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

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

I found 2 Prime Day budget laptop deals that make sense for students, work, and everyday use

Best Prime Day laptop deals i found under $500

Add as a preferred source on Google
Computer, Electronics, Laptop
HP
Best Prime Day Amazon Deals
This story is part of the Digital Trends Prime Day 2026 coverage

Prime Day has no shortage of budget laptop deals, which makes it harder to tell which ones are actually worth buying. I sifted through the options and narrowed it down to two laptops that look like the best value picks if you need an affordable Windows machine for everyday work, school, browsing, streaming, and basic productivity.

ASUS Vivobook 14

The ASUS Vivobook 14 is the more compact pick here, especially if you want an affordable laptop for meetings, documents, browsing, and basic productivity. The 8GB RAM and 256GB storage model launched at $699, recently sold for as low as $419, and is down to $398.99 for Prime Day. The 512GB storage model is currently going for $455.99.

For the price, you get an Intel 10-core Core 5 120U processor, a 14-inch Full HD IPS display, 8GB of DDR4 RAM, SSD storage, Windows 11, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth, USB-C, HDMI 1.4, and a bundled 3-in-1 hub. The listed battery life is around eight hours, which should be enough for a normal school or work session. It is not a premium laptop, but if you need a portable Windows machine for documents, meetings, research, presentations, and everyday office work, this Prime Day price makes it worth a look.

Pros
  • Lightweight and portable
  • Good battery life
  • Modern processor
  • Solid connectivity
  • Good display
  • Free USB hub accessory
Cons
  • Limited storage
  • Modest RAM that can't be upgraded
  • Limited warranty

HP OmniBook 3

The HP OmniBook 3 is the better pick if you want a touchscreen without paying premium ultrabook prices. It usually sells for $749.99, but its Prime Day price is down to $499.99. For that price, you get a 16-inch 1920 x 1200 IPS touchscreen, a Ryzen 3 7320U processor, 8GB of LPDDR5-5500 RAM, and a 512GB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD. User reviews describe the display as bright, crisp, and vibrant, making it a good fit for documents, spreadsheets, online classes, streaming, and everyday browsing.

Battery life is also respectable, with up to around eight hours of use depending on workload. It is slim for a 16-inch laptop and weighs 3.6 pounds, so it should still be manageable for students and remote workers. The main limitation is that the RAM is not upgradeable, but for everyday productivity, this is one of the more attractive budget laptop deals I’d consider.

Pros
  • Large 16-inch 2K touchscreen
  • Good amount of storage
  • Light weight for its size
  • Respectable battery life
Cons
  • Entry-level processor
  • Fixed RAM
  • Color accuracy not suitable for professional work
Sudhanshu Kumar Mangalam
Sudhanshu Kumar Manglam is a tech journalist at Digital Trends, where he covers consumer technology, science, and games.
AI agents are acting like rogues and causing a huge headache for US banks
US banks block AI agents over fears they could make unauthorised financial moves
Banking

US banks are facing a new kind of digital headache: artificial intelligence agents attempting to access customer accounts and perform actions that may go beyond what users intended. As AI tools become more capable of navigating websites and carrying out tasks independently, financial institutions are scrambling to prevent them from crossing security boundaries.

According to a report published by Axios on October 22, major US banks have detected third-party AI agents operating inside customer accounts without authorisation. Some agents reportedly appeared to attempt actions independently of user instructions. The banks involved have not publicly detailed every incident, and there is no evidence that the reported activity resulted in widespread theft of customer funds.

Read more
Canva enters the AI image generation race with Craft, and it’s thinking beyond pretty pictures
The new model plans layouts before generating images, with precise editing and support for 30 aspect ratios.
Canva Craft Featured Image

AI can generate all kinds of pretty pictures, but getting it to spell a headline correctly or keep a poster's layout intact can be another story. Canva wants to fix that with Canva Craft, its first in-house image generation model. Rather than focusing primarily on photographs, Craft is designed around the posters, presentations, social media graphics, and other visual content people actually create. The goal is simple: spend less time fixing AI's mistakes and more time making something useful.

Canva Craft plans before it generates

Read more
Mori might be the cutest AI companion robot yet, and it reacts to you like a pet
The Pokémon-like companion can blink, dance, act shy, and respond to what is happening around it.
OKA Mori The Nature Companion AI Home Robot

With AI progressing so fast, it's only a matter of time before we start getting AI companions like the ones we used to see in movies like R2-D2, Wall-E, or Baymax. Now, Singapore-based OKA Technology has unveiled Mori, a cute little AI companion that looks less like a conventional home robot and more like someone turned the Pokémon Foongus into a table lamp.

Mori isn't meant to clean your house or control your smart home, but to serve as what OKA calls a "Nature Companion." It uses subtle movements, warm lighting, nature-inspired sounds, and small reactions to make its presence around the house feel calming rather than distracting. Mori can sit quietly while you read, sway along to music, welcome you when you enter a room, or encourage you to slow down for a moment without requiring a screen or a conversation.

Read more