As someone who hunts for great tech deals pretty much every day, I have to give a round of applause to Acer. The company uses eBay—specifically, its eBay Refurbished program—as an avenue for offering huge discounts on solid laptops. Take this one for example: a 14-inch touchscreen Aspire model with a Core Ultra 7 processor, 32GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage for just $491.99. Insane.
The Acer Aspire 14 AI is pretty standard in terms of design with its basic clamshell layout. But the hardware is shockingly solid for its under-$1,000 MSRP, doubly so for this refurbished deal. Mark Knapp praised it in his PCWorld review, admitting that while its appearance and LCD panel are basic, it otherwise offers incredible value. (And that review unit had a slower processor and half the RAM of this deal! Right now, 32GB of DDR5 is practically an unattainable luxury.)
The design is fairly low-key, but it includes some creature comforts you wouldn’t expect below the $500 mark, like a 16:10 touchscreen and a Windows Hello webcam. That Core Ultra 7 258V processor is an octa-core beast, including Arc 140V graphics for surprising gaming capabilities for a laptop. Ports are pretty standard, with double USB-C, double USB-A, and full-sized HDMI. The 65-watt-hour battery isn’t incredible for the 3-pound weight, but it should be more than enough to get through a medium-length airline flight.
As usual, be aware that this is a refurbished laptop—that means used, more or less. But most Acer laptops via eBay seem to be retail returns or basic restocks, and this one comes with a two-year warranty (good!) from Allstate (meh). Still, this is about as much power as you can get under the $500 mark today. If you want to check out other options, be sure to peruse PCWorld’s picks for the best laptops on the market.
Get a 14-inch Acer touchscreen laptop with 32GB RAM for $492