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Have you been bargain hunting for the cheapest laptops in the market? Well, you may be hard pressed to find good bargains. Most of the cheaper laptops out there do not have the specifications or computing power you need. In this article, we will try to look at the cheapest laptop in the market that still delivers the computing power you need.

1. Overview

In searching for the cheapest laptop, we decided that we had to keep a minimum feature set. We would not want to compromise quality and computing power for a cheaper price. Hence, to this end, we decided on the following minimum specifications for our cheapest laptop:

An Intel Core 2 Duo T5450 processor 2GB of RAM At least 100GB of hard drive space A DVD writer Built-in wireless Windows Vista Home Premium A price tag below $1000
1. The Contenders

Some of the initial models we sieved out included the HP Pavilion dv6500t and the Dell Inspiron 1525. It was a tough choice, but clearly, in terms of overall performance and brand name, we decided the HP Pavilion dv6500t was the cheapest laptop out there that still delivers great computing power.

2. Design

The HP Pavilion dv6500t is well-designed with a white piano finish. It has interesting little imprints that dot the chassis and those add a nice flavor to the look of the laptop. The laptop, on the whole, looks sleek and sexy - perfect for those we want to carry it in style when going out.

3. Display

The display screen on the HP Pavilion dv6500t is 15.4-inches. That’s really quite big, considering the fact that the designers managed to fit the screen and all the other components into a 5.8 pound frame. Comparatively, the Sony NR160, with a similar sized screen, weighs almost half a pound heavier.

3. Keyboard and Other Controls

The keyboard on the HP Pavilion dv6500t is really nice to type on and the mouse buttons are nice and quiet. You’d be surprised, many laptops have mouse buttons that give a loud click when depressed. Other interesting controls include a wireless on/off switch, touch-sensitive media keys and a dedicated button to disable the touchpad.

4. Ports and Connections

The standard ports and connections are all available on the HP Pavilion dv6500t. Things like USB ports and built-in wireless connectivity are standard fare on most laptops these days and the Pavilion dv6500t is no exception.

5. Battery Life

The HP Pavilion dv6500t comes with a 44-Whr battery. It easily gives you 3 hours and 15 minutes of battery life. If you find battery life an important factor in your laptop usage, be sure to upgrade to a 12-cell battery for an extra $20. Take note that it’ll increase the weight of the laptop though.

6. Shortcomings

The HP Pavilion dv6500t is on the whole, a wonderful laptop. If I’d have to list out one shortcoming, it’d have to be the lack of a graphics card. The dv6500t does not come with a discrete graphics card, like the nVidia GeForce 8400M GS card in the Dell Inspiron 1420. But this is a small problem if you don’t bother too much about gaming on your laptop.

Conclusion

This article has reviewed one of the cheapest laptops in the market - the HP Pavilion dv6500t. The dv6500t boasts excellent components, features and performance at a $899 price tag. That is simply unbelievable - but you would not expect anything less from the number one PC maker.

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Tags: Cheapest, laptop, Market