7 Top Picks
3 Reviewers
35 Hours of Research
28 Options Considered
Buying a new laptop has never been an easy task. Depending on the purposes, each person will have different requirements to suit their likings and needs. Are you in two minds when standing in front of a lot of options? And the decision-making process when purchasing a laptop can help you big time if you choose the right ones.
It is time to let your hair down because we are here to help. If you are looking for great, powerful, but affordable laptops on the market today, this best i5 laptops review is for you. Right in the middle of the pack, these options are right between i3 core laptops and i7 laptops. In addition, we will show you how to choose the most suitable laptop. That is interesting, right? So let's find out now!
3 Top i5 laptops
1. [Best Overall]
5/5
Don’t you know that many i5 mobile computers can support great heavy games? Yes, too good to be true but that’s it! One outstanding example we want to introduce to you is the Dell 15.6-Inch Gaming Laptop.
Featuring an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M 4GB GPU, this item will work its best to bring you a wonderful experience playing popular high-graphic video games.
2. [Best For The Money] Acer Aspire E 15 Laptop
4.9/5
On a tight budget but still want to have a fantastic laptop? Then Acer Aspire E 15 can be your life-saver. At first sight, you may see no big difference in this item from other Acer Aspire notebooks. But that is just about the style. If you dig deeper into the features, you will understand the reason why this “buddy” deserves the title “ best laptop at a reasonable price.”.
3. [Best For The Portability]
4.8/5
In case you have multiple tasks to do every day and are strongly in need of a powerful laptop, this Vivobook F510UA will meet your demands. Having an Intel Core i5-6200U processor and a 15.6 inches display with a 1920 x 1080 px resolution, this device will leverage your experience while watching films and videos to a whole new level.
The Best i5 laptops Review - Best Buying Guide In 2023
[Best Overall]
5/5
Don’t you know that many i5 mobile computers can support great heavy games? Yes, too good to be true but that’s it! One outstanding example we want to introduce to you is the Dell 15.6-Inch gaming laptop.
Featuring an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M 4GB GPU, this item will work its best to bring you a wonderful experience playing popular high-graphic video games.
As it has 256 GB of a solid-state drive, you can not only boot but also boost the gaming performance with simplicity. More specifically, the Intel Core i5 6300HQ processor and the 15.6 inches screen operate together to deliver the clearest image, video, and character movements of the games. How amazing!
On the downside, the trackpad is not as great as it seems to be with the issue that this pad makes it difficult for you to do the left or right clicks so it will need to be changed in the future. So when you use it for gaming, you may click on the wrong button.
Pros
Cons
Verdict
Among the best laptops for gaming under $800, this product should be an outstanding example. The NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M 4GB GPU and the Intel Core i5 6300HQ processor are two factors that prove how great this laptop is.
[Best For The Money]
4.9/5
On a tight budget but still want to have a fantastic laptop? Then Acer Aspire E 15 can be your life-saver. At first sight, you may see no big difference in this item from other Acer Aspire notebooks. But that is just about the style. If you dig deeper into the features, you will understand the reason why this “buddy” deserves the title “ best laptop at a reasonable price.”.
First of all, this product is sturdily built in order to avoid wearing and tearing from outside impacts. Due to this reason, you can use it for a long time. But the great thing does not stop there. In addition, the item allows you to upgrade its Hard drive and memory with ease. From this point, we can say that the company Acer has focused really much on the durability of this item.
However, this product has a few things you should take note. The backlight on the keyboard goes off quite quickly in order to preserve the battery; these features can be manually adjusted in the settings.
At the very beginning, this issue may be annoying. But after a time of use, you will get used to it eventually. So, consider it!
Pros
Cons
Verdict
What can be better than an i5 laptop that is both cheap and durable? If you don’t require any further special feature, then you should put this product on your buying basket right away!
[Best For The Portability]
4.8/5
In case you have multiple tasks to do every day and are strongly in need of a powerful laptop, this Vivobook F510UA will meet your demands. Having an Intel Core i5-6200U processor and a 15.6 inches display with a 1920 x 1080 px resolution, this device will leverage your experience while watching films and videos to a whole new level.
Besides, this Vivobook can also support many heavy applications due to the strong hardware, making itself an ideal option for any type of user such as students, developers, designers, business people, etc.
If you are a gamer, ASUS VivoBook F510UA 15.6” may not be your best friend because of the lack of GPU so it would be better to go for another model with GPU. When you want to use this laptop for gaming, you have to upgrade its parts with an NVIDIA GT 940M GPU and i7 processor. Of course, the price for improving the system is not cheap, as well.
Pros
Cons
Verdict
We highly recommend this product if you need an i5 laptop for working and entertainment. The strong 8th generation i5 processor and the 15.6 inches display will give the best experience for you no matter if you are a programmer, a student, a graphic designer, etc.
4.6/5
When it comes to a laptop with excellent speed and performance, this HP Elitebook will take the lead. The Intel Core i5-4300U processor works to deliver the clearest graphic and run many heavy-duty applications such as AutoCad, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, etc.
On another side, you can trust this laptop to play music for you. The dual-speakers are designed to play smooth sounds even at the highest volume.
Additionally, the product allows you to stick to any type of memory card. One thing that we really love about this product is its media card reader gets in touch quite well with SD card, DHC Card, and SDXC Card.
On the other hand, you can find many ports on the two sides of it. These ports include a VGA 15-Pin, a Display, 4 USB 3.0, a LAN RJ-45, and an Audio. However, the device's design doesn’t include HDMI. The solution to this is to buy an adapter to use the HDMI port...
Pros
Cons
Verdict
Have you been impressed by the advantages of this HP Elitebook 840 G1 14.0 Inch? The Intel Core i5-4300U will help you process the high graphic and heavy applications smoothly. Totally not hard to say, this under $300 laptop is really an excellent choice for speed and performance.
4.5/5
With the development of technology nowadays, laptops that have touchscreen design spread like wildfire. In the burning battle with other brands, the company Dell has released a great touchscreen device called Dell Top Performance Inspiron to take the lead.
The first thing to talk about this laptop is its flexibility. When you use it, you can flip it 360 degrees for a better view. Plus, this one is especially designed to support multi-purposes. For convenience, you will be able to convert it to 4 versatile modes which are tent mode, stand mode, laptop mode, and tablet mode.
Another great point that we have to give a compliment to is the Solid-state drive. This SSD works to increase battery life, responsive speed, and make the performance quieter.
Coming back to the touch screen. With this special technology, you are able to give command right after touching the display. If you put this product in comparison to a tablet, we will say that the laptop is better.
The reason is, the size of the screen is much larger (15.6 inches) so that you can have more space to touch.
In case you are looking for a DVD drive, we highly advise you to choose another model that would be much more suitable. You may have known, DVDs become less popular each day due to the growth of the Internet. Due to this fact, probably the manufacturer has decided to skip this feature and add others up to date feature.
Pros
Cons
Verdict
The brand Dell seems to have done quite well in producing a modern high technology laptop. If your budget allows, you should consider buying this great laptop.
We have to say, Dell is the big brain behind the most prevalent i5 laptops that have ever made it to the store. And now, we will review another great item from those. Let’s meet the Inspiron 15!
The great point of this device is that it is specially built for gaming purposes. Therefore, you will have no doubt about its powerful system.
To be more specific, the product is equipped with a strong 802.11ac WLAN and SuperSpeed USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type C and Type-A ports. Due to these pieces of equipment, you can connect with other devices or even many gaming controllers for more convenience in playing.
On the other hand, the 7th Generation Intel Core i5 - 7300HQ, the 128 SSDs, and 1 TB HDD will work together to bring to you the highest graphic and the superior speed of response. While you play heavy games, you will never have to worry about the lagging.
In exchange for its impressive performance the battery is the thing that will be sacrificed for this enhanced power. After our experience, this laptop runs out of power quite quickly so if you want the laptop to sustain during the play, better prepare a charger.
Pros
Cons
Verdict
This product is another great option for any gamer who requires a powerful laptop. As it allows you to connect many devices together through the fast speed ports, you can be assured about the quality of each gameplay.
Finally, our list has come to the end. Here, we want to give you an overview of the OMEN made by the brand HP. Again, we have a wonderful product that is specially designed for gamers.
The best point of this product is the 8th generation Intel Core i5-8300H. As this processor works to give the high graphics, you can play many famous heavy games such as PUBG, Fortnight, Overwatch, etc.
Unlike the previous product that can not please you with the battery, this one has a great capacity of power. As you use normal applications, this OMEN can last up to 11 hours.
For playing video, the battery can last up to 6 hours and a half which is quite impressive. And For WLAN streaming, the power will stay on for 5 hours and 30 minutes. To be honest, it is really hard to find another product that can have a strong battery like this one.
However, the Bluetooth quality seems to be quite bad with the fact that when you try to connect your device with other products through this connection, the transfer may take much of your time.
Pros
Cons
Verdict
This OMEN by HP is a great choice for any gamers who like playing famous heavy games. Besides, a strong battery allows you to play for a long time. So if you like this item, don’t hesitate to purchase it.
Tips To Buy The best i5 laptops
The laptop seems to be an inseparable thing for most students and office workers. Therefore, you need to consider very carefully to find yourself a best-i5-laptop that can be used for a long time. To achieve this, we have helped you list important factors when buying a notebook computer.
Processor
You probably do not know, the processor (known as CPUs) is the most significant part of a laptop. Typically, they are manufactured by Intel or AMD.
However, these two manufacturers give customers two different values. For Intel, the processor provides more reliable performance, while CPUs of AMD give you better value.
However, you save money on a laptop with a cheaper processor, or one with a better processor with an i7.
How to select a suitable processor? Here is the way: For example, you need a laptop for simple tasks such as writing, watching movies, listening to music or just reading texts, a laptop computer with Intel Core i3, AMD Ryzen 3 or Intel Pentium is already a great option.
Nevertheless, if you are a gamer or a graphic designer, or you want to do anything more complicated, you should look for a laptop with an Intel Core i5 or AMD Ryzen 5. This is the minimum that you should use to be able to perform the above tasks smoothly.
In addition, if a notebook computer is the only thing that helps you make money and you have a big budget, you can also buy yourself a laptop with AMD Ryzen 7 or Intel Core i7 and Core i9 processors. These are undoubtedly the top laptops in the world. They offer great performance, and of course, these great tools will be very expensive.
The last thing which is also the most important is that you should consider buying a new processor with up to date technology. The newer the processor, the better the computer is and the more energy-efficient it is.
Random Access Memory
Random Access Memory (also called RAM) plays an essential role in choosing a good laptop. Normally, you only need 4GB for a Windows laptop, which can store a lot of documents, photos, videos. In spite of its convenience, we still advise you to use 8GB or 16GB. This high RAM capacity will ensure you save more work in the future.
Battery life
Most people choose mobile computers because they are quite convenient and can be carried easily. Because of that, battery life is also an important contribution, so you can bring it anywhere without sitting near the socket.
Laptops with excellent battery quality allow you to work, play games for many hours without power down. Generally, a strong battery can be used for at least 5 hours after a single charge. And the more modern your laptop is, the longer the battery will last.
FAQs
We know that you are still wondering about the best i5 laptops. So, we will help you answer the most frequently asked questions.
Is the i5 processor suitable for gaming?
Of course. You only need to see the amount of space your game contains. For example, if you just want to play light games like Minecraft, you can find an affordable notebook. Remember, owning a laptop with Core i5, you can play a lot of games already.
In addition, you should also check the specifications of the game before deciding to download it, make sure it is suitable for your lap so that you can run the game smoothly. If the game is too heavy and your computer does not have enough capacity, it may lag.
Is it necessary to upgrade the laptop?
It is not required, it depends on your needs. If you use a laptop for surfing the web, typing words or reading documents, an i5 processor can do just that. However, for heavier tasks such as photo, video editing, gaming, upgrading is essential in the future.
The price to upgrade storage is usually a lot cheaper than buying a new computer. So if your needs are high, do not hesitate to upgrade it.
Conclusion
In conclusion, we hope that you have understood all information about the best i5 laptops and know which one is great for you. All the computers you buy should belong to highly reputable brands because they will have quality and a long-term warranty.
And of course, do not forget to read our buying guide as well as the instructions on your laptop before use. It will be useful for you! If you still find getting the best i5 laptops difficult or have any questions, please ask the counselor or comment directly below, we will try to help you as quickly as possible.
Have a nice day!
