The Best Laptops Under $1000
These budget laptops--from the big-brands you know--will let you get the job done, without breaking the bank.
Carla Thornton and Danny Allen
1. Designer Looks: HP Pavilion dv2660se
Sold exclusively through Best Buy, the $949 HP Pavilion dv2660se offers strictly middling performance, but its exceptional battery life and a great design make it our winning laptop under $1000. The notebook's WorldBench 6 score of 67 is significantly lower than the high-eighties marks of some portables with the latest mobile chips, but it's not bad for a budget machine. Though the 14.1-inch, 1280-by-800-pixel screen could be a tad brighter, it's easy enough to read. Nice extras include a bundled copy of Microsoft Works 8.5, and the ability to play a CD or DVD without first launching Windows. The dv2660se also has upgrade potential thanks to a side connection (one that all Pavilion laptops have) for HP's xb3000 Notebook Expansion Base.
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