Cheap laptops buying recommendations 2020
3 min readCheaper laptops buyer guide: A laptop screen contains millions of tiny pixels, each lights up in different colours and in combination are used to display an image. The screen resolution is simply the total number of these pixels. The higher the number, generally, the sharper and crisper images will appear. Today, most screens come with a minimum of 1920×1080 pixels – also known as Full HD 1080p, but there are laptops available with a 4k display too. Generally, as a rule, the higher the screen resolution, the more battery power the screen will use and also the more processing power it takes to display an image. This is why you will notice a lot of laptops with 4k displays also feature a dedicated graphics card.
Before you drop a grand or two on a gaming laptop, you should know what you’re getting for your money. Powerful quad-core processors are par for the course, with Intel Core i7 chips pushing serious performance even for non-gaming applications. Discrete GPUs from Nvidia and AMD provide silky-smooth graphics and impressive frame rates; some high-end rigs come with two GPUs, helping justify their high prices. External GPU docks are also an option, connected to the laptop via a Thunderbolt 3 cable. Additional features to watch for include high-resolution displays and hard drives that offer 1TB or more of local storage space, so you can store your entire game library on the machine.
The Asus Vivobook E200HA is a brilliant little netbook that weighs less than a kilogram but still manages to pack all the features you could want from a budget laptop. With 12 hours of battery life in normal usage and a dinky footprint, this is the most baggable laptop we’ve ever tested. With that crazy low price and weight come performance compromises – but if you only use a few browser tabs at a time, you’ll be right at home. Since we reviewed this lovely little netbook, the price has dropped to below £200 at most retailers, although it varies week by week. Discover more details on Best Gaming Laptops.
The Asus VivoBook Flip 14 has 64 GB of speedy eMMC storage, a good-enough Intel Core m3 processor, 4 GB of RAM, and a bright, 14-inch screen with a 1920×1080 resolution. Its keyboard and trackpad are comfortable and responsive, and while the case isn’t as we’d like, it’s still of better quality than other laptops in this price range. But the VivoBook Flip’s 4 GB of memory is a bit limiting, its battery won’t last a full day like the Chromebook’s, and like all Windows laptops, it comes with a lot of bloatware. Choosing a budget laptop is tricky, because you’ll find dozens—even hundreds—of configurations at a given time. Their prices fluctuate constantly, too, and companies release and discontinue models with no warning. If our pick isn’t available, you should look for the following specs in an all-purpose budget laptop: seventh- or eighth-generation Intel Core i3 or i5 processor (they’ll have model names that start with i3 or i5 and end with 7xxx or 8xxx), 6 GB or 8 GB of RAM, a solid-state drive, and a 1366×768 or better screen resolution.
The Dell XPS 13 has been a regular of our best laptops list for years, and the 2019 model is no exception. It retains everything we’ve come to love from Dell’s flagship 13-incher, from the gorgeous and light design, to the powerful modern components that power it. The Dell XPS 13 rocks an 8th-generation Intel Core i5 or i7 processor and a bezel-less ‘Infinity Edge’ display, this Dell XPS 13 continues to be the most popular Windows laptop in the world. What’s more, there’s a wide range of customization options, so you can really make the Dell XPS 13 the best laptop for your needs. The 2019 model doesn’t bring a huge amount of improvements, but then not that much about the Dell XPS 13 needs improving. Its webcam has been placed at the top center of the screen, rather than at the bottom, which a lot of customers have been asking for. You also get a longer battery life in this year’s model. Find additional details at here.