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.

Top College Laptops

There are so many laptops to choose from, but I have reviewed some of the top college laptops to help you make the right choice for your student going to college.

First you need to set a budget, how much money are you willing to pay.Many of us over spend as the life of a laptop is about 3 years and it becomes out of date, so to spend too much on a new laptop is really not necessary.

Secondly, what are you going to use it for,if you need it for just schoolwork and internet surfing then you need less memory, but if you are downloading games or videos and movies you will need more memory. But, if it is strictly for school work, you won't need as much and don't have to spend as much.

Lastly, make sure you read the reviews its good to find out the positives and negatives about any product especially if you are going to spend a fair amount on a laptop.

I did quite a bit of research when I was shopping for a new laptop and here are my top College Laptops.

Apple MacBook Pro MC700LL/A 13.3-Inch Laptop

Apple MacBook Pro

The Apple MacBook Pro has an outstanding 9.4 out of 10 rating form over 100 reviews,there is so many good features to this laptop.This has made the top laptop list for a few years and the Mac Book Pro just keep getting better and better.

This computer has a 13 inch unibody. It is noticeably faster than previous models.For example to convert 10 minute MP3 file to AAC in iTunes now only takes 14 seconds, computer processors have gotten faster.

The 13.3-inch MacBook Pro (model MC700LL/A) features a 2.3 GHz Core i5 "Sandy Bridge" dual-core processor, 320 GB hard drive, and 4 GB of installed RAM, so plenty of storage space, but of course you can get more Ram is you need it for those videos or movies.

The MacBook Pro is a great place to start. The computer is a breeze to use and has all the apple programs, iTunes, iMovie, iPhoto already loaded. The best part of the computer is screen. The clarity of the computer screen is superb.

The only negative I have found so far is the price, it's around $1000, but you get what you pay for and with the Apple MacBook that is quality.

Apple MacBook Air MC969LL/A 11.6-Inch Laptop

MacBook Air MC969

Here is the newest Apple MacBook that has just arrived on the market, it's the Apple MacBook Air MC969LL/A with only an 11.6 inch high resolution screen. It's Apples thinnest laptop so far, it is an ultra portable laptop, a little bit larger than an iPad.

It is really fast,they say it is upto 2 and half times faster than before and has many advanced features that are packed inside this laptop that is light, thin, and strong enough to handle all your everyday tasks and then some, whether you're on the couch, in a lecture hall.

The new backlit keyboard is a great feature, so when the lighting isn't very good, hit the backlit key and the keyboard lights up.

11.6-inch (diagonal) high-resolution LED-backlit glossy widescreen display (1366 x 678)
The processor has been upgraded to a second generation Core i5 processor which gives this litlle baby a bit more speed.

Unit Dimensions - 11.8 (W) x 0.11-0.68 (H) x 7.56 (D) inches ( 30 x 0.3 - 1.7 x 19.2 cm) Unit Weight - 2.38 pounds (1.08 kg).

Top College Laptop Under $500

Best College Laptop Under $500
Toshiba Satelite L755

If your budget is around $500, this is the top college laptop under $500, it's the Toshiba Satellite L755-S5271 with a 15.6 inch LED Screen , nice and bright, which is large enough to watch movies and play games on and of course do you assignments.

Toshiba are in the top 3 of computer manufacturers when it comes to reliablity and performance for laptops.
Here are some of the specifications and features to the Toshiba Satelitte:

It has a 2.1 GHZ Intel Core Processor with 4GB of memory, but you can up grade to 8GB. It weighs 5.7 pounds and the size is 14.96 x 9.84 x 1.48 (WxDxH).

It has built in dolby advanced audio speakers ( not great quality) and is set up fro Wi-Fi networking, the battery lasts up to 5.75 hours and has Intel HD graphice with 64MB -1696 MB of shared memory and it is very quiet when running.

You get a Norton Internet Security 2011 (30-day trial); Microsoft Office Starter 2010; Google Toolbar and Google Chrome; Microsoft Windows Media Player 12; Microsoft Silverlight; Microsoft Live Essentials; WildTangent Games Console; Toshiba Online Backup (30-day trial).

This laptop is backed by a 1-year limited hardware warranty.

I think this Toshiba far exceeds the performance of some higher brand laptop computers. It's very easy to set up and the keyboard is very easy to use. it's great value for the price.