Businesses like to run lean and mean. Getting value for money when it comes to business laptops is not mean feat in itself. Choosing the best budget laptop for your business can be a difficult decision.
To help you decide which business laptop under 300 is right for your organisations, we have scoured the market to find value-for-money notebooks that won't break the bank.
HP Stream 11
Chromebooks have a reputation for packing what you need and stripping away want you don't. They have re-ignited the low-cost low-spec market as people look for cheap laptop.
The HP Stream 11 does something a little different; it offers full-fat Windows for a decent price. While not a desktop replacement, the HP Stream 11 has an 11in display that can easily cope with undemanding tasks and ditches the traditional hard drive in favour of 32GB of flash storage.
The laptop provides around eight hours of use making it acceptable for business use.
Read our full review:HP Stream 11
Price:179 from PC World
Dell Chromebook 11 (2015)
Most Chromebooks are dirt cheap, costing little more than 200, so we don't expect them to change much either in appearance or specifications. We were therefore surprised when Dell decided to refresh its Chromebook 11 with a design that's almost completely new, inside and out.
The new Dell Chromebook 11 comes close to being the perfect budget Chrome OS laptop, if youwant a cheap, second computer that's also built for portability, this is a great choice.
Read our full review:Dell Chromebook 11
Price:189 from PC World
Lenovo Mixx 3 10
This laptop is also a tablet running full-spec Windows. It comes with a quad core Intel processor (albeit of the Atom kind). But it also comes with a year's subscription to Office 365.
The AccuType keyboard acts as a dock and a stand and the vendor claims that this is designed for comfort and accuracy so users won't struggle with writing long emails or documents. The dock als has two USB 2.0 ports for connecting a mouse and external drives.
The 10.1-inch display is a Full HD IPS display with a wide angle of view.
Price: 149.95 from John Lewis
HP Pavilion x2
Another 2-in-1 laptop come tablet, the HP Pavilion x2 also sports a touchscreen and battery life of up to 11 hours (HP claims) thanks to the energy efficient Intel Atom processor. The detachable keyboard also acts as a soft cover.
Again, this is another full-fat Windows device with a 10.1-inch display. It boasts a micro HDMI port for connecting up to HD displays for presentations as well as one full-size USB and one micro USB port.
Price: 199 from HP Store
Medion Akoya P6647
Medion is not a name that will spring to mind for most people in the UK, but the manufacturer has been producing computers for many years now. And since 2011, the German firm has been owned by Lenovo.
But you get a lot of spec for just a pound under 300. The laptop boasts an Intel Core i3- 4100M processor, 1TB hard drive, 4GB of memory and a 15.6-inch HD display.
The Windows 8.1 notebook also sports a couple of USB 3.0 ports and two USB 2.0 ports and an HDMI port for connection to an external display.
Price: 299 from Medion
Asus Eeebook X205TA Signature Edition Laptop
The machine builds itself as an ultraportable. While we wouldn't say it was an Ultrabook, it is quite light (weighing in at under 1kg and measuring 0.68-inch thick, so won't break your back if you need to lug it around all day.
The machine sports a 11.6-inch HD display, 2GB of memory and 32GB of SSD storage. Up to 12 hours of battery life is promised by the hybrid device.
The laptop forms part of Microsoft's "Signature Edition" set of PC, which the software firm said are tuned for fast performance and include free anti-virus software. As you would expect, the laptop also comes with 100GB of OneDrive storage for two years.
Price: 149.99 from Microsoft Store
Acer Chromebook 15
Another Chromebook, but this time from Acer. This sports an Intel Celeron Processor, 2GB of memory and 32GB of storage.
It claims nine hours of battery life and is one of the first Chromebooks for sport a 15.6-inch IPS 1080p display. The screen is non-glare to make for a more comfortable viewing experience.
Because of the size, it may not be as travel friendly as other laptops in this feature (it weighs 2.2kg), but with a display this size, it should make it a better bet for business. The trackpad is enormous and supports Chrome OS's multitouch commands.
It has a full HDMI, USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 ports as well as a full-size SD card slot supporting capacities up to 128GB and 802.11ac and Bluetooth 4.0.
Price: 229.99 from Currys PC World
