The Best Bargain Laptops

February 2023 update. If price is the most important criteria for you when purchasing a new laptop then maybe this list will help you narrow your choices down. The following table contains an overview over the best laptops for less than 600 Euros reviewed by us.

J. Simon Leitner (translated by DeepL / Ninh Duy), Published 02/19/2023 🇩🇪 🇭🇺 ...

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

Position	Total Rating	Date	Model	Size	Resolution	Screen	Height	Weight
1	83.7 %	06/2022	Acer Chromebook 514 CB514-1WT-36DP Intel Core i3-1115G4 Intel UHD Graphics Xe G4 48EUs 8 GB Memory, 256 GB SSD	14.00"	1920x1080	matte	19.3 mm	1.4 kg
2	82.6 %	05/2022	Huawei MateBook D 15 Ryzen 5 5500U AMD Ryzen 5 5500U AMD Radeon RX Vega 7 8 GB Memory, 512 GB SSD	15.60"	1920x1080	matte	16.9 mm	1.6 kg
3	82.2 %	11/2022	Acer Aspire 5 A515-56-P8NZ Intel Pentium Gold 7505 Intel UHD Graphics Xe G4 48EUs 8 GB Memory, 512 GB SSD	15.60"	1920x1080	matte	17.95 mm	1.7 kg
4	81 %	02/2022	Acer Aspire 5 A515-45-R4R1 AMD Ryzen 7 5700U AMD Radeon RX Vega 8 (Ryzen 4000/5000) 8 GB Memory, 512 GB SSD	15.60"	1920x1080	matte	18 mm	1.7 kg
5	80.1 %	12/2022	Asus ExpertBook L1 L1401CDA-EK0457R AMD Ryzen 3 3250U AMD Radeon RX Vega 3 8 GB Memory, 256 GB SSD	14.00"	1920x1080	matte	19.2 mm	1.5 kg
6	80 %	04/2022	Lenovo V15 G2 ALC-82KD003XGE AMD Ryzen 5 5500U AMD Radeon RX Vega 7 8 GB Memory, 512 GB SSD	15.60"	1920x1080	matte	19.9 mm	1.6 kg
7	79.9 %	04/2022	Asus Chromebook Flip CM1 AMD 3015Ce AMD Radeon RX Vega 3 4 GB Memory, 64 GB eMMC	14.00"	1920x1080	glossy	18.6 mm	1.7 kg
8	79.2 %	06/2022	Lenovo IdeaPad 3 14ITL6 82H700CCGE Intel Celeron 6305 Intel UHD Graphics Xe G4 48EUs 4 GB Memory, 128 GB SSD	14.00"	1920x1080	matte	19.9 mm	1.4 kg
9	78.4 %	02/2023 new!	Asus F415EA-EK115W Intel Core i5-1135G7 Intel Iris Xe Graphics G7 80EUs 8 GB Memory, 512 GB SSD	14.00"	1920x1080	matte	19.9 mm	1.6 kg
10	77.5 %	01/2023 new!	Asus P1511CEA-BQ753R Intel Core i3-1115G4 Intel UHD Graphics Xe G4 48EUs 8 GB Memory, 256 GB SSD	15.60"	1920x1080	matte	19.9 mm	1.8 kg

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 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

5th – Asus ExpertBook L1 L1401CDA

The ExpertBook L1 has a Ryzen 3 APU on board, generally operates quietly, offers a backlit keyboard and scores with many connectivity options (including VGA). Windows 10 Pro serves as the operating system (an upgrade to Windows 11 is possible). The purchase price is around 330 Euros.

Asus delivers an affordable office notebook with the ExpertBook L1, which definitely has some advantages.

Currently, the device is not yet available in North America.

Pricecompare

6th – 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

7th – 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

8th – 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

9th – Asus F415EA (i5-1135G7)

Asus has a range of office notebooks from the lower price segment (around 330 to 550 euro) in its lineup with the F415 models. Many online stores assign the device to the Vivobook 14 series and use the term accordingly. The 14-inch notebook has a Tiger Lake processor on board, barely heats up and only produces little noise.

The 14-inch notebook scores with a combination of Core i5 processor and low emissions: The device hardly warms up, works quietly most of the time and offers enough computing power for office and Internet use as well as frugal games.

The reviewed variant is currently not yet available in North America.

Pricecompare

10th – Asus P1511CEA (i3-1115G4)

Asus has an office notebook in its range, the P1511CEA, which is aimed at private and professional customers. The 15.6-inch notebook from Asus has a Tiger Lake processor on board, barely warms up and is available at prices around 400 euro. One notebook, many names: While the correct name "Asus P1511CEA" is listed on the packaging, a sticker on the notebook's palm rest speaks of the "X515" - in other regions, the computer is marketed as Vivobook 15 X515. The name "ExpertBook P1" can also be found in various online stores.

The price level makes the P1511CEA attractive: You get a simple Tiger Lake notebook including Windows 10/11 Pro for about 400 Euros (~$430).

The device is currently available on Amazon US for $350.

Pricecompare

Test Results

	Acer Chromebook 514 CB514-1WT-36DP	Huawei MateBook D 15 Ryzen 5 5500U	Acer Aspire 5 A515-56-P8NZ	Acer Aspire 5 A515-45-R4R1	Asus ExpertBook L1 L1401CDA-EK0457R	Lenovo V15 G2 ALC-82KD003XGE	Asus Chromebook Flip CM1	Lenovo IdeaPad 3 14ITL6 82H700CCGE	Asus F415EA-EK115W	Asus P1511CEA-BQ753R
Display
Display P3 Coverage		42.3	37.1	38.09	34.7	38.8		36.6	34.6	42.8
sRGB Coverage		63.4	55.8	57.3	52.2	58.4		54.7	52	64.1
AdobeRGB 1998 Coverage		43.7	38.3	39.35	35.9	40.09		37.8	35.8	44.3
Response Times
Response Time Grey 50% / Grey 80% *	38 ?(20, 18)	51.2 ?(23.6, 27.6)	37 ?(16, 21)	38 ?(18, 20)	39 ?(21, 18)	38 ?(19, 19)	40 ?(19, 21)	44 ?(20, 24)	23 ?(6, 17)	33 ?(16, 17)
Response Time Black / White *	24 ?(13, 11)	34.4 ?(18.8, 15.6)	28 ?(15, 13)	27 ?(14, 13)	14 ?(10, 4)	14 ?(7, 7)	27 ?(15, 12)	28 ?(15, 13)	6 ?(3, 3)	23 ?(13, 10)
PWM Frequency	25000 ?(80)					66 ?(70)	200 ?(10)
Screen
Brightness middle	242	299	252	229	260	235	200	368	246	269
Brightness	225	280	252	224	244	231	196	332	231	250
Brightness Distribution	82	89	85	73	80	84	84	83	76	85
Black Level *	0.18	0.2	0.14	0.12	0.63	0.25	0.2	0.47	0.7	0.67
Contrast	1344	1495	1800	1908	413	940	1000	783	351	401
Colorchecker dE 2000 *	6.61	5.2	3.58	3.76	2.28	10.59	4.82	6.14	5.96	3.81
Colorchecker dE 2000 max. *	22.53	20.8	6.25	5.97	4.94	22.08	20.61	17.76	15.77	7.34
Greyscale dE 2000 *	6.21	4.1	1.38	3.01	1.64	12.5	1.64	4.44	6.25	2.46
Gamma	2.54 ^87%	2.2 ^100%	2.44 ^90%	2.41 ^91%	2.37 ^93%	2.43 ^91%	2.43 ^91%	2.73 ^81%	2.26 ^97%	6451 ^0%
CCT	6373 ^102%	6548 ^99%	6645 ^98%	6484 ^100%	6384 ^102%	16404 ^40%	6475 ^100%	5979 ^109%	6923 ^94%	6451 ^101%
Colorchecker dE 2000 calibrated *		4.2	4.85	4.44	2.16	5.41			5.5	3.91
Noise
off / environment *	25.4	24.1	25	25	26	25		25.4	26	26
Idle Minimum *	25.4	24.1	25	25	26	25		25.4	26	26
Idle Average *	25.4	24.1	25	25	26.9	25		25.4	26	29.5
Idle Maximum *	25.4	28	26.4	29.5	27.4	25		25.4	26	29.5
Load Average *	32.1	35.9	32	38.6	41.8	33.6		27.2	36.9	43.1
Load Maximum *	32.3	43.9	35.9	38.6	41.7	34.5		44.8	38.1	46
Witcher 3 ultra *		35.9
Heat
Maximum Upper Side *	32.5	40.6	36.9	40	42.9	40.4	37.4	38.6	36.4	40.3
Maximum Bottom *	35.9	43.9	34.4	42.8	48.1	41.1	47.2	41	26.2	39.2
Idle Upper Side *	28.8	25.6	28.4	32.4	38.6	34.6	31.7	32.6	27.1	27.3
Idle Bottom *	32.5	26.2	29.1	29.4	47.3	40	31.8	33.9	28.5	28.5
Battery Runtime
WiFi v1.3	533	529	471	652	367	479	524	429	354	309
H.264				525		371
Load				107		64
Reader / Idle						944
Power Consumption
Idle Minimum *	4.2	5.5	5	3	4.5	6.5	3.9	3.7	4.2	3.1
Idle Average *	6.7	9.1	6.4	5.5	6.6	7.5	6.3	7.1	7.4	7.3
Idle Maximum *	7.4	9.7	9	8.2	8.1	8.3	6.8	8.2	8.6	9
Load Average *	9.7	40	26.5	34.2	25.7	29.7	12	26	38.8	37
Load Maximum *	25.3	59.5	34	38	36.8	40.6	12.3	31.4	43.6	43
Witcher 3 ultra *		38.9	25	30.2	26	36.7		24.3	37.1	36.7

* ... smaller is better

Benchmarks

PCMark 8 | 3DMark 11 | 3DMark

PCMark 8
Home Score Accelerated v2 (sort by value)
Acer Aspire 5 A515-56-P8NZ UHD Graphics Xe G4 48EUs, Pentium 7505, SK Hynix BC511 HFM512GDJTNI	3228 Points ∼48%
Acer Aspire 5 A515-45-R4R1 Vega 8, R7 5700U, Micron 2210 MTFDHBA512QFD	4159 Points ∼62%
Lenovo IdeaPad 3 14ITL6 82H700CCGE UHD Graphics Xe G4 48EUs, Celeron 6305, SK Hynix BC711 HFM128GD3HX015N	2304 Points ∼35%
Work Score Accelerated v2 (sort by value)
Acer Aspire 5 A515-56-P8NZ UHD Graphics Xe G4 48EUs, Pentium 7505, SK Hynix BC511 HFM512GDJTNI	2679 Points ∼38%
Acer Aspire 5 A515-45-R4R1 Vega 8, R7 5700U, Micron 2210 MTFDHBA512QFD	5304 Points ∼75%
Lenovo IdeaPad 3 14ITL6 82H700CCGE UHD Graphics Xe G4 48EUs, Celeron 6305, SK Hynix BC711 HFM128GD3HX015N	1854 Points ∼26%

3DMark 11 - 1280x720 Performance (sort by value)
Huawei MateBook D 15 Ryzen 5 5500U Vega 7, R5 5500U, Phison PS5013 311CD0512GB	5136 Points ∼7%
Acer Aspire 5 A515-56-P8NZ UHD Graphics Xe G4 48EUs, Pentium 7505, SK Hynix BC511 HFM512GDJTNI	2875 Points ∼4%
Acer Aspire 5 A515-45-R4R1 Vega 8, R7 5700U, Micron 2210 MTFDHBA512QFD	4249 Points ∼6%
Asus ExpertBook L1 L1401CDA-EK0457R Vega 3, R3 3250U, WDC PC SN530 SDBPNPZ-265G	1763 Points ∼3%
Lenovo V15 G2 ALC-82KD003XGE Vega 7, R5 5500U, WDC PC SN530 SDBPMPZ-512G	5351 Points ∼8%
Lenovo IdeaPad 3 14ITL6 82H700CCGE UHD Graphics Xe G4 48EUs, Celeron 6305, SK Hynix BC711 HFM128GD3HX015N	1991 Points ∼3%
Asus F415EA-EK115W Iris Xe G7 80EUs, i5-1135G7, Intel SSD 670p SSDPEKNU512GZ	5178 Points ∼7%
Asus P1511CEA-BQ753R UHD Graphics Xe G4 48EUs, i3-1115G4, Kingston OM8PDP3256B	3844 Points ∼6%

3DMark
1280x720 Cloud Gate Standard Score (sort by value)
Huawei MateBook D 15 Ryzen 5 5500U Vega 7, R5 5500U, Phison PS5013 311CD0512GB	19080 Points ∼21%
Acer Aspire 5 A515-56-P8NZ UHD Graphics Xe G4 48EUs, Pentium 7505, SK Hynix BC511 HFM512GDJTNI	8312 Points ∼9%
Acer Aspire 5 A515-45-R4R1 Vega 8, R7 5700U, Micron 2210 MTFDHBA512QFD	13219 Points ∼14%
Asus ExpertBook L1 L1401CDA-EK0457R Vega 3, R3 3250U, WDC PC SN530 SDBPNPZ-265G	6113 Points ∼7%
Lenovo V15 G2 ALC-82KD003XGE Vega 7, R5 5500U, WDC PC SN530 SDBPMPZ-512G	18854 Points ∼20%
Lenovo IdeaPad 3 14ITL6 82H700CCGE UHD Graphics Xe G4 48EUs, Celeron 6305, SK Hynix BC711 HFM128GD3HX015N	4925 Points ∼5%
Asus F415EA-EK115W Iris Xe G7 80EUs, i5-1135G7, Intel SSD 670p SSDPEKNU512GZ	14782 Points ∼16%
Asus P1511CEA-BQ753R UHD Graphics Xe G4 48EUs, i3-1115G4, Kingston OM8PDP3256B	11081 Points ∼12%
1280x720 Ice Storm Standard Score (sort by value)
Acer Aspire 5 A515-45-R4R1 Vega 8, R7 5700U, Micron 2210 MTFDHBA512QFD	85514 Points ∼25%