Finding a good laptop in the sea of options out there today can sometimes prove to be a bit complicated. It’s even more challenging when you’re trying to spend as little money as possible. HP makes some really great laptops, but when the budget is tight, it can be hard to find one you can actually afford. We’ve already rounded up some of the best laptops you can buy for under $600, and HP makes an appearance a couple of times. But if you’re absolutely keen on the brand, we’ve rounded up some of the best (and cheap) laptops in HP’s portfolio.
For this list, we’re mostly trying to stick to a budget of around $600, but that’s not always possible. Some of these laptops are only at price because of sales, and some still go over that number, simply because you can’t find decent laptops in a specific category at that price. These options aren’t meant to compete with HP’s best, but there are a few cheap laptops that nail the basics and offer a great overall experience. We’ve included laptops of different sizes, operating systems, and form factors. This should help you find something that fits your needs.
As a side note, all the Windows laptops on this list are either shipping with Windows 11 or they can upgrade to it for free.
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- Best overall: HP Pavilion Aero
- Best convertible: HP Pavilion x360 14
- Best gaming laptop: HP Pavilion Gaming 15z
- Best AMD laptop: HP Pavilion 15
- Best 17-inch Laptop: HP Laptop 17
- Best business laptop: HP 255 G8 Notebook
- Best Chromebook: HP Chromebook x360 14
Best overall: HP Pavilion Aero
It’s not often that a laptop truly surprises us with what it offers but the HP Pavilion Aero was an exception. For its official starting price of $759.99, it’s already a phenomenal laptop with powerful processors and a great screen, but these days, it’s often discounted below $600, and that makes it easily one of the best laptops you can buy at that price.
Starting with performance, the HP Pavilion Aero is powered by AMD Ryzen processors, specifically starting with an AMD Ryzen 5 5625U, which is a 6-core, 12-thread processor with boost speeds up to 4.3GHz. That’s one of the best processors you’ll find on any laptop at this price, and it’s paired with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD out of the box. There is some room to upgrade, but it’ll depend on ongoing sales if you want to stay under $600. Either way, you’re already getting a great experience in the base model.
It’s not just the internals that make this an impressive laptop, though – the display is also great. It’s a 13.3-inch panel with a 16:10 aspect ratio, which is taller than a typical 16:9 display and great for productivity. That aspect ratio is already a rarity at this price, but on top of that, it’s Full HD+ (1920 x 1200) resolution, which is also very nice to see at this price. You can even upgrade it to Quad HD+ (2560 x 1600) for just $30, which is just fantastic. When you combine that with the internal specs, it’s evident why this is our top choice in this price range.
Above that display, there’s a 720p webcam, which is one of the most notable downsides of this laptop. Most laptops on this list have the same problem, but it’s something worth keeping in mind. It also doesn’t have Windows Hello facial recognition, but there is a fingerprint sensor you can use for that purpose.
There’s even more good news on the design front. Usually, cheap laptops like this also cut corners on this front, but the Pavilion Aero still manages to come in at under 2.2lbs, which is super light and easy to carry around. Plus, it’s made of magnesium, a material most commonly found on premium laptops, and it even comes in four different colors to choose from. Almost every one of those things is impressive by itself at this price, but having them all at once is especially impressive.
Finally, there’s the ports, and the supply we get here is also pretty good. You get one USB Type-C port, two USB Type-A ports, HDMI, and a headphone jack, which is solid for a laptop of this size. The USB ports aren’t super fast, but they do support at least 5Gbps speeds, so it’s about what you’d expect at this price.
It’s obviously not a perfect laptop, but the HP Pavilion Aero is easily one of the best choices in this price range, and it absolutely deserves the top spot on this list.
- The HP Pavilion Aero is an affordable laptop with impressively powerful specs and a lightweight design.
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Best convertible: HP Pavilion x360 14
Already making an appearance on our budget laptop list, the HP Pavilion x360 14 is a fantastic laptop for anyone who wants something cheap but competent. Despite being affordable, it has a lot to offer in terms of versatility and performance.
Let’s start with the specs. The HP Pavilion x360 14 comes with Intel’s latest 11th-generation Core processors, up to a Core i5-1135G7, though it starts with a Core i3-1125G4. That makes this a very capable laptop already, and it even includes Iris Xe graphics. Additionally, the base model comes with 8GB of dual-channel RAM and a 256GB SSD. That’s a great combination to start with, and it’s going to handle day-to-day usage just fine. The $600 budget isn’t enough to upgrade all the specs, so you’ll have to make some choices here.
The display is one area where the Pavilion x360 isn’t the best, since it starts with a standard HD (1366 x 768) panel. You can upgrade to Full HD for just $40, and we’d definitely recommend that if you can stretch your budget slightly. This is a convertible laptop, so the screen supports touch and pen input (and a pen is even included in the box), which is great to see at this price. Of course, there’s also the versatility of being able to rotate the display back to use the laptop as a tablet.
Above the display, the Pavilion x360 includes a 720p webcam, which is something you should expect with most laptops at this price point. It probably won’t be fantastic, so you might need an external webcam if meetings and online classes are important to you. The camera also doesn’t support Windows Hello, and there’s no fingerprint reader either, at least in the configurations available at writing time.
Design-wise, the Pavilion x360 14 is fairly standard for an affordable laptop. This is one area where cheaper devices often cut corners, and it won’t feel as premium as more expensive laptops. It measures 20.57mm in thickness, so it’s not particularly thin, and at 3.33lbs, while it’s not very heavy, it’s also not especially light. It’s just about what you’d expect at this price. It does come in three colors, though, so you can at least choose what suits your style the best.
There’s a good supply of ports with the Pavilion x360 14, though. It comes with one USB Type-C port with charging and display output, two USB Type-A ports, HDMI 2.0, a headphone jack, and a microSD card reader. While the Type-C port supports charging, there’s also a proprietary barrel charging port, too, and that’s what’s used by default. That covers most of the needs you might have, though there’s no Thunderbolt support because this is an affordable device. But you can connect almost anything you’d want using the built-in ports.
HP makes a lot of cheap laptops, but this is easily one of the best options around. It’s got solid performance and a versatile form factor, and at first glance it doesn’t look like a laptop that cuts a lot of corners.
- The HP Pavilion x360 14 is a budget convertible with great performance and a versatile design.
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Best gaming laptop: Victus 15z
If you want a gaming laptop from HP, it’s unfortunately impossible to find something that comes in under $600 right now, but the Victus 15z can still be considered a solid budget option. It’s not going to give you a mind-blowing experience, but it allows you to run most games at playable framerates, which is about as much as you can ask for from a budget laptop.
Starting with performance, the Victus 15z is powered by an AMD Ryzen 5 5600H, which is a processor with 6 cores, 12 threads, and boost speeds up to 4.2GHz. Whether it’s for gaming or productivity, this is a great processor. For the GPU, you get an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650, which is admittedly an entry-level card at this point. Still, it’s powerful enough to handle somewhat modern games, and if you’re mostly into e-sports titles, they’ll run very well here. The laptop also includes 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD by default, and those are things you can upgrade later on if you want to.
The display on the Victus 15z is a 15.6-inch panel, as the laptop’s name suggests. It comes in Full HD resolution (1290 x 1080), and by default, it has a 60Hz refresh rate, but you can upgrade to a 144Hz display if your budget allows for that. For more modern games, you might not be able to make full use of the high refresh rate considering the internal specs, so this is a completely optional upgrade.
As per usual with gaming laptops and cheap laptops alike, the webcam isn’t exactly a priority here, so it’s still 720p resolution, and there’s no Windows Hello facial recognition either. In fact, there’s no Windows Hello support whatsoever, which also isn’t that surprising.
In terms of design, the Victus 15z looks fairly clean for a gaming laptop, It comes in your choice of three colors – Mica Silver (which is nearly black), Performance Blue, and Ceramic white – so you can get something more suited to your tastes. As is the case with many gaming laptops, it’s quite thick at 23.22mm, and it also weighs 5.06lbs, so portability isn’t the biggest priority here.
One area where this laptop stands out is the supply of ports, which includes one USB Type-C, two USB Type-A, HDMI, RJ45 Ethernet, and a 3.5mm headphone jack, in addition to a full-size SD card reader. You can plug in almost anything want directly to this laptop, which is great to see. You don’t get Thunderbolt support, though, because it’s powered by an AMD processor.
It’s not exactly a beastly gaming rig, but if you want to get into gaming on the cheap, the Victuz 15z is one of the best laptops HP makes.
- The Victus 15z is a solid entry-level gaming laptop with decent performance and a clean design.
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Best 15-inch laptop: HP Pavilion 15
Want a larger laptop that’s still great for daily use? Are you a bigger fan of AMD processors than Intel’s? The HP Pavilion 15 might just be the right laptop for you, delivering a strong combination of performance and a cheap price. At writing time, this model starts at just $479.99, which is a fantastic deal for what you’re getting.
First off, the HP Pavilion 15 comes with the latest AMD Ryzen 5000 series processors, starting with a Ryzen 5 5625U. This is a 15W processor, but it still has 6 cores, 12 threads, and it can boost up to 4.3GHz, so you’re getting plenty of performance here. You can upgrade to a Ryzen 7 5825U if it fits your budget, though that money might be better spent on more RAM or storage. The Pavilion 15 comes with 8GB of RAM by default, and a 256GB SSD for storage, but you can upgrade up to 16GB of RAM and 1 TB SSD. As always, with a budget like this, you have to make choices.
And if you’re making a choice, our recommendation here goes to the display, because the base configuration is not that great. It only includes an HD (1366 x 768) panel, and on a 15.6-inch display, that’s just not great. We recommend springing for the Full HD model, which will give you a far better experience, especially for things like multitasking. That upgrade still fits comfortably within the $600 budget, and you might have some money to spare for one of the upgrades above.
As with other laptops on this list, the camera on the HP Pavilion 15 comes with 720p resolution, and it doesn’t support Windows Hello facial recognition. However, it does have a fingerprint reader, so you can always use that to unlock your PC easily.
The design of the Pavilion 15 is very much in line with other Pavilion laptops. It tries to look somewhat like HP’s more premium laptops, but it’s thicker and heavier than you’d expect with a premium device. That’s not to say it’s overly thick – it measures 17.78mm – and it weighs 3.86lbs, so it’s fairly portable, all things considered. It also has the benefit of coming in either silver, blue, or white (with a silver interior), so you can choose something that matches your personal preference. One other thing that’s worth mentioning is that it has a full number pad on the keyboard, making good use of the space available on a larger laptop like this.
Finally, there are the ports, and the Pavilion 15 covers most of the needs you might have. There’s a USB Type-C port that supports charging and DisplayPort, two USB Type-A ports, HDMI 2.0, a headphone jack, and a microSD card reader. There’s a proprietary barrel charging port, too, which is the default charging method even though you can charge via USB Type-C. Overall, most peripherals and displays you might want to use with your laptop should work with the Pavilion 15 out of the box thanks to this selection of ports.
With its low price, solid performance, and large 15.6-inch display, the HP Pavilion 15 is a great laptop if you value a good day-to-day experience without many bells and whistles. It’s one of the best cheap HP laptops you can buy today, particularly if this is the size you want.
- With a 15-inch display, capable AMD processors, and a very affordable price, the HP Pavilion 15 is a fantastic budget laptop.
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Best business laptop: HP 255 G8 Notebook
There aren’t a ton of cheap business laptops in HP’s lineup, but thanks to an ongoing sale, this HP 255 G8 is still within our $600 budger. The HP 255 G8 laptop costs around $769 without discounts, but at writing time, it’s just $576.75. One of the benefits of a business laptop like this is that it comes with Windows 11 Pro, so features like Hyper-V, Remote Desktop, and others are supported out of the box.
Moving on to the hardware specs, the HP 255 G8 comes with an AMD Ryzen 5 5500U processor, which offers pretty great performance. It has six cores and 12 threads, so day-to-day use should be great on this machine. This model also comes with 16GB of RAM, ensuring a great multitasking experience, and a 256GB of SSD for storage, which is on par with other affordable laptops on this list. Unlike some of HP’s other laptops, this comes in a single configuration, so there isn’t much you can change about it out of the box. However, the laptop does have some upgrade options, with a removable SSD and RAM modules, so you can upgrade later on.
For the display, the HP 255 G8 comes with a 15.6-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080). That’s about what you’d expect at this price, and it should be sharp enough for most use cases, while also enabling some multitasking on the large screen. Unfortunately, the webcam is still 720p, and there’s no Windows Hello facial recognition, though you do have a fingerprint sensor to make up for that.
In terms of the design, the HP 255 G8 is about as basic as it gets, which is what you’d expect for an affordable business laptop. It comes in a dark silver color and there’s not much in the way of flair. Like other laptops we’ve looked at so far, it’s portable enough, measuring 19.21mm in thickness and weighing 3.84lbs. That’s not too bad for a 15-inch laptop, though it’s not winning awards for portability, either.
Ports are one area where business laptops tend to stand out, but the HP 255 G8 mostly sticks to the basics. There’s one USB Type-C port, two USB Type-A ports, Ethernet, HDMI 1.4b, a headphone jack, and a full-size SD card reader. That’s a solid setup, to be clear, and it covers most needs you might have. Premium business laptops do tend to include things like optional smart card readers or LTE, but that’s not the case here. It’s worth noting that some configurations can sometimes disappear and re-appear, so it is possible that additional options are available in the future.
Overall, the HP 255 G8 gets the basics right for a budget business laptop. It has a solid selection of ports, a classic subdued design, and ingredients for good day-to-day performance. If you need a cheap laptop for work, this is one of your best options.
Best 17-inch laptop: HP Laptop 17
If you’re the kind of person who needs as big of a screen as possible at all times, the aptly named HP Laptop 17 might be for you. Aside from what’s probably the most generic name you could think of, this laptop has some strengths to it that make it a solid choice if you want a big screen.
As usual, we’ll start with performance, and this HP laptop comes with AMD Ryzen 5000 series processors, specifically starting with a Ryzen 5 5625U. As we’ve mentioned above with the Pavilion 15, this is a 6-core, 12-thread processor, and it can boost up to 4.3GHz, so it offers plenty of performance for its price point. It also includes 8GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD in the base model, so it’s a solid enough setup, though you may want to upgrade things like the storage. At writing time, some upgrades do fit in the $600 budget, but prices fluctuate sometimes.
The display is, once again, where some corners are cut. To fit the bigger 17-inch screen, the base configuration has a higher resolution (1600 x 900) compared to others on this list, but you’ll still want to upgrade to the Full HD panel. That will greatly help with the overall quality of the experience, and it will also enable much more efficient multitasking with the larger display. Since the base price is well under the budget, this is the first upgrade we’d recommend making.
Also in line with other laptops on this list, the webcam above the display is only 720p, and there’s no facial recognition support. It does have a fingerprint reader, though, so you’re not completely out of options for Windows Hello support.
On to the design, the HP Laptop 17 is about as basic as it gets, similar to most laptops on this list. It does come in either silver, white, or black colors if you want to choose a specific style, and it’s fairly thin for a 17-inch laptop, measuring 19.81mm in thickness. Plus, it starts at 4.58obs, which is actually relatively lightweight for a 17-inch laptop.
Finally, we come around to the ports, and this is also similar to most other laptops on this list. One USB Type-C port, two USB Type-A ports, HDMI, and a headphone jack are all you’re getting, which isn’t overly impressive considering the sheer size of the laptop. The extra space is unfortunately not used to accommodate any additional ports such as Ethernet.
It’s hard to say that the HP Laptop is a mind-blowing laptop in any way, but it gets the job done for a fairly low price. It’s got modern processors and specs, and the large screen may be more to your liking compared to others on this list. It’s certainly one of the best 17-inch laptops HP makes in this cheap price range.
- The HP Laptop 17 is fairly basic, but it covers most basic needs you might have and it has a large display.
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Best Chromebook: HP Chromebook x360 14
You can’t talk about cheap laptops without bringing up Chromebooks – and we mean that in the nicest way possible. Chrome OS is a lighter and cheaper operating system, and that means the most affordable laptops are often running Google’s OS. That’s the case with the HP Chromebook x360 14c, potentially the best (cheap) Chrome OS laptop HP makes. This convertible is packing some pretty great hardware considering the base price.
Performance-wise, the HP Chromebook x360 14c is very much in line with the other laptops on this list, or at least their base configuration. You get an Intel Core i3-1125G4 processor, featuring 4 cores, 8 threads, and clock speeds up to 3.7GHz. There are no upgrade options, so this is what you’re stuck with, but frankly, this is already a great CPU for Chrome OS. You also get 8GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD for storage, rounding out a very good Chrome OS experience. It’s worth keeping in mind that Chrome OS is fairly lightweight compared to Windows, plus it relies a lot more on web-based content, so you don’t need very high-end processors or a ton of storage.
The display is also quite good, being a 14-inch panel with Full HD (1920 x 1080) resolution. That’s more than sharp enough for a laptop display of this size. To add to that, this is a convertible laptop, so you can easily turn it into a tablet and use the touchscreen for whatever you need to do. The screen is also protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5, so it should be fairly durable.
One area where the HP Chromebook x360 doesn’t surprise is the webcam, which is a 720p camera just like every other laptop on this list. Chrome OS doesn’t support IR facial recognition, so that wouldn’t be an option here, but it actually has a fingerprint reader, making it more convenient to unlock your PC and sign in to your account.
The design of this laptop doesn’t do a lot that’s unique, and it just looks like a dark silver laptop, which is fine if you want something subdued. It measures roughly 18mm in thickness, and it weighs 3.35lbs, which is about what you’d expect from a 14-inch convertible, and it’s fairly portable.
Coming around to the ports, the HP Chromebook x360 does a decent job. It has two USB Type-C ports that can handle charging and DisplayPort, one USB Type-A port, a headphone jack, and a microSD card reader. The lack of HDMI does mean you’ll need an adapter if you want to connect an external display, though, and that’s something we don’t see in other laptops on this list.
At the end of the day, the HP Chromebook x360 delivers in a few key areas: For starters, it’s a convertible laptop, and a cheap one at that. Plus, that low price already includes a Full HD display, and solid specs to boot. If you’re more of a Chrome OS fan, or if you simply don’t need everything Windows does, this is fantastic value proposition with its discounted price of $479.99. It’s easily one of the best laptops in HP’s lineup if you want something cheap.
- This is a great and affordable Chromebook convertible with a Full HD display and solid all-around performance.
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Best Chrome OS tablet: HP Chromebook x12 11
Finally, we have something for the tablet fans out there. If you want a cheap device to watch movies and videos on, the HP Chromebook x2 11 is a great tablet with a solid display, and because it’s based on Arm, it should also give you great battery life. It’s not technically a laptop, but it’s one of your best options for media consumption if you want something cheap from HP.
First off, in terms of performance, the HP Chromebook x2 is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 7c Compute Platform, an Arm-based processor with 8 cores and speeds up to 2.4GHz. Performance-wise, this is comparable to an entry-level Intel processor, but it’s more efficient, so you can get better battery life out of it. It also has an integrated Adreno 618 GPU that should handle basic day-to-day tasks just fine. Finally, it comes with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of eMMC storage, which is a pretty solid combination. It’s important to remember Chrome OS is a lightweight operating system, so these specs are actually pretty good.
Where the HP Chromebook x2 starts to shine is the display (no pun intended). This 11-inch panel comes in a 3:2 aspect ratio that’s great for reading and productivity, and it’s also very sharp with a resolution of 2160 x 1440. Because of its smaller size, this is one of the sharpest displays on this list, and it’s great for watching content on. Of course, since it’s a tablet, it also supports touch.
Being a tablet also generally means webcams matter a lot more than on a standard laptop. Here, you get a 5MP front-facing camera, easily the best of any laptop on this list, plus there’s a second 8MP camera on the back for recording videos or taking photos in a pinch. Chrome OS doesn’t support IR-based facial recognition, but if you want an easy way to unlock the tablet, there’s a fingerprint reader.
As for the design, this is a tablet with a detachable keyboard, so the tablet itself is very light, weighing just 1.23lbs, and it’s a mere 7.62mm thick. Of course, adding the keyboard cover adds 1.04lbs, so it becomes a bit heavier, but it’s still very portable all things considered.
As for the ports, this is an obvious downside of tablets in general. You get two USB-C ports and a microSD card reader, and that’s it. If you want a lot of connectivity out of the box, a tablet isn’t the way to go, and this isn’t really surprising considering how thin this device is. What is surprising is the lack of a headphone jack, which might make media consumption a bit more inconvenient in public.
Still, if what you want is a lightweight device for media consumption and web browsing, this is a great and affordable option, with a sharp display that’s prime for exactly that. Officially, it costs more than $600, but it’s going for just under $450 at writing time, and that includes the keyboard and back cover.
- The HP Chromebook x2 11 is a very lightweight CHrome OS tablet with a detachable keyboard, ideal for media consumption.
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These are what we consider to be the best HP laptops you can get if your priority is finding something cheap. There’s quite a bit of variety on this list, so whatever you’re looking for, we have something for you. If you’re still exploring other options, we have more budget laptops from other brands in our budget laptop roundup. There are quite a few options out there.
The post These are the best cheap HP laptops in 2022 appeared first on XDA.
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