Netbook computers are slowly gaining momentum in the market. These devices are not as bad as they were five years ago. Now, netbooks run on quad-core and dual-core processors which may still be a bit slow by today's standard but will still get the job done and these devices offers some serious performance to cost ratio.
With that in mind, here are some of the best budget laptops that will surely fit anyone's budget.
Lenovo ThinkPad X131e
The Lenovo ThinkPad X131e is on durable notebook designed for school use. It sports an 11.6-inch display and its battery can last up 8.5 hours on a single charge. The netbook is available on both AMD and Intel processor variants, according to The Verge. While there might be differences in computing speeds, the variance might be too slight to be noticed.
The netbook has 4GB of memory, which is standard on almost all laptops. There is an option to upgrade it to 8GB. The base model has 500GB hard drive. Tech experts find it a little weird that Lenovo offers an upgrade option for its storage but instead of adding more space, the company opted to downgrade it into a 128GB SSD which costs $240. SSD's are faster but it does not justify the cost-to-performance ration, especially for budget laptops.
The Lenovo ThinkPad X131e costs $377.72.
Asus VivoBook S200E
The Asus VivoBook 200E features an 11.6-inch touchscreen display which functions just like a tablet. The 1.8GHz Intel Core i3 processor which should be powerful enough to handle some of the latest softwares.
The netbook's design features a brushed aluminum finish instead of the most common plastic build. This exterior design not only adds aesthetics to the laptop but also increases its durability. It has 500GB of hard drive which should be large enough to handle any storage requirements, according to CNet.
Perhaps the biggest downside of the Asus VivoBook S200E is its memory. The standard model comes in with only 2GB of RAM, which is marginal in considering the latest trend. There is an option to upgrade it to 4GB, but that is the limit.
Another downside to the netbook is that the graphics processing unit is integrated into the processor. This means that the two will share the 2GB RAM, if the user should opt in for the standard model.
The Asus VivoBook S200E costs $399.
HP Pavilion TouchSmart 11z
The Hp Pavilion TouchSmart 11z is one of the most affordable netbook in the market. It offers a compact design with above-average computing performance and ranks as one of the best netbook in terms of cost-to-performance ratio.
The base model of the netbook comes in with a dual-core AMD A4-1250 processor. There is an upgraded model that comes with a quad-core AMD A4-1450 processor. It has an 11.6-inch touch screen display.
Additional specs include 4GB of RAM which can be upgraded to 8GB. The netbook also has 500GB of storage space.
The HP Pavilion TouchSmart 11z costs $319.