Laptops Arena

Finding a cheap laptop in our days is not that difficult, but it still a challenge. When you pay hundreds of dollars for a machine you expect it to last and not to make any problems in the first few months of usage. Laptops which are available on the market right now for less than $500 may not please you because they have weak components. You will get slow processors and graphic cards that won't allow you play any good games, but if you want more power and better quality, you have to pay the price. However, you can buy refurbished laptops for under $500. The advantage with these kind of laptops is that they come from good manufacturers and they are hundreds of dollars cheaper. Why is that? Because these laptops have been sold before and people have returned them due to some minor flaws or even insignificant motives like "the keyboard is too small and I can't get used to it". The laptops are then checked for any technical problems or errors and they are resold at a lower price.

An example of a refurbished laptop under $500 is the Gateway MX3701. This laptop meets all the necessary requirements for a good laptop than help you get around with your usual computing needs. As you can imagine, the laptop is not very powerful so you won't be able to play any top of the line games with it. The processor is an Intel Core Duo T2050 which is quite ok for what you would expect to find on a laptop cheaper that 500 dollars. You have 1 GB of RAM which will allow you to run either Windows XP or Windows Vista operating system. Personally I prefer XP because it runs faster and I find it easier to use. Plus, Windows Vista works better on systems that have at least 2 GB of RAM. 80 GB of space may not be enough if this is your main computer and if you want to store a huge amount of pictures, movies, music and applications but since you have a dual-layer DVD burner, you can store your files on DVD's and then free some disk space. The graphics card is an ATI Radeon Xpress 200M which is not the best but not the worst choice either. Other features are the 4-in-1 media card reader, 3 USB ports, 1 LAN port, 1 modem port, one headphone and one microphone jack plus a VGA port. This 14.1 inch laptop may come in handy if all you need a computer for is to surf around the internet and work with some documents and presentations. You can also watch movies and listen to music but be careful with running multiple applications or you will really slow down the laptop and may even cause it to freeze.


For $395 you can choose a laptop made by one of the great expert in this field. The Dell Latitude D520 may be another good choice for a cheap refurbished laptop especially if you aren't very picky about your computer and you use it for the usual networking tasks. With a 14 inch display, this laptop has an Intel Dual Core T2300E processor which operates at a speed of 1.66 GHz. It has 1 GB of RAM and it will probably come with Windows XP Professional preinstalled. The video card is an Intel GMA 950, not a very good one but it will still be ok if you plan on watching a movie or some YouTube videos. If the 80 GB of available disk space is not enough, you can always use the CD-RW to make some back up of your files. Be aware that this system has a DVD drive but it cannot be used for burning DVD's, only CD's. You have 4 USB ports, a FireWire port, headphones and microphone jack, the regular Ethernet port, S-Video and VGA out. You only have 6 months of warranty because all refurbished laptops have a shorter warranty period (usually half) then the brand new laptop model.



Since all powerful laptop brands and manufacturers are selling out these refurbished laptops, HP could not have denied itself the pleasure of making some extra money out of the refurbished laptop business. For $380 you can buy the refurbished HP NC8430 which is actually one of the most powerful laptops we have seen for such a small price.  The processor is an Intel Pentium Core 2 Duo T7200 which operated at the speed of 2.0 GHz. The Core 2 Duo processors are some of the fastest ones around so HP really hit the bulls' eye with this one. Unfortunately, you only have 768 MB of RAM but you have the possibility to upgrade as this laptop can hold up to 2 GB of RAM. The 15.4 inch display tells us this is a good desktop replacement, with its 1280 x 800 native resolution.



Just like the two models before, this laptop also has 80 GB of free disk space which you can always clean up thanks to the DVD burner that allows you to copy your files on DVDs. The ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 graphics card has 256 MB of discrete video memory that supports Microsoft DirectX 9 which is a big deal for a cheap laptop. You have two integrated speakers which are about as good as any speakers on a $400 laptop. A really nice feature we didn't expect to find was the integrated Bluetooth which can now help you transfer your files quickly from your cell phone to your laptop or even between two laptops (moth of them must have the Bluetooth feature). You have 3 USB ports, one Smart Card reader, one FireWire port, S-Video and VGA out plus the headphone/speaker and microphone jacks.



You will find lots of refurbished laptops under $500 from manufacturers like Acer or IBM. Cheap does not necessary mean inferior quality. It only means that the specs are not that amazing like the ones on a $1500 laptop but if you don't need any fancy gaming machine or you don't want a laptop that can run 3D applications, then we recommend you look into other refurbished laptops to help you save some money.