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While premium laptops have gotten more expensive over time, cheap and budget options have improved significantly in quality. You can easily find great devices that perform just as well as more costly models, from dirt cheap under-$300 Chromebooks to budget gaming laptops with a dedicated GPU costing up to $1,200. Naturally, there are always compromises when it comes to budget and cheap laptops. Some have a lower-quality display andless processing poweror lack features like biometrics, so knowing what matters to you most and what you can compromise on is essential.
We'vetested over 115 laptops, and below, you'll find our recommendations for the best cheap and budget laptops you can get. You can also check out our recommendations for thebest laptops under $300,the best student Chromebooks, and the best budget and cheap gaming laptops.
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Best Budget Laptop
ASUS Vivobook 16 M1605 (2023) 18
Portability
7.7
Brightness
6.4
Typing Quality
8.0
Touchpad
8.1
Battery Life (Web Browsing)
8.3 hrsThermals And Noise
8.1
See all our test results
The best budget laptop we've tested is the ASUS Vivobook 16 M1605 (2023), a 16-inch Windows ultraportable. This model feels well-built, and it isn't overly bulky or heavy for a 16-inch device, so it's still easy to carry around. You can configure it with an AMD Ryzen 5 or Ryzen 7 CPU, which are more than adequate to handle general productivity tasks like text processing, web browsing, spreadsheets, and video playback. Most models come with 8GB of RAM, though you can find some with 16GB, as some third-party retailers add extra RAM, so you don't have to upgrade it yourself. Battery life is okay; it lasts a little over eight hours of light use, so depending on your workload, you may have to plug it in for a quick charge.
The overall user experience is good. It has a comfortable keyboard, a large, responsive touchpad, and a decent 720p webcam. Its 1080p display looks reasonably sharp but only gets up to 250cd/m² of brightness, so visibility may be an issue in well-lit rooms. It also looks a tad washed out due to its narrow color gamut. You get Wi-Fi 6E wireless connectivity, a fingerprint sensor for quick logins, and a decent port selection with three USB-As, a USB-C, and an HDMI. Unfortunately, the USB-C doesn't support video output, so you'll have to use the HDMI port to connect an external display.
See our review
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Best Budget 2-In-1 Tablet
Microsoft Surface Go 3 (2021) 0
School
7.3
Gaming
See AlsoThe best budget laptop in 2024: top picks for notebooks and ChromebooksThe Best Cheap Laptops for 2024The best budget laptops in 2024 — our top picksThe best budget laptop of 20234.1
Multimedia
7.8
Workstation
4.3
Business
6.4
Portability
9.6
Brightness
7.6
Typing Quality
7.5
Touchpad
7.0
Battery Life (Web Browsing)
7.2 hrsThermals And Noise
9.7
See all our test results
If you like the 2-in-1 tablet form factor, get the Microsoft Surface Go 3 (2021). At 10.5 inches, this tablet PC is incredibly compact, making it easy to carry. It has a sharp IPS display with stylus support, an excellent 1080p webcam that puts pricier laptops to shame, and a Windows Hello facial recognition camera for quick logins. You can use it without the keyboard attached to save space and pop it back on when you need to type something out. The keyboard is surprisingly comfortable to type on; the downside is that you have to buy it separately, and the same goes for the stylus.
You can get this tablet with an Intel Pentium Gold or Core i3 CPU. Both are fine for simple tasks like web browsing, emails, and video playback, but don't expect to do anything remotely intensive. We recommend getting a model with 8GB of memory, as you'll get a much smoother experience with fewer slowdowns when multitasking. The battery lasts about seven hours of light use, which isn't great but not bad for such a small device. Unfortunately, the port situation is grim; you only get one USB-C, a proprietary charging port, and a headphone jack.
The Lenovo Chromebook Duet 5 (2021) is a better option if you only need a device for media consumption. It sports a gorgeous OLED display with full DCI P3 coverage, and its battery lasts nearly eight hours of video playback. It's a little bigger at 13 inches but still compact and lightweight. The keyboard isn't nearly as good, and Chrome OS is more limited in the type of applications you can install, so you need to ensure you can do everything through a Chrome browser or Android app.
See our review
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Best Budget Gaming Laptop
ASUS TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition (2023) 8
School
7.6
Gaming
8.6
Multimedia
7.1
Workstation
8.9
Business
7.8
Portability
6.1
Brightness
6.4
Typing Quality
8.0
Touchpad
8.0
Battery Life (Web Browsing)
12.9 hrsThermals And Noise
5.9
See all our test results
We recommend the ASUS TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition (2023), a 16-inch all-AMD model for gaming within a budget price range.For around $1,000 USD, you can get this laptop with a Ryzen 7 7735HS CPU, Radeon RX 7600S GPU, 165Hz FHD display, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage. This configuration delivers a smooth gaming experience at 1080p or 1440p, even in demanding AAA titles. Its display also boasts an impressive response time for clear image quality with minimal ghosting, and it supports variable refresh rate (VRR) to limit screen tearing. You don't have to worry about thermal throttling, but this laptop does get fairly hot and loud. Thankfully, there aren't hotspots centered on the WASD cluster.
For connectivity, you get Wi-Fi 6 and an Ethernet port. The rest of the port selection is also great, with plenty of USB-A and USB-C ports and a true HDMI 2.1 port. The 512GBstorage in this configuration will probably fill up quickly with the size of recent titles, though you canget a 1TB SSD if you're willing to pay more. It's also worth noting that the storage (along with the memory) is user-replaceable, and there are two M.2 storage slots. As for the battery life, you can expect a little over an hour when gaming, which is fairly typical.
See our review
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Best Cheap Laptop
Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i Chromebook 14 (2023) 8
School
7.6
Gaming
4.1
Multimedia
7.6
Workstation
5.3
Business
7.1
Portability
7.8
Brightness
7.7
Typing Quality
6.5
Touchpad
6.1
Battery Life (Web Browsing)
13.3 hrsThermals And Noise
9.1
See all our test results
The best cheap laptop we've tested is the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i Chromebook 14 (2023). It's a great option for younger students or anyone needing a simple device for web browsing and video playback. Although there are many configuration options, we recommend the Core i3 model paired with an FHD touch-sensitive display, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage, which you can regularly find on sale for $400 to $500 USD onLenovo's website. The cheaper configurations are fine if you have an extremely light workload; just know they'll stutter or slow down more quickly when multitasking and have a lower-quality screen.
The display of the Core i3 model mentioned above is bright enough for use in well-lit settings and is reasonably color-accurate. The keyboard feels spacious but a tad mushy, and unfortunately, the touchpad is small and not always responsive. Its 1080p webcam is surprisingly good, and its battery life is outstanding at around 13 hours of light use. If you're unfamiliar with Chrome OS, know that this operating system is limited in the type of applications you can install, so you must ensure you can do everything through a Chrome browser or Android app.
See our review
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Best Cheap Gaming Laptop
Lenovo LOQ 15 (2023) 11
School
6.8
Gaming
8.7
Multimedia
6.6
Workstation
9.2
Business
7.5
Portability
5.7
Brightness
7.4
Typing Quality
7.5
Touchpad
7.8
Battery Life (Web Browsing)
8.3 hrsThermals And Noise
7.2
See all our test results
If you want to spend as little as possible, we recommend the Lenovo LOQ 15 (2023). This laptop isavailable from third-party sellers but is most consistently available directly from Lenovo. You can configure it with an AMD Ryzen 5 7640HS or Ryzen 7 7840HS CPU and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050, RTX 4050, or RTX 4060 GPU. Both RTX 3050 and 4050 options deliver high and consistent frame rates for 1080p gaming. For the best 1440p experience, we suggest the higher-end RTX 4060, as it has 8GB of VRAM, which helps to minimize pop-in and stuttering in demanding titles. We also recommend a configuration with 16GB of memory—and if you're comfortable doing so, you can upgrade it on your own. For storage, you can opt for either 512MB or 1TB options. There's also an extra M.2 slot if you want to add more space.
Connectivity-wise, if you play online games, there's Wi-Fi 6 connectivity and an Ethernet port to ensure the best connection possible for competitive play. Lastly, for displays, your choices range from a 60Hz or 144Hz FHD panel to a 165Hz QHD option. The latter two are your best bet for gaming. The response times for these displays aren't great, so you can expect to see some ghosting. However, both the 144Hz and 165Hz displays support VRR, which can help reduce screen tearing.
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Recent Updates
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May 30, 2024: Minor text changes for clarity. No change in recommendations.
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May 01, 2024: Replaced the Acer Swift 3 14 (2020) with the ASUS Vivobook 16 M1605 (2023) because it has more processing power and provides a better user experience overall. Added theAcer Chromebook Plus 515 (2023) as a Notable Mention.
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Apr 04, 2024: Added the Apple MacBook Air 13 (M1, 2020) as a Notable Mention. No change in recommendations.
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Mar 05, 2024: We've replaced the ASUS TUF Dash F15 with the ASUS TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition as our new budget pick since the F15 is now discontinued and harder to find in stock. We've also replaced the Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 (2021) with the Lenovo LOQ 15 (2023) as our cheap pick since it's available with faster Ryzen CPUs and NVIDIA 40-series GPUs, providing significantly better gaming performance. Removed the HP Victus 15 (2022) from the Notable Mentions because it's discontinued and hard to find. Added the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i 15 (2023) as a Notable Mention.
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Feb 08, 2024: Minor text edits for clarity. No changes in product picks.
All Reviews
Our recommendations above are what we think are currently the best cheap and budget laptops you can get. We factor in the price (a cheaper laptopwins over a pricier one if the difference isn't worth it), feedback from our visitors, and availability (no laptops that are difficult to find or almost out of stock everywhere).
If you prefer to make your own decision, here’s the list of all of our laptop reviews, sorted by price from low to high. Keep in mind that most laptops are available in various configurations, and the table only shows the results of the model we tested, so it’s best to see the full review for information about other variants.
