Five Under $500 – Budget Laptops For Back To School
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Summer’s over and it’s time to get back to the real world. Homework, assignments, and all the things that as a parent, you have to relearn and spend just as much time as your kids, even after you come home from work. Awesome. I know I’m a couple of years away right now but I’m dreading the day I have to remember what Mr. Winnet taught me about Pythagoras.
We know that ‘back in your day’ you did everything with pencil and paper, but these days everything is done on the cloud and sent directly to the teacher for grading.
Laptops have to be lightweight to fit into backpacks, not too expensive as they’re probably going to get left somewhere, and reliable as you don’t want to have to replace it before they’re heading off to college! (Maybe that’s wishful thinking!)
So, here’s a list of laptops and Chromebooks that are all under $500 on Amazon.ca right now and all have 4+ stars in their reviews.
Asus C202SA-YS02 11.6″ Ruggedized and Water Resistant Design Chromebook with 180 Degree Hinge, 4GB DDR3 RAM, Dark Blue/Silver – $239
4 GB DDR3 RAM; Storage : 16GB Flash Storage; No CD or DVD drive
Designed for rugged use with reinforced rubber guards, easy grip handles, and a spill resistant keyboard
11.6-Inch HD 1366×768 Anti-Glare Display
Up to 10 hours of battery life. Lightweight
Chromebooks are an amazing solution as they’re cheap and reliable. They use all the software from the Google Suite like Docs, Sheets, Drive, and more. Everything is stored online so even if it goes get lost, the work is safe. In fact, I’m writing this on a Chromebook right now!
Acer Canada NX.GC2AA.019 Chromebook with Mouse Bundle, 14″ FHD IPS Display/ICQ N3160 / 4GB RAM/ 32GB eMMC/ Chrome/ Silver – $399
14″ Full HD (1920 x 1080) ComfyView Widescreen IPS LED-backlit Display
4GB LPDDR3 SDRAM Memory & 32GB eMMC
802.11ac WiFi featuring MIMO technology (Dual-Band 2.4GHz and 5GHz)
3-Cell Li-Polymer Battery (3950 mAh), Up to 12 Hour Battery Life
100% Aluminum Chassis
Wireless Mouse
Google Chrome
Asus X540BA-RB94 Laptop PC, AMD A9-9425 with R5 Graphics, 8GB RAM, 1TB HDD, 15.6″ HD Display – $449
15.6” HD (1366 x 768) display
1TB Hard Disk Drive
8GB DDR4 RAM Storage
802.11ac Wi-Fi, Ergonomic chiclet keyboard; Windows 10
Lenovo IdeaPad 15.6 HD High Performance Laptop PC |7th Gen AMD A9-9425 Dual-Core 3.10 GHz| 4GB RAM | 128GB SSD | 802.11ac – $398
4GB DDR4 RAM; 128GB SSD; DVD-RW
15.6″ 1366 x 768 HD display & Energy-efficient LED backlight
1 x HDMI, 10/100 Ethernet, 2 x USB 3.0, 1 x Combo Headphone/Mic Jack
Operating System: Windows 10 Home in S mode; 2-cell lithium ion Battery; Dimensions: (W x D x H)14.80″ x 10.00″ x 0.90″; Weight: 4.63 lbs ; 0.9″ Thin
HP 14″ Stream Laptop AMD A4-9125 Dual-Core, 4GB RAM, Windows 10 Snowflake 14-dk0030ca – $299.98
With a dependable AMD A4 processor and a super responsive precision touchpad – you’ve got the power to surf, stream, and do more like never before
Long-lasting battery life and fast-charge technology, this laptop lets you work and play all day
Includes Office 365 Personal 1-year
Heather
August 2, 2019 at 11:28 amWhat? Summer over? No way- I refuse! We’ve still got a month ’til school starts! (haha not attacking you- just resisting the end!) It’s good to be prepared with ideas like this while back to school time creeps in 😉
jamesrcsmith
August 2, 2019 at 4:22 pmhaha I know! It’ll be Pumpkin Spiced everything, Halloween, and then Christmas before we know it. Noooo!
Tairalyn
August 2, 2019 at 10:05 pmLenovo is what I am currently using and sorta’ love it. However the Chromebook has me wondering if I should switch one day 😉
Michael Kwan
August 2, 2019 at 10:40 pmI’ve been seriously impressed with the Chromebook that I got, and it really made me regret not getting one sooner. Battery life lasts forever and it can tackle 90% of what I want to do day-to-day. And at less than half the price of my desktop PC.