15 Best Gaming Laptops Under 500 Dollars – Buying Guide (2021)

Last Updated on March 24, 2021 by Ariana

Do you want to purchase the best gaming laptop under $500 that offers you playing lots of old and new games? Other than that, one that helps you carrying out regular computing tasks including browsing, writing documents, watching movies, listening to music and much more.

You might have already been scouring the internet, searching for good gaming laptops, but their price tags piss you off. I had been once on the same journey, and days of research could not make me have a good gaming machine.

When budget constraints are your issue, one should focus on having a laptop to solve that issue, in our case playing video games. There are many good brands that are producing 500 dollar gaming laptops such as Dell, Hp, Lenovo, ASUS, Acer and much more, these brands offer great value even in such a tight budget.

After reading hundreds of reviews and spending several sleepless nights I have compiled a list of top gaming laptops under $500. These cheap gaming laptops are powerful enough to handle games from low to medium settings and also perfect for students who take their notes on the classroom, office employees to do their daily work or even for a developer to craft a piece of code. So without further ado, here are the Best Gaming Laptops Under $500 in 2021:

• Acer Aspire 5 Gaming Laptop
• Asus Vivobook 15
• Lenovo Ideapad 330
• Dell Inspiron 15 5580
• Lenovo Flex 14
• Acer Nitro 5
• Dell G3 Gaming Laptop
• HP Pavilion 15 Gaming Laptop
• Asus TUF FX505DT
• ASUS Vivobook S15
• Lenovo Ideapad L340
• Acer Aspire E 15
• Acer Aspire 5
• ASUS VivoBook F510UA
• HP 14-df0020nr

Best Gaming Laptops Under $500

1. Acer Aspire 5 – Thin & Light Gaming Laptop

[amazon box=”B07RF2123Z” title=”Acer Aspire 5″/]

Acer has been trying very hard to make a place in an average gaming laptop. The brand is following the footprints of one of the biggest laptop franchise HP. It seems the struggle has been quite successful, as we see the brand toppling many giants of the industry.

Acer Aspire 5 is a visible upgrade compare to Acer’s other products. It seems like, Acer is putting all of its energy into this one product and wanted this to become the best-selling budget gaming laptop.

It starts from the exterior; the laptop looks amazing in the silver color finish. As long as the looks are concerned, the laptop stands out in the crowd and no other could even come nearer to the product.

The great gaming laptop is powered with 8th Generation Intel Core i5-8265U Processor. The clock speed reaches up to 3.9 GHz; you would not find it lagging behind in every processing. Throw whatever you like at it, and it will go through without rendering, freezing and slowing down.

Other than this, 8GB DDR4 is there to make you have a spellbound multi-tasking experience. As per the experts, 8GB RAM is more than enough for any gaming device, the extra is just waste, do not run after things that are meant to show off.

With 256GB SSD storage, you might not be happy. Still, look at the price tag guys, you are going to roll hands on a solid-state drive. The latest storage option is way faster than any other and makes you have a swift reading/writing experience.

Though many do not give a count on the screen size, I am personally more into the screen size and display. The screen is 15. Inches Full HD with IPS panels and wide viewing angles integrated. The wide viewing angles are a technical term, it means, you will have a better screen display, watching it from any angle.

Acer has taken care of the machine amazingly; look at the list of ports that come with the gaming laptop. It offers all ports and connectors; you might need to connect anything to it.

Moreover, the laptop integrates Intel UDH 620 Integrated graphics card. This cannot be compared with a dedicated graphics card; still having a dedicated card in itself at the 500 dollar price is surprising.

 

2. Asus Vivobook 15 – Best Value Gaming Laptop

[amazon box=”B07S18PQNK” title=”Asus Vivobook 15″/]

If you ask me to tell a brand name that offers a huge value to your hard-earned money, the name would be ASUS. The brand needs no recognition, in fact, this is the biggest gaming laptop franchise and everyone trusts on them.

There are misconceptions amazon masses that ASUS laptops and products are only reachable to the premium buyers. This gaming laptop is proving that myth totally wrong and offers a great value in budget gaming laptop range.

The best thing about the product is it comes in more than one color. It means you got the chance to choose the laptop in your favorite color scheme. It seems like, users have been wanting something akin to this, and finally, ASUS heard their users and provide something lightweight and with unique color options.

The Asus gaming laptop is powered with Powerful AMD Quad-Core r5-3500u Processor that is powerful enough to hold any level of gaming, you can bank on it to play games and to watch your favorite serial. The processing power is enough to tackle any level of jobs without breaking, rendering, freezing or slowing down.

Yes, the added RAM suits your need, 8GB RAM can make you have a hell of the multi-tasking. The integrated RAM size is an adequate number, and you will have your heavy games run using it. The storage option is remarkable; we cannot even believe, Asus can go up to this. Like, having a 128GB SSD plus 1TB HDD, is not it amazing?

The icing on the cake, the laptop offers a backlit supported chiclet keyboard with a fingerprint sensor activated. You will not have to suffer in low light conditions and carry out your gaming as par excellence.

To go through the graphics processing, ASUS found AMD Radeon Vega 8 discrete graphics card fitting the needs. And reviews as well show that added graphics card is just falls right on the needs.

The ASUS affordable gaming machines support a 15.6 inches screen size and offer 1080 display. The screen display is more than vibrant, bright and pleasing to the eyes. Even after watching the screen continuously for hours, you will feel no pain or no feeling of boredom.

Furthermore, the laptop is integrated with sharp wide viewing angles, and IPS panels integrated. Both added to the screen display good and offer a mesmerizing experience.

In the end, one must not skip the battery run time. It plays a vital role in making a laptop stand out. In our case, the battery is good and you will have 3-4 hours without any issue. Though, gaming laptops always drained when it comes to battery runtime, leave cheap or expensive discussion aside.

 

3. Lenovo IdeaPad 3

[amazon box=”B08NHCJR3R” title=”Lenovo IdeaPad 3″/]

As I mentioned in the first section, where we were discussing why the users could not find a gaming laptop under 500 dollars. If you just go out of that horizon and just have a good specs laptop, yes with good reviews in mind, you can have many such of Lenovo Ideapad 3.

The particular gaming device checks all the boxes right and falls right on your gaming criteria. The laptop looks good, showcase a premium looking and can be transported anywhere. The laptop is rigid; the cover is made of polished aluminum.

One more thing, you can carry out the cleaning of the internals, just by taking off the bottom cover. That’s easy to take off; anyone with zero technical knowledge can carry out the cleaning of internals.

The laptop comes with a Lenovo Pad as a substitute for the mouse. The Pad is easy for accurate movements of the cursor, and you can easily glide your fingerprint over it to get desired movements.

It comes with an 8th Gen Intel Quad-Core i5-8260U processor that reaches up to 3.4 GHz clock speed. The processor is powerful and generates enough processing power to walk through any amount of work you throw at it.

The laptop comes equipped with an 8GB DDR 4 RAM, the ideal RAM size would not let you down. You literally can have any game or amount of processing done using the size.

The integrated storage type is something you might not please with. Having a 128 SSD storage is unacceptable for the gamers, and they might not like the option. Still, the extra slot to extend the storage comes relevant in the discussion.

It is a 15.6 Touchscreen laptop that offers resolution with respect to 1920 x 1080. It’s a complete HD screen display with IPS panels integrated and a wide viewing angle enhanced the display. The HD TN panel is great and you love to watch anything running on the screen with these bells and whistles on board.

With the Affordable Lenovo gaming laptop under 500, the brand has been quite successful in offering a mixture of performance and durability. The great usability performance along with the ergonomic the laptop comes equipped with makes it one of the viable options to go with.

 

4. Dell Inspiron 5580 – Best For Light Gaming

[amazon box=”B07PRSXQQD” title=”Dell Inspiron 5580″/]

I am a laptop geek and love reading and writing about laptops and other gaming devices. In my years of experience in writing, I can assure you, you cannot find this good gaming laptop under $500 budget.

In fact, I was quite amazed, did the brand add the specs by mistake or some writing error. Upon reading many blogs, reading reviews and beheld the rating, I can confirm, this is something you must not pass.

One of the decent looking gaming laptop under the price bracket of 500 dollars is made of plastic (most of the parts not all). That’s the metallic finish that improves the design and makes it appealing to the user’s eyes.

The build quality is solid; the laptop withstands wear and tear and endures lots of roughness. If you are a student and looking for something that helps you in studying as well as playing games that’s the one-stop-shop.

The gaming laptop is powered with 8th Gen Intel Core I5-8265U processor which reaches up to 3.9 GHz clock speed and came with 6MB Cache. The RAM Size is adequate, the standard size of 8GB RAM offers you a great amount of multitasking power with zero freezing, rendering and lagging. You can extend the RAM size whenever you feel right, and got some extra bucks in hand.

The 256GB SSD is something you must count. Like, in the list, you would not see any other laptop coming features as par to this. The storage size can also be extended; the slot is already been provided, just to use it wisely.

Furthermore, the integrated UHD Graphics 620 is something you are going to fall for. Though one should not compare it with a dedicated graphics card, still having a graphics card at the price tag is strange in its own meaning.

The last but not least check-up the screen size. The gaming laptop comes with a 15.6 inches HD Led Backlit screen that offers magnificent looking vibrant images on the screen. The laptop checks all the boxes right; you play games, can watch movies and install heavy applications or software to help in studies.

 

5. Lenovo Flex 14 

[amazon box=”B07TWHYTSQ” title=”Lenovo Flex 14 “/]

This Lenovo product, more than gaming geeks, hits the casual day to day task handers. The laptop is an ideal grab for students, as it helps them in studying and checks the boxes right for the features that students love to the house.

Like, the laptop is convertible, touch and type, easy to carry, enhanced battery run time and above all good at group studying. I must not proclaim it a full-fledged gaming laptop; yes you can take it a gaming machine to some extent. That extent is not meant to be taken as the latest titles, high-ended games.

The laptop is powered with AMD Ryzen 5 3500U Processor, the range of processor is considered impressive for online browsing, multitasking, casual task doing and stuff linked to that. The processor handles heavy tasks, and would not let you down with the performance. Do not miss the processor to the Chromebook processor, which is good at nothing.

At the RAM section, the Lenovo Flex passes with flying colors; 12GB RAM is something you must note while giving a comparison to different gaming devices. The extended 256GB SSD storage is impressive and no other than this or Dell would ever offer this range of storage section.

The star of the show feature, its battery runtime. The laptop comes equipped with a fantastic battery runtime, and you will feel the difference. As per the brand’s proclamation, the battery provides power as long as 8-counties hours without even blinking. Other than that, the battery gets charged swiftly; in an hour you will see it reaching up to 80-percent of the total battery.

 

6. Acer Nitro 5 – Cheap Gaming Laptop 

[amazon box=”B07C715KNT” title=”Acer Nitro 5″/]

This Acer product is a one-stop-shop for avid gamers. The laptop delivers higher-level gaming performance and helps you lead you to victory time and time again. The features Acer Nitro 5 comes equipped developed for the sole purpose of maximizing the game experience.

Let’s start with the graphics card; it equips NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti with 4GB dedicated GDDR5 video memory. The graphics card of the level showcases the gaming performance you will achieve with the laptop.

The gaming performance further excels with the integration of the 8th Gen Intel Core i5-8300H Quad-core mobile processor. No other laptop can compete for this combo; the combination’s mere focus is to offer gaming performance solely.

The added Ram of the size 8GB DDR4 and Solid State Drive of the size 256GB is something one must count. The laptop also equipped with a Backlit keyboard, no more suffering in the game in low light conditions.

The Acer Nitro 5 gaming laptop also integrates Nitro Sense tech. This tech monitors your CPU and GPU and keeps them cool when needed. During heavy usage, both the vital organs catch up the heat and can reach thermal throttling if something does not come to cool them down.

The Acer Nitro 5 boasts a 15.6 inches FHD screen with IPS panels and wide viewing angles integrated. This helps in making your watching experience spellbound, brilliant color on the screen; the vibrant display is something not many laptops offer.

Gaming Benchmarks

 

7. Dell G3 – Best Budget Gaming Laptop

[amazon box=”B07BRHXCZL” title=”Dell G3″/]

If you are in search of a high-quality gaming laptop, that offers dedicated gaming performance under $500 price bracket, dell’s leading G3 is something you must count on. The laptop offers a great value to your hard-earned money, and worth every penny.

The laptop comes equipped with a 15.6 inches full HD display. The other features that add to enhance the display experience are an anti-glare feature, wide viewing angles and IPS panels.

These things ensure you have equal screen watching experience indoor and outdoor without any issue. The wide viewing angle offers a splendid screen display from any angle you wish to watch. The backlit integration makes the colors vivid and more significant and pop.

The core features of the laptop are something you would love to house in a gaming laptop that is priced under $500. The Dell G3 is powered with 8th generation Intel Core i5 8300H Processor that reaches up to 3.9 GHz clock speed and 8M cache onboard. The powerful processor ensures that you will not feel left behind while playing games in multiplayer mode.

With 8GB onboard random access memory aka RAM, you get impressive multitasking par excellence. The storage department is taken care of well, like with a 128GB SSD storage for booting and 1TB HDD drive for storage is something we must value at this price.

The Dell G3 offers NVidia GeForce GTX 1050 graphics card with a dedicated memory of 4GB. If you accumulate all the added specs, the sum-up would be something helpful in gaming as well as casual computing.

Gaming Benchmarks

 

8. HP Pavilion 15 Gaming Laptop

[amazon box=”B07KQXHP4M” title=”HP Pavilion 15″/]

Hp pavilion series is one of the top-ranking laptop line-up offering efficient performance, reliability, and robustness. After winning hearts in business laptops, the line-up targets gaming geeks. Yes, the Hp Pavilion 15 would not charge your arms and legs; it comes under our mentioned price bracket.

The launching of the laptop was superb. Hp put in a good effort in advertisement and making people at least hear about its release. That was quite successful, and within months, the gaming laptop was one of the best-selling products online.

The affordable mid-budget gaming laptop is powered with 8th Generation Intel Quad-Core i5-8250U processor. The processor speed is incredible, would not let you down in casual computing as well as running the latest titles at mid to high settings.

The other important to mention features include, the 8GB DDR4 SDRAM. The size is good and enough to handle multi-tasking a gamer would need. The laptop offers a 1TB HDD storage option to make you store hell of the data without giving a second thought to your file or folder.

The HP budget gaming laptop is easy to carry as well. The laptop packs a good range of features that do not add much in weight, just 3.9 pounds should not be the thing to wonder while traveling or moving around carrying it.

The most significant feature of the gaming laptop is its HD touchscreen. The gaming laptop comes equipped with a 15.6 inches HD touchscreen display. Other bells and whistles such as IPS panels, wide viewing angles, add to the great screen display. You will have a spellbound movie and gaming experience, without missing out on a single color.

Talking about the HP pavilion battery life, the laptop features energy-efficient components. That component would not eat up much of your laptop power and make you last longer than 5-hours. The touchscreen feature is amazing, you will have mesmerizing computing as well as gaming experience over there.

Gaming Benchmarks

 

9. Asus TUF FX505DT – Powerful Gaming Laptop

[amazon box=”B07VBK4SYS” title=”Asus TUF FX505DT”/]

If there had been a definition for a gaming laptop, ASUS TUF FX505 would have marked the most numbers. This is a pure gaming laptop, from its looks, its performance, its features; every aspect of it falls right on every definition of gaming.

The laptop is designed to offer sky-high gaming performance; whether you are an avid gamer or casual, the laptop is a hands-down option to go with.

Speaking about its processor, Quad-core AMD Ryzen 5 R5-3550H is there to nail the processing issue without slowing down the overall performance. You will have a turbulence-free gaming experience, smooth sailing in undisturbed waters.

The heart of the gaming laptops; the GPU comes in abundance in this gaming beast. The ASUS front-runner comes features with an NVidia GeForce GTX 1650 with 4 GB dedicated memory.

The latest generation processor integration in a budget gaming laptop is something that lifts the eyebrows. Believe it, the brand did not cut the corners, every spec comes fine and performance is par excellence.

The other important features that we look into a laptop like Storage options and memory; they are fine and fill the bills on this gaming laptop. Just to mention, the storage section comes with a 256GB SSD option, having an SSD in a gaming laptop at the price can make you become more dubious.

The random access memory aka RAM is something that falls right on our needs, 8GB DDR4. These all features pair up and come forth to render impeccable gaming performance, no other featured in the list offers.

In the end, the last but not the least, must-check features in a gaming laptop its screen. The laptop is bolstered with a 15.6 inches screen that offers Nano design and thinner bezel with extreme immersion in a much more compact package.

The added features, IPS panels, and wide viewing angles offer spellbound videos and images display experience. In a nutshell, you would not feel left behind in this particular section, I assure you.

Gaming Benchmarks

 

10. ASUS VivoBook F412DA

[amazon box=”B07W7PWTL5″ title=”ASUS VivoBook F412DA”/]

You might be wondering, why we added the same laptop twice. Yes, there are different specs integrated into both of the added products with a mild price difference.

The ASUS gaming laptop raised the bar higher for others. The product has gained so much popularity in such a short span that no other can even imagine. This is its performance what makes people fall for this, not the advertisement, I guess.

The product is powered with Intel Core i5-8265u Processor. The processing power and capabilities are far better than others that you will face any turbulence while processing and playing games. The clock speed reaches up to 3.9 GHz, good to go at the price mentioned.

The other important to look its storage section. The storage is good and offers you a great value at the price. I mean having a 256GB SSD under this price is something one must value.

The other glaring feature its memory. The memory size is good to go even for avid gamers. The size lays around 8GB DDR4, that’s enough to tackle the multiprocessing gamers need.

In multiplayer modes where more than one players get into a fight, handling players need a good size of RAM. The added size is good, and often experts recommend, having an abundance of RAM size that comes in no use lags the system behind as the processor has to manage that section as well.

The star of the show would definitely be its 15.6 inches screen size. The screen display supports 1080 pixel displays and offers sharp, bright and rich in color screen display experience.

The added features such as its anti-glaring display, IPS panels, and wide viewing angles are some that one must value at this price bracket.  The laptop comes equipped with such a slimmest Nano edge bezel display that provides boundless visuals with 86 percent screen to body ration.

In the end, it would near to crime a mistake not mentioning the keyboard the laptop integrates with. It comes integrated with a great quality keyboard that offers impressive and comfortable typing and gaming experience.

The typing experience is impressive just because of its Exclusive Ergo Life hinges that are made in a way to life automatically tilt the keyboard up to 3.5-degrees for a better typing experience. Without using one, you would not feel the difference or just read more about in on the web.

Gaming Benchmarks

 

11. Lenovo Ideapad L340

[amazon box=”B07VC55LF5″ title=”Lenovo Ideapad L340″/]

Like the way it mentioned that before reading a book you should know what the book is about and who it targets. In the same manner, before buying a laptop you should learn its target.

Lenovo Ideapad L340 is launched as an all-purpose notebook for people who love to play games and along with that, want to carry out some computing work, day-to-day type basic work. The laptop offers par excellent what it promises.

It is a well-built laptop and offers a great aesthetic display. It has a brush metal style design mixed with a blue Logo at the corner. The body is made of plastic overall, still, the feel is premium. Do not worry about wearing and tearing, the reviews are great about the particular area, you will not suffer in this section, anything about breaking hinges.

The all-purpose Lenovo laptop is powered with Intel 9th generation Core i5-9300H Processor. The latest generation processor is something that can produce even more power what needed in gaming as well as in computing.

The other aspects such as RAM are of good size 8GB DDR4. You will have it working exactly the manners you please. Like, in gaming the size of RAM is considered more, the abundance of RAM size like 16, 32GB is taken as a gross, just to show-off.

The core feature, the most used, and most looked-up; GPU. The graphics card just makes you have the machine right at the moment, with NVidia GeForce GTX 1650 you play literally every game that comes to your way.

The storage section should be taken as one of the most imperative features in a gaming or casual laptop. And I take it one of the features that turn the decision in against or favor of a laptop. The reviewed laptop offers a 512GB Nvme SSD which is great as none of the listed machines feature this size of storage.

The last and the most important feature, the screen size, the laptop is bolstered with a 15.6 inches FHD screen with IPS panels, wide viewing angles and anti-glaring panels to add-up in vibrant, cleared, rich in color image displays on the screen.

You can bank on the laptop to play high-ended video games. The laptop makes great choices and helps you have dedicated gaming experience.

Gaming Benchmarks

 

12. Acer Aspire E 15

[amazon box=”B079TGL2BZ” title=”Acer Aspire E 15″/]

If your intention is to find something that helps you college studying as well as playing light games. The laptop though can offer high-ended gaming experience as well, but with not high settings. The Acer marketed the laptop as an all-purpose laptop at a budget price range.

The entry-level gaming laptop is one of the cheap gaming laptops you can buy under $500. The laptop offers a 15.6 inches full HD screen, the screen resolution lays around 1920 x 1080 pixels. As long as the screen display is concerned, the laptop passes the exam with flying colors; offers bright, vivid and good looking images on the screen.

It is powered with an 8th generation Intel Core i3 8130U Processor that reaches up to 3.2 GHz clock speed. The core integrations are 6GB dual Channel memory paired with a 1TB HDD storage section. The price would not let you have an SSD storage section, the price around 300 bucks should not ask for gaming laptops with an SSD.

The best feature of it, and worth to mention, its battery backup. The laptop comes features with the compartments that make it have a life-long battery run time. Like, 13.5 hours extended battery runtime is often lacked in high-ended gaming laptops that cost arms and legs and soul of your firstborn.

If you are running short of the budget and finding it hard to raise the budget up to 400 bucks, the laptop is a fine grab. From the first spec to its last the laptop worth every penny. I cannot digest it even after reading hundreds of positive reviews that, how come a laptop with this range of specs comes under $300.

 

13. Acer Aspire 5 (AMD Version)

[amazon box=”B07RJ687N3″ title=”Acer Aspire 5″/]

Acer is a ranked brand, we cannot make the list complete without this brand’s computers included. The laptops are of good quality, and even looks are better than the top-notch brands. The mentioned gaming laptop Acer Aspire 5 offers great value to your price and falls right on our criteria of running video games.

I like this particular laptop from first glance. It is a superbly designed, beautiful color combination that stands heads and shoulders above the rest when it comes to show-off. The laptop offers impressive hold as well, you will experience that once you get your hands onto it.

The laptop is powered with an 8th generation Intel Core i3 8145u Processor that reaches up to 3.4 GHz clock speed. The RAM size is less than what you expect, 4GB DDR4 RAM cannot make you have a good run in gaming. The size though can be extended, when you feel right in the budget side, have the section upgraded.

The same goes for the storage section, 128B literally fills with the Windows file. The section can and should be upgraded, the budget of the laptop is under 400, less than we started with. So, get the right use of the extra money and integrated the machine with at least 512GB HDD storage.

The battery runtime of the laptop is the star of the show feature. The laptop comes equipped with the compartments that make it save power. The brand claims the laptop renders a better run time nearer to 9.5 hours, and many reviewers seconded the claim.

 

14. ASUS VivoBook F510UA

[amazon box=”B07JJR5SJ5″ title=”ASUS VivoBook F510UA”/]

The Asus VivoBook is coming up with better-looking gaming machines now. The brand seems like feeling the absence of dedicated designers’ teams, and that’s working.

The laptop boasts a sleek and modern look and makes a feeling like a premium laptop would offer. The specifications features, performance, and comfortability that one laptop offers are hard to believe, especially the price under 400 dollars.

The gunmetal blue color offers great looking, with an aluminum body, note that you would not find a laptop under the price made up of the aluminum body.

The modern-looking ASUS gaming laptop is powered with 7th generation Intel Core i5 7200U processor that reaches up to 3.1 GHz clock speed.  The processing power is adequate, and make you have all processing done without any delay or rendering.

The gaming needs though less CPU consumption compares to GPU. The CPU is paired with an 8GB DDR4 RAM and 1TB HDD storage option. The memory size is good to go with and fills the bill in playing games; still having an HDD teases you. The extension of the Storage section can be a pinned solution, and give you peace of mind as well.

The laptop is bolstered with a 15.6 inches FHD Anti-glaring featuring, wide viewing angle and IPS panels integrated screen. The screen’s 14.2 wide and 0.8 inches thin with Nano bezel for a stunning 80 percent screen o body ratio.

The Keyboard comes with is fantastic. You can carry out your typing work without disturbing others’ sleep, not like a poor clack keyboard. The keyboard’s keys offer narrow travel and a good feel.

In a nutshell, the laptop is good at offering performance for gaming and other computing tasks. You can bank on it in running a video game that the range of laptops cannot play.

 

15. HP 14″ FHD Laptop

[amazon box=”B07Q6ZDKGS” title=”HP 14″ FHD Laptop”/]

HP never fails to impress its audience. The brand has been leading the laptop manufacturing world for quite a long time now. HP offers the product in every price bracket; casual commuting, engineering laptops, gaming laptops, business machines, you name it. With this HP 14-df0020nr Laptop the laptop targets gaming as well as casual computing.

If you are a gamer, not an avid one, and need something to nail your computing tasks, and in idle you could roll hands on some old games or latest light games, the product is a great pick. You must not count this on for high-ended gaming, the latest entries where even a 1000 bucks gaming laptop fails sometimes.

It comes equipped with an Intel 8th generation CoreTM i3-8130U Processor that reaches up to 2.2 GHz clock speed. The 14-inch screen diagonal Full HD display with Anti-glaring angle and IPS panels integrated offers something amazing to behold on the screen. The laptop offers an eye-pleasing image display on the screen, with a micro-edge WLED backlit and (1920 x 1080).

The integrated RAM size is 4GB, and the worst thing is, the RAM cannot be upgraded. That’s why I mentioned, not to count the product on for high-ended gaming. For gaming having an 8GB RAM is must-have, you cannot expect smooth sailing with a 4GB RAM.

Yes, for light-gaming and casual computing the machine offers impressive performance. The storage size is 128GB SSD, that’s expandable. You get an extra slot to have an expansion, whenever you feel right on the budget side.

The laptop is easy to carry along, the total weight of it falls around 3.16 pounds. You can easily have it around on your trips, the battery runtime is great too.

You need to know that the laptop falls under $400 price bracket, and then compare its features and performance with any of the added machines; you will have an eye-opening decision in the end.

 

Things To Consider Before Buying A $500 Gaming Laptop

You can find a good gaming laptop for $500. But, do not hope for premium level gaming features out of that. Of course increasing $100-$200 you would be able to play modern series games at high settings, as CS GO, Fortnite, Overwatch and PUBG.

At $500 you would be able to play PC games at normal settings, you can play high definition videos, edit videos run performance-driven application or software. For day-to-day tasks and for normal using a $500 gaming laptop would not annoy you for sure.

1. GPU

In a gaming laptop for asking price, you need not expect a dedicated graphics card. If you get a dedicated graphics card, other features would cut short. So, if you only want to have a laptop to play games, you must look for a dedicated graphics card and increase your budget a little more $100-$200.

And if you ask me the clear answer to the question, you can expect Intel UHD 620 Graphics integrated graphics card in this range. And if you see a machine not even offer this level of graphics, move forward there are tons of laptops having good features.

2. CPU

No doubt, GPU is considered the vital organ in a gaming laptop. If you think GPU is the heart of the gaming laptop, I would say, CPU is the brain. This is the processor that handles everything; graphics are the portion handled by GPU. The entire performance such as game’s physics, calculation, controlling playable and non-playable characters all are handled by a processor.

Not only for gaming, but housing a good-sized processor also assists you in doing other tasks such as browsing, OS functionality, productivity apps performance, and much more. If you are the one who is mulling over to enhance the performance of a PC must consider upgrading the CPU of the computer.

Now, let’s come to our main point. I am not here going to give you the wrong hope. I am not claiming the laptop’s CPU will be the latest generation or a powerhouse. Still, you got every right to housing at least 7th Generation processor with a good range of clock speed.

Do not forget the clock speed; clock speed matters a lot. When you are going to pick a CPU, try hard to grab higher clock speed. A 3.4GHz Core i5 processor will be faster than the same chip with 2.6 GHz. In the list mentioned above, I have provided you the best gaming laptops with a fantastic range of CPUs. You can pick one, and I can assure you that you will not regret your decision.

3. RAM

RAM is another paramount gaming laptop feature. The size of the RAM determines how fast your gaming laptop will be. For a gaming laptop under 500 bucks, you need to garner a RAM size of at least 8GB.

The RAM (random access memory) entails you in handling more than one task. Like, if you are going to run more than one thing in your mobile computer, RAM is the part that takes the load and makes you access the needed files as quick as possible.

I am not saying that just 8GB is enough to run every video game. For a pure gaming laptop, in my opinion, at least 16GB would fill the bill. Our budget is limited; we cannot afford to have that luxury.

In the price mentioned, you can only have 8GB of memory, and this is quite good at running PC games at normal settings. If you say, in the price “I am going to get 16GB RAM”, rest assure the manufacturers must have cut the corner to make the feature available.

4. Storage

When it comes to buying a gaming laptop, it is considered the faster will do the job efficiently. The same criteria go for the storage capacity or storage type of gaming laptop. I have seen people attracting towards housing SSDs storage types, which provide quite incredible file-transfer speed.

Yes, SSDs are much faster than standard HDD drives. SSD drives are the future, and in near times you would not see any HDD hard drives featuring in mobile computers. If you can house an SSD laptop, it is always better to play games on SSDs.

SSDs give an extra boost of speed, which translates to faster game loading times, reducing hitching, hiccups, and freezing. You would not get any annoying pause which is caused due to a slow hard drive, which is not enough to asset fast speed to keep the game moving.

But the mentioned price would not allow us to afford that luxury. Even if you pick SSD over HDD in a 500$ gaming laptop, the size of it will halt hindrances.

So, it is recommended that you should grab a 1TB HDD drive, as you will have an ample amount of space to store your games and other files. In the SSD side, you will only have 256GB in the mentioned price range.

5. Display

In my opinion spending on the graphics card and housing, a fantastic processor would be a complete waste if your screen is crap. You should never let it happen with you, and always put special attention to the display and other features attached to it. For a full-fledged gaming laptop, it is recommended to look at least 1920 x 1080 resolution.

For a dedicated gaming laptop, resolution less than this is near to spoil the gaming experience. We are on a hunt for buying a $500 budget gaming laptop. So, even at a price, look forward to having at least 1366×768 Resolution.

6. Screen Size

The screen size, on the other hand, matters a lot for gamers. I have seen avid gamers spending some extra bucks in getting a bigger proportion of screens. It would be ideal to purchase a 17-inch screen with a Full HD LED display.

In our case, we need to adjust with a 15.6 inches LED. If you could have an anti-glaring feature, it would be good to view the screen from different angles.

7. Battery Life

For gaming, the laptop battery is the glaring downside. The games make the laptops drain out of the battery within hours of full-charging.

Still, if a laptop could endure 3-4 hours of continuous gaming, you cannot have a better choice than that.  For casual tasks, the mentioned laptops would last at least 5-7 hours without any hiccup.

8. Sound

In gaming, the sound is as important as visuals. It is famous saying,” Get a bark as loud as the bite.” You need to give this feature due to importance, as you would come to know the value of the element at the time of actual gaming.

Although the headsets of today’s time fill the bills sometimes, you want to let your laptop speaker work and gaming without headsets.

So, I look forward to grabbing some excellent sound quality and audacity. In the mentioned gaming laptop, I put a particular focus on it, and I hope that you would love to have them on-board for gaming.

Is it possible to upgrade it later?

Yes, it is possible. You can upgrade the RAM, Hard disk storage to enhance the overall performance of your machine. But, before purchasing a laptop always check this feature to save your hard-earned money.

Because some laptops just do not come with extended space or upgrade options. But, today’s all brands are paying special attention to this feature and even a 400 dollar laptop comes up with the extended space.

Guru’s Verdict

Now, with the guide best gaming laptops under 500 dollars price, I have done the hard part for you. You just compare the different features, specs, performance and other things and see what suits your needs, requirements and budget range.

Each laptop added on the list offers great value in its spectrum and budget range. I took hours to finally decide which laptop should be added on the list.

My criteria were not just the specs or performances; I consult the experts, read online reviews and then compared them. I suggest you go through the laptop buying guide and check which features are must to look into a gaming laptop.