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MagyarThe Best Bargain Laptops
Every month, Notebookcheck reviews various affordable devices that have to undergo the exact same tests and identical review process as their premium siblings. The price bracket of less than 600 Euros is occupied by a number of notebooks made by various manufacturers competing for the price-conscious customer’s attention. Constant marketing emphasizing Gigahertz and Gigabytes carries the risk to lose sight of what is really important in a notebook. The following top lists might be interesting for your purchase decision as well:
The Best Cheap Notebooks For Less Than 600 Euros
The table above contains an overview over the best notebooks for less than 500 Euros reviewed by Notebookcheck over the course of the past 12 months as well as still relevant and available older products. In cases of identical score the more recent device is listed first. All prices in above table and price comparisons are updated daily and can thus differ.
Link: all devices in this class reviewed
1st – Acer Chromebook 514 CB514-1WT
Acer's 14-inch notebook offers a matte touchscreen display (FHD, IPS), low operating noise, good battery runtimes and Thunderbolt 4. The integration of the Google Play Store enables the use of countless Android apps.
Acer's Chromebook is primarily designed for use in companies or organizations - the price of 580 Euros is high, but what is offered is convincing.
Currently, the Acer Chromebook 514 CB514-1WT (Core i3-1115G4, 8 GB RAM, 128 GB SSD) is available on Amazon for around $615.
Pricecompare
2nd – Huawei MateBook D15 AMD
The Huawei MateBook D 15 is a recently updated affordable multimedia notebook. It comes with a sleek and robust metal case, which is uncommon in this price range. Huawei’s CPU of choice, an AMD Ryzen 5 5500U may be a bit dated but still a great choice considering its high performance and excellent energy efficiency making for a long battery life.
Huawei’s current MateBook D15 is a good multimedia notebook at an affordable price featuring a metal case and an AMD processor. However, its low price requires a few compromises.
Huawei devices are not available in North America.
Pricecompare
3rd – Acer Aspire 5 A515-56
The Aspire 5 has a Tiger-Lake processor on board, hardly heats up and only produces little noise. In addition, there is a backlit keyboard, acceptable battery runtimes and a 2-year warranty. The whole package is available for just under 500 Euros.
The Acer Aspire 5 A515-56 is a well-rounded office notebook for a small budget.
At the time of writing, it costs only less than $380 to get a variant of Acer Aspire 5 A515-56 on Amazon, which is equipped with a Core i3-1115G4 processor, 4 GB of RAM, and a 128 GB NVMe SSD.
Pricecompare
4th – Acer Swift 1
Acer’s 14-inch notebook offers great battery life (11-16 hours), a silent mode of operation, a backlight keyboard, and a matte IPS display, and all that for just 280 Euros.
The Acer Swift 1 SF114-34 is not an all-rounder. Instead, it is a portable and silent surfing, writing, and streaming machine.
The new generation of the Acer Swift 1 is currently not available in North America.
Pricecompare
5th – Fujitsu Lifebook A3510
The Lifebook A3510 offers relatively low emissions, doesn't weigh much (1.8 kg) and has a DVD drive on board. Good: A maintenance hatch allows access to the SSD, RAM and battery.
No uniformity in the low-price segment: The Lifebook A3510 can distinguish itself from the competition.
The Fujitsu Lifebook is currently not available in North America.
Pricecompare
6th – Acer Aspire 5 A515-45
The Acer Aspire 5 A515-45 offers a potent AMD Ryzen 7 5700U processor for around 600 euro. However, the rest of the configuration puts a spanner in the works of the elegant, quiet and cool notebook in many benchmarks.
Overall, the Acer Aspire 5 A515-45-R4R1 is primarily suitable as a surfing and streaming device. It also masters simple office tasks, but reaches its limits quite quickly.
Currently, we can purchase the item on Acer's official online store. It is available on Amazon US as well.
Pricecompare
7th – Acer TravelMate Spin B3
Acer’s 2-in-1 device offers a silent mode of operation, good battery life, and an NVMe SSD. Its touchscreen supports both finger and stylus input, which happens to be included.
Acer’s TravelMate Spin B3 is a simple 2-in-1 device that comes with a stylus by default.
Currently, Amazon offers the Acer TravelMate Spin B3 TMB311RN-31 (Intel Celeron N4020) for about $242.
Pricecompare
8th – Lenovo V15 Gen 2 AMD
The Lenovo V15 Gen 2’s strengths are its two SSD and RAM slots, its good performance thanks to an AMD hexa-core CPU and Vega 7 GPU, its good keyboard, and its comparatively robust case. It also comes with acceptable battery life as well as low noise and temperature emissions.
The Lenovo V15 G2 AMD is an affordable and fast office notebook. However, its TN panel renders it useless for many users.
The Lenovo V15 can be purchased on Amazon for $470, which is equipped with a Ryzen 5 5500U, 88 GB of RAM, and a 256 GB SSD.
Pricecompare
9th – Asus Chromebook Flip CM1
The Asus Chromebook Flip CM1 2-in-1 comes with an IPS touchscreen, a completely silent mode of operation, good battery life, and USB-C with Power Delivery. It is also not particularly expensive. It may not offer exceptional performance but in turn remains silent and comparatively cool.
The Chromebook Flip CM1 is a simple 2-in-1 notebook for undemanding everyday tasks.
The Asus Chromebook Flip CM1 was not yet available at the time of writing.
Pricecompare
10th – Lenovo IdeaPad 3 14ITL6
Lenovo's 14-incher has a Tiger-Lake processor on board, barely warms up and generally works quietly. Windows 10 Home in S mode serves as the operating system (an upgrade to Windows 11 is possible). The purchase price is below 300 Euros.
Lenovo Ideapad 3 14ITL6 - A quiet, mobile writing, surfing and streaming machine.
The Lenovo Ideapad 3 14 is available on Amazon for $399 with a better CPU Pentium Gold 6405U.
Pricecompare
Test Results
| Huawei MateBook D 15 Ryzen 5 5500U | Acer Swift 1 SF114-34-P6U1 | Fujitsu Lifebook A3510 (FPC04905BP) | Acer Spin 3 SP314-21N-R4GU | Acer Aspire 5 A515-45-R4R1 | Acer TravelMate Spin B3 TMB311RN-31-P5KK | Acer Chromebook Spin 511 R752T-C26N | Lenovo V15 G2 ALC-82KD003XGE | Asus Chromebook Flip CM1 | Lenovo IdeaPad 3 15ITL05 81X80074GE | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Display | ||||||||||
| Display P3 Coverage | 42.3 | 41.4 | 39.9 | 37.8 | 38.09 | 49.6 | 38.8 | 38.5 | ||
| sRGB Coverage | 63.4 | 61.8 | 58.9 | 56.8 | 57.3 | 72.9 | 58.4 | 56.7 | ||
| AdobeRGB 1998 Coverage | 43.7 | 42.9 | 41.3 | 39 | 39.35 | 51.3 | 40.09 | 39.8 | ||
| Response Times | ||||||||||
| Response Time Grey 50% / Grey 80% * | 51.2 ? | 29 ? | 45 ? | 48 ? | 38 ? | 34 ? | 33 ? | 38 ? | 40 ? | 42 ? |
| Response Time Black / White * | 34.4 ? | 20 ? | 32 ? | 28 ? | 27 ? | 21 ? | 27 ? | 14 ? | 27 ? | 30 ? |
| PWM Frequency | 25000 ? | 1000 ? | 66 ? | 200 ? | ||||||
| Screen | ||||||||||
| Brightness middle | 299 | 295 | 218 | 231 | 229 | 272 | 291 | 235 | 200 | 258 |
| Brightness | 280 | 265 | 209 | 232 | 224 | 267 | 271 | 231 | 196 | 237 |
| Brightness Distribution | 89 | 85 | 64 | 90 | 73 | 87 | 85 | 84 | 84 | 72 |
| Black Level * | 0.2 | 0.31 | 0.11 | 0.4 | 0.12 | 0.3 | 0.11 | 0.25 | 0.2 | 0.26 |
| Contrast | 1495 | 952 | 1982 | 578 | 1908 | 907 | 2645 | 940 | 1000 | 992 |
| Colorchecker dE 2000 * | 5.2 | 5.43 | 4.89 | 4.01 | 3.76 | 4.1 | 8.14 | 10.59 | 4.82 | 6.01 |
| Colorchecker dE 2000 max. * | 20.8 | 9.51 | 8.3 | 8.23 | 5.97 | 9.08 | 19.9 | 22.08 | 20.61 | 9.38 |
| Colorchecker dE 2000 calibrated * | 4.2 | 3.88 | 4.44 | 5.41 | ||||||
| Greyscale dE 2000 * | 4.1 | 4.19 | 2.57 | 2.04 | 3.01 | 4.03 | 5.84 | 12.5 | 1.64 | 4.69 |
| Gamma | 2.2 100% | 2.11 104% | 2.22 99% | 2.25 98% | 2.41 91% | 2.23 99% | 2.5 88% | 2.43 91% | 2.43 91% | 2.21 100% |
| CCT | 6548 99% | 7084 92% | 6272 104% | 6751 96% | 6484 100% | 6557 99% | 6761 96% | 16404 40% | 6475 100% | 6260 104% |
| Noise | ||||||||||
| off / environment * | 24.1 | 25 | 25 | 25 | 25 | 25 | ||||
| Idle Minimum * | 24.1 | 25 | 25 | 25 | 25 | 25 | ||||
| Idle Average * | 24.1 | 25 | 26.7 | 25 | 25 | 25 | ||||
| Idle Maximum * | 28 | 25 | 27.5 | 29.5 | 25 | 25 | ||||
| Load Average * | 35.9 | 39.2 | 33.2 | 38.6 | 33.6 | 37.9 | ||||
| Witcher 3 ultra * | 35.9 | |||||||||
| Load Maximum * | 43.9 | 39 | 36 | 38.6 | 34.5 | 38 | ||||
| Heat | ||||||||||
| Maximum Upper Side * | 40.6 | 38.9 | 34.4 | 35.3 | 40 | 36.8 | 42.6 | 40.4 | 37.4 | 37.2 |
| Maximum Bottom * | 43.9 | 43.3 | 30.9 | 36.2 | 42.8 | 46 | 43.2 | 41.1 | 47.2 | 38 |
| Idle Upper Side * | 25.6 | 28.5 | 27.7 | 32.5 | 32.4 | 27.8 | 23.3 | 34.6 | 31.7 | 27.3 |
| Idle Bottom * | 26.2 | 29.6 | 29.2 | 30.2 | 29.4 | 28.8 | 23.9 | 40 | 31.8 | 29.1 |
| Battery Runtime | ||||||||||
| WiFi v1.3 | 529 | 693 | 390 | 425 | 652 | 532 | 489 | 479 | 524 | 319 |
| Reader / Idle | 1771 | 562 | 944 | |||||||
| H.264 | 981 | 525 | 371 | |||||||
| Load | 285 | 107 | 187 | 64 | ||||||
| Power Consumption | ||||||||||
| Idle Minimum * | 5.5 | 2.4 | 4.2 | 3.9 | 3 | 2.8 | 1.9 | 6.5 | 3.9 | 4 |
| Idle Average * | 9.1 | 4.1 | 7.5 | 5.8 | 5.5 | 4.8 | 4.1 | 7.5 | 6.3 | 7.4 |
| Idle Maximum * | 9.7 | 4.7 | 8.5 | 7 | 8.2 | 5.5 | 4.2 | 8.3 | 6.8 | 8.7 |
| Load Average * | 40 | 13.6 | 31.2 | 26 | 34.2 | 11.8 | 7.8 | 29.7 | 12 | 30.7 |
| Witcher 3 ultra * | 38.9 | 14.3 | 30.7 | 25.4 | 30.2 | 11.8 | 36.7 | 29.9 | ||
| Load Maximum * | 59.5 | 12.1 | 52.7 | 36.3 | 38 | 23.5 | 15.7 | 40.6 | 12.3 | 52 |
* ... smaller is better
Benchmarks
| PCMark 8 | |
| Home Score Accelerated v2 (sort by value) | |
| Acer Swift 1 SF114-34-P6U1 | |
| Acer Spin 3 SP314-21N-R4GU | |
| Acer Aspire 5 A515-45-R4R1 | |
| Work Score Accelerated v2 (sort by value) | |
| Acer Swift 1 SF114-34-P6U1 | |
| Acer Spin 3 SP314-21N-R4GU | |
| Acer Aspire 5 A515-45-R4R1 | |
