Best budget laptop for $350

mopp_man

Prominent
Nov 19, 2017
5
0
510
How do these look? Anything better for the price?

Lenovo - 330-15ARR

ASUS VivoBook F441

Acer Spin 1
 
Solution
Hi mopp_man,

Lenovo - 330-15ARR can be a great option but certainly, there are many other better options available. I would recommend you to take a look at the "Acer Aspire E 15".

Here's the configuration of Acer Aspire E 15:

8th Generation Intel Core i3-8130U Processor (Up to 3.4GHz)
15.6" Full HD (1920 x 1080) widescreen LED-lit Display
6GB Dual Channel Memory, 1TB HDD & 8X DVD
Up to 13.5-hours of battery life
Windows 10 Home

so why would anyone choose AMD Ryzen 3 2200U processor if you are getting Intel Core i3-8130U with 6GB of RAM.

Do let me know what you think :)

delaro

Distinguished
Few fill in the blanks.

Usage
Screen size
Storage
Screen resolution
Battery Life

Most in the $300 range have a washed out ancient 1368x768 screens. I honestly don't understand why these are even still made with the low cost of 1080p.

Pentiums- They are rampant in this range and rather pokey, aim for a Gemini lake and at least get full H.265/HVEC encoding support. These offer great battery life but not much in terms of any kind of gaming performance.

Storage- Most are using flash 32mb to 64mb.. not entirely that fast but quicker than 5400 rpm drives. AVOID Windows 10 units with 32gb of storage you will have update issues that are a pain to deal with.

Screen resolution- 15 inch models normally offer you the best hardware and screens, smaller ones are more of a niche and have less power.

Acer Spin 1- The main benefit with this is the size and 1080P screen. I own the older version $180 off eBay, it has the same screen/CPU/Storage options but also some supported a SSD addition which is what I have. The main difference here is the Baby Blue plastic vs Brushed Aluminum finish. The newer version was not sold with the option for adding storage other than the SD card slot. This is good foe basic use/Streaming I use it mainly for Netflix and managing my eBay accounts.

ASUS VivoBook F441 "i3" - this is $400 + not $350 unless you found a used or refurb one. It's better than the under $400 units with Pentiums

Lenovo - 330-15ARR $379
1368x768 screen "Blah" But Ryzen 3 with Vega 3 is definitely better that anything else in this price range. 1TB Spinner and 4 hours of battery life.

As Ryzen moves into mobile I would expect to see more decently powerful units around that price point.







 

mopp_man

Prominent
Nov 19, 2017
5
0
510
So I will probably be buying this for $386, sound good?

Lenovo Z50-75 Premium Built High Performance

15.6" HD LED Display
AMD FX-7500 Quad Core Processor 2.1GHz up to 3.3GHz Turbo Boost
Radeon R7 HD
1TB Hard Drive
8GB DDR3L
DVD-RW
HDMI, USB 3.0 And 2 USB 2.0 Ports
1x1 802.11b/g/n WLAN
Bluetooth 4.0, WiFi
 
Dec 27, 2018
16
0
70
Hi mopp_man,

Lenovo - 330-15ARR can be a great option but certainly, there are many other better options available. I would recommend you to take a look at the "Acer Aspire E 15".

Here's the configuration of Acer Aspire E 15:

8th Generation Intel Core i3-8130U Processor (Up to 3.4GHz)
15.6" Full HD (1920 x 1080) widescreen LED-lit Display
6GB Dual Channel Memory, 1TB HDD & 8X DVD
Up to 13.5-hours of battery life
Windows 10 Home

so why would anyone choose AMD Ryzen 3 2200U processor if you are getting Intel Core i3-8130U with 6GB of RAM.

Do let me know what you think :)
 
Solution

mopp_man

Prominent
Nov 19, 2017
5
0
510
Overall it looks better with the exception of Vega 3? Also heard about "bloatware" but maybe that's standard for laptops. Between the Aspire E 15 and Lenovo Z50-75 (dropping the 330-15ARR) I'd take a better color display, I trust Acer more in that case but really have no clue hehe
 
Dec 27, 2018
16
0
70


Believe me, man. You should definitely buy a laptop with the best display quality possible. With the FHD screen, you'll not face any reflection issues while working in outdoor conditions.