What are the best budget laptops of 2015? With computers becoming a more and more irreplaceable part of the modern lifestyle, the demand for them on the market continues to grow as they get even more powerful and more affordable. The best budget laptops of 2015 won’t be a list of the best budget machines there are in one general user category because unlike the best budget phones of 2015 , laptops come in many sizes, shapes, configurations and are demanded by different user bases. This list will be a complex ranking in 3 different categories. They will be divided in general use (for when you need your laptop only for a bit of movie streaming and casual browsing), business (for laptops which need to be extra portable and sturdy), and gaming.. Each category will report picks from reputable sources such as Business Insider, PC Advisor and The Wirecutter.
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Before we segue into the list, let’s take a look at the whole “cheap electronics” situation nowadays. As we all can observe for ourselves, as it is happening rapidly enough, electronics of all sorts are becoming more and more available, easy to produce and thus cheaper. On the other hand, this also leads to them being more and more powerful due to the ease with which the masterminds behind all the devices you own and use can cram computing power into small spaces. Subsequently, this leads to developers having the freedom to allow their applications to use more computing power simply because the average user out there surely has a computer that can satisfy the application’s requirements easily. Not too long ago, cheap laptops were the ones that were severely underpowered and some, in certain cases, became close to unusable in a matter of just a year after their launch. In recent years, cheaper netbooks, ultrabooks and all sorts of portable computing became more future-proof and so did the software that is supposed to run on them in general. Programs that are not particularly specialized in some niche application such as composing or video editing and image manipulation have been slowing down their expansion on the usage of a system’s resources and focusing on what they can do in a limited environment instead. While not too long ago the average user could not enjoy certain types of gaming which were reserved for people with high-end machines or play a full HD movie on full resolution, as these activities became more and more widespread and the average device’s computing power increased, people took steps to make both requirements meet in the middle, allowing users to continue using their favorite applications for years ahead without making them have to upgrade.
The whole point of this short introduction to how things have changed for cheap electronics is the fact that you should not be afraid to go cheap on a laptop these days if you know you won’t use it for anything that requires it to be stacked with processing power. Some people buy a laptop to watch Netflix on but decide they want to start learning digital design a month later and already have to move over to a more powerful solution. If you are absolutely sure that the laptops in the price range you are after can satisfy you, go ahead. You do need, however, to make a careful choice and this is why you should take a look at the best budget laptops of 2015.
3.General Use:
Acer Aspire E5-571-58CG
Price at the time of writing: $512.00
Generally, you would want a slightly more expensive than the cheapest solutions out there for a laptop you’ll have laying around your home mostly and occasionally taking on the go. The Acer Aspire E5-571-58CG is just the type of device you are looking for. It performs fairly well all around with a 2.20Ghz i5 processor and with 6GB of RAM under the hood, complemented by a 1TB hybrid hard drive, it will give you a run for your money should you decide to do anything other than browsing social media and streaming movies. With the integrated Intel HD 5500 graphics card you can’t expect to do serious gaming or other GPU intensive tasks but you can’t expect that from a budget device. Its cons are that it’s on the heavier side, as well as its mediocre display.
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2.Gaming:
Acer Aspire VN7-591G-77FS
Price at the time of writing: $1 199
If you expected to see some sub $600 laptop for this section, you are probably not really a gamer of any sorts. While cheaper solutions will allow you to play some lighter games, for the dedicated gamer this is not enough. The Acer Aspire VN7-591G-77FS is just enough for any dedicated gamer on a budget right now. The whole concept of gaming laptops is very controversial but this one, loaded with an Intel Core i7 processor, 16GB of DDR3 RAM, a 4GB GDDR5 GPU and a terabyte of HDD space, as well as a 256GB SSD on the side is surely a no-brainer for the price. Aside from that it comes with an excellent matte full HD screen and a backlit keyboard.
1.Business:
Lenovo U31-70 – 80M5007CU
Price at the time of writing: $499
This is the less beefy configuration of the Lenovo U31, which at this price makes a perfectly sane and rather excellent choice for a business machine. This mainly stems from the fact that this thing is not only equipped with 8GB of RAM, an i5 processor, and a 500GB hard drive, but it is also ultraportable. By “ultraportable” I don’t mean a 10-inch excuse of a computer but instead a full-blown business machine with a splendid 13.3-inch screen that weighs 3.3 pounds. You can literally throw it in your bag and forget about it. And even if you do, a couple bumps won’t kill it since it comes with a sturdy construction, which is why it is definitely one of the best budget laptops of 2015 in the business category.
