Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Computing
  3. Products

Our favorite $200 laptop gives you way more than your money’s worth

David Cogen
By
If you’re a student looking for your first laptop, or someone who doesn’t want to spend too much cash on a PC, then HP has you covered. The impressive HP 14-AN013NR is easily the best laptop under $200, and one that doesn’t sacrifice much to achieve its low price point. There is a good selection of cheap laptops available, but with a $200 price tag, nothing really compares to HP’s budget-based offering.

Most inexpensive laptops tend to have the computing power of a smartphone, but HP’s laptop comes equipped with an AMD E2 7110 quad core processor. It’s similar to the Intel i3 4005U processor, which runs on laptops that are as expensive as $1,100. The processor in the HP 13-AN013NR is significantly faster than the Intel i3, however, especially when it comes to GPU performance.

Recommended Videos

But the HP laptop is the head of its class in more ways than one. Its AMD Radeon R2 graphics card is way better than what you’d find in most $200 laptops, and the laptop’s 1,920 x 1,080-pixel display provides a full HD experience, something most affordable laptops avoid in order to keep costs down.

Related

That said, it’s not all roses for HP’s offering.

It only comes with 32GB of storage, and after Windows, McAfee, and other pre-installed software, you’re left with a mere 13GB of storage. That’s not even enough memory to download and re-watch the last season of Game of Thrones before its return.

Thankfully, the laptop comes loaded with two USB 2.0 ports, as well as a USB 3.0 port and an SD card slot. For an easy storage fix, you can also connect your external hard drive, SD card, or flash drive. You can even swap out the SSD drive in a matter of minutes, thanks to the laptop’s easy-to-unscrew bottom. This also allows you to switch out the laptop’s 4GB of RAM for 8GB. Just don’t go over 8GB — that’s all the computer can handle.

Overall, if you’re not planning on using your computer for high-power tasks such as gaming or video editing, then the HP 14-AN013NR could be the perfect laptop for you.

David Cogen, a regular contributor here at Digital Trends, runs TheUnlockr.com, a popular tech blog that focuses on tech news, tips and tricks, and the latest tech. You can also find him over at Twitter discussing the latest tech trends.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
David Cogen
David Cogen
Former Digital Trends Contributor
After always being the person my friends and family came to for help with their tech (see: resident nerd) and realizing how…
4 CPUs you should buy instead of the Ryzen 7 7800X3D
AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D sitting on a motherboard.

The Ryzen 7 7800X3D is one of the best gaming processors you can buy, and it's easy to see why. It's easily the fastest gaming CPU on the market, it's reasonably priced, and it's available on a platform that AMD says it will support for several years. But it's not the right chip for everyone.

Although the Ryzen 7 7800X3D ticks all the right boxes, there are several alternatives available. Some are cheaper while still offering great performance, while others are more powerful in applications outside of gaming. The Ryzen 7 7800X3D is a great CPU, but if you want to do a little more shopping, these are the other processors you should consider.
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D

Read more
Even the new mid-tier Snapdragon X Plus beats Apple’s M3
A photo of the Snapdragon X Plus CPU in the die

You might have already heard of the Snapdragon X Elite, the upcoming chips from Qualcomm that everyone's excited about. They're not out yet, but Qualcomm is already announcing another configuration to live alongside it: the Snapdragon X Plus.

The Snapdragon X Plus is pretty similar to the flagship Snapdragon X Elite in terms of everyday performance but, as a new chip tier, aims to bring AI capabilities to a wider portfolio of ARM-powered laptops. To be clear, though, this one is a step down from the flagship Snapdragon X Elite, in the same way that an Intel Core Ultra 7 is a step down from Core Ultra 9.

Read more
Gigabyte just confirmed AMD’s Ryzen 9000 CPUs
Pads on the AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D.

Gigabyte spoiled AMD's surprise a bit by confirming the company's next-gen CPUs. In a press release announcing a new BIOS for X670, B650, and A620 motherboards, Gigabyte not only confirmed that support has been added for next-gen AMD CPUs, but specifically referred to them as "AMD Ryzen 9000 series processors."

We've already seen MSI and Asus add support for next-gen AMD CPUs through BIOS updates, but neither of them called the CPUs Ryzen 9000. They didn't put out a dedicated press release for the updates, either. It should go without saying, but we don't often see a press release for new BIOS versions, suggesting Gigabyte wanted to make a splash with its support.

Read more