'ZDNET Recommends': What exactly does it mean?
ZDNET's recommendations are based on many hours of testing, research, and comparison shopping. We gather data from the best available sources, including vendor and retailer listings as well as other relevant and independent reviews sites. And we pore over customer reviews to find out what matters to real people who already own and use the products and services we’re assessing.
When you click through from our site to a retailer and buy a product or service, we may earn affiliate commissions. This helps support our work, but does not affect what we cover or how, and it does not affect the price you pay. Neither ZDNET nor the author are compensated for these independent reviews. Indeed, we follow strict guidelines that ensure our editorial content is never influenced by advertisers.
ZDNET's editorial team writes on behalf of you, our reader. Our goal is to deliver the most accurate information and the most knowledgeable advice possible in order to help you make smarter buying decisions on tech gear and a wide array of products and services. Our editors thoroughly review and fact-check every article to ensure that our content meets the highest standards. If we have made an error or published misleading information, we will correct or clarify the article. If you see inaccuracies in our content, please report the mistake via this form.
The best laptop deals for under $500 this Cyber Monday (plus one for $99)
Cyber Monday is one of the best times of the year to purchase your next laptop or tablet. Considerable discounts plus major brands equal unparalleled savings. Say you're working within a limited budget, though -- under $100 or under $500. I compared the best laptops by their standout features, including processing power, RAM, and operating system, to arrive at the best laptop under $500 and under $100 this Cyber Monday.
In the under $500 category, you get the highest savings on the HP Pavilion 15t-eg200 laptop. The 15.6-inch laptop is on sale through HP for $450 -- a markdown of $450 from its original $900 price. It comes with a Windows 11 Home operating system, an Intel® Core™ i5 processor, an Intel® Iris® Xe Graphics card, 8 GB memory, and 256 GB storage. It has a fingerprint reader, a long lasting battery that supports fast charging of about 50% in 45 minutes, and an HD wide vision 720p HD camera that's perfect for Zoom calls with noise reduction and integrated microphones.
The HP Pavilion 15t-eg200 comes preset in Natural Silver, but you can personalize it in Ceramic White, Fog Blue, Forest Teal, or Warm Gold with a $15 upgrade. You can choose to upgrade the processor and graphics if you'd like, for an additional cost ranging from $100 for the same i5 processor but an updated Nvidia graphics card, to $260 for an i7 processor and Nvidia graphics card. The storage, memory, and operating system can also be updated.
I would say that the element most worth upgrading, if you have the budgetary bandwidth, is the memory. Going from the preset 8 GB to 12 GB or 16 GB (for upgrade fees of $30 or $60 respectively) will help you do more at one time. My priority is making sure I don't have a lagging laptop. I want one that can handle many, many open tabs -- if that's your priority too, it might be worth the upgrade. You can still stay under $500 by prioritizing the upgrade that matters most to you.
An honorable mention in the under $500 range is the Microsoft Surface Go 2 laptop, which is currently $499 for a $100 savings. If you prefer a smaller touchscreen interface and a lighter machine with comparable specs to the Pavilion, this is for you.
If your budget is in the under $100 category, and you want the best value for your dollar, Best Buy's Asus E410 laptop is a good choice. While the Intel Celeron processor and 4GB of RAM aren't top of the line, you still have a useable 14-inch display with a 12-hour battery life. You'll be able to accomplish everyday tasks. Best Buy includes Norton 360 Deluxe free for six months with the laptop.