VR Ready Laptop Under 500 – Top 5 Picks, Tips, FAQs & More

It can be extremely confusing to choose a laptop for yourself that can support a frustration-free VR experience. 

There are a ton of factors to take into account and if you don’t know a lot about computers, it can get really overwhelming really fast. 

A good idea is to make a list of all the factors you must consider before you decide to buy a certain laptop. 

The important factors you should take into consideration are: 

Price

If you want a VR-ready laptop under $500, obviously, you’re looking for a budget gaming laptop. That being said, you have to be very careful with how low you go. 

This is because as the prices go low, the specifications of the laptops go down as well. You don’t want to go so low that the laptop you get is not powerful enough to run VR games and apps. 

At the same time, you also have to ensure that the laptop that you get is constructed from reliable, high-quality components. 

The rule of thumb is that if a laptop has components that are too good for the price, it’s most likely not worth it. 

This is because while it may seem like a good deal with high specifications and a low price, you have to assume that there’s some catch. 

Typically, the catch with these types of gaming laptops is the fact that the components are low-quality and not up to industry standards. 

In this case, what will most likely happen is that you’ll enjoy a great VR experience for a few weeks and then the laptop will start falling back in terms of performance. 

After a few months, it may even break down entirely. 

Hence, when you opt for a budget-friendly gaming laptop, make sure that you buy it from a reputable and established brand. Avoid knockoffs and brands that you have never heard of at all costs. 

They might have low prices with high specifications but they will not last you a very long time.

Build Quality 

This is extremely important because a gaming laptop that is also VR-ready is a fairly large investment. You don’t want the laptop breaking down on you in a short amount of time. 

Hence, it’s a good idea to inspect that VR-ready laptop you intend to buy in person before you actually buy it. If you intend to buy it online and can’t inspect it in person, then it’s a good idea to look through customer reviews for the laptop. 

Some users provide user review updates a year or two after they bought the laptop to let people know what their experience with it has been like. 

If you find many reviews saying that the laptop has lost performance over time or has physically broken down, etc., then that’s a red flag. Avoid gaming laptops like that at all costs. 

Battery Life 

The one thing that laptops have over desktops is the fact that they’re extremely portable. 

If you’re a person that travels a lot or has to be away from a power outlet for extended periods of time, then the battery life of your gaming laptop is extremely important. 

Make sure to consider what apps and games you will be running as well as what tasks you will perform when you’re away from a power outlet. Remember that different applications and tasks take up different amounts of battery from the laptop. 

Hence, you have to make an informed decision based on the tasks that you will perform. 

You must also consider how long you’re typically away from a power laptop since, obviously, different laptops have different battery lives. Some can last for 9 to 12 hours whereas others can only last for about 3 to 6 hours. 

Your decision depends on what your daily routine looks like. 

Display Size

Since you want a VR-ready laptop, the display size won’t matter too much since the screen you will use will be inside your VR headset. 

However, if you want to use your laptop for other things as well such as watching movies, playing regular games, etc., then you may want a bigger screen size. 

On the other hand, if you want your laptop to be more compact and portable, then you may want a smaller screen size. 

It’s up to you to decide whether you want a larger screen for luxury or a smaller screen for portability. It won’t affect your virtual reality experience since, of course, the screen you will use will be inside your VR headset. 

Manufacturers measure the display size of laptops as a diagonal measurement of the screen. 

Typically, the laptops that are available in the market have display sizes that range from 12 inches to 17 inches. 

Processor 

Your laptop’s processor is also known as the “brain”. How powerful the processor inside your laptop is will determine how quickly and efficiently it will be able to perform certain tasks. 

If you plan to multi-task and use several resource-intensive programs at the same time, it’s a good idea to invest in a laptop with a powerful processor. 

It also depends on the types of VR titles that you intend to run on your VR-ready laptop. Obviously, some titles will require a more powerful processor than others. 

Storage

Storage is important if you intend to install and store a ton of different VR titles on your VR-ready laptop. 

If you’re the type of gamer that installs a game, ends it, and then uninstalls it, then you won’t have too much trouble with storage. 

However, if you want to have tons of different VR titles installed and ready to go on your laptop at all times, then you may want to go for something with more storage. 

Storage within laptops comes in two variants: You can have a hard disk drive (HDD) or a solid-state drive (SSD). 

The former is less expensive because of the fact that they have moving parts and are generally slower. The latter is more expensive since they have no moving parts and are much faster. 

Your best bet would be to go for a VR-ready laptop that has a small amount of SSD storage and a large amount of HDD storage. Then, you can use the SSD to house your operating system and the HDD to house everything else on your VR-ready laptop. 

Memory 

Your laptop’s memory, also known as random access memory (RAM), is another component that affects its speed and performance. 

It handles all of the programs that are currently running at any given time on your laptop. Obviously, the more memory you have, the more efficiently all of those programs will run. 

When you go for a budget-friendly gaming laptop, it most likely will not have a lot of memory. This is an issue since you do need a decent amount of RAM to properly run VR titles. 

We recommend that you opt for a VR-ready laptop that has at least 8 GB of RAM. 

If you cannot afford to spend that much money on RAM, then the best way to go is to get a cheaper laptop that has a lower amount of RAM.

Then, once you have a little more money to spend in the future, you can upgrade your laptop’s RAM to something higher. 

That’s the great thing about RAM inside laptops: It can be upgraded, unlike most of the other components inside it.