This HP laptop is Amazon's best-selling Windows notebook but please don't buy it or you will sorely regret it

This HP laptop may be Amazon's best-selling Windows notebook just before Prime Day sales, but I truly cannot recommend it. The HP 250 G10 uses an Intel N100 processor, which is very poor value for money for a laptop that costs just under $500 (and that 37% discount claim seems very dubious).

Yes, it has 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD and a full HD display but that's simply not good enough to change my opinion of this laptop. (And yes, it uses a trick I despise to attract customers).

The N100 is so underpowered that it will struggle with even mundane tasks. Add the small 41Whr battery and you've got the perfect combination for hours of frustration and lost productivity.

So instead, here are five other laptops I'd personally recommend. For the same outlay (or less), they deliver far, far better value for money without the guaranteed irritation. Head over to our live hub for the latest Prime Day deals on a host of tech.

Quick links

Shop $500 laptops at Amazon

Check $500 laptops at Best Buy

Buy $500 laptops at Walmart

$500 laptops on sale at Newegg

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Désiré has been musing and writing about technology during a career spanning four decades. He dabbled in website builders and web hosting when DHTML and frames were in vogue and started narrating about the impact of technology on society just before the start of the Y2K hysteria at the turn of the last millennium.