If you need a Windows laptop with insane battery life and if you don’t need high-end gaming performance, then what you need is a laptop with a Snapdragon CPU. Something like the Asus Vivobook 14, which is originally $750 but can now be had on sale for just $430 at Best Buy. That’s a savings of $320 (or 43% off).
How does 29 hours of stated battery life sound? Even if you only get about half that with real-world usage, you can use this laptop all day long and not worry about it draining to zero. This isn’t the only advantage of the Asus Vivobook 14, but it’s a killer reason to snap it up, especially at this price point under $500. It’s well into budget territory.
Under the hood, you’re looking at a Snapdragon X (X1-26-100) CPU, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, and a 512GB PCIe 4.0 SSD. None of this is blow-your-mind hardware, but it certainly deserves a “Wow!” for $430. It’s powerful enough to handle Windows 11 and your apps and browser tabs without slowing to a sluggish crawl. Other reasons to like it include the 14-inch 1920×1200 IPS screen; the HDMI, double USB-C, double USB-A ports; and a 1080p Windows Hello webcam.
Budget laptops are a dying breed with the ongoing RAM and SSD shortage, so it’s hard enough to find a decent laptop at this price. One with these specs? That’s worth pouncing on ASAP if you’re in the market for one. For more options, check out PCWorld’s picks for the best budget laptops under $500.