Low Priced Laptops below $300 – Many Things to Offer

A new market has surfaced in last few weeks for extremely cheap laptops that cost below $ 300. These laptops have some of the features that are usually found in mainstream laptops, the expensive ones. Laptop prices had not gone that low. But some of the laptops from Wal-Mart and Best Buy which are priced below $300 have big screens, DVD drives and realistic graphics. With so low priced these laptops are better than net books whose screen is small and keyboard is cramped.

What all these cheap below $300 labtop provide in terms of performance and what you are to get for your money? These questions are very vital for any purchase. For example Compaq Presario CQ60-419WM from Wal-Mart has following features – Manufactured by Hewlett-Packard, RAM with capacity 3GB, hard drive of 160 GB, 15.6 inch screen dimension and 8200M integrated graphics from Nvidia GeForce.

In addition to salient features of $298 laptop there are features that are undesirable; the most vital one being Sempron SI 42 processor working at 2.1 GHz provided by Advanced Micro Devices. This is one of the lowest-end chips from AMD which can be compared with netbook processor very different from mainstream laptop chip. Another drawback is Windows Vista Home operating system where free up gradation to Windows 7 cannot be done. But with $298 can anyone ask for top notch features?

The low priced laptop can be brought as a substitute for netbooks; the unwanted features of netbooks being small screens, non-spacious keyboard and poor graphics feature. When compared to Toshiba Satellite L305-S5955 laptop from Best Buy priced at $299, the powerful Nvidia chip in Wal-Mart laptop has an edge. The Wal-Mart laptop performance was beyond the expectations of people conversant with computer working. The machine was able to boot Window Vista Home Basic OS in about 30 seconds. Nvidia graphics can handle YouTube video along with casual gaming in an effective manner. Videos didn’t jerk while playing; even the heavy animated graphics were handled better.

Images on 1366×768 screen with 15.6 inch screen appeared bright and vibrant; the screen of this low priced laptop is wider than other laptops. The DVD was played smoothly. However, high definition video was played with full of jerk. Thus for high intensive gaming and definition video you need to go for higher end laptops which have better graphics and faster processor.

The main drawbacks of the Wal-Mart laptops are – with weight 6.5 pounds it is not suitable for mobility. The features like webcam and wireless networking based on fast and latest 802.11n protocol is missing. The run time of the laptop with six cell battery for about two and a half hours may be a point of concern for many users who have to work for long duration.

As the laptop is using SI-42 processor from Sempron, the chip enthusiasts have mixed reactions for this low end AMD processor. The higher end processors from AMD called Athlon and Turion or Core chips from Intel though work faster are higher in cost. This SI-42 processsor from Sempron was not treated as an advantage for low priced laptops, but the processor has proved to be good for day to day activities like casual gaming, word processing and online video with memory space of 3GB.

Ultimately any device it’s to judge for the balance between the prices for which it can be bought and the features it can provide. It will be disappointing in case you are expecting something extraordinary from a laptop of price below $300. But at this throw away price, the HP laptop can be treated as an acceptable replacement for desktop to provide you the facility of performing all basic tasks along with the gaming experience. The aging PCs can be replaced by this laptop for sure.

But this laptop is not suitable for everyone who is to use laptop. Those who have to move around more, for them netbooks and ultrathin laptops is the better choice. For HD video and intense gaming, more expensive laptop with better and faster processor and graphics is the right choice.