Sad to say, I do not have an awesome scholarship or a really deep trust fund to dip my sticky hands in. Just like most of the rest of us, I’m just a typical student looking to make his way at a nearby college (or one that won’t saddle me with a student loan debt for the rest of my life) and somehow make it out with a piece of paper certifying for a job that I can stomach enough to live with. While there are a few lucky individuals who get free iPads or laptops from some corporate social responsibility event, I’ve never had that opportunity, so finding inexpensive laptops has always been something a poor student like me keeps an eye out for.
The Acer Aspire AS5349-2899 15.6-Inch Laptop at just $380
Sure, the college does have free computers at the library, but there are a lot of us poor students all over the campus grounds so you have to be there when the library doors open or risk waiting in a line more like for sold-out concert tickets than a chance at some computing or research. This is even more important to a computer science student like myself, as like it or not, you need a computer to deal with computer stuff. However, finding inexpensive laptops isn’t so difficult anymore as most of the time you can find a ton of them online (I know, have to have a computer first, but that’s what the library computer is for).
The Samsung Series 5 Wi-Fi 12.1-Inch Chromebook at just $350
Amazon and Bestbuy are surprisingly well priced, especially if you don’t mind finding inexpensive laptops with a few kinks in them. What I’m talking about here are mostly refurbished or used laptops, as you can find a lot of them at the two aforementioned sites. Unfortunately for me, I’ve had to go through a couple of burn marks to find a good inexpensive laptop, which is why I’m sharing this here now. If you’re a poor college student like me, then stay away from the used laptop section in those places. I’ve gone through a couple of duds in my quest for finding inexpensive laptops and these have always come from the used section, either from the battery refusing to take a charge or the LCD screen dying out on you. These days the only used laptops I’d buy is from a buddy or relative I know who has been keeping the laptop well maintained and even then I’d ask to take the goods out for a test drive first.
In finding inexpensive laptops your best bet would still have to be a refurbished laptop. Try to look for those that are using longer lasting hardware such as flash memory or Solid State Drives. While they pack very little space, they also have much longer battery life. Most of the time you do not need to spend much more than $300 but if you’re looking for a netbook you can find a couple of good ones for under the mythical $200 range as well.
image via: Raja Laptop