best new laptop for $500

[Luis5.oh]

Consider any Lenovo Thinkpad, they are available in small size, big power, that's what it use to program in my job.

[decipha]

yeah the 15" is a bit too big for my taste but if thats the best bang for the moola then thats prob my best option

[tvrfan]

Alternate thought -
Here in New Zealand there are some good options for 'ex-lease refurbished' gear, and consumer guarantee act still applies, so you still have a right of return if it goes faulty. Lots of good priced laptops, typically 30-60% less than retail. My laptop is a refurb, now over 5 years old and I haven't had any problems with it. I paid a huge $150 US (equiv.) for it. (yes, it's about time to upgrade....). Maybe you get the odd scratch and wear mark, but so what ??

Don't know if this applies in USA, but thought I would mention it. Good way to save your money and/or get more power for your budget.

[dleach1407]

Thought I would throw the below laptop out there. I got it for 279 on Amazon, it has 16gb of ram, 1tb ssd (nvme), backlit keyboard, 3 usb A, 1 usb C, hdmi, audio port, and a micro SD slot which is perfect for storing tunes on a separate removeable media. It has an entry level n100 processor with no fan, never gets hot, and last for like 6 hours while tuning and datalogging. It boots in 25 seconds to where youre browsing or opening other applications. I thought it would be slow but its really snappy and worth the money for a dedicated tuning laptop. Youre not gonna play video games on it or do video editing but for browsing, researching, tuning, looking at logs ect, this thing is perfect and cheap. They have an Ryzen 5 model that is less than 400 that is quite a bit more powerful for those wanting that. I wanted slower processor and longer battery life which I think is optimal for a tuning laptop.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CXLVB42P

[decipha]

wound up going with this

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0DN1MNB ... prod_image

my daughter needed one for school so ill be doing the switcharoo
Ill use this and give her my current.

<edit>- daughters school laptop never got to use it

[Luis5.oh]

I just purchased an older 2017 MacBook 12" that will run windows, it is very small (a little smaller than 11.6 models) but powerful enough for the Shop, I needed something small with backlit keys and at least 8gb ram.

[red5.0fogger]

where are we at with the latest? I would only need the bare bones for tunage.

[decipha]

Yeah I never got it. Still rocking my old 2015 laptop and prob will til it craps out.