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Head-to-head · Best Budget Laptops Under $700

Acer Aspire 5 vs HP OmniBook 5 14

Which is the better buy? Side-by-side on rating, price, strengths, and watch-outs — with the published ratings we averaged to get there.

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The short answer

Acer Aspire 5 comes out ahead by a narrow margin (4.1 vs 4.0). Acer Aspire 5 is best for: Budget-first buyers who need a capable, no-frills 15.6-inch Windows laptop for basic productivity at the lowest possible price. Read the strengths below before deciding.

Acer Aspire 5
Higher ratedRanked #3 in Best Budget Laptops Under $700
Acer Aspire 5
1 source$499as of Jul 1

The Aspire 5 is the budget anchor: a genuinely cheap 15.6-inch laptop that covers the basics well, with a Ryzen 5 5500U and a surprisingly likable IPS display. PCWorld called it "a great budget option for most people," and Notebookcheck praised its quiet, cool operation. The soldered 8GB RAM and small SSD are real limits, but for the price it delivers the essentials.

Strengths
  • — One of the lowest prices for a capable 15.6-inch Windows laptop
  • — Runs quiet and cool with a slim, light chassis
  • — Wi-Fi 6, backlit keyboard and a full port selection at a budget price
Watch-outs
  • — Older Ryzen 5000-series platform rather than the latest chips
$499 · Check Price on AmazonFull review →
HP OmniBook 5 14
Ranked #2 in Best Budget Laptops Under $700
HP OmniBook 5 14
5 sources$699.99as of Oct 10

The OmniBook 5 14 is the battery-life champion: an ARM-based ultraportable. PCWorld called it "a strong contender if you want a Windows laptop with great battery life," and TechRadar praised its display and endurance. The catch is the Snapdragon platform's app-compatibility quirks.

Strengths
  • — Battery life of 25 hours in PCWorld's video test, 28 hours 19 minutes in CNET's streaming test and 34 hours 48 minutes in PCMag's rundown
  • — 14-inch OLED display, which PCMag describes as having deep contrast and broad color coverage
  • — Fast charging adds up to 50 percent in 30 minutes, per PCWorld
Watch-outs
  • — Snapdragon X is an Arm chip, so some Windows apps run emulated or not at all
  • — The base model linked here has the Snapdragon X X1-26-100, which PCWorld calls a less powerful chip than the X Plus the reviews tested
  • — Base storage is 256GB
$699.99 · Buy at walmart.comFull review →

How they stack up

Acer Aspire 5

It is the lowest-priced laptop on this page. It gives up the HP OmniBook 5 14's OLED screen and battery life and the 16GB of memory in the Acer Aspire 14 AI, and it has a plastic build where the Apple MacBook Neo's is aluminum.

HP OmniBook 5 14

The trade-off is the ARM Snapdragon platform's app-compatibility limits, which the x86 machines avoid.

Specs side-by-side

SpecAcer Aspire 5HP OmniBook 5 14
CPUAMD Ryzen 5 5500U (6-core)Qualcomm Snapdragon X X1-26-100 (8-core)
RAM8GB DDR416GB LPDDR5x
Storage256GB NVMe SSD256GB PCIe NVMe SSD
Display15.6-inch FHD (1920x1080) IPS14-inch OLED, 1920 x 1200 (HP calls it 2K), non-touch
GraphicsAMD Radeon Graphics—
WirelessWi-Fi 6Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3
KeyboardBacklit—
OSWindows 11 HomeWindows 11 Home
Battery—Up to 34 hours rated by HP; 25 hours (PCWorld), 28 hours 19 minutes (CNET), 34 hours 48 minutes (PCMag) tested on the X Plus configuration
Ports—2x USB-C 10Gbps, 1x USB-A 10Gbps, 3.5mm audio
Model—14-he0017nr
← See the full ranking of best budget laptops under $700