Amazon Laptop Buying Guide Free
If you're trying to squeeze the most value out of every dollar of your next laptop purchase, consider buying a refurbished unit. While you won't usually find the latest and greatest products being sold as refurbished, you will often be able to save money and get slightly more functionality by considering a product that's not fresh off the factory line.
amazon laptop buying guide
Also note that the budget class saw some price inflation through 2022 into 2023, given the silicon shortages and supply-chain issues that have plagued the industry since the pandemic began. Before, we'd have set a hard limit of $999 for budget gaming machines, but we are seeing price rises at the lower end of this market. So, we've lifted the price ceiling for this class of gaming machines. Check out a detailed breakout of our current picks for the best gaming laptops for 2023 below, followed by our extensive buying guide to how to shop for a gaming laptop.
If you're unsure which laptop you're looking for, check out our guide to the best laptops and best MacBooks on the market right now. If you prefer your notebook to transform into a tablet, check out our guide to the best 2-in-1 laptops , and if you need something capable of playing graphically intense PC gaming on the go, then check out our list of the best gaming laptops. For prospective Chromebook buyers, we also recommend our guide to the best Chromebooks. And if you can't find a laptop at the price you're after, do check out our roundup of the early Cyber Monday laptop deals.
We published thousands of deals last July, which we've analyzed to offer our readers a bit of advice while planning purchases this month. And it's a particularly important month to do so, since a number of sales will appear to be better than they actually are. In order to protect your wallet and spend your money wisely, be sure to read through our July buying guide below for everything you need to know to shop smart this month.
Also, contrary to what you might expect, video game deals are exceedingly great around July 4; last year, 43 percent of these promotions were marked as Editors' Choice. For a full rundown of what to buy around Independence Day, check out our complete 4th of July sales buying guide.
Setting a budget is a good place to start when shopping for the best laptop for yourself. The good news is you can get a nice-looking, lightweight laptop with excellent battery life at prices under $500. If you're shopping for a laptop around $500 or less, check out our top picks here, as well as more specific buying advice for that price range.
Picking up one of the latest Nvidia GPUs in your gaming laptop doesn't need to be a costly affair - RTX 3050 machines have been spotted at prices that would previously have sat on older GTX models. Nvidia's RTX chips are currently in their 30-Series, one up from the 20-Series launched last year, and you'll find the vast majority of gaming laptops on the shelves are sporting them. That doesn't necessarily mean you need one if you're just playing smaller games on a budget, in which case a GTX 1650 is still a worthy consideration. However, the bottom line is if you're buying a gaming laptop today, the choices on offer will revolve around the RTX 30-Series line.
We've put a wide range of gaming laptops through their paces to find the best machines in the business, testing performance relative to the specs on offer, efficiency in design and temperature, and overall value for money. We run each machine through a series of performance benchmarks, and live, play, and work with the models we review for an extended period of time - you can check out exactly how we test gaming laptops in our dedicated guide. You'll find all our recommendations for the best gaming laptop on the market just below, and more information on choosing the right configuration for you and your budget as well.
If you've managed to find the right rig for you, it's worth investing some thought into the best laptop backpacks to get you out and about. Or, check out our guide to the latest cheap gaming laptop deals if you're looking for more savings. Or, check out all the cheap Alienware laptop deals and Razer laptop deals currently on sale for some serious discounts.
Both M.2 drives and the corresponding M.2 connectors on motherboards look very similar, regardless of what they support. So be sure to double-check the manual for your motherboard, laptop, or convertible, as well as what a given drive supports, before buying.
On the other hand, if you are an Apple fan and prefer to use the latest macOS, the new MacBook Air is the best choice. In general, performance, display, battery life, storage space and connectivity are the most important features you should look for when buying a laptop without a touchscreen.
We suggest you have a quick skim through our Things to consider when buying a gaming laptop under $500 section below to get a quick overview of the market in this price bracket so you can make the best choice.
We would also advise looking at our Best Gaming Laptops under $600, $700, and $800 guides and seeing if you can find some of the options listed there at refurbished prices. Bear in mind that a refurbished gaming laptop will rarely come with a warranty or the other such benefits you would get with a brand new model.
This has been our best gaming laptop under 500 USD guide for 2023. Each cheap gaming laptop chosen in this article is one of the best options currently available for gaming in this price range, though we definitely recommend checking out the gaming laptop guides that cover different price ranges under Custom Gaming PC in the top bar of this page, including the best gaming laptop under $600 and best gaming laptop under $700 guides.
Asus is definitely the most reliable brand for this price range. It uses great building materials to ensure reliable and powerful performance. You can get the Asus Vivobook 17.3 with up to 20GB of RAM and a 512TB solid-state drive (more than enough for a laptop like this. Regarding power, it comes with a 10th Gen Intel Core i5, a processor that leverages 4 cores, 8 threads, and a max frequency of up to 3.2GHz. You can push the specs even higher and purchase the version with a more powerful CPU, but it goes up in price and it defeats the whole idea of buying a cheaper laptop under $600.
If you're stuck trying to figure which machine to get, Futurism has dedicated buyer's guides to help you select the best laptop, whether you need a general-purpose machine, or a one that's geared toward a specific task like gaming. Once you feel comfortable that you've found the laptop you want, it's time to actually pick one up.
We've done research to find the best places to buy a laptop. We've also covered the best practices for buying a refurbished laptop, and how to make sure you're getting an education discount if you'll be using the machine for schoolwork.
If you're going to look for a laptop in-person rather than online, Best Buy is the first place you should shop. The store has dozens of laptops from multiple manufacturers in their retail locations, and if you find the one you like, you may be able to walk out of the store with it the same day. No shipping required. If you've already done some homework (or consulted our guides!) you may be able to decide between the two or three laptops you're interested in after testing each one out.
The first is that it'll indicate whether the laptop you're interested in buying is available at your local store. This is an important piece of information to know before you leave the house to check the machine out in person. If you know the laptop you want isn't available at the nearest Best Buy, it may not make sense to shop in-person. Saving yourself some time and effort, especially if you've got a tight schedule, is always a good idea and Best Buy makes it really easy to check your local store's in-stock items.
One very important step when shopping for a laptop on Amazon is making sure you're making a purchase from the store rather than a third-party seller. Buying a laptop directly from Amazon ensures you'll have the best possible experience. Amazon functions both as its own store and an online marketplace, some third-party vendors are able to sell goods. In some cases, a third-party seller will offer the same item as Amazon, but at a lower price, which may tempt you to pick up your laptop from them. However, these sellers may not offer the same 30-day return policy Amazon does, or may choose to charge for shipping. You can see the seller you're buying your laptop from under the "Buy It Now" button on a laptop's product page. There, you'll see two fields called "ships by" and "sold by."
If you know how to use eBay properly, and assume the risks associated with shopping on the site, it's the best option if you'd like an extremely good deal on a laptop, or any other electronics for that matter. Buying a laptop on eBay is a great way to save money because you're buying the machine from an individual instead of a big retailer. The seller has set the price based on their idea of the item's real world value, which may be significantly lower than a store's price.
It's possible to save a tremendous amount of money on eBay, but you run the risk of having a negative experience if you're buying from a new seller. eBay continuously bans sellers who have accumulated enough negative ratings, and can mediate between buyers and sellers who are disputing a transaction, which is good if you end up in a sticky situation. Still, shopping for a laptop on eBay will feel more like a personal, informal experience compared to picking up your machine from a multinational company. The sale is happening between two people. 041b061a72