Laptop Under 300?

[THE ABSURD BIRD]

I am looking for a laptop preferably Windows, to replace my dying Chromebook (the lid from the screen is starting to split open and the battery life is subpar). 

I am thinking of buying an Acer Swift 1 with a Pentium Silver processor (similar performance to the 15W TDP i3 Processors), but if you have other ideas let me know.

Here are some preferable criteria

• Decent battery life to get me through a day (I go to school and use my laptop at least 6 hours a day)
• Performance good enough for web browsing 
• At least 64 GB of storage

I mainly use my computer for homework, watching videos occasionally, light programming, and editing 1080p AVCHD video. My parents don't love me so my budget is under $300 

 

 

[Ben Mills]

https://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-i3-8130U-Memory-E5-576-392H/dp/B079TGL2BZ/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=laptop&qid=1552933325&s=gateway&sr=8-3

There is a free m.2 slot so you could have ssd + hdd storage that will make the system much faster, it is slightly over 300 tho

if 300 is a dead set budget i can help find one under that price.

I feel like that laptop is the best for around $300, much better than others.

 

[THE ABSURD BIRD]

The hard drive and bloatware is rubbish (at least from what I see on the review page). It is a bit on the heavy side to carry around everywhere but perhaps it is a viable option

[KING OF THE DIRTY DANS]

Go to a recycling center, get a laptop there, and throw an SSD and windows on it

[THE ABSURD BIRD]

[Ben Mills]

After looking around i see the Acer Aspire being the best option, ths specs are much better than naything compared to it in that price range

128gb m.2 ssd would be good + the 1tb hdd

If you do a fresh install of windows on the ssd there won't be much bloatware

you can use the 1tb hdd until you see a good m.2 for sale

 

[markr54632]

Honestly nothing new under 300 is going to be usable with windows 10. Look at used. Older thinkpads hold up remarkably well. 

[leanspicy]

1. Lenovo idea Pad 15.6

2. HP Touchscreen 15.6

3. Lenovo 330

you can search for more information about these laptops here

[Fatih19]

On 3/19/2019 at 6:36 AM, markr54632 said:

Honestly nothing new under 300 is going to be usable with windows 10. Look at used. Older thinkpads hold up remarkably well. 

Yes! Just buy a used thinkpad x230. They're super reliable, have a fingerprint reader, IPS panel, backlit keyboard, and only cost like 250$ at least where I live. When I bought my thinkpad with said price, the seller threw in 8 GB of ram and 180 GB ssd as well. Really good deal. Drives, battery, and RAM is replaceable. Replacement battery is very common in sites like eBay. Has three options even, 29 Wh, 62 Wh, 94 Wh. You can also have battery slices that have capacity of 64 Wh from sites like eBay. It uses a proprietary port under the laptop for it's many kind of dock (Not just the battery slices, there are many kind of dock you can use with this thing). You can even use eGPU through the express card port (though, not sure how that will work with modern card since this thing is from 2013). The chiclet keyboard is a joy to use. The processor is miles ahead of any brand new laptop you can get for 300 dollar. It doesn't have m.2 but it has mSATA that is a precursor to m.2. Of which, you can buy the drives from popular retail center still.

 

 

Edited May 1, 2019 by Fatih19
Forgot some details.

[AqHu]

Any reason for not sticking with a Chromebook? Unless Chrome OS just doesn't work for you, I'd recommend just purchasing a new Chromebook.

[Fatih19]

1 minute ago, AqHu said:

Any reason for not sticking with a Chromebook? Unless Chrome OS just doesn't work for you, I'd recommend just purchasing a new Chromebook.

He said that he occassionally edits videos.

[markr54632]

On 5/1/2019 at 11:11 AM, AqHu said:

Any reason for not sticking with a Chromebook? Unless Chrome OS just doesn't work for you, I'd recommend just purchasing a new Chromebook.

Chromebooks aren't really useful once you are outside of grade school. They dont do anything well. You can buy a 5-6 year old laptop that will easily outperform most chrome books.

 

You could put a lightweight linux distro on it and make it work for light tasks, but honestly anything a chromebook can do I can do on my phone with a 5 dollar bluetooth keyboard.

[kelvinhall05]

On 3/18/2019 at 2:35 PM, KING OF THE DIRTY DANS said:

Go to a recycling center, get a laptop there, and throw an SSD and windows on it

He wants battery life, lol. Good luck even getting a laptop with a battery at the recycling center, much less one that gets 6+ hours of battery life.

 

OP, get another Chromebook, or fix your current one.

[Fatih19]

19 hours ago, kelvinhall05 said:

He wants battery life, lol. Good luck even getting a laptop with a battery at the recycling center, much less one that gets 6+ hours of battery life.

 

OP, get another Chromebook, or fix your current one.

I mean, older laptops that ends up in recycling center probably has spare parts available and swappable batteries. He could just stock up these batteries and swap them out.