An inexpensive laptop should not compromise on features. I knew of a friend who bought a used laptop at a great low price, only to get back home to discover the memory size and CPU were not up to mark. You should definitely check that you do not give up important laptop features for a lower price. That said, here are the 5 best inexpensive laptops money can buy.

The Gateway T-6828 is one of the best value laptops money can buy. You'd be surprised at the feature set of this laptop - impressive CPU speeds, memory and hard drive space. You will definitely want to check it out if you intend to use your laptop for general purpose computing.
 

The Gateway T-6828 laptop

Technically speaking, the ASUS Eee PC is not exactly a laptop, but it is a UMPC, or ultra-mobile PC. It is extremely small in size and costs only about $550. You get only 12GB of flash memory (there is no hard drive) - but for folks on the go, this may be all they need.

The popular ASUS Eee PC ultramobile

The Lenovo Ideapad Y510 is Lenovo's foray into the consumer market. This is a good machine for general purpose computing and sells for a very inexpensive price. Worth checking out if you want a brand name laptop at a good price.

Another great value for money laptop, the Dell Inspiron 1525 has all the features and computing power you need for a laptop, yet it does not burn a hole in your pocket. Dell laptops are well-known for delivering value at a low price - so do check it out.

The HP Pavilion dv6500t sells for below $1000 and is a hot seller in the market right now. You will be hard pressed to find another sub-$1000 laptop that packs great multimedia and gaming features. Highly recommended.
 

The HP Pavilion dv6500t laptop