Shopping : Back to school laptops under $500

Students looking for the right back-to-school laptop have a lot of choices. Even if you want to stay under $500, there are dozens of quality laptops to suit your needs. That much variety can muddle your shopping experience. To help you narrow your search, we’ve assembled this list of sub-$500 laptops for your perusal. You’ll notice there are no Apple computers on the list. That’s not because of quality, but price. If you want an Apple laptop for less than $500 you’ll have to buy one used.

Lenovo IdeaPad G500This notebook combines affordability, good features and solid performance. It can handle all of a student’s computing needs, with an Intel Pentium B960 processor, HD graphics support, stereo speakers and integrated DVD drive. Backup and recovery is simple with the OneKey Recovery feature. It runs Windows 8 on a 15.6-inch HD screen, with 4GB DDR3 memory and 320GB HDD storage. It also comes with USB2.0, USB3.0 connectors and 2-in-1 card reader, integrated 0.3M (720p HD1) webcam, stereo speakers and Dolby Advanced Audio HD graphics support.
ASUS VivoBookThis is a highly portable and potent touch screen Windows 8 laptop at a great price. With a quality fit and finish that betrays its low price, the Asus looks and feels like a more expensive machine. It features an Intel Core i3-3217U 1.8 GHz processor, 4 GB DDR3, a 500 GB 5400 rpm Hard Drive, an 11.6-inch HD screen and 2 USB 2.0 ports. The keyboard is small but works well, which is sometimes a problem in this category. The 11.6-inch display looks crisp and the touch response is excellent.
HPHP Pavilion 14” ChromebookIf you love Google you’ll love this crazy cheap HP Pavilion Chromebook. It’s the first Chromebook with a 14-inch diagonal design, coming in at less than an inch thick. HP claims their HP TrueVision HD Webcam will make you look your best, even in low light, but that’s a matter of opinion. Since it’s a Chromebook you can expect blazing speed with apps, social networking or anything else on the Internet. Cloud storage protects your data in the event of loss or theft.
Dell Inspiron 15 15.6" Core i3 Multi-touch LaptopDell says “Megatasking is the new multitasking,” and they’re backing it up with this laptop that combines a powerful Intel Core processor and Windows 8 apps for all of your computing needs. For the student who isn’t always cracking the books, the Inspirion 15 boasts a big hard drive and a DVD-RW drive that can run your movies and TV shows on Dell’s 15.6" HD Truelife display. Connect your MP3 player, camera, external hard drives and other gadgets to the two USB 3.0, two USB 2.0, HDMI 1.4 and RJ45 Ethernet ports. An 8-in-1 media card is also included. The Inspirion line is highly customizable and comes in a variety of configurations for under $500.
Toshiba Satellite 15.6" C55-A5249 Notebook PCThis is a nice little laptop from Toshiba, featuring all the specs you could want for any back to school needs. The Toshiba Satellite comes with an Intel Celeron Processor, 4GB DDR3, and a 500GB HDD. The satin black chassis holds a 15.6” TruBrite TFT LED-backlit display running integrated Intel HD Graphics on a screen that also supports native 720p HD content. It features a SuperMulti DVD burner, a 6-in-1 media card reader, 10/100Mbps Fast Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0, an integrated webcam and microphone along with built-in stereo speakers with DTS Sound technology. Of course, it is loaded with Windows 8, which focuses on cloud storage and apps (downloaded from the Windows Store).
Gateway NE51B16uGateway’s NE notebooks are efficient, simple to use and rather attractive – standing out from the PC crowd with an elegant offset logo and a sturdy black chassis holding a keyboard with clean lines. It features a multigesture touchpad, a dedicated numeric keypad, and the ability to connect to Facebook, Flickr, Twitter and YouTube with the one-click using Gateway Social Networks. The Gateway NE runs Windows 8, has 4GB memory, 500GB storage, a 15.6” display and built-in Wi-Fi, HDMI and USB 3.0.
Kocaso Mini Netbook LaptopThe least expensive model on our list comes from Kocaso. Never heard of them? Don’t worry. They’ve only been around since 2012 as an exclusive Tablet PC brand under the Global Phoenix Computer Technologies Inc. umbrella. Despite their reputation as a knock-off manufacturer, some critics have been impressed with Kocaso build quality and performance. This model has Wi-Fi, runs Android 4.0, has a 4GB HD, a 13.3” screen, and a 1.3 MP camera. It’s clearly a highly portable and compact little machine, which is definitely worth a look for under $160.

AcerAcer Aspire V5-122P-0857 NotebookThis handsome laptop may have some of you MacBook Air folks taking a second look at the PC market. It’s thin, light, comes in four colors and packs a full HD1 touchscreen and four built-in speakers. The Aspire runs Windows 8 (64-bit version) on an AMD dual-core A4-1250 processor. Like many of the laptops in this category, it features 4GB DDR3 memory and a 500GB hard drive. The 11.6" widescreen is brilliant, with Acer’s CineCrystal LCD multi-touch display sitting above a full-sized Acer FineTip keyboard and their ZoomPerfect touchpad. The Aspire also comes with a webcam (of course), Bluetooth, a USB 3.0 port, Acer Converter port and an SD card reader.