Skip to main content
A close up of a black laptop placed on top of a white laptop Credit: Reviewed / Jackson Ruckar

The Best Budget Laptops of 2023

Recommendations are independently chosen by Reviewed's editors. Purchases made through the links below may earn us and our publishing partners a commission. Prices were accurate at the time this article was published but may change over time.

A close up of a black laptop placed on top of a white laptop Credit: Reviewed / Jackson Ruckar

Why trust Reviewed?

Reviewed's mission is to help you buy the best stuff and get the most out of what you already own. Our team of product experts thoroughly vet every product we recommend to help you cut through the clutter and find what you need.

Learn more about our product testing
1
Editor's Choice Product image of Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i (2023)
Best Overall

Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i (2023)

Lenovo's IdeaPad Flex 5i wrings plenty of performance out of its Intel Core i5-1335U—and its responsive touchscreen makes it a great "budget" 2-in-1. Read More

Pros

  • Good performance for the price
  • Responsive touchscreen
  • Higher-end look than the price suggests

Cons

  • Screen isn’t the brightest or most colorful
  • Heavy
2
Editor's Choice Product image of Acer Swift 3 (2021)
Best Value

Acer Swift 3 (2021)

The Acer Swift 3 is perfect for portable productivity but is plagued by bloatware and too few ports. Read More

Pros

  • Outstanding portability
  • Great productivity performance
  • Runs very quietly

Cons

  • Limited connectivity options
  • A ridiculous amount of bloatware
  • Performance outside of productivity is lackluster
3
Editor's Choice Product image of Acer Nitro 5 (2022)
Best Gaming

Acer Nitro 5 (2022)

The Acer Nitro 5 may be a budget PC, but it gets the details right on the hardware and the design. Read More

Pros

  • Great 1080p performance
  • Quality keyboard and trackpad
  • Chassis stays cool

Cons

  • Mediocre battery life
  • Muted display, mediocre audio
  • Chunky chassis
4
Editor's Choice Product image of Apple MacBook Air M1 (Late 2020)
Best MacBook

Apple MacBook Air M1 (Late 2020)

The new MacBook Air looks like business as usual, but its unbelievable battery life and powerful new M1 processor blew us away. Read More

Pros

  • Jaw-dropping battery life
  • Incredible performance
  • Iconic build quality

Cons

  • Poor port selection
5
Editor's Choice Product image of Acer Chromebook 516 GE (2022)
Best Chromebook

Acer Chromebook 516 GE (2022)

The Acer Chromebook 516 GE is a gaming-focused device that has more to offer than a standard Chromebook, like a high refresh rate display. Read More

Pros

  • Fantastic performance
  • 120Hz display makes everything smoother
  • Plenty connectivity options

Cons

  • No Thunderbolt 4 connectivity
  • Speakers don’t sound great

The best budget laptops often come with minimal drive space, memory, and slow processors. You won’t be able to use them to run graphically-intensive games—but for giving your kids access to the web, sending a teen off to college, or for you to stay up to date with your family, a budget laptop could be an ideal purchase.

We’re always testing a mix of Windows laptops, MacBooks, and Chromebooks to find you the best options that will stretch your budget the furthest. Our top pick currently is the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i, (available at Lenovo) an incredibly well-rounded, 2-in-1 laptop for its hardware specs and feature set.

An open and powered on laptop showing a colorful image on its display
Credit: Reviewed / Kris Wouk
Best Overall
Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i (2023)
  • Processor: Intel Core i5-1335U
  • Graphics: Intel Iris Xe
  • Memory: 16GB LPDDR4 4267MHz
  • Storage: 512GB SSD
  • Display: 14-inch, 1920 × 1200, 60Hz, IPS LED-backlit touchscreen with stylus support
  • Battery: 7.5+ hours

The Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i is a solid, speedy, and reliable 2-in-1 laptop for the price. The model we reviewed cost $800, and that’s still a steal of a price for the performance, reliability, and versatility it offers, and it looks more expensive than it actually is.

Its processor keeps up with Intel’s fast, last-gen i7 H-series chips, despite it being one of the slowest mobile processors Intel offers from its current, 13th-generation line-up. The IdeaPad Flex 5i also has every type of port you could ever realistically need.

We were most impressed with the responsive touchscreen, a crucial aspect of any 2-in-1 laptop. The display brightness was lower than we would have liked to see, but that only starts to cause glare problems if you use the laptop outside on a super sunny day.

You will want to listen to music or other types of rich, layered audio through headphones; the Flex’s speakers are tinny and quieter compared to, say, a 5th-generation iPad Air.

Read our full Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i review.

Pros

  • Good performance for the price

  • Responsive touchscreen

  • Higher-end look than the price suggests

Cons

  • Screen isn’t the brightest or most colorful

  • Heavy

A person using an open and powered on laptop at a desk
Credit: Reviewed / Jackson Ruckar
Best Value
Acer Swift 3 (2021)
  • Processor: Intel Core i7-1165G7
  • Graphics: Intel Iris Xe (integrated)
  • Memory: 16GB
  • Storage: 512GB SSD
  • Display: 15-inch, 1920 x 1080
  • Battery life: About 9.5 hours

The Acer Swift 3 is one of lightest budget laptops we’ve ever tested—under 3 pounds like newer and much more expensive laptops such as the MSI Prestige 13 EVO and the 13-inch MacBook Air M2. Its battery life is also one of the longest out of all the laptops on this list.

Compared to Acer’s Aspire 5 (which we recommend if you have only $500 or less to spend), the Swift 3 gives you a small uplift in processing performance, double the RAM, double the storage, and 3-4 more hours of battery life, which is a crucial feature for productivity laptops.

The Swift 3’s display is also an inch larger than the Aspire 5, so it’s a better deal all around if you have more wiggle room in your budget.

Read our full Acer Swift 3 review.

Pros

  • Outstanding portability

  • Great productivity performance

  • Runs very quietly

Cons

  • Limited connectivity options

  • A ridiculous amount of bloatware

  • Performance outside of productivity is lackluster

An open and powered on laptop with a pair of hands over the keys playing a game
Credit: Reviewed / Jackson Ruckar
Best Gaming
Acer Nitro 5 (2022)
  • Processor: Intel Core i5-12500H
  • Graphics: Nvidia RTX 3060
  • Memory: 16GB DDR4
  • Storage: 512GB
  • Display: 15.6-inch, 1920 x 1080p, 144Hz, IPS
  • Battery life: 3+ hours

The Acer Nitro 5 configuration we reviewed does still go for over $1,000 when it’s not on sale. But the RTX 3050 Ti model drops below that, and it performs almost as well as the RTX 3060. It supports ray tracing and offers twice the speed of the GTX 1650 in our previous Nitro 5 budget pick—but if you don’t mind spending a couple of hundred bucks more for the RTX 3060 model, we recommend getting the one we reviewed.

This Nitro 5’s all-black color scheme and subtle colored highlights look more mature than many of the RGB light shows you tend to see in the gaming space. It’s bulky, but it uses its space to circulate air and keep its high-powered hardware cool. The keyboard and trackpad are both comfortable and easy to use. Finally, the display produces gorgeous colors and its 144Hz refresh rate is useful for fast-paced esports titles.

Battery life is the most lackluster feature of this gaming laptop. Our test unit didn’t even last four hours when gaming on battery power. We also wish that the display’s color gamut was more vibrant. Still, Acer gets the essentials right in its affordable Nitro 5.

Read our full Acer Nitro 5 review.

Pros

  • Great 1080p performance

  • Quality keyboard and trackpad

  • Chassis stays cool

Cons

  • Mediocre battery life

  • Muted display, mediocre audio

  • Chunky chassis

MacBook lies on white table surrounded by plants
Credit: Reviewed / Betsey Goldwasser
Best MacBook
Apple MacBook Air M1 (Late 2020)
  • Processor: Apple M1 (8-core)
  • Graphics: Integrated (7-core)
  • Memory: 8GB
  • Storage: 256GB
  • Display: 13.3-inch, 2560 x 1600, LED-backlit IPS
  • Battery life: 11.5+ hours

The Apple MacBook Air M1 continues to be our best budget MacBook pick for anyone who needs nearly half a day of battery life, a powerful processor, and an incredibly smooth trackpad.

This M1 version is almost identical to the last Intel-based MacBook Air, too. The only changes are the switch from Intel to the Apple-made M1 processors and the total lack of fans. This is also the year Apple went back to its scissor keyboard switches and finally ditched its not-nearly-as-good butterfly switches.

We can’t imagine anyone not falling in love with the Apple MacBook Air M1, especially if you are looking for a laptop that will last you through high school or college.

Read our full Apple MacBook Air M1 review.

Pros

  • Jaw-dropping battery life

  • Incredible performance

  • Iconic build quality

Cons

  • Poor port selection

Acer Chromebook open, on a table.
Credit: Reviewed / Kris Wouk

The Acer Chromebook is secure, fast, up-to-date, versatile, and simple. With thousands of apps, built-in virus protection and cloud backups.

Best Chromebook
Acer Chromebook 516 GE (2022)
  • Processor: Intel Core i5-1240P
  • Graphics: Intel Iris Xe Graphics
  • Memory: 8GB LPDDR4X
  • Storage: 256GB SSD
  • Display: 16-inch, 2560 x 1600, 120Hz LED
  • Battery life: 7+ hours

The Acer Chromebook 516 GE isn’t the most powerful laptop ever built, but it’s reasonably priced for a “buff” and well-constructed Chromebook. You don’t have to love gaming to appreciate what this machine offers, as there isn’t a lot that makes the Acer Chromebook 516 GE a “gaming” Chromebook. But we recommend it regardless if you use it for cloud gaming or not.

Of course, if gaming is your priority, there’s plenty to enjoy. You get anti-ghosting and an RGB backlit keyboard, as well as a 120Hz refresh rate that’s almost unheard of for a Chromebook. Honestly, if you don’t mind the web-only limitations, this is a great way to get more features than some of Acer’s best Windows productivity laptops for similar or less money.

Naturally, any device can deliver cloud gaming. Having a stable Internet connection is more important than a specific machine. The good news is that in addition to being one of the fastest Chromebooks we’ve ever tested, it boasts WiFi 6E and an Ethernet port for when you absolutely need rock-solid Internet connectivity.

Read our full Acer Chromebook 516 GE review.

Pros

  • Fantastic performance

  • 120Hz display makes everything smoother

  • Plenty connectivity options

Cons

  • No Thunderbolt 4 connectivity

  • Speakers don’t sound great

Other Laptops We Tested

Product image of HP Envy x360 15.6 (2022)
HP Envy x360 15.6 (2022)
  • Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 5625U
  • Graphics: Integrated
  • Memory: 8GB DDR4 3200MHz
  • Storage: 512GB SSD
  • Display: 15.6-inch, 1920 x 1080p
  • Battery: 8+ hours

We love this budget-friendly, HP Envy x360 2-in-1 laptop. It comes in many configurations, including a 32GB RAM, 2TB SSD version and one with a faster AMD Ryzen 5 7530U processor.

But the Ryzen 5 5625U processor is no slouch when it comes to performance. Among all of our benchmarking data, the HP Envy x360 is one of the top-performing sub-$1,000 laptops (but not faster than our top pick here). This laptop’s battery life also is great, thanks in part to the power-efficient processor. The 51-watt-hour battery can hold a charge for eight-plus hours.

Typing on this laptop is comfortable, and the keyboard has large, springy keys perfect for working on papers or reports. The trackpad also is well-made and responds to taps and complex, multi-touch gestures quickly and accurately. We do wish HP took it easy on the bloatware, though.

Read our full HP Envy x360 review.

Pros

  • Sturdy, stylish chassis

  • Good performance

  • Good battery life

Cons

  • Mediocre display

  • Bloatware

Product image of Dell XPS 13 9315 (2022)
Dell XPS 13 9315 (2022)
  • Processor: Intel Core i5-1230U
  • Graphics: Intel Iris Xe (integrated)
  • Memory: 16GB LPDDR5
  • Storage: 512GB SSD
  • Display: 13.4-inch, 1920 x 1200, IPS, LCD (optional touchsreen)
  • Battery life: About 16 hours

The Dell XPS 13 (9315) falls to the “right” price ($850) when it’s on sale. It has the same polish and refinement as MSI’s Prestige 13 Evo and a much longer battery life than the MacBook Air. It’s the kind of laptop you can purchase without much thought and without regretting your decision.

Despite it being the best XPS laptop Dell has made (that we’ve tested), the biggest reason it’s not higher up on this list is that its processing performance is much slower than the others. It currently ranks in the bottom five in our testing data compared to every laptop we’ve reviewed in the last year. But you won’t need an obscene amount of processing power if you need a laptop for only simple computing tasks.

If you need a tad more performance and don’t mind potentially sacrificing some battery power to get it, you can get the Dell XPS 13 with an Intel Core i7-1250U processor for $899 (on sale). It’s a faster processor when it comes to running actual applications compared to something like the M2, but the Core i7-1250U isn’t nearly as power-efficient—expect the XPS 13 configured with a Core i7 to get under 15 hours of battery life.

Read our full Dell XPS 13 review.

Pros

  • Sturdy and functional design

  • Great battery life

  • Competitive pricing

Cons

  • Mediocre performance

  • Only two Thunderbolt ports

  • Webcam and microphone don’t impress

Product image of Asus TUF Dash 15 (2022)
Asus TUF Dash 15 (2022)
  • Processor: Intel Core i7-12650H
  • Graphics: Nvidia RTX 3060
  • Memory: 16GB DDR5 4800MHz
  • Storage: 512GB SSD
  • Display: 15.6-inch, 1920 x 1080, 144Hz IPS
  • Battery life: 6+ hours

The Asus TUF Dash F15 is another stand-out gaming laptop we enjoyed, and it comes with an important feature for increasing its gaming performance: a MUX Switch. When enabled, the laptop’s discrete GPU processes every frame before sending them to the display, reducing latency and boosting gaming performance by a small percentage. When disabled, the GPU will route information through the CPU’s integrated graphics first. That will boost your battery life at the cost of some fps.

Like a lot of sub-$1,000 gaming laptops, the Dash F15 gets loud and hot when under a full load, and the built-in speakers produce a thin, tinny sound. Combine those two and you probably won’t hear much of what you’re playing.

If you configured the Dash F15 with a Core i5-12450H and an RTX 3050 drops the price to $900 or less without cutting too much of its gaming performance. You only get 8GB of RAM, but you can always add more since the memory isn’t soldered to the motherboard.

Read our full Asus TUF Dash F15 review.

Pros

  • Stylish chassis

  • Great performance

  • Useful features

Cons

  • Dull, muddy screen

  • Loud when gaming

  • Poor webcam

Product image of Asus Zenbook 14 OLED (2022)
Asus Zenbook 14 OLED (2022)
  • Processor: Intel Core i5-1240P
  • Graphics: Intel Iris Xe (integrated)
  • Memory: 8GB LPDDR5
  • Storage: 256GB SSD
  • Display: 14-inch, 2880 x 1800, 90Hz, OLED
  • Battery life: 7.5+ hours

When you factor in the number of upgrades the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED provides beyond the basics, its price feels like a steal, especially if you can find it on sale for $500 or less.

It’s more common to find just-okay IPS displays with 300 nits of brightness in sub-$1,000 laptops, so the fact that this Zenbook 14 has an OLED display (with a 630-nit peak) at this price is truly a rare find. It’s also stylishly designed and constructed with sturdy materials. The keyboard is wonderfully tactile and the trackpad is both large and responsive. Even the port selection is well-rounded.

Our only caveat is that if you are a heavy multitasker, routinely have 50-plus tabs open in your browser, or use your laptop in such a way that 100% of the RAM is taken up at all times, then you might discover 8GB of memory is not enough—and unfortunately, the RAM is soldered onto the Zenbook 14’s motherboard, so you won’t be (easily) able to swap out that 8GB stick or add another.

Read our full review of the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED.

Pros

  • Stunning display

  • Snappy performance

  • Exceptional interfaces

Cons

  • Gets toasty

  • RAM constrained for heavy multitasking

Product image of Lenovo IdeaPad 5 Gaming Chromebook (2022)
Lenovo IdeaPad 5 Gaming Chromebook (2022)
  • Processor: Intel Core i5-1235U
  • Graphics: Intel Iris Xe (Integrated)
  • Memory: 8GB DDR4
  • Storage: 256GB SSD
  • Display: 16-inch 2560 x 1600p 120Hz IPS
  • Battery life: 12+ hours

Lenovo’s IdeaPad 5 Gaming Chromebook is uniquely souped up for a Chromebook, like the Acer Chromebook 516 GE. It boasts a 120Hz display, RGB lighting, anti-ghosting keys, and Wi-Fi 6E. If you can grab it on sale, it makes up for the weaker processor with a battery life that surpasses Acer’s by five hours.

It’s compatible with plenty of cloud gaming services like Nvidia GeForce Now, Xbox Cloud Gaming, Luna, Utomik, and more. GeForce Now stands out by supporting ray tracing and 120Hz refresh rates.

You can still have a good cloud gaming experience with a Chromebook that isn’t gaming-specific. But particularly when it comes to the display, this premium Chromebook has some standout options you won’t see in a traditional model.

Read our full Lenovo IdeaPad 5 Gaming Chromebook review.

Pros

  • Excellent 120Hz display

  • Snappy processor

  • Lots of useful ports

Cons

  • Middling graphics performance

  • Limited native game compatibility

How We Test Budget Laptops

The Tests

Best $200 Laptops
Credit: Reviewed / Jackson Ruckar

We use a standardized set of tests to assess each laptop we lay our hands on.

We test the overall usability of the laptop: screen quality, performance, the keyboard and trackpad, battery life, storage read and write speeds and other factors.

Because the laptops in this guide are mostly designed for running web applications like Google Docs, we utilize the web-based benchmarks Basemark and Speedometer in Google Chrome. We also test with Geekbench 6 and 3DMark to compare processing and graphics power to other productivity laptops.

We run our display tests with a colorimeter like the SpyderX or X-Rite i1Display Studio—small, plug-and-play USB devices that measure luminance and color accuracy. We measure max brightness, the white levels, and black levels at max brightness and then again at 50% brightness.

We test the battery life of each laptop to see how long you can use them between charges. With their displays adjusted to a brightness of 200 nits, we set them to continuously cycle through popular websites, simulating the way you would use the laptop when idly browsing the web.

What You Should Know About Budget Laptops

Best $200 Laptops
Credit: Reviewed / Jackson Ruckar

A little bit of knowledge can help you make a better laptop buying decision.

Cheap laptops are usually equipped with low-end processors, memory, storage, displays, and keyboards—all in the name of providing consumers with the lowest-priced laptop possible. Laptops that sell in the price range covered by this guide are still more than adequate for completing many tasks.

Their processors are fast enough to provide a smooth web browsing experience. Using Google Docs or creating simple documents in Microsoft Word or Excel are reasonable asks of laptops under $500 and even laptops under $1,000. But if you have a bit more space in your budget, many of the laptops on this list have mid-range or higher-end models if you need something with faster performance.

Chromebooks versus Windows/Mac Laptops

As you compare Windows and Mac laptops to Chromebooks, you’ll notice that the budget laptops running ChromeOS are snappier than their full operating system counterparts. This is because ChromeOS was built from a lightweight framework that takes a minuscule amount of processing power to run in comparison to Windows or macOS.

ChromeOS’s seamless integration with the Google Cloud services allows it to take advantage of Google’s powerful suite of productivity tools and platforms, such as Docs, Sheets, YouTube, Stadia, and the Play Store. There is very little you can’t accomplish without a simple web browser these days.

What Windows and macOS offer over ChromeOS is compatibility with many legacy apps. You can download Microsoft Office on ChromeOS these days, but if you want to use something like Scrivener, you’d have to have Windows or macOS.

Display Size

  • 11-inch laptops: These tiny laptops are perfect for tossing in your bag and whipping out whenever. They’ve become less popular than they used to be, but they’re still a great choice for people who are constantly moving around.
  • 13- and 14-inch laptops: These smaller laptops are also great for carrying around, and more than suitable for light work like writing papers and browsing the web. Their slightly larger size makes them easier to use for longer periods than 11-inch laptops.
  • 15- and 16-inch laptops: Mid-sized laptops are a bit less portable, and won’t necessarily work in space-constrained spaces like airplane seats. But the larger display is useful for photo editing and watching videos.
  • 17-inch laptops: This is very large, and only recommended if you are doing video editing or other intensive work that requires a lot of screen real estate—and you don’t mind lugging it around.

Under the Hood

For budget laptops, the most important hardware is the central processor (CPU), the working memory (RAM), and the storage (SSD) capacity.

Intel’s Pentium line or AMD’s A6 chips are adequately powerful, although you’ll get the snappiest performance out of entry-level mainline processors, like the Intel Core i3 and Core i5 chips or the AMD Ryzen 3 and Ryzen 5 chips.

8GB is the sweet spot for RAM since this gives the computer enough memory to run more than one program at once. 4GB can work on ChromeOS laptops but don’t expect that small amount to handle a lot of multitasking at once.

You’ll want at least 128GB of storage space on a Chromebook and 256GB of storage space on a Windows laptop for optimal performance, but you can usually expand your storage space with microSD cards and external storage drives.

Meet the testers

Adrien Ramirez

Adrien Ramirez

Staff Writer

@itsaramkat

Adrien is a staff writer for Reviewed, mainly focused on reviewing laptops and other consumer tech. During his free time, he's usually wandering around Hyrule.

See all of Adrien Ramirez's reviews
Joanna Nelius

Joanna Nelius

Senior Editor, Electronics

@JLNwrites

Joanna specializes in anything and everything gaming-related and loves nerding out over graphics cards, processors, and chip architecture. Previously she was a staff writer for Gizmodo, PC Gamer, and Maximum PC.

See all of Joanna Nelius's reviews

Checking our work.

Our team is here for one purpose: to help you buy the best stuff and love what you own. Our writers, editors, and lab technicians obsess over the products we cover to make sure you're confident and satisfied. Have a different opinion about something we recommend? Email us and we'll compare notes.

Shoot us an email