Best Laptop under $500

Here are the best laptops under $500. The main thing is to do your research and find a computer that will meet all of your needs.

 
 Acer AS1430Z-4677 11.6-Inch Laptop (Diamond Black)



The Acer AS1430Z laptop with 11.6-inch display and
Intel Pentium processor

 This has a rating of 9.2 out of 10 from 60 reviews, which is pretty amazing for a laptop under $500. This great little laptop is very portable and it's performace is great. It is more powerfull then most devices in this size, has around double power then Atom CPU, and pretty fast wireless internet.

The screen and keyboard are much more useable than the 10.1 netbooks. The screen and 1.3MP HD Webcam (1280 x 1024) are higher resolution than the netbooks.

The ACER AS1430Z comes with 3GB upgradeable to 8GB.

The only negative is battery life is only 4.5 hrs vs 8-9 for the netbooks, but it is enough to play a couple of movies on the airplane.

Check out some of the Key Features

• Up to 4.5 hours of battery life with included 6-cell battery
• 11.6-inch HD widescreen CineCrystal LED-backlit display
• 1.33 GHz Intel Pentium U5600 ultra-low voltage processor (3 MB L3 cache) offers two cores of processing power and features Intel SpeedStep technology, helping your system to dynamically adjust processor voltage and core frequency to decrease power consumption and heat production.
• 320 GB SATA hard drive (5400 RPM)
• 3 GB of installed DDR3 RAM (1066 MHz)
• Intel HD Graphics (with 128 MB of dedicated system memory) deliver turbo-charged performance and fast throughput and provides support for Microsoft DirectX 10 games.
• Wireless-N Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n) for ultra-fast connectivity to home and business networks.
• 1.3-megapixel webcam integrated into the display bezel for easy video chats and conferencing (1280 x 1024 resolution).
• Multi-Gesture Touchpad allows you to pinch, flick and swirl your fingers across the touchpad for more natural photo and video viewing as well as intuitive navigation of websites such as Google Earth. It also enables you to scroll, zoom in and out and flip through Web pages, photos, spreadsheets and more.
• Stereo speakers with 2nd generation Dolby Sound Room audio enhancement transforms the experience of movies, music, and games.
• Windows 7 Home Premium makes it easy to create a home network and share all of your favorite photos, videos, and music. And you can watch shows for free when and where you want with Internet TV on Windows Media Center. Get the best entertainment experience with Windows 7 Home Premium. 
• Preloaded with Microsoft Office Starter 2010 free software offering selected functionality of Word and Excel for your text and spreadsheet tasks.  Plus, if you decide you want the full suite, just purchase a product key to activate an ad-free version that also includes the latest Outlook, PowerPoint, and Publisher programs.  Complete your PC.  Buy full-featured Microsoft Office 2010.
• Weight: 3.1 pounds
• Warranty: One-year parts and labor limited warranty with concurrent International Traveler's Warranty.