Cheap Laptops: Reviews

Updated March 2013

Do you need to spend a lot to get a laptop computer that can do anything and everything you ask of it? Unless you're a competitive gamer, the answer's no. ConsumerSearch looks at expert opinions and user feedback to find out which laptops costing $850 or less satisfy, and which ones disappoint.

Acer Aspire V3-571G

Best cheap laptop

$775

Estimated Price

Potent and powerful, the Acer Aspire V3-571G obliterates other cheap laptops in performance tests. Experts admit it looks chunky and cheap, but hiding inside is a gold mine of pricey components -- like a quad-core Intel i7 processor and mighty Nvidia graphics, stuff you usually find on $1,000-plus machines -- that blast through even tough tasks with ease.

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Acer Aspire M5-481PT

Best cheap Ultrabook

$700

Estimated Price

You'd never know the Acer Aspire M5-481PT is one of the cheapest Ultrabooks you can buy. Its elegant aluminum body, great 14-inch touch screen and long battery life impress critics. With the same guts as many $900-plus Ultrabooks -- a Core i5 processor, 6 GB of RAM and 20 GB solid-state drive -- it's just as powerful, too.

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Samsung Chromebook

Web-focused cheap laptop

$250

Estimated Price

Ultra-thin, ultra-light and ultra-cheap, the Samsung Chromebook gets that way by ditching Windows and all but a sliver of built-in memory. Instead, you do everything in the cloud, via Google Chrome. Online apps are your programs, and you get 100 GB of free Google Drive storage. You'll need rock-solid Wi-Fi, though (a 3G version is available).

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