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The Microsoft Surface Laptop on a wooden table Credit: Reviewed / Jackson Ruckar

The Best Laptops Under $1,000 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.

The Microsoft Surface Laptop on a wooden table Credit: Reviewed / Jackson Ruckar

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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 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
3
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
4
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
5
Editor's Choice Product image of HP Envy x360 15.6 (2022)

HP Envy x360 15.6 (2022)

The HP Envy x360 is a gorgeous 2-in-1 laptop. It's beautifully built and is snappy enough for most tasks. Read More

Pros

  • Sturdy, stylish chassis
  • Good performance
  • Good battery life

Cons

  • Mediocre display
  • Bloatware

The best laptops under $1,000 may not be able to do everything that more expensive laptops can. That’s why it’s important to know what features matter the most to you so you can get the best deal on a laptop possible.

After testing top-rated affordable laptops, we enjoyed the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i (available at Lenovo) , which pricing starts at around $650. That’s an incredible price for nearly eight hours of battery life, a speedy, mid-range processor, and enough wired connectivity options for the price.

There are plenty of other great laptops on the market, and we're here to help you find the best one for you in your price range.

The best laptops under $1,000 may not be able to do everything that more expensive laptops can. That’s why it’s important to know what features matter the most to you so you can get the best deal on a laptop possible.

After testing top-rated affordable laptops, we enjoyed the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i (available at Lenovo) , which pricing starts at around $650. That’s an incredible price for nearly eight hours of battery life, a speedy, mid-range processor, and enough wired connectivity options for the price.

There are plenty of other great laptops on the market, and we're here to help you find the best one for you in your price range.

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 $900, 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

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 SSD
  • Display: 15.6-inch, 1920 x 1080p, 144Hz, IPS
  • Battery life: 3+ hours

The Acer Nitro 5 we reviewed still costs a little over $1,000, but you can find the RTX 3050 Ti model for as low as $799 when on sale. Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3050 Ti performs almost as well as the RTX 3060, supports ray tracing, and offers twice the speed of the GTX 1650 in our previous Nitro 5 budget pick.

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.

Acer’s battery life has never been a standout feature, and this Nitro 5 is no exception—our test unit didn’t even last four hours. If you’re doing any kind of serious gaming, you’ll want to plug it in. 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
  • Graphics: Integrated
  • Memory: 16GB
  • Storage: 256GB
  • Display: 13-inch 2560 x 1440p Liquid Retina
  • Battery: 11.5+ hours

If you want to spend the least amount of money possible on a MacBook, the Apple MacBook Air M1 is just as efficient as its newer M2 sibling. Even though the M2 is about 10% faster than the M1, that won't have much of an effect on the type of work students, writers, teachers, et al. do daily.

The MacBook Air M1 comes with the same aluminum chassis and Retina screen we loved in the earlier 2020 Intel MacBook Air. Because you can't upgrade the M1 MacBooks after purchase, we recommend splurging on a model with at least 512GB of storage.

With a shockingly good battery life of almost 12 hours, performance that beats most Windows laptops, and an incredibly smooth trackpad and tactile keyboard, it should be no surprise that the MacBook Air M1 has been so popular. Unless you need Windows 11 specifically, the MacBook Air is a fabulous laptop for pulling all-nighters, writing essays, and streaming high-resolution video.

Read our full 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

There isn’t a lot that makes the Acer Chromebook 516 GE a “gaming” Chromebook, but it’s a reasonably-priced knockout of a laptop. We recommend this well-constructed, powerful, and pleasantly affordable Chromebook, whether you use it for cloud gaming or not.

As far as gaming features go, Acer’s Chromebook 516 GE has anti-ghosting and RGB lighting. It also has a high refresh rate display customarily found only on traditional gaming laptops. In fact, this Chromebook’s entire package gives you more features for the same or lower price than many of Acer’s Windows-based productivity laptops like the Swift 3.

Of course, you can play games in the cloud on any device. A specific machine like the 516 GE—any gaming Chromebook, really—is less important than a stable, speedy Internet connection. (As good as the Wi-Fi 6E adapter is on this device, it can’t do magic.)

Acer did include an Ethernet port with this device, and a wired Internet connection is plenty stable for cloud gaming. Unfortunately, too much of the gaming experience is dictated by factors like Wi-Fi speeds that the device can’t control. Still, it’s one of the fastest Chromebooks we’ve ever tested, especially for the price.

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 Under $1000 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

HP’s Envy x360 is another budget-friendly, 2-in-1 laptop, but is configured with an AMD processor instead of an Intel processor like our top pick. There are many configurations available, 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, as we removed upward of 15 pre-installed programs offering everything from cloud storage to free antivirus software trials.

Read our full HP Envy x360 review.

Pros

  • Sturdy, stylish chassis

  • Good performance

  • Good battery life

Cons

  • Mediocre display

  • Bloatware

Product image of Acer Swift Go 16 (2023)
Acer Swift Go 16 (2023)
  • Processor: Intel Core i7-13700H
  • Graphics: Iris Xe Graphics
  • Memory: 16GB LPDDR5 6400MHz
  • Storage: 1TB SSD
  • Display: 16-inch, 3200 × 2000, 120Hz OLED
  • Battery: ~7.4 hours

If you must have an Intel 13th-gen processor and an OLED screen, but can’t spend more than $1,000, take a look at Acer’s Swift Go 16. It’s a less versatile machine than some of the best laptops, but it has matching processing power. The configuration we reviewed retails for $1,200, but you can get the still excellent $800 model with an Intel Core i5-1335U or drop down to the 14-inch version.

Its processor keeps pace with Apple’s MacBook Pro 14 M2 Pro (or beats it, depending on the test), chewing through large Excel spreadsheets with complex formulas and thousands of rows of data. Also, its integrated graphics performance is sufficient for “light” gaming if you catch yourself focusing on too much work and not enough playtime.

One thing we didn’t like about the Swift Go 16 was how warm it got under load (due to the power-hungry H-series chip inside). You’ll never have to worry about the laptop getting too hot to set on your laptop, but some might find it uncomfortable.

Read our full Acer Swift Go 16 review.

Pros

  • Great productivity performance

  • Solid, yet lightweight chassis

  • Great touchpad, decent keyboard

Cons

  • OLED screen doesn’t get very bright

  • Can run warm

Product image of Acer Swift 3 OLED (2022)
Acer Swift 3 OLED (2022)
  • Processor: Intel Core i7-12700H
  • Graphics: Intel Iris Xe
  • Memory: 16GB LPDDR5
  • Storage size: 1TB SSD
  • Display: 14-inch, 2880 x 1800, OLED
  • Battery life: 5.5+ hours

Other laptops are more aesthetically pleasing, have a better key feel, and are thinner and lighter, but unlike the Acer Swift 3 OLED, they usually don’t come with an OLED display. So if OLED screens are your jam but you don’t want to spend a fortune on a laptop to get one, this Swift 3 is a good option.

Acer stuck an H-series Intel processor in its Swift 3 OLED (which is more commonly found in gaming laptops), whereas many of its competitors used one of Intel’s slower P-series. It’s not as fast as Apple’s M2 chips (or Acer’s Swift Go 16), but it does surpass Apple’s M1 Pro in raw single-core and multi-core processing power.

It also has one of the fastest SSD read and write times in a laptop we’ve recently tested; it’s ousted only by the LG Gram Pro 17 and Apple MacBook Pro 14 M2 Pro.

But with just under six hours of battery life, the Swift 3 OLED ranks near the bottom of all the productivity laptops we’ve tested in the last year—but it’s enough. If you don’t mind sacrificing a little bit of speed for better battery life, you can drop down to an Intel Core i5 with half the memory and storage space, or keep the display as dim as lighting conditions will allow.

Read our full Acer Swift 3 OLED review.

Pros

  • Speedy Intel H processor

  • Gorgeous OLED display

Cons

  • Design quirks

  • Sad audio

  • So-so battery life

Product image of Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 7420 (2022)
Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 7420 (2022)
  • Processor: Intel Core i7-1255U
  • Graphics: Intel Iris Xe
  • Memory: 16GB DDR4 3200MHz
  • Storage: 512GB
  • Display: 14-inch, 1920 x 1200, 60Hz, IPS touch display
  • Battery life: About 7 hours

This Dell Inspiron 14 2-in-1 has some frustrating quirks. It’s large and heavy. The trackpad responsiveness is off, and the battery life and heat management could have been improved. But its crucial features are polished, making it a strong contender for people who want a tablet with an occasional keyboard.

The touchscreen is responsive, pressure-sensitive, and speedy. It comes with a Dell Active Pen that offers 4096 pressure levels but is also compatible with Wacom styluses.

The screen isn’t a game-changer, but it’s also no slouch. The brightness and resolution are fine for most use cases. The speakers are powerful (if oddly placed). The keyboard is silent enough for quiet environments and folks with auditory sensitivities.

Read our full Dell Inspiron 14 2-in1 review.

Pros

  • Pressure-sensitive tablet mode

  • Quiet keyboard

Cons

  • Uncomfortable laptop mode

  • Chunky design

  • Poor heat management

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) has the same polish and refinement as MSI’s Prestige 13 Evo, a much longer battery life than the MacBook Air, and the “right” price: $850 on sale at Dell. 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 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

The Asus Zenbook 14 OLED isn’t as powerful as the other OLED laptops in our various guides, but when you factor in the number of upgrades this laptop provides beyond the basics, the 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

How We Test Budget Laptops

Top view of Microsoft Surface laptop
Credit: Reviewed / Jackson Ruckar

We test laptops for their processing capability, graphics, battery life, and screen brightness.

We put PCs under $1,000 through the same tests as the best laptops you can buy. Every computer we test is evaluated on processing capability, graphics, battery life, and screen brightness.

Additionally, we also use each laptop for an extended time, looking at factors like price, build quality, design, and portability.

What You Should Know About Budget Under $1,000

Whether you need a Chromebook for web browsing, a high-powered machine for gaming, or a business laptop for video calls, you should be able to find a computer at an affordable price. Still, you’ll likely have to make some choices about what’s most important to you. Here are some things to consider:

Price

While $1,000 is a lot of money, it’s actually more mid-range when it comes to laptops. At this price point, you’re getting good performance for most everyday tasks that won’t feel sluggish after a year or two of use, plus solid build quality and a few nice bells and whistles like facial recognition.

Performance

How well your computer can multitask, handle intensive tasks like gaming, and store all your files is determined by the CPU, graphics chip, RAM, and storage inside your PC. The better the specs, the snappier the laptop will feel as you work.

Display Size

The size of a laptop display is measured by its diagonal length. You’ll usually find laptops in one of three main sizes—13 inches and under, 15 inches, or 17 inches.

The smallest laptops are very portable and more suitable for lighter work and browsing the web. You lose some portability with laptops with 15-inch displays, but they are more useful for photo editing and watching videos. We recommend laptops with 17-inch displays if you are doing video editing or other intensive work that requires a bigger screen. They can be a pain to lug around.

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

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