patient for deals and willing to give up certain specs.

The Acer Aspire Go 15 (2024) is a simple machine that can serve you well for light web browsing and video streaming — and it’s only $299, a long way below the $500 threshold. It’s a solid pick for tight budgets.

IDG / Mark Knapp

That said, you’re much better off if you sit tight and hold off for a discount or seek other ways to save big on like-new laptops. For example, if you’re willing to shop Open Box offerings, you can score the Asus Zenbook 14X OLED for a third of its retail price, like this one that’s well below $500 at Best Buy. Similarly, you can score an Asus Vivobook Go with an OLED display and 16GB of RAM for just $404 at Newegg.

Want a powerful laptop but don’t want “used” or “refurbished” or “opened” tech? You’ll have to wait around for a good deal, then. But the good news is, a solid deal can take a laptop that was way out of your budget to well within striking distance of it.

The Samsung Galaxy Book4, for instance, normally costs $899. It comes with a recent Intel Core 7 150U processor, 16GB of RAM, 512GB of SSD storage, and an admittedly basic display, all packed into a metal chassis. It might feel a bit underwhelming at $899, but it was on sale for $549 at Best Buy just last month.

And you can also score big savings just by looking in the right places. This Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5 16 configuration on eBay is cut down from $749 to $519, providing potent internals for the price.

Dominic Bayley / IDG

For something on the larger side, the Asus Vivobook 16X OLED packs a large 16-inch OLED display with 3.2K resolution, plenty of ports, an Intel Core i5-1235U processor with 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of SSD storage. I wouldn’t expect it to be a performance monster, but those specs are more than enough for everyday tasks and usage.

Budget laptops aren’t terrible anymore

All of this is just scratching the surface of what you can get in the $500 range with modern laptops. That much cash can get you a more-than-decent workhorse that won’t disappoint with subpar performance.

Truth be told, you rarely have to wait more than a month to spot a really good deal that takes an $800 or even $1,000 laptop down into the $500 range. As of this writing, three HP Pavilion laptops have such discounts available, and they aren’t underpowered with anemic specs.

It’s worth paying close attention to HP Envy, HP Pavilion, Acer Swift, Asus Vivobook, and Asus Zenbook laptops. These often see considerable price cuts, especially as newer models start to trickle in and replace prior models that aren’t anywhere close to outdated yet.