Buying laptops on the cheap is half art and half mathematics. Dont confuse cheap laptops with low quality, but rather associate them with a good bargain. So the question becomes: It is important to remember not to sacrifice quality or functionality for the sake of price.

It is important to clearly define your portable computing needs and separate them from the wants. How big (or small) a screen is really needed? Is 17 or more inches really necessary or would that go into the would be nice category? Does one really need 8 gigabytes of RAM or would 2 gigabytes suffice for now? Will one need to be burning Blu-Ray discs or will burning CD-ROMs be sufficient?

Do not pass up expandability for a discounted price today. Do this by ensuring that laptops with 2 gigabytes of RAM are expandable to 4 or even 8 gigabytes of RAM in the future, or that the DVD reader/CD burner can be swapped out for a Blu-Ray burner down the road.

Settling for modest hardware should only thought of as a temporary condition to be rectified later or else one will probably be looking for cheap laptops again sooner rather than later. Spending a few extra dollars today and a few on an upgrade in the future is actually quite responsible.

Some laptop components such as CPUs and video cards generally cannot be upgraded except for the very highest quality laptops from top tier vendors. The hardware that can be upgraded on a cheap laptop is typically limited to the hard drive(s), memory, and optical disc drive(s).

For those who use their laptops for gaming, rather than paying the price for the most current chipset it may be worth settling for a previous generations technology that will still meet your gaming needs. For serious gamers, a desktop may be a better choice due to the more power desktops can provide.

One does not have to settle for a generic brand to get a decent price. Inexpensive, customized laptops from manufacturers such as Dell, Gateway, and HP can all be ordered online. Better yet, these very same manufacturers tend to sell last generation laptops at significant discounts until they clear their inventory. Most of these companies also offer refurbished models with factory warranties at incredible discounts.

When making the decision of which laptop to buy make sure you know which features you need and which features you dont. Whilst paying for features that you will never use is a waste of money, it can be more expensive in the long run to buy a laptop with not enough features to meet your needs.