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Best cheap laptops for under £500

Laptops: Best cheap laptops for under £500

We pick the five best cheap laptops?
The best bargain Windows 8 laptops we've tested
Laptops with screen sizes from 11-inches to 15-inches

Technology has moved on so much that you really don't have to spend that much to get a laptop that will do everything you need at a great price. Here we round-up the best cheap laptops for under £500. These five cheap laptops will tackle most tasks with ease, and we've picked out a range of sizes so you can have an ultra-portable 11-inch laptop or a cheap 15-inch laptop for everyday use.

For more advice about what to look for in a budget computer read our guide to buying the best cheap laptop.

To see the products behind the scores in the table below, try Which? for £1. If you're already member, go to the log-in page and unlock the table.

Best cheap laptops for under £500
Laptops	Sign up for the full reviews	Performance	Screen quality	Sound quality	Portability	Score
						74%
	This 13-inch laptop - featuring 4GB RAM and a 500GB hard drive - is a Best Buy laptop from a popular brand and offers excellent performance It weighs less than 1.5kg - making it easy to carry around - but with a battery life of just four hours it may not be ideal if you want to watch films or other media while travelling Read the full review and discover the benefits of Which? with a £1 Which? trial subscription
						72%
	The smallest of of our picks and arguably the most portable. This 11-inch laptop weighs just 1.4kg, yet still fits in 4GB RAM and a 500GB hard drive Unlike most cheap laptops, it has a touchscreen which will allow you to make the most of Windows 8 Read the full review and discover the benefits of Which? with a £1 Which? trial subscription
						72%
	A large, 15-inch desktop replacement laptop that does most of the basics well and is attractively priced It has a huge 750GB hard drive that's great for storing lots of videos, music and photos and it can be started up in under 20 seconds Read the full review and discover the benefits of Which? with a £1 Which? trial subscription
						69%
	A very cheap 13-inch laptop for less than £400. It weighs in at just 1.59kg - making it very easy to carry around Despite the cheap price it's got a standard 500GB hard drive, good screen and very usable keyboard. The lower price does mean a slightly less powerful processor Read the full review and discover the benefits of Which? with a £1 Which? trial subscription
						69%
	A 15-inch laptop that only costs around £400 or less - it has a full keyboard including number pad so is useful as a dektop replacement It has 6GB of RAM and a huge 1TB hard drive - which are both very generous for the price - although at nearly two and a half kilos it's not made for travelling Read the full review and discover the benefits of Which? with a £1 Which? trial subscription

More ways to save money

Which? reviews thousands of products and services each year, shedding the light on the best and worst to help you with your everyday decisions. With advice and reviews on everything from pushchairs to pensions and fridges to financial services, Which? works for you to help you save money.

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What makes a Best Buy laptop?

Which? has put hundreds of laptops through our independent lab test. We check the screen quality and sound quality to make sure you’ll get the most from films and TV. We test battery life to see how the claimed battery life by the manufacturer and the real battery life measure up and just how much juice you’ll get when on the go. You can find out more about how we test laptops in the video below.

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