Best Budget Windows Laptop for 2016

If you're looking to get a new laptop that's high on performance and cheap, this guide should put you on the right path.

The model mentioned here is perfect for K-12 students. It can help with homework and research, watching online videos and general web browsing.

A decent laptop that you want to use as a home PC or a laptop that you can bring to school can cost about $ 450 - $ 600.

It will not be quite as powerful as a workstation. You will not be able to play the latest games. If you're thinking about running software like Photoshop or CAD, forget it. You should consider increasing your budget for a better notebook. Still, it will hold its own when you're running common office tasks or web browsing.

These types of laptops are also bulkier than ultrabooks or ultraportable Chromebooks. If you want cheaper and lighter models, then you should be looking for Chromebooks.

Right now, the best laptop to get is the Acer Aspire E 15. It's cheap, it's powerful and it will even allow you to play some games at decent video quality settings.

The Aspire E 15 carries a Skylake CPU, comes with 8GB of system memory and a 256GB SSD. It also integrates a dedicated graphics card, the NVIDIA GeForce 940M with 2GB of VRAM.

This laptop can run most games at decent quality levels. It will be nowhere near to the performance and quality a dedicated gaming laptop can deliver.

As a rule of thumb, if you want to buy a budget laptop in the $ 400- $ 600 range, then it should meet a few requirements. The processor should be a Core i5 (or even an i3).

You should check if the CPU is from the 5th or 6th generation since these are the newest. It should also have 6-8GB of installed system memory and either a large hard drive or a fast one.

The hard drive type you will choose will determine capacity and laptop performance. If you'll choose an SSD, your laptop can perform a lot better.

You will notice a big difference when running software or games. A similar spec laptop that carries a regular hard drive will run these tasks slower.

To find a laptop with these specs, you'll have to do a lot of research and browse through a lot of similar spec models. Most of these laptops will carry a 15-inch screen and weigh anything between 4 - 7 pounds.

This can leave quite a dent in their portability. It's just not practical to carry one of these laptops around since it's quite bulky. The battery life is not quite as good as the one that an ultrabook has.

And while most of these laptops carry a regular hard drive, they will feel a lot slower than an ultrabook. Their increased storage capacity makes up for it.