Is a Cheap Laptop the Right Choice for You?

By far, this is the most common type of laptop users, coincidentally it is also the group most suited to the purchase of the basic low-end or cheap laptops. Since the needs of a home user are usually very little, just about any laptop will work well for someone in this group. The typical uses we see in this group are basic Internet browsing, sending email and the occasional computer game, like chess or pinball. If you find yourself in this group, I have actually written an article that covers a great selection of 7 cheap laptops that cost under $600 any one of these should work well for you.

This group is not to different from the simple home users above, with the biggest difference being that you would use your laptop for general work functions. We have yet to find a cheap laptop (sub $600), that comes with any sort of office program, for example Microsoft Office. That's not however a big problem, you can actually download a really good office suite for free, I actually prefer it to the premium office suites. If you feel that you use the computer little enough, that you would qualify as a basic user and could get by with one of the cheap laptops I provided in the list above, then I would strongly suggest that you download the free office suite to handle your daily work functions.

If you are in this group of laptop users you will probably find that you use your laptop to its fullest ability. You might be running an Internet or home based business or maybe your work requires an excess of resource hogging applications. Should you find that you spend the majority of your day on the laptop performing tasks, you probably have landed yourself in this group. That's not to say that you can't still get a cheap laptop, but you are going to have to step into the next price bracket to get something that suits you well. For someone in this group I would recommend that you shop in the sub $1000 range, or between $600 and a $1000. These laptops are likely to have faster processing speeds, better functionality and an overall better system that is less likely to get bogged down by heavy use. You might also look into some of the refurbished models, for a little better savings for the same performance.

I must admit that I am in this group, I am a laptop addict. The bad news is that this obviously the most expensive group of laptop users, we often have very specific needs and require the use of large programs to keep us going. You may be into web design, graphics, pc gaming or a whole slew of other things. Well the bad news is that in this group you are not going to have much luck with cheap laptops, unless you buy cheap and upgrade them yourself, which is actually the best way to go in my opinion. If you upgrade the laptop yourself, you will be able to build it to work best for your needs, which is really nice. You might also consider looking for a used or factory refurbished laptop, so that you don't have to shell out a couple thousand dollars for a new one.

Hopefully, this has shed some light on your decision making process. If you were lucky enough to fall into the cheaper of the groups congratulations, I will be thinking of you the next time I have to shell out way to much for my laptop. You might also consider looking at this article Turn your cheap laptop into a great machine for under $200, for some low budget ideas to upgrade your laptop.