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  • - Hey guys, this is Austin,

  • and have I got some deals for you.

  • In front of me, I have four brand new laptops

  • all purchased for $300 or less.

  • Are you going back to school?

  • Or maybe buying your very first laptop?

  • Or do you wanna give your kids something that

  • they won't be able to destroy the bank with?

  • Well I've got the deals.

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  • So first up we have an HP laptop.

  • So this is the smallest of the group at 14 inches.

  • It's a cheap laptop, but it's not a "craptop"

  • as the kids say.

  • There are lots of laptops which are available for

  • significantly less than this,

  • say Chromebooks and what not,

  • but generally speaking you take a huge hit to the specs.

  • I mean, they're very much meant for like,

  • Chrome,

  • and maybe a second Chrome tab.

  • Whereas all of these laptops actually have real specs.

  • We're talking Ryzen processors,

  • we're talking Core i3s,

  • we're talking stuff which you can actually use

  • for everyday use.

  • Next up we have the Acer Aspire 5.

  • Another system which comes in at exactly $300.

  • This is a larger laptop, so it's a 15 inch display.

  • However, there's a couple things that really jump out,

  • including, this is powered by a Ryzen processor.

  • If it's IPS and 1080P,

  • this actually looks to be pretty solid.

  • Next up we have the ASUS VivoBook F510QA

  • at an incredibly wallet busting $313.

  • Another 15 inch laptop.

  • So that's, uh,

  • very plastic,

  • but it's got USB-C.

  • We also have an AMD A12 processor, which is a little bit,

  • um, older, shall we say?

  • But I will give it a fair try nonetheless.

  • Not bad, not bad.

  • And if you really want to push the limits of budgets,

  • you've got this guy.

  • The Lenovo at $220.

  • I will say, definitely the cheapest looking laptop here.

  • It's the only one with an optical drive, though.

  • Bet you didn't see that one coming.

  • Now, the real test will be,

  • which of these are actually good?

  • Which of these are terrible?

  • And which of these should you spend your hard-earned,

  • or maybe more importantly,

  • your parents' hard-earned money on?

  • [Ken] The answer is yes.

  • So after some time with these laptops,

  • the hardware is one of the real areas that these jump out.

  • And in last place, is certainly the Lenovo.

  • Now to be fair, this is the cheapest laptop here.

  • The downside is it actually feels like it.

  • So, the entire thing is just made out of very

  • cheap feeling plastic.

  • I'm sure it'll be reasonably durable,

  • but I mean, there's a lot of flex on like, the screen.

  • It just doesn't really feel super well put together.

  • Now that being said, there are some advantages.

  • The keyboard is completely fine.

  • The track pad is solid.

  • It has okay ports, as well as that DVD drive.

  • However, it cannot measure up to the other laptops

  • in its class.

  • In third place, we have the ASUS.

  • Now this one actually looks really nice,

  • although it is still made out of fairly

  • cheap-feeling plastic.

  • It does feel reasonably durable, and it's the only

  • one with a fingerprint sensor,

  • which is a legitimately big plus.

  • The only thing that really pulls this ASUS down

  • is the keyboard.

  • It feels very cheap.

  • In fact, I spent a little bit of time with a

  • $200 ASUS a little while ago,

  • and it had almost the exact same keyboard.

  • It's fine, it's usable, but it's dead last in this

  • comparison which puts it in third place for hardware.

  • In a very close second place, we have the HP.

  • Now this is another laptop that definitely looks more

  • expensive than its price tag suggests,

  • and there's not a lot to complain about.

  • So you have a good keyboard,

  • a solid track pad,

  • plenty of ports included,

  • again you have USB-C.

  • Really, the only issue here is that there's another

  • laptop that just does everything a little bit better.

  • Spoiler alert: it's that one.

  • It's clear that Acer is using the same design for more

  • expensive laptops because this feels awesome.

  • Not only do you have the aluminum lid,

  • importantly you also have the back lit keyboard,

  • the only one of these cheap laptops that does.

  • It's really nice to type on.

  • You've got a solid touch pad.

  • And you also have a good selection of ports.

  • An all around win for the Acer.

  • Now when it comes to buying a $300 laptop,

  • something which is important is can you

  • actually upgrade it?

  • And to start out with, let's see what's inside

  • this Acer.

  • So number one thing I notice is that we can very easily

  • upgrade the memory.

  • So, standard, all of these have 4GB of DDR4.

  • However, it should be very easy to do,

  • which I think you should do,

  • because not only is Ryzen going to be faster with

  • more memory,

  • but also 8GB is just nice,

  • and it's pretty cheap right now.

  • Besides that, though, this seems to be pretty solid.

  • We have a 48Wh battery.

  • We also have a WD 128GB NVMe drive.

  • This actually might be the cleanest,

  • easiest to work on laptop I've ever seen.

  • This is, wow.

  • It's gonna be tough to top this one.

  • So as I'm taking apart the HP,

  • I immediately have a note.

  • This is not as easy as the Acer.

  • Not only do you have to take off the two rubber feet,

  • which, to be fair, is kinda easy to do,

  • you also have to kinda disassemble this entire

  • bottom piece.

  • We do have what looks to be a SATA based drive.

  • It looks like a SATA drive,

  • but it is a M.2 style module.

  • We have an entirely empty 2.5 inch drive.

  • So this is easy to jump up to 8GB of RAM,

  • throw another SSD in there,

  • in fact you can even swap out the stock one.

  • The only real downside here is that it's just

  • not as easy to access.

  • It's doable, but you're gonna have to be a little careful.

  • So next up we have the ASUS.