Many people have contacted me and asked about pink laptops under $500, so I thought we’d do a little overview of which companies offer them, and what you can get for under $500. First out is Dell, who do have quite a few in that price range, and on a few, you’re even able to add some upgrades and still stay within budget.

Here’s the list:

Inspiron Mini 10 (1012) – $299.99 and up
This mini laptop comes in several different configurations, ranging in price from $299.99 to $449.99, but not all are offered in pink. The ones that do cost between $309.99 and $409.99, but you have to add $40 to the price for pink, so the price range for pink Mini 10s is really 349.99 to $449.99.

On a few of them, you also have the option to select a different look from Dell’s Design Studio for $85.00 extra, so if you want a “swirly pink” instead of the standard solid one, you’ll end up with a base price of $434.99 – $494.99. How about other upgrades? There are none (for hardware).

Inspiron 11z – $349.99
Same thing for this one – it starts at $349.99, with an additional $40 for pink resulting in a price of $389.99. But if you want to spend up to $500, you can add a few performance-boosters without going over budget. For an extra $75, you can either upgrade the processor from a Celeron to a Pentium, or the hard drive from a 5,400 rpm 160GB SATA to a 5,400 rpm 320GB SATA, putting you at a price of $464.99. If you prefer to add more RAM, you can almost stay within budget. If you keep the Celeron processor and 160GB HD and instead upgrade from 2 to 4GB or RAM, you end up at $509.99.

Inspiron 15 (1545) – $379.99
This midsize laptop starts at $379.99 + $40 for pink = $419.99. There are a few upgrades that will keep the price under $500: upgrading the RAM from 2 to 3GB is an extra $45.00 (=$464.99); upgrading the hard drive from 250 to 320GB is $25 (=$444.99), and 500GB is $45 (=$489.99). You could also upgrade the battery to a 6-cell for $40 extra (=$459.99).

Inspiron 14 – $449.99
Starting out at $449.00 with an additional $40 for pink (=$489.99), the price for this laptop does not leave a whole lot of room for upgrades, so you’d have to stay with the basic configuration on this one

Inspiron 15R – $449.99
One of the newest laptops from Dell (read our review in the “Dell’s Latest Pink Laptop – The Inspiron R” post), the 15R is priced exactly like as the 14 – $449.99 + $40 for pink = $489.99, so no room for upgrades.

Inspiron 17 (1750) – $449.99
Same thing here – $489.99 in pink.

So these last three are exactly the same price, but how do they differ? Here are the specs:

Processor – Inspiron 14 & 17: Intel Pentium Dual Core T4500 (2.3GHz/800MHz FSB/1MB cache)
Processor – Inspiron 15R: 2010 Intel Pentium P6000 1.86GHz (2 Threads, 3M cache)

Operating System – All 3: Windows 7 Home Premium, 64bit

Graphics -14: Intel GMA 4500MHD
Graphics -15R: Standard Intel HD Graphics
Graphics -17: Intel GMA X4500HD

RAM – 14 & 17: 2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 800MHz
RAM – 15R: 2GB Shared Single Channel DDR3

Hard drive – All 3: 250GB SATA, 5400rpm

Battery – 14 & 17: 4-cell Li-Ion
Battery – 15R: 6-cell Li-Ion

Screen – 14: 14.0″ High Definition (720p) LED Display
Screen – 15R: 15.6″ High Definition (720p) LED Display
Screen – 17: 17.3″ HD+ WLED

Size – 14: 13.3×9.4×1″
Size – 15R: 14.8×10.31×1.25″
Size – 17: 16.4×10.9×1.2″

Weight – 14: 4.96 lbs
Weight – 15R: 5.83 lbs
Weight – 17: 6.8 lbs

Remember when a computer took up an entire room at the office? Even if you don’t, I’m sure you’ve seen the pictures. Both desktops and laptops certainly have come a long way in just a few decades, and still seem to be shrinking every year (for even smaller laptops, check out our “Mini Laptop Computers” post).

We classify a small laptop as one with a screen size between 12 – 14″ and a weight of less than 6 lbs. How else does a small laptop differ from a mini laptop? Well, they have larger hard drives, more memory, internal CD/DVD drives, often dual channel processors, sometimes discreet graphics cards, and they are almost always customizable. The price can therefore vary quite a bit. On our list, the least expensive choice is Dell’s Inspiron 14 at $449 (base configuration) whereas Sony’s VAIO SR with all the top options added will cost you $3,079.

Below are the pink small laptop computers currently on the market:

Asus Eee 1008P
Dell Inspiron 14 (“Promise Pink”)
Dell Studio 14z (“Promise Pink” – click for full specs)
Dell Inspiron 14R
MSI PR200 (“Pink”)
MSI PR210 (“Pink”)
Sony VAIO SR (“Sunset Pink”)
Toshiba Satellite U505-S2925P (Textured “Luxe Pink”)

Since all except the MSIs are customizable, the specs are quite lenghty, so we are just going to list the best and worst for each category. Each come with the Windows Vista Home operating system, and they all offer (except MSI of course) OS upgrade options.

Best – Base configuration
Dell Studio 14z (3GB2 Shared Dual Channel DDR3 at 1066MHz)

Best – Upgraded
Sony VAIO SR (8GB DDR2-SDRAM (DDR2-800, 4GBx2))

Worst
MSI PR200 and MSI PR210 (2GB DDR2 x 1 (533/667MHz)

Best – Base configuration
A tie between Dell Studio 14z and Toshiba Satellite U505-S2925P, both with a 250GB3 SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)

Best – Upgraded
Dell Studio 14z (500GB SATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) with Free Fall Sensor)

If you prefer a solid state drive, the Sony VAIO SR is the winner with a 256GB Solid State Drive as an upgrade option.

Worst
MSI PR200 and MSI PR210 (120GB SATA)

Best – Base configuration
Dell Inspiron 14
Dell Studio 14z
Sony VAIO SR
Toshiba Satellite U505-S2925P
all come with Intel® Pentium™ Dual Core T4200 (2.0GHz/800Mhz FSB/1MB cache)

Best – Upgraded
Sony VAIO SR (Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T9800 (2.93GHz)

Worst
MSI PR200 and MSI PR210 (Intel Centrino 2.0GHz 667 MHz, 2MB cache and AMD Turion®64 X2, TL50, 2.0 GHz, 667MHz, 2MB respectively)

Best – Base configuration
A tie between Dell Studio 14z and Toshiba Satellite U505-S2925P, both with 6-cell Li-Ions

Best – Upgraded
Toshiba Satellite U505-S2925P (High Capacity 12-cell Li-Ion)

Worst
Hart to tell, since Sony only defines their batteries as “Standard” and “Large”. However, if we go by cells, Dell Inspiron 14 and the two MSIs “win” this category with 4 cell Li-Ions.

No best and worst here, just the facts:
MSI PR200 – 12″
MSI PR210 – 12″
Sony VAIO SR – 13.3″
Toshiba Satellite U505-S2925P – 13.3″
Dell Inspiron 14 – 14″
Dell Studio 14z – 14″

Lightest
Sony VAIO SR (4.14 lbs)

Heaviest
Dell Inspiron 14 (4.96 lbs)

Smallest
Dell Studio 14z (13.23×9.02×0.79)

Largest
Toshiba Satellite U505-S2925P (12.5×9.08×1.16)

On a side note, the sizes given for the two MSIs have such a wide range that they could have placed as smallest, but the variations are so big that I feel more comfortable giving the Studio 14z that award.

In conclusion:
If you’re looking a small and light laptop, the Studio 14z is a great choice: smallest of them all (in spite of having a 14″ screen) and pretty light as well (4.3 lbs).

If you want the best graphics card, the Toshiba Satellite U505-S2925P is the way to go. True, the base configuration comes with a mainstream Intel GMA 4500M, but you have the option to upgrade to an ATI Mobility Radeon H4570 with 512MB DDR3 (discrete).

As far as looks go, it’s all a matter of taste of course, but I think the Toshiba wins here too. The textured surface adds something a little extra, and I also happen to really like that particular shade of pink.

Dell’s Studio 14z is their lightest and most slim Studio laptop to date, measuring 13.23 x 0.79 x 9.02″ and weighing in at 4.30 lbs. It comes in 6 colors, Promise Pink is one of them, and as always, Dell donates $5 of the sale price of their pink laptops to Susan G. Komen for the Cure.

The 14z comes with some really nice extra features like face recognition and theft prevention (the full list can be found further down in this post) and has gotten rave reviews.

It comes in 3 slightly different configurations, which can all be customized. The least expensive version is $649 (+$40 to get it in pink) and features:

• Windows Vista 64-bit Home Premium Edition operating system
• 2.0GHz/800Mhz FSB/1MB cache Intel Pentium Dual Core T4200 processor
• 14.0″ HD (720p) display (with built-in 1.3MP webcam)
• 250GB 5400RPM SATA hard drive
• 3GB dual channel DDR3 memory at 1066MHz
• Wireless 802.11g Half Mini Card
• NVIDIA® GeForce® 9400M G (graphics and chipset)
• 6-cell 56Whr Li-ion battery

The top-of-the-line optional upgrades available for the basic model are:

• 5GB DDR3 at 1066Mhz memory ($275)
• 2.66GHz/1066Mhz FSB/6MB cache Intel Core 2 Duo processor ($350)
• Windows Vista Ultimate Edition operating system ($150)
• 500GB 7200RPM SATA hard drive ($175)
• 14.0″ HD+ (900p) bright LED display ($50)
• Dell 1515 Wireless-N Mini-card ($25)
• AT&T built-in cellular mobile broadband ($125)
• Dell Wireless 365 Bluetooth Internal ($20)
• 8-cell 74Whr Li-ion battery ($40)
• ExpressCard Sound Blaster X-Fi Laptop Sound Card with Wireless Receiver Bundle ($130)
• Back-lit keyboard ($25)

So if you went with all the top choices for this system, you would end up with a price tag of $2,054.

One important thing to note is that these computers do not come with internal DVD or CD drives, so you have to get an external one if you want to use that kind of media.

The most expensive version of the Studio 14z sells for $799 (+$40 for pink), and comes with:

• Windows Vista 64-bit Home Premium Edition operating system
• 2.1GHz/800Mhz FSB/2MB cache Intel Pentium Dual Core T6500 processor
• 14.0″ HD (720p) display (with built-in 1.3MP webcam)
• 500GB 5400RPM SATA hard drive
• 3GB dual channel DDR3 memory at 1066MHz
• Wireless 802.11g Half Mini Card
• NVIDIA® GeForce® 9400M G (graphics and chipset)
• 6-cell 56Whr Li-ion battery

The top-of-the-line optional upgrades available for this model are:

• 5GB DDR3 at 1066Mhz memory ($275)
• 2.66GHz/1066Mhz FSB/6MB cache Intel Core 2 Duo T9550 processor ($300)
• Windows Vista 64-bit Ultimate Edition operating system ($150)
• 500GB 7200RPM SATA hard drive ($75)
• 14.0″ HD+ (900p) bright LED display ($50)
• Dell 1515 Wireless-N Mini-card ($25)
• AT&T built-in cellular mobile broadband ($125)
• Dell Wireless 365 Bluetooth Internal ($20)
• 8-cell 74Whr Li-ion battery (lasting up to 6.5 hours) ($40)
• ExpressCard Sound Blaster X-Fi Laptop Sound Card with Wireless Receiver Bundle ($130)
• Back-lit keyboard ($25)

If you added all the top choices for this system, you would end up with the same computer and a price tag identical to the one above: $2,054.

The only differences between the two basic configurations are the processor and hard drive, and if you were to upgrade the least expensive basic model to match the most expensive one, you end up with the exact same price ($799).

Extra features on the Studio 14z include:

• 3 USB ports (one of which is an eSATA port)
• 4-watt 2.0 SRS audio (great speakers!)
• Online backup service (Dell’s own)
• Remote access (lets you access what’s on your home computer and other electronics remotely)
• FailSafe theft prevention (which allows you to erase files, lock the computer, and track the ISP location of your laptop when the thief connects it to the internet)
• Facial recognition (to prevent others from logging in)

Also, Dell offers a free Windows 7 upgrade, and as someone who has battled with Vista for a few years now, I’d jump on that offer! For more current deals on Dell (and other) laptops, check out my “Deals, Extras and Offers on Pink Laptops” post.

Click here for my post on Dell’s Mini series. Also check out my recent post on the most recent pink laptop from Dell – the Inspiron R.