As long as you manage your expectations when it comes to options and specs, you can still get quite a bit from a budget laptop model, including good battery life and a reasonably lightweight laptop body.
The bright spot is that you don’t have to settle for a traditional clamshell laptop with a fixed display and keyboard. You can also get a convertible laptop (also known as a two-in-one), which has a screen that flips around the screen to turn the screen into a tablet, for comfortable podcasting or for giving a presentation.
Keep in mind that all convertibles work like laptops and tablets. A touch screen is a prerequisite for tablet operation, and several support stylus (aka stylus) for handwritten and sketched input. Don’t assume a stylus is included, though.
One thing you won’t find in the prices of these cheap laptops: a MacBook or any other Apple laptop. The iPad will run you more than $500 once you buy the optional keyboard (though it might work out less if you’re looking for tablet or keyboard sales), which is well over our budget here. A basic model iPad with an inexpensive Bluetooth keyboard and a cheap iPad stand might suffice.
You’ll see a lot of cheap laptops listed as coming with Windows 10 S, which is a locked, locked version of the operating system intended for use by schools — it only allows you to install apps from the Windows Store. You can use the Microsoft Edge browser and it includes a subset of administrative tools in Windows 10 Pro. However, you can upgrade to the full version for free.
Inexpensive Chromebooks are easier to find than Windows laptops, making them one of the most popular budget laptops on the market, although we also see a lot more Chromebooks in the $500-1000 range. dollar.
Google’s ChromeOS isn’t as power-hungry as Windows (check the specs), so you can make do with a lower-end processor, slower storage, lower screen resolution or less RAM—just a few of the components that make an expensive laptop.
But the flip side is that Chrome and Google apps are more of a memory stick than you might expect, and if you go too low with the processor or skimp on memory, the system will still run slow.
ChromeOS is also a much different experience from Windows; Make sure the apps you need have a Chrome app, Android app, or Linux app before you make the jump. Since Chromebooks are cloud-first devices, you don’t need a lot of built-in storage.
It also means that if you spend most of your time roaming the web, typing, streaming video, or playing Android games, it’s a perfect fit. If you like to play Android games, make sure you get a Chromebook with a touch screen.
For cheap gaming laptops, you’ll still have to break the $500 ceiling to support most games. Less expensive laptops suitable for solid gaming performance—those with moderately powerful discrete graphics processors—will run you closer to $700. Here are our recommendations if you’re looking for the best gaming laptop under $1,000.
Although if you want to live on the bleeding edge, cloud gaming services like Nvidia GeForce Now and Microsoft Xbox Game Pass Ultimate’s Cloud Gaming will let you play games on spec laptops for under $500.