affordable laptop recommendations for sims 4?

@123lilly456  Are you looking to buy now, or just soon?  I can list specific laptops to consider, but given how quickly prices change (and that stores may sell out of the first round of laptops on Black Friday sales), it would be better to wait until you're ready to make a purchase.

More generally, I would guess that a new gaming laptop would probably not drop into your price range even on a steep discount.  I almost never see any on sale for $500 U.S., but it's possible.  If you do see a laptop with an RTX 1650 or 3050, or even the slower 2050, grab it even if it only has 8 GB RAM.  That's enough for Sims 4 when paired with a discrete GPU because the GPU will have its own video memory rather than borrowing from RAM.  16 GB is better, sure, but this isn't a deal-breaker.  Besides, a gaming laptop's memory can be upgraded, now or later, but the graphics card cannot.

For non-gaming laptops, the keys are 16 GB RAM (as the iGPU will borrow from RAM) and the right processor with the right graphics chip.  The latter can be a bit hard to decipher, but you can google a given CPU to see what graphics it has.  Or you can ask me.  Some examples of processors with higher-end iGPUs are the ones listed on these pages, under "CPU in ___":

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Tiger-Lake-U-Xe-Graphics-G7-96EUs-GPU-Benchmarks-and-Specs.462145.0.html

https://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-RX-Vega-8-Ryzen-4000-5000-GPU-Benchmarks-and-Specs.453150.0.html

These are not the very fastest iGPUs; if you see an Intel Core Ultra i5/7 1x5U, or an AMD Ryzen 8840U/7840U/8640U, those have faster graphics.  But I don't know that they'd drop into your price range.

yeah am wanting to buy now, ive found a few that i’ll link!! please let me know if they’re good options 

https://www.jbhifi.com.au/products/dell-inspiron-15-3535-15-6-full-hd-laptop-ryzen-5512gb

https://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/officeworks/p/lenovo-15-6-ideapad-slim-1i-celeron-8-512gb-laptop-le82lx009c?region_id=GTYP2H&cm_mmc=Google:SEM:Always_on:RP%7CTechnology%7CLaptops%7CGeneral%7C%7C%7C%7CSH%7CPMAX%7C&s_kwcid=AL!12073!3!!!!x!!&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAD1FgQYRS2K954mhyLquSC8m0_FL6&gclsrc=ds

https://www.ozlaptops.com.au/products/dell-latitude-5410-i5-10th-gen-16gb-ram-256gb-ssd-win-11-refurbished

https://www.ozlaptops.com.au/products/microsoft-surface-laptop-2-i5-8gb-ram-128gb-ssd-win-11-touch-display-refurbished

My budget has gone down a little, my cat just had kittens and i either have to find something cheaper or ill have to wait a little longer.. 

i found these two, all seems alright as i did some research on these specs but again not a computer whiz so not 100% trusting myself lol

https://www.australiancomputertraders.com.au/dell-latitude-5300-intel-i5-8265u-1.60ghz-16gb-ram~653047

https://www.australiancomputertraders.com.au/dell-latitude-5490-intel-i5-8350u-1.70ghz-16gb-ram~728482

@123lilly456  Sorry for the late reply; I've had a lot going on.  To be honest, I'd wait a bit longer rather than buying either of these.  Their hardware is six years old, so the laptops themselves might not last that long; and their graphics chips are outpaced by even somewhat low-end options from the last two years.

If you let me know when you're ready to buy and how much you want to spend.  I should be around more regularly going forward.