What to Look for In a Budget Laptop

If you are in need of a new laptop but aren’t in the market for a professional grade laptop, we’ve written this post to give you an idea of some of the key things to look for when picking your next laptop.

Processor (CPU) – Intel Core i3 (it’ll have a dash and then some numbers after it)
*If you can get an Intel Core i5 that’s even better

Memory (RAM) – 8 GB

Storage (Hard Drive/Solid State Drive or SSD) – We are BIG fans of Solid State Drives or SSDs.  They are much faster than a hard drive although you usually get less space when you get an SSD.  It’s helpful to know how much space you are using on your current computer.  Depending on your budget, you may have to go with a standard hard drive if the units that come with an SSD are out of your price range.

Windows – It’s hard to find a laptop with anything other than Windows 10 and fortunately that is our recommendation

Screen Size – 15.6″ is the average and what most people want.  A 17.3″ is nice if you want the extra screen space and we usually don’t see people go with laptops smaller than 14″.

Touch Screen – We find that most people don’t use the touch screen if their laptop has one.  The screen seems to get smudged up pretty quickly when it’s used and it’s hard to “click” with a touch screen on a laptop in our opinon.

Brands – We believe at lower price points, the brands don’t matter as much as the build quality.  For every brand of laptop out there, there are some laptop models that are just flimsy and not well built.  We recommend going with one that seems like it’s built strong relative to the others.

We hope that these recommendations help you pick out a laptop.  Whichever store or vendor you choose to use, it may be good to speak to one of their employees and show them this page and hopefully they can help you pick out a laptop that meets the above criteria.

Thanks for reading!

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