It’s hard to find a cheap laptop out there. Well, that’s not quite true. It’s hard to find a cheap laptop that’s actually worth buying.
But today Staples has one that’s a godsend if you’re in the market for an affordable laptop that can run Windows well. The Asus Vivobook 15 is just $379.99, a whopping $220 off its retail price.
I won’t lie to you. This is still a budget model and it’s not going to compete with the latest Zenbook, XPS, or Surface in performance, fit, or finish. But it does have a very recent Intel Core 5 120U processor and 16GB of DDR4 RAM. That’s the bare minimum I would recommend for a Windows laptop these days, considering the memory overhead of the operating system plus a decent web browser.
Other highlights include a 15-inch 1080p screen (non-touch), a surprisingly roomy 512GB SSD, a fingerprint sensor, and a backlit keyboard, which isn’t necessarily a given in this price range. You only get one USB-C port, but there are three USB-A ports and a full-sized HDMI port for easy connections to an external monitor. According to this video, the F104VAP model of this laptop comes with one DDR4 SO-DIMM slot and an M.2 2280 slot available for user upgrade, though I don’t know whether that RAM slot is filled in on this 16GB model.
If there’s one major downside, it’s probably the battery life. Previous Vivobook 15 models didn’t do well in that regard. But for a decently specced laptop under $500 , you’ve gotta make compromises… especially since they might be even harder to find very soon.
Get this Asus laptop with Intel Core 5 and 16GB RAM for $380