Ask HN: Best Budget Windows Laptop?

mister_hn · on Dec 23, 2019

The HP 250 G7 is the best one. You can buy it for 400€ and it supports up to 32 GB RAM (warning: you need to pick up the Ryzen variant)

TanakaTarou · on Dec 23, 2019

I would say basically any cheap laptop where the hard drive is user replaceable so you can replace the spinning disk with a SSD. Doing that a cheap windows laptop becomes almost as fast as higher-end models. That 5400 rpm hard drive they put in cheap laptops are really the thing that makes them super slow.

m-p-3 · on Dec 23, 2019

Make sure to consider the screen resolution. Most cheap laptops comes with a 1366x768 display resolution, which can severely limit the usable workspace.

llampx · on Dec 23, 2019

A refurb Thinkpad T5xx or E5xx from the Lenovo outlet should fit the bill.

gaspoweredcat · on Dec 23, 2019

does it need to be brand new? if not consider a refurbished thinkpad, a T4xx or T5xx should do nicely depending on which screen size you want

GeoffIsTheBest · on Dec 23, 2019

I would agree with this. Get the latest model T series you can with your budget.

I would avoid the E, X, L series as they are either too cheap(in quality) or either too expensive (X series) due to thinness. The T series strikes the perfect middle ground and it well known for available replacement parts and upgradability.