We Bought Every $200 Laptop: The Ultimate Comparison!

👇 All Our Favorite Laptops & Deals

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► Timestamps

00:00 Intro
00:24 The Shopping Experience
02:57 Unboxing
04:39 Testing
06:23 Recommendations

As an Amazon, Lenovo, Best Buy, B&H, Dell, and HP Associate I earn from qualifying purchases

#best #budget #laptop #students #gaming #programming #softwaredevelopment #university #school #india

[ericneo]

Dear parents please don't buy your kids this crap as a school laptop.

[MoChuang]

Maybe put out a follow up video on how to navigate eBay for a used $200 ThinkPad that doesn’t suck. Something like a T480 buyers guide, honestly that is the $200 laptop that most people should buy if they must spend $200.

[steve-]

Just bought an old 2017 Thinkpad from eBay for my dad for under $100 USD. Good screen, Core i5, 8Gb ram, 256Gb SSD. It's fantastic. Pre-owned is the way to go!

[tigrankarapetian]

3.1 rating on amazon is definitely below average. Generally I consider 4.0-4.2 as average product quality, and anything below 3.5 I assume it to be terrible.

[cameronbosch]

3:33 *_HELLO YOUR COMPUTER HAS VIRUS._*

[one_step_sideways]

Funny that you just uploaded this video, we were discussing getting a refurbished ThinkPad T480 just recently. A ThinkPad T480 (non-S) can be upgraded to 64GB RAM, can have their batteries upgraded from 24Wh to 72Wh (usually sold on Al iexpr ess for $30), can have their CPU coolers upgraded to a 2-heatpipe dGPU model for extra overclocking headroom, can have their storage upgraded with 2 SSDs (2280 and 2242, only limited to Gen3 x2 speeds, so don't overspend on a Gen4 SSD), can have their keyboard replaced easily, can even have their screens swapped to an Innolux IGZO low-power panel for better colours and markedly better battery life.

All of this for $200-250 for refurbished models. You can also discover some Nvidia MX150 models (with proper 25W of TDP, not limited to 10W like on the arguably worse T480s, which has nowhere near as much upgradability as the T480).

[SimGunther]

To the point of star reviews, you're not alone.

There's literally a video called "Star Ratings Are Useless and it's Capitalism's Fault" by Steve Shives. I'd personally give it 20 thumbs up 😊

[geekdoh]

Wait? You mean Santa's not... real? How have I not known this? And who has been getting my letters for the last 40+ years? Have I been Santa-phished?

[daanwindt]

I still use an HP laptop with a similar cpu to the Dell. If you install an ssd and 8gb of dual channel ram, replace the thermal paste and thoroughly clean it, it should actually be very usable for basic tasks like YouTube. If doing all of that work is actually worth it to you.

[BernardinD]

6:58 Just nitpicking but going from ~$150 to ~$450 is a really big jump for someone on a tight budget though. I personally was in this situation growing up and while in college

But I'm curious to know your opinion on getting a setup like a raspberry pi with a monitor. I found out how powerful they were while in college and they seem like suitable cheap PC alternatives, and therefore good laptop alternatives

[RunfisherRS]

You paid too much for the second hand Dell. I bought a 4th gen i5 laptop with 8GB DDR3 and 128GB SSD already in it for 60 dollars.
A 4th gen i5 laptop with spinning rust for $160 is just robbery in my opinion.

[MoChuang]

This is a good PSA that e-waste is e-waste, but honestly as a long time viewer I miss your old reviews of the hidden diamond in the rough $500 laptops. Like the old Asus Zenbook with Ryzen 4500U and MX350 for $550. Idk if these laptops exist anymore but those hard to find but legitimately great value laptops are what originally drew me to your channel. What are the best deals without sacrificing actually usability of the laptop.

[JeskidoYT]

Thank you for making this video!! I wish all tech creators do the same! Kids deserve better!

[AndrewThrasher]

Another thing worth mentioning on the really old used laptops like that HP is that Windows 10 is officially losing support in 2025, and Windows 11 is only supported on Intel 8th Gen/Ryzen 2nd Gen and newer. While this can be worked around by anyone moderately tech-inclined, it does make it tough to recommend used laptops from before 2018 or so, even though a lot of them will still perform fine for basic use as long as they have an SSD and enough RAM.

[WEnthusiast]

I got an old DELL Latitude E7270 (i5 6300u, 256 GB SATA SSD) for just $50 in pretty neat condition except for the battery, replaced that for a brand new one for $30, the touchpad's buttons are gone bad (but I don't care, I have a good external mouse $10) and upgraded the RAM to 12 GB, $5
For $95, it is an excellent secondary laptop with full windows 11, 23H2

[max-to-max]

Making Josh, his team and his mom proud. Thank you!

[crestofhonor]

This is why I always recommend staying away from very cheap stuff. These are often terrible and unreliable, making your experience with it worse. Some people don't want to listen because I need it now because it is cheap, forgetting that these things will likely easily break making you pay more in the long run

[bobsander]

Very informative video and great website! Thanks for your work!

[aurathedraak]

People, don't EVER buy cheap android tablets, they are 100% worse than these laptops, go get a used iPad or a used Samsung tablet.

[MrGeforcerFX]

Just a FYI, Samsung Dex is only available on Galaxy S series devices on tablets and phones and not all of the tablets support video out so your stuck using the dex on there screen (which still makes keyboard and mouse usage loads better). All the S series phones with USB C can do display out and run dex to en external display. You can run it over a wireless display but it's not great.