If you want an affordable laptop these days there are a lot of options available to you, actually.  It used to be the case that a laptop was a super premium piece of hardware, and pretty much only business executives could ever really afford or need a laptop.  It was only the working elite that could really justify the price of such an expensive piece of hardware.  But of course nowadays there are many ways to get cheap affordable laptops and there are plenty of options when it comes to quality as well.

There are a couple different classes of affordable laptop computers these days.  Of course you can still spend a lot of money on a super premium machine if you want to, but this is never really necessary.  What is more critical is that you carefully research the key features that you want in a laptop and then do your research based on those key features.  For example, some people might demand exceptional battery life as their number one feature in a laptop, and put this feature as being more important to them than all others.  In this case, the person would still have several different options for which laptop to buy, and there would still be a number of different affordable options for them.  For example, they might go with the cheapest netbook that they can find that has the longest battery life, which is likely to be about 5 to 6 hours on an Asus branded notebook for around 300 dollars. 

But of course, I said there were a ton of options these days, right?  So what if you checked out the cheapest netbook you could find that also has stellar battery life, but decided that you did not like the relatively cheap design construction of the machine.  You decide that you are actually looking for something with a bit more rugged design and durability, but you don't want to spend a fortune to get it.  In this case, you could go on eBay and find a used Fujitsu P series notebook, which would come with an expansion bay battery and get over 6 hours of battery life as well.  These are the type of machines that were netbooks before the class of netbooks even existed, and they have been around for years and years now.  Because of the flood of cheap netbooks on the market now, you can pick up a used P series for fairly cheap on eBay if you want the quality design and solid construction instead of the newer, ultra light weight plastic that we are seeing with the new netbooks. 

Notice that both options are going to be affordable, regardless of which route you go.  You can go with the brand new, or you can go with the used route, and still get the feature set that you are looking for at an affordable price.  You just have to do your research and know what you want in a computer.

There are more than one place to find cheap laptops.  Like I said earlier your buying choice will be at least somewhat dictated by your needs and wants in the feature department.  If you decide that a used ultraportable machine from 3 years ago is going to fit your needs the best, then you cannot walk into your local electronics superstore and just buy it.  You are going to have to get it on the secondary market, and in most cases that will mean eBay. 

Certainly if you want to find a needle in a haystack, then eBay is your place to go.  Now if you are in a fairly large city or your buying needs are a bit more flexible, then you might be able to check out Craigslist as well for a bargain on a good machine.  Many times people selling on Craiglist will not accurately value their merchandise as well as an auction on eBay would be able to do for them, so you might come across a better deal.  But of course the selection is going to be much slimmer on Craigslist, and you can really get just about anything that you are looking for on eBay if you are patient with it. 

Now in some cases you will be buying either new or possibly refurbished.  Another great place to check for bargains is at the Dell outlet store, which is very easy to find on their website.  They have an inventory that you can browse through and they also run periodic sales on their outlet merchandise.  If you want a great deal, then scope out the store, find a machine that you like, then be patient and wait for the sale to happen.  When the sale occurs that is the time to buy.  If you use this method you can get a very good deal on a refurbished machine.