A little while back we published a story about good laptops below R5,000. The short answer is that there are no good laptops below R5,000. Following on from that we’re now going to look at affordable laptops that are, in fact, good. Even for use inside a business.
As you’ll see, to get something truly decent you’ll need to spend more than R5k. Fortunately, you won’t need to spend a lot more.
Before we explore the affordable laptops you should consider, here is some general laptop-buying advice.
When shopping, these are the base-line components to be looking for:
- Processor: Intel 10th-gen Core i3 or higher
- RAM: 8GB or more, more is always better
- Storage: At least 128GB of SSD storage. More GB is better, NVME SSD is faster than SATA SSD
- Graphics: Intel HD Graphics or better
- Screen: 14-inch or bigger, minimum 1920×1080 resolution (also known as FHD)
- Battery: Lasts for 4 hours or more while you’re using it for work things
- Keyboard: We’re big fans of keyboards with number pads
- Ports: At least 2 USB 2.0/USB 3.0 ports, an HDMI or DisplayPort output, and headphone/mic jacks
If you go shopping for a laptop and you get one that ticks all of the above boxes, you’ll get yourself a business performer that won’t irritate you with long loading times or poor general performance. If you opt for more powerful hardware than we’ve listed here (and if it’s in the budget we highly recommend you do that), you’ll be extremely pleased with your purchase.
With that out of the way, it’s on to affordable laptops we’d actually recommend that you buy for your business.
HP Laptop 15s-fq2011ni (51N68EA)
R9,000
HP’s machine-like naming of its products aside, this is a damn fine Windows 11 laptop that ticks all of the right boxes. Where it’s better than the minimum specs we listed is when it comes to CPU, storage, screen size, and battery, coming with an 11th-gen Core i3, a very healthy 512GB NVME SSD, a 15.6-inch FHD screen with very narrow bezels, and a battery that lasts up to 7 hours and 15 minutes. It also has three USB ports, including at least one USB-C.
This is a really sleek-looking laptop that’s great for basic business use that, at the time of writing, was available for a very respectable R9,000 from Makro. Check out the link in its title for even more information about it, directly from HP.
HP’s after-sale support in South Africa is also very good, so your purchase also gets you that.
Lenovo IdeaPad 3 Core i3 (81WB0154SA)
R7,500
If you’re looking to spend less, Lenovo’s affordable IdeaPad 3 range offers decent value, but there will be trade-offs on the hardware front. Here, you’re getting a 10th-gen Intel Core i3 chip, a 256GB SSD, and no USB-C ports, but the rest of the specs are identical to that of the HP above.
This machine can still do what any business owner will likely need from it – email, general web browsing, running accounting software, accessing cloud services – so it’s definitely a capable machine. Plus, you’re getting Lenovo’s build quality and awesome keyboard design. It only costs R7,500 at Makro, so definitely give this one some thought if you’re a fan of Lenovo products.
Acer Aspire 3 Core i5
R9,140
For almost a grand less than R10k, you can pick up this Acer Aspire 3 notebook. And you should, for two reasons. Firstly, it comes with a 1TB hard drive in addition to a 240GB SSD, which is fantastic for users that store a lot of data locally. Simply redirect the Documents, Pictures, and Videos folders to folders you’ve created on that 1TB drive, and you’ll keep that primary drive clear of anything but the most important apps.
Secondly, it has a 10th-gen Core i5 processor, so it’ll boot faster than its i3-sporting brethren, load applications faster, and make Windows feel more responsive to your inputs. The rest of the laptop meets the basic criteria we listed in the intro, so think of it as a more-capable higher-than-base-spec option.
For sub-R10k, that’s not bad at all.
ASUS ExpertBook (P1511CEA-I58512G0W)
R9,480
The further we go, the closer we get to the ideal business computer, if this ASUS laptop is anything to go by.
Where the ExpertBook excels is with its combination of an Intel Core i5 processor, a generous 512GB SSD, and Intel Iris Xe graphics (Intel’s more recent graphics technology that’s faster and better than Intel HD Graphics). Having all three components together in one laptop means system performance that will delight the end user.
Sure, there is no extra 1TB hard drive for data, but we’ve found that 512GB of super-fast SSD storage is more than enough for most business functions, as many business applications run inside browsers these days and are hosted in the cloud.
We found a local online vendor that offers the base version of this laptop for a very affordable R9,480.
Dell Vostro 3510 Series 11th gen (N8803VN3510EMEA01)
R14,085
Dell appears not to have received the memo that affordable laptops sold in South Africa with Core i5 processors, 8GB of RAM, and 240GB+ hard drives should cost in the region of R10k, because this Vostro is priced quite steeply for what it is. Maybe the absurd R/$ exchange rate is behind this, or maybe we’re being punished by the US for our government’s stance on Russia. Who knows.
At just over R14k, you’re not getting much more here hardware-wise than you do from the ExpertBook above; in fact, their specs are largely the same. What you are getting, however, is Dell’s excellent backup and support – they are the #1 laptop supplier to South African businesses for this exact reason. If anything goes wrong, or you need any other assistance, being a Dell customer translates into speedy top-tier service.
And for some business owners, that could be worth the extra R4k you’re paying for this Vostro.