by RS Coolidge

Created on: January 04, 2009

So you are looking for a new laptop but your wallet is pretty light. There's no need to worry. There is a laptop out there that fits both you and your budget. Here are five great laptops that won't put you in the poorhouse:

Allow me to start with the Aspire One. Marketed by Acer, one of the world's top five leading PC Vendors, The Aspire One sports solid quality at a modest cost. For the low price of about $350, the Aspire One comes with WindowsXP, a 120 GB hard drive, an sd card slot and 1GB of RAM . Not only is it light on the wallet its light to carry. At 2.5 lbs its one of the lightest laptops on the market. One of its biggest drawbacks, however, is that the 3 cell battery that comes with it lasts only about 2 hours. So if this is the laptop for you then you may want to consider the 6 cell battery. The 6 cell battery does add about $100 to the cost but even then The Aspire One is still a terrific bargain.

Next on the list is the Dell Inspiron 1525. At 6 lbs, it is not only light but its also one of the thinnest laptops on the market. Its base price is around $500 but for an extra $150 you can get the better core 2 Duo Processor, 3 GB of RAM, a 250 GB hard drive and a dvd burner. This is perfect for home, school or business usage but if you are looking to spend hours playing your favorite version of SIMS this laptop may not be for you. It rates high in most categories among users except for the category of game performance.

Leave it to Dell to make the list twice but I would be remiss if I didn't mention the Dell Inspiron Mini. The Mini comes in two versions. For those less concerned with processor speed, the $550 version offers a 1.33 GHz processor, 1 GB of RAM and 40 GB of hard drive storage. If, however, you want faster performance then for an extra $50 you can select the Mini with the 1.66 GHz processor and 80 GB of storage. This is a great laptop when it comes to portability since it is a mere 12" and weighs less than 3 lbs. However, if you plan on storing lots of large files the maximum 80 GB of storage can be a problem.

Those seeking a super small laptop might find the Lenovo IdeaPad S9 to their liking. At just under 9 inches it is the smallest laptop to make this list. Not only that it is a virtual featherweight at 2.5 lbs. For the bargain price of about $350, it comes with 512mb of RAM, 80 GB of hard drive space, and WindowsXP. Its basic drawback is, like the Dell Mini, it does not allow for a lot of storage.

Last but certainly not least on my list is the Raon Everun note. At 1.6 lbs, this laptop is the very definition of portable. Despite its small weight, Raon managed to cram up to 1 GB of memory and 80 GB of hard drive storage into this dainty model. However, You do pay a price for such portability. At a starting price of $650, it is relatively cheap but still more costly than most of the laptops on this list.

So there you have it. My list of the 5 Best 2008 laptop values. Keep in mind that cheaper certainly does not mean better and ,as always, be sure to research a product extensively before making a purchase.

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