Irrespective of whether or not you are a PC gamer, you have probably heard a lot about a gaming laptop under 500 dollars. They differ from regular laptops in that they not only have advanced hardware for a laptop but they also have cool features that make gaming easier and more enjoyable.
The following are some of the best gaming laptops under 500 dollars if you’re interested in purchasing a gaming laptop but are on a tight budget.
The criteria used to build this list, which includes gaming laptops under $1,000, the best gaming laptop under $500, and the gaming laptop under $600, includes performance, weight, screen quality, battery life, and total cost.
The results for the best gaming laptop under $500, the best gaming laptop under $1,000, and the gaming laptop under $600 are detailed below.
So stop asking, “What is the greatest gaming laptop under $500?” and continue reading.
Which Of These Is the Best Gaming Laptops Under $500?
Gaming Laptop Under 500 Dollars # 1
Lenovo Ideapad
The Best Gaming Laptop Under 500 Dollars
We’ve chosen this Lenovo Ideapad as the finest gaming laptop under $500 out of the few variants that are currently on the market. The laptop’s pricing includes a 128GB solid-state drive, 12GB of DDR4 memory, and an AMD Ryzen 5 2500U processor with Vega 8 integrated graphics. Microsoft Windows 10 Home and a 15.6-inch 1080p display are also included. It also weighs a little less than 5 pounds.
The only real difference between this Lenovo laptop and our Runner-Up pick, the Dell Inspiron 15, is that the Inspiron has a 1TB hard drive and 8GB of RAM while the Ideapad has a 128GB SSD and 12GB of RAM. However, both laptops have the same price and have nearly identical specifications.
The Inspiron model listed below might be the best option for you if you need more storage space. But for the time being, the Lenovo Ideapad leads the list of sub-$500 laptops thanks to its faster SSD and extra RAM.
In the end, the Lenovo Ideapad is the most economical choice if you need a laptop that will let you play your favorite games and is reasonably priced. But if you choose a desktop computer, you can build a cheap gaming PC that can run almost everything at higher settings on a 1080P monitor without costing a fortune.
Gaming Laptop Under 500 Dollars # 2
Dell Inspiron 15
For a gaming laptop under $500, our Runner-Up pick is about as good as you’ll find anywhere. As was already said, the specifications of the Lenovo Ideapad and the Dell Inspiron are remarkably similar. It comes with a regular AMD Ryzen 5 2500U processor with Vega 8 integrated graphics. Also included is a 15.6-inch 1080p display.
Even yet, the Lenovo Ideapad features a staggering 12GB of DDR4 RAM, compared to the Dell Inspiron’s meager 8GB. For the types of games that these two laptops are capable of playing, 8GB of RAM will typically be adequate.
The Lenovo Ideapad performs slightly better in games than this Dell Inspiron notebook thanks to the SSD and more RAM, but both options will produce results that are on par.
Gaming Laptop Under 500 Dollars # 3
Aspire 3 by Acer
The Acer Aspire 3 is an excellent option to take into consideration if you’re looking for a gaming laptop that costs less than $500 and is even more affordable than the Aspire 3. This particular model has an AMD Ryzen 3 2200U processor with integrated Vega 3 graphics, giving it a total of four graphics processors.
This Acer Aspire gaming laptop under 500 dollars is a fantastic value for money, and one of the primary reasons for this is the 15.6-inch screen that has a resolution of 1366 x 768, which is maybe the most important factor to consider.
The higher the resolution, the greater the amount of work the GPU needs to do while rendering images. The result is lower resolution display actually enhances the ability of this laptop to run games. Furthermore, while you could purchase a 1080P laptop and scale the resolution down through the display settings, the 1080P screen would increase the cost of this gaming laptop to under 500 dollars significantly.
So, from a monetary aspect, if you’re dealing with a very limited budget, it can make sense to consider purchasing a screen with a lower resolution in order to achieve greater performance in your video games. Because, after all, none of the options on this list will provide optimal gaming performance in their current configuration. As a result, your primary concern should be finding something that can provide you with as many frames per second as your budget allows. Furthermore, the lower screen resolution will undoubtedly assist in this.
Alternatively, the HP laptop described below is a respectable alternate option that you might wish to take into consideration. It has an SSD and an Intel processor (with Intel integrated graphics) and will provide equivalent in-game performance to this Acer laptop—although it has a smaller 14-inch screen than the Acer gaming laptop under 500 dollars in our comparison.
Gaming Laptop Under 500 Dollars # 4
Dell Inspiron 3000
Dell’s Inspiron 3000 (best gaming laptop under $1000) is perhaps the greatest option on our list to take into consideration if you require a lot of storage space.
Additionally, its 1366 x 768-pixel screen at native resolution and Intel Core i5-7200U processor and integrated Intel HD 620 graphics are capable of running the majority of games on low to medium settings.
However, our research shows that when playing games on a 1080P panel, the Vega 8 integrated graphics on the Ryzen 5 2500U processor, which is found in our top two choices on this list of the best gaming laptop under $1,000, will deliver equivalent or better performance. Because of this, the Lenovo Ideapad and Dell Inspiron 15 gaming laptops under $500 will be able to handle the majority of games on a higher resolution display, although the Dell Inspiron 3000 may be acceptable for playing light games on a 1366 x 768 laptop.
The reality is that no gaming laptop under $500 will provide you the best possible gaming experience. The Dell Inspiron 3000 may be a decent option if you primarily play non-demanding games because it has a larger 2TB hard drive and is better suited for those kinds of games.
Is A Gaming Laptop Below $500 A Wise Purchase?
If you’re a gamer on a tight budget looking for a gaming laptop under $500, your money would get you a lot more performance if you constructed your own gaming desktop or bought a prebuilt gaming PC, as I’ve stated multiple times throughout this article.
But for a variety of reasons, a sizable portion of gamers desire the portability that a laptop offers (school & work). So I’d suggest looking at the first and second options on this list, respectively, if you have a very tight budget and need the portability of a laptop but also want to be able to play games.
