HP 250 G6

$539 hp.com/au HP’s 250 G6 laptops are available in a variety of specs, but we reckon this Core i3-6006U model strikes the best balance between price and performance – although if you can stretch to the $690 Core i5-7200U model, that’s a worthy upgrade, especially if you plan on doing multimedia work like image or video editing. You still get all the basics with this i3 model though, including a serviceable 15.6-inch LCD, 500GB HDD, 4GB of RAM, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and a built-in webcam. Ably does the basics, but not a lot more.