Are you planning to buy refurbished gaming laptops for under $500? And you are afraid to buy one. Don’t worry! We are here to help you. If you want to buy a refurbished laptop, you just need to know a basic thing. That is…
What do you mean by a refurbished laptop? When a laptop gets sold as a refurbished product it might be a few things.
One possibility is that a customer bought the laptop and then later returned that laptop to the company. In this case, the company can not sell the laptop saying a new laptop. They instead resell it as refurbished.
Another possibility is that it failed to meet the quality test of the original manufacturer’s leakiness. They rebuild the standards before re-releasing andre-release it as refurbished.
Other ways for a laptop to get refurbished include a canceled order or store overstocking model.
Having damage like scratches at the time of shipping may also be the reason for the refurbished the laptop.
So buying a refurbished laptop is as good as buying a brand new laptop. They performed just like the brand new laptops.
“ Remember one thing refurbished laptops are not second hand used laptops ”
Minimum System Requirements for Refurbished Laptop
| Minimum | Recommendation |
| Windows 10 | Windows 10,11 |
| 4 GB | 8 GB |
| Intel core i3 | Intel core i3 or better, AMD Ryzen |
| Intel HD graphics | Intel Ultra HD graphics or AMD Radeon RX vega series |
| 128 GB | 256 GB, 512 GB or upgradable |
- Lenovo ideapad 3
– 14.0″ FHD Display, AMD Ryzen 5 5500U, 8GB RAM, 256GB Storage, AMD Radeon 7 Graphics
- ASUS VivoBook 15 – Thin and Light Laptop, 15.6” FHD Display, Intel i3-1005G1 CPU, 8GB RAM, 128GB SSD, Backlit Keyboard, Fingerprint
- Acer Aspire 5 – Slim Laptop | 15.6″ Full HD IPS | AMD Ryzen 5 5500U Hexa-Core Mobile Processor | AMD Radeon Graphics | 8GB DDR4 | 256GB NVMe SSD | WiFi 6 | Backlit KB
Best Refurbished Laptops Under 500
Here I have listed down the top 5 best budget refurbished laptops considering the minimum and recommendation system requirements.
Lenovo ideapad 3 (AMD version)
This is the latest and best-refurbished gaming laptop under $500 from Lenovo with Ryzen 5 gaming processor. Can you believe it has a Ryzen 5 processor under $500? Usually, a laptop that comes with Ryzen 5 costs $700 to $800.
But I was actually surprised when I found out. The Lenovo Ideapad 3 has come up as a blessing for those people who love games but don’t have enough budget to buy.
Overview
When it comes to I/O, on the right side you can find one USB 3.1 port and a full-size SD card slot. On the left, there is a power input, a full-size HDMI port, another USB 3.1 port, USB Type-C port and 3.5mm headphone jack.
Screen
This laptop comes up with 14 inches full HD (191201080) IPS screen which is really standard for gamers. The screen brightness is above average with 300 nits and it is perfect to work inside and outside.
The accuracy is not too bad at 62%. For gaming, I would say it is above average for this money.
Battery life
With the battery life of this laptop I could lock up to 7 to 8 hours on browsing and Netflix. But when it comes to gaming I was able to get around 3 and half hours which was impressive to me considering the budget.
CPU and GPU Performance
You will get the latest generation 7 nanometre and Ryzen 5 CPU which is beyond expectation for the price. On the other hand, it can provide you with decent multitasking performance with its 6 core and 12 threads. The CPU base frequency speed is 2.1 GHz and by turbo-boosting, you can be able to get 4.0 GHz which is fantastic for gaming and browsing.
Lenovo has equipped this laptop with a fantastic integrated graphics chipset AMD Radeon 7. This graphics chipset makes this laptop perfect and capable of running the most modern popular games.
Gaming Benchmark
I have spent almost 22 hours installing and testing my favorite games. Playing them I got satisfactory results. These are given below.
- CS:GO (95 fps)
- Forenite (60 fps)
- Apex Legends (45 fps)
- GTA V (65 fps)
- Minecraft (85 fps)
- PUBG (45 fps)
- DIABLO 2 (65 fps)
- Sea of Thieves (45 fps)
- Valorant (70 fps)
- Battlefield V (40 fps)
- DOOM Eternal (43 fps)
If you see the gaming performance, it is almost incredible for creating a gaming atmosphere on Ideapad 3 from this price point of view. But if you can multiply some budget you can go with Lenovo Ideapad Gaming 3 for better and smooth performance.
Overall I would love to say that Lenovo Ideapad 3 can be your first choice for gaming except for some parts like its speaker. But who cares when you are getting such a good device with many good handling capabilities for this money.
Asus vivobook 15
If you are looking for a laptop under $500 that has excellent connectivity options, a comfortable keyboard, and long-lasting battery life, you can consider the vivobook 15. It has great handling capabilities for regular multitasking like gaming or office workers.
Overview
This laptop has comprehensive connections with USB 3.2 Type-C, USB 3.2 Type-A, HDMI port, gigabit wi-fi 5 and USB 2.0. Besides you have a micro SD card reader and headphone audio jack port.
Vivobook 15 comes up with 8 GB of RAM (16 GB upgradable), 3200 Hz DDR4 which is blazing fast to transfer data on a daily basis. I have faced no issues with it.
You will get 128 GB of PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD storage which is also upgradable.
Battery life
The battery is pretty awesome on this laptop. I got almost 9 hours back up during continuous video playback. When it comes to gaming I got above 5 hours of battery life.
CPU performance
This laptop is powered by 10th generation Core i3-1005G1, 10 nanometres of lithography. Basically, the Core i3-1005G1 is the newest processor from intel.
The CPU-based frequency speed is 1.2 GHz and the max turbo boost frequency is 3.4 GHz. The CPU mark rating score I got was 5243. That means it is 24.5% faster than the intel 10th gen Comet-Lake processor and 47.3 fasteners than the Kaby Lake R processor.
GPU performance
Vivobook 15 is using intel UHD G1 graphics which is intel’s integrated gen 11 architecture. It features 32 compute units and can run 300 MHz in the base clock, and 900 MHz in the max clock.
So the single integrated GPU is significantly faster. I was able to play 4k video and program on this laptop.
Gaming Benchmark
I tried several games to play and all the games were playable. If you play at medium settings, you will get much better performance. Here I played all games at high and medium settings.
During Fortnite i got 45 fps to 60 fps at high and medium settings.
Other games like
- GTA (35 fps),
- counter strike (59 fps)
- Minecraft (70 fps)
- World of Tank (107 fps)
- Mafia 2 (48 fps)
- Battlefield V (45 fps)
Overall this laptop satisfied my demands in terms of budget. I love the way it provides me with the power of CPU and GPU combo.
Acer Aspire 5
Acer Aspire 5 is the best-known laptop for gaming in the market today. If your budget is limited, this one will be truly incredible for you. This slim and premium laptop is worth it in terms of consistent performance capabilities and solid handy build quality.
Overview
This laptop has a lot of ports. On the left, it has a USB-C port alone. On the left side is a USB-A port, HDMI, Ethernet port, and USB 3.1 port. These ports are impressive for regular use.
You do not have to worry about its memory. You will get 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of NVMe SSD with upgradability. So you can easily navigate any webpage or download apps.
Screen
The 15.6 inches 180-degree stunning display has decent color accuracy of 58.87% with 260 nits brightness. Still, it is good enough to work or play games outdoors and indoors in terms of brightness level.
Battery life
The battery lasted 6 and half hours on my test of regular tasks. But when gaming you will get less than half an hour. It is not that level standard but the jobs get it done. It is a normal issue for every laptop.
The thermal hit management is perfectly done by putting a copper pipe on both GPU and CPU.
CPU and GPU performance
Aspire 5 has powerful productivity with an AMD Ryzen 5500u quad-core processor. The CPU-based speed frequency is 2.6 GHz and the max turbo boost speed is 3.5 GHz. so the data reading speed is relatively good compared to others for this money.
You will get the AMD Radeon RX VEGA 3. The graphics performance is compared to the NVIDIA GeForce 910 model. It is good enough for proper gameplay at 60 hertz and 4k video editing.
Gaming Benchmark
The gaming performance was of good quality. I have tested playing some heavy intensive graphics games to basic games. The result was pretty awesome for basic and mid-level graphic intensity games. But for high-intensity games, it was a little bit bitter. Still, it can give you a satisfactory gaming experience. If you want a better experience, you can upgrade your primary memory and storage.
Let’s see some of the popular game’s performance
- Assassin Creed (54 fps)
- GTA V (48 fps)
- Minecraft (90 fps)
- CS: GO (55 fps)
- Diablo 2 (55 fps)
- World of Tank (75 fps)
- Apex Legends (35 fps)
- Valorant (75 fps)
- Mafia 2 (100 fps)
- Forenite (50 fps)
Overall this laptop is also perfect for students, teachers, freelancers, and managing business individuals. Literally, this laptop is for the people who love to play games along with their personal tasks, semi-professional but not for the professional gamers.
For uninterrupted and flawless performance you can try ASUS TUF Dash 15.
HP Pavilion AMD Ryzen 5
HP laptops have had a good record in performance since it has been launched. It is fast enough to run pretty much anything and games.
This one could be the best in 2022. It has fantastic specs, a processor, the most accurate color, and graphics performance.
With the premium build quality and rigid body with an air vent, this HP Pavilion is one the best-refurbished gaming laptops under $500.
Overview
HP has managed excellent port selection. On the left side, you have an HDMI port, gigabit ethernet port accompanying status LEDs, USB 3.1 gen 2 Type-C port, and combo headphones.
On the right, you will find a memory card reader slot, a Kensington security slot, and 2 USB 3.1 gen 2 Type-A ports. The ports are very quick enough to transfer data.
The specs are unbelievable for this budget. It has 8 GB of RAM and 512 GB of SSD storage which is huge and out of expectation for the low-budget people. The read speed I got was 1633 MB/s and the write speed was 944 MB/s which is much faster than a standard SSD.
Display and performance
The 1920 1080p 15.6 inches full HD screen has an IPS touch screen panel which is one of the highlights of this laptop. The IPS panel has a crisp and good viewing angle. But the glossy screen is reflective.
I got a 230 nits brightness level instead of the quoted 250 nits. It is still bright enough to work outdoors and indoors. The pleasing news is that I got the most accurate colors (2.74%) possible on this laptop measuring with DELTA-E technology.
The screen response time I got from my measure was 8 seconds.
Battery Life
The 45W fast charging adapter is fantastic and you will get fully charged in 90 mins. From my test, I got 8 hours and 45 minutes long in video playback which is great for this budget. But they quoted 9 hours 30 minutes to get the backup ability.
While gaming you have to sacrifice a few hours. Still a decent result for a powerful laptop.
CPU and GPU performance
The powerful AMD Ryzen 5 4500u and Radeon Vega 8 are truly perfect for gaming and multimedia workstation. Its 8 core 12 threads processor has a 2.3 GHz base frequency speed and by turbo-boosting you can be able to get 4.0 GHz. It is equivalent to intel core i5.
The integrated graphics are powerful and better than the 2020 HP pavilion.
Gaming Benchmark
Considering the integrated graphics chipset, the GPU handles most of the basic games and a few high demanding graphics games.
I have tested all games in high medium settings.
- Assassin Creed (50 fps)
- The Witcher (48 fps)
- CS:GO (95 fps)
- Forenite (60 fps)
- Apex Legends (45 fps)
- GTA V (65 fps)
- DOOM Eternal (48 fps)
- Mafia 2 (111 fps)
Overall this refurbished laptop is an all-rounder whether you play games or do any other official work. You can get maximum performance undoubtedly. Not the greatest but it is the greatest one for you in this budget.
For smarter and droppless gaming performance you can go with HP Pavilion Gaming 15.
Newest Lenovo Ideapad 3(2022) (Intel version)
This is another perfect and one of the best-refurbished laptops under $500 in 2022 from Lenovo. It features the 11th generation intel core i3-1115G4 processor. Lenovo has been offering the most valuable products with amazing technology. I have no sense of how they are managing all things. Let’s check out what makes this laptop so special for gaming, students, and business.
Overview
In this laptop, you are going to have 2 USB 3.2 gen1 Type-A ports, a USB 2.0 Type-A port, an HDMI port, a combo audio jack, and multi-format SD media card reader slot.
Besides, it will offer you 8 GB of high bandwidth RAM to run multiple applications smoothly. The Hard Drive is a 256 GB PCIe NVMe SSD which will allow you to transfer data very fast.
Battery Life
The battery was performing very well. I got around 9 hours of backup during video playback, and web browsing. But when it comes to gaming I got less than 3 hours they quoted.
It seemed to have a good capability of delivering power. So no comment here.
Display and performance
The 15.6 inches FHD screen quality is awesome. I got a good screen response time. The brightness level is simply good for outdoor and indoors at 300 nits. This laptop is not so good for photographers because of the level of brightness.
It has average color accuracy with 2.89% Delta-E measurement.
CPU and GPU performance
The 11th generation intel core i3-1115G4 latest processor can provide you maximum response time when you do multitasking. The CPU base frequency is super at 3.0 GHz and if you turn on the turbo mode, you can get a max of 4.1 GHz.
The intel ultra HD integrated GPU was performing pretty well. I have found no such big issues during the playtime. But some modern intensive graphics game was struggling in ultra settings.
Gaming performance
The intel Ultra HD integrated graphics was able to push enough graphical power for most of the modern basic games. But you can find some drops when you play high intensive graphics games like DOOM, Apex Legends, etc.
I tested several basic games and these were performing fantastically.
The Mafia 2 at 101 fps, World of Tank 65 fps, and Minecraft 60 fps were playable on average. Again Fortnite 55 fps, CS: GO at 65 fps, Apex Legends 45 fps, Assassin Creed 48 fps were playable at high settings.
In a low-medium setting, you will get a better experience and more frames playing all games.
The Ultimate Buying Guide For Best Refurbished Laptop Under 500
Today’s modern technology laptops are an investment. But refurbished laptops are a smart investment. Yet you sometimes wonder if refurbished laptops are good to buy. I would say it is very good to buy. The reasons behind it are …..
- Refurbished laptops are inexpensive
- Provide performance same as brand new laptops
- Environmental friendly
- Refurbished laptops are tougher than brand new laptops as they reinforce to repair
- Get more warranty and fully updated hardware
What to consider when you are going to buy a refurbished laptop?
There are certain things you should need to consider when buying a refurbished laptop. Like …
Determine your laptop needs: This one will be very useful for your present and future needs. This will help you decide the model that you can make use of most. It will also help you to prevent any wishes to overspend.
Laptop’s body and battery: You have to carefully check this out if there are any scratches on the body or screen hinges.
Certification: This one is very important and must ask the retailer about the certification or authorization of selling refurbished laptops.
Warranty: Normally a brand new laptop has 3-5 years of warranty services. You have to make sure that the refurbished laptop you are buying has such warranty services.
Trustable and reputable Supplier or Vias: Do not buy any refurbished laptops from here and there. Try to buy from reputable vias like amazon.
Because Amazon has a respectable system for selling refurbished laptops. The Amazon Renewed Guarantee Program provides one year of warranty. Besides this respectable supplier has certification of selling refurbished laptops and Amazon itself tests all the refurbished laptops.
FAQs
Is buying a refurbished laptop safe?
What is a grade A refurbished laptop?
What brand of refurbished laptop is the best?
Are operating systems properly licensed?
Do refurbished laptops have slow and poor performance?
CONCLUSION
Every laptop has some pros and cons. So when it is time to buy a laptop you just have to sacrifice one or another thing considering your needs. It is up to you. Even more, When it comes to buying refurbished laptops under your budget, you should have read the reviews carefully. I hope you will find the right and best laptop.
Best regards to you all.
