I truly believe Apple's success in part is due to the crappy laptops that were available in the 2000s. They were grossly under powered and frequently died, leaving many jaded. Nowadays the power and quality has risen. I see little reason to not go budget.
It doesn't seem that long ago that people I know would ask my opinion on a £300-400 laptop and my answer would be that it is rubbish. For years the cheap laptops were of a terrible spec. They could get a much better desktop for the same price (unless they were using it mobile of course) Lately, its not so clean cut. You can get a decent laptop for cheap enough.
People always miss the point in laptop/tablet. No one is saying that a tablet can do what a laptop can so that's the way forward etc but the fact s that a big % of people were buying a laptop to browse argos and read emails etc.