Best Budget-Friendly Laptops of 2024: Top Picks Under $500

The best laptops under $500 that we'd actually buy

Mashable staff subjected most of the laptops on this list to varying degrees of hands-on testing. At minimum, this involved inspecting their build quality and using them for a variety of real-world tasks for several weeks at a time. This included working in different kinds of documents, checking emails, watching videos, taking photos on their webcams, participating in video calls, listening to music (via Spotify), playing games (if possible), and experimenting with any unique software features or use cases they claimed to support. Additionally, most of the laptops featured here were made to run industry-standard benchmark software. We run these benchmarks because they replicate real-world tasks to produce scores we can use to easily compare different laptops' performance. We recently started implementing these benchmarks in our testing, and you can expect to see them in all of our new laptop reviews going forward. We evaluate a laptop's overall performance by running the appropriate version of Primate Labs' Geekbench 6. (That would be macOS for MacBooks; Windows for Windows laptops, including gaming laptops; and Android for Chromebooks.) This test measures CPU performance in a handful of common tasks, and we record the resulting multi-core score. The higher the score, the better. To get a sense of gaming laptops' graphical prowess, we also play Cyberpunk 2077 on them. We picked this game because it's a graphically intense AAA title that pushes many systems to their performance limits. If the laptop has a discrete/dedicated NVIDIA GeForce RTX graphics card (as opposed to an integrated GPU that's built into the CPU), we play Cyberpunk once with its DLSS tech off and again with DLSS on using the High preset without ray tracing. This tests the machine's raw GPU power and its performance with AI upscaling, respectively. We follow this up with 3DMark's Time Spy benchmark for gaming PCs and record their scores. Again, higher is better. We look to see about 11 to 12 hours of battery life in the MacBooks we test, with 15-plus hours being exceptional, and 9 to 10 hours in the Windows laptops we review, with 12+ hours being ideal. Gaming laptops are a different story: They only need to last at least 2 hours per charge to get our approval, earning extra brownie points for reaching the 4-hour mark. Meanwhile, 8 hours is our baseline for Chromebooks, but 9 to 10 hours is best. We've assessed laptops' stamina a couple different ways in the past. To standardize our battery life testing methodology, we conduct a video rundown test on MacBook and Windows laptops that involves playing a looped 1080p version of Tears of Steel, a short open-source Blender movie, at 50 percent brightness. For gaming laptops we use PCMark 10's battery life test, and for Chromebooks, CrXPRT 2. After evaluating a laptop's hands-on performance and benchmark testing results, we make our final recommendations based on whether we think they offer a good overall value for the money. A too-expensive laptop will sometimes get a pass if we think it looks and works so great that it's worth the trouble of finding it on sale. It bears mentioning that these aren't the only laptops we've tried -- we're constantly testing and assessing new models across different categories, and many don't make the final cut. With that in mind, you can expect this guide to evolve on a pretty continuous basis. We're always on the lookout for new top contenders.

Best cheap laptops of 2024, tested by Mashable staff

Mashable staff tested all of the laptops in this guide. (We tried a previous version of the Framework Laptop 13). At minimum, this involved inspecting their build quality and using them for a variety of real-world tasks for several weeks at a time. We worked with different kinds of documents, checked emails, watched videos, took photos on their webcams, participated in video calls, listened to music (via Spotify), played games (if possible), and experimented with any unique software features or use cases they claimed to support. Additionally, a handful of the newer laptops featured here were made to run industry-standard benchmark software (specifically the Lenovo Yoga 7i 14, the Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 3, the HP Chromebook Plus 15.6-inch, and the Acer Nitro V 15). We run these benchmarks because they replicate real-world tasks to produce scores we can use to easily compare different laptops' performance. We recently started implementing these benchmarks in our testing, and you can expect to see them in all of our new laptop reviews going forward. We evaluated the laptops' overall performance by running the appropriate version of Primate Labs' Geekbench 6. This test measures CPU performance in a handful of common tasks, and we recorded the resulting multi-core score. The higher the score, the better. To get a sense of gaming laptops' graphical prowess, we also played Cyberpunk 2077 on them. We picked this game because it's a graphically intense AAA title that pushes many systems to their performance limits. If the laptop had a discrete/dedicated NVIDIA GeForce RTX graphics card (as opposed to an integrated GPU that's built into the CPU), we played Cyberpunk once with its DLSS tech off and again with DLSS on using the High preset without ray tracing. This tests the machine's raw GPU power and its performance with AI upscaling, respectively. We followed this up with 3DMark's Time Spy benchmark for gaming PCs and recorded their scores. Again, higher is better. We look to see about 11 to 12 hours of battery life in the MacBooks we test, with 15-plus hours being exceptional, and nine to ten hours in the Windows laptops we review, with 12-plus hours being ideal. Gaming laptops are a different story: They only need to last at least two hours per charge to get our approval, earning extra brownie points for reaching the four-hour mark. Meanwhile, eight hours is our baseline for Chromebooks, but nine to ten hours is best. We've assessed laptops' stamina a couple different ways in the past. (More on that shortly.) We used UL Solutions' PCMark 10 battery life stress test on the Surface Laptop Go and the Acer Nitro V 15, and Principled Technologies' CrXPRT 2 battery life test on the Chromebook Plus 15.6-inch. Both tests ran a series of apps and functions until the laptop conked out. On the Yoga 7i, we conducted a video rundown test that involved playing a looped 1080p version of Tears of Steel, a short open-source Blender movie, at 50 percent brightness. In order to standardize our battery life testing methodology, we will only be using the Tears of Steel rundown on all MacBooks and Windows laptops from here on out. We'll stick with PCMark 10's battery life test for all gaming laptops and CrXPRT 2's test for Chromebooks. After evaluating a laptop's hands-on performance and benchmark testing results, we made our final recommendations based on whether we thought they offered a good overall value for the money. For the purposes of this guide, we defined a "cheap laptop" as one that costs less than $1,000. We made a lone exception to this rule for the Framework Laptop 13 ($1,049): It requires a bigger upfront investment, but it'll save you money on repair and replacement costs for years to come. Lastly, should be noted that these aren't the only cheap laptops we've tried -- we're constantly testing and assessing new models across different categories, and many don't make the final cut. With that in mind, you can expect this guide to evolve on a pretty continuous basis. We're always on the lookout for new top pick contenders.