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When it comes to shopping for the best cheap laptops, you can do a lot with $1,000. (Heck, even $500 cuts some mustard nowadays.) But you’ll probably have to make some compromises along the way to stay below that price point.
That doesn’t mean you have to settle for a total clunker that doesn’t tick any of the boxes on your must-have specs list. It just means you have to shop a little smarter than someone with unlimited funds.
This time of year, that means timing your laptop purchase with Amazon’s flagship Prime Day sale. Live from July 16 to 17 for Prime members (which is free to try for 30 days), the event will feature steeper-than-usual discounts on a wider assortment of laptops than Amazon usually offers. In addition to the usual MacBook markdowns, we also expect to see a lot of older Windows laptops, budget Chromebooks, and starter gaming laptops on the menu.
Prime Day is also noteworthy because it prompts competing sales at other retailers. Best Buy’s Black Friday in July sale from July 15 to 17 will give Amazon the biggest run for its money simply because the store stocks way more laptop brands and configurations. It’s also known to match or one-up Amazon’s pricing where their inventories overlap, so cross-checking deals between the two is key. (Bookmark our guide to the best Prime Day laptop deals if you don’t want to scour the myriad listings yourself.)
Not sure which cheap laptops you should be looking for on Prime Day? Keep reading: The Mashable team is constantly reviewing new laptops, and we can recommend several affordable machines for different budgets, operating system loyalties, and use cases based on our hands-on testing.
What is the best cheap laptop?
As of mid-2024, we believe the best cheap MacBook is the 13-inch Apple MacBook Air powered by the previous-generation M2 chip. It’s speedy enough for most people, it’s got a great keyboard, and it starts at $999 (though it’s often on sale for less than $900).
Among Windows laptops, the Lenovo Yoga 7i 14 (Gen 9) is currently the best cheap laptop we’ve tested. It has a newer processor and a good battery life, it doubles as a tablet, and it comes in at a starting price of $899.99.
Below, we go deeper on these picks and some other solid options. FYI: We’ve listed the pricing and specs of our testing units, which may not apply to each laptop’s base model.
Our Pick
Read Mashable’s full review of the 13-inch Apple MacBook Air (M2).
Who it’s for:
Apple’s 13-inch M2 MacBook Air from mid-2022 isn’t quite as fast as the latest M3 model, and it lacks its successor’s support for two external monitors and WiFi 6E. (Get that new version if you want the very best MacBook regardless of price.) But those are easy sacrifices to make if you don’t want to spend more than $1,000. All things considered, it’s a no-brainer recommendation for budget-conscious Apple users in need of a reliable everyday laptop.
Why we picked this:
The M2 MacBook Air “delivers everything you need” in a laptop, wrote Mashable tech and games reporter Alex Perry in his review. That includes an all-day battery life, a snappy keyboard, and “enough horsepower to handle everyday tasks with ease.” It also sports a 1080p FaceTime HD camera that produces a clear picture in low light, plus a four-speaker setup with Spatial Audio and Dolby Atmos support. Despite needing a few more ports, it effortlessly clinched our Mashable’s Choice Award — and after a permanent list price drop to $999 in March 2024, it’s now a better value than ever. (It technically isn’t the cheapest MacBook available, as you can still buy the $699 M1 MacBook Air, but that model’s too outdated to endorse at this point.)
Note that Apple has discontinued the M2 MacBook Air in a 15-inch screen size as of early 2024, but it was still up for grabs at third-party retailers like Best Buy and B&H Photo at the time of writing.
Read Mashable’s full review of the Lenovo Yoga 7i 14 (Gen 9).
Who it’s for:
Lenovo’s Yoga 7i is an affordable point of entry to the realm of AI PCs. It also has an Intel Core Ultra chip for those interested in a next-gen upgrade. Its 2-in-1 design will also entice thrifty shoppers torn between a laptop and a tablet.
Why we picked this:
Hailing from Lenovo’s popular Yoga line, this convertible is an understated workhorse. A little boring, sure — the fact that it can flip into tablet and tent modes is probably the most exciting thing about it — but no-nonsense competence has its appeal. “I’m a tab hoarder, and the Yoga 7i 2-in-1 14 was able to handle my crazy daily research antics flawlessly with its Intel Core Ultra 5 125U processor,” said Mashable contributor Sarah Chaney. (That’s paired with a healthy 16GB of RAM.) Bonus: It doesn’t run hot and won’t die on you mid-day.
When you get down to nitty-gritty design details, the Yoga 7i feels a little hit or miss. Its keyboard is “well-spaced and enjoyably springy,” Chaney wrote, with adjustable backlighting and a built-in Copilot key that pulls up Microsoft’s AI assistant. But its trackpad was laggy in testing. Its hybrid form factor gives it versatility, but its hinges aren’t super strong and its display is a bit dim. It has a good selection of ports, but we wish its USB-C ports weren’t restricted to one side. Still, those cons could be put-up-withable for $900 if all you really care about is excellent performance.
Read Mashable’s full review of the Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 3.
Who it’s for:
You can stretch your dollar further with other tech giants, but the 2023 Microsoft Surface Go 3 is a good cheap laptop for brand loyalists and those who want a flashy ultraportable. “I can see this being the daily driver of young students or Gen Z users seeking a laptop that can handle casual usage with style and sophistication,” said Mashable tech editor Kim Gedeon.
Why we picked it:
The 12.4-inch Surface Laptop Go 3 is basically a “Windows Air,” Gedeon wrote, with a premium build quality that wouldn’t seem out of place among Apple’s ranks. And don’t get her started about its snappy, spiffy keyboard, which she deemed “one of the best I’ve ever used during my entire career as a laptop reviewer.”
Alas, its internals are far more underwhelming: Its 12th-generation Intel CPU is now two generations removed in 2024; its battery life clocked in at a mediocre eight-ish hours in our testing; and its dim display carried over from the 2022 Surface Laptop Go 2. But the base model’s memory and storage have doubled, at least. It’s also frequently on sale at Amazon and Best Buy for at least $100 off its list price, which feels way more reasonable given those specs. (Its next big discount will probably coincide with Prime Day.)
Read Mashable’s full review of the HP Chromebook Plus 15.6-inch.
Who it’s for:
HP’s Chromebook Plus 15.6-inch is a bottom-of-the-budget laptop geared toward Google-based productivity and casual entertainment. It makes build quality concessions that can take some getting used to, but overall, the price is right for basic cloud-based multitasking.
Why we picked this:
The Chromebook Plus 15.6-inch is a sleek big-screened laptop from Google’s next generation of ChromeOS laptops that comes in at only $499. It certainly feels that cheap in some ways (see: its stiff keyboard, poor audio quality, and questionable durability), and its battery life sucks, but its solid performance and spacious, vibrant anti-glare display go a long way to nullify those drawbacks. It’s also equipped with some useful AI tools you won’t find in non-“Plus” Chromebooks, including a File Sync tool and Google Photos Magic Eraser. “It’s unfair to compare a Chromebook to other kinds of laptops,” to quote my extended review, “but as a lifelong MacBook user, I feel compelled to admit that I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed using this laptop.”
It’s worth mentioning that while the Chromebook Plus 15.6-inch is a great value, it isn’t the absolute best value of the Chromebook Plus bunch. (We’ll be reviewing more of them in the near future.) You’re not a sucker if you pay its $500 list price, but look for it on sale for around $400 at Best Buy if you can wait.
Read Mashable’s full review of the Acer Nitro V 15.
Who it’s for:
Gedeon put things succinctly in her review: “If you’re just looking for a gaming laptop that ditches all the bells and whistles for impressive gaming performance, the [Acer] Nitro V 15 is the one for you.”
Why we picked this:
The Mashable’s Choice Award-winning Nitro V 15 is all about power, power, power — and while it strains the definition of “cheap,” we do think it’s the best budget gaming laptop under $1,000. The model we tested is “packed with delicious internals that can handle triple-A gaming,” said Gedeon, including a 13th-gen Intel Core i7 H-series processor for desktop-level brawn and nice NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 graphics. She found it capable of running Cyberpunk 2077, “one of the most graphics-intensive games on the market, like a champ.”
Unsurprisingly, Acer has made some noteworthy trade-offs to offer that level of oomph at this price point, namely in the realms of display quality (it’s not bright or vivid) and extra fixings (there’s no RGB keyboard or 1080p webcam). Its pathetically short battery life also means it’ll set up permanent shop on your desk — preferably with a microfiber cloth at the ready nearby, as it clings to fingerprints with a passion.
Note: Google recently announced the new Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE, which is effectively the same laptop with a newer processor, a darker finish, and some new Gemini AI tools. We’ll test it soon.
Who it’s for:
The Acer Chromebook 516 GE (the “GE” stands for “gaming edition”) is a budget-friendly beaut for gamers who are tired of trying to keep up with new titles’ fancy hardware requirements, as well as those who frequently play on the go — it’s pretty light for a PC gaming machine. However, a reliable internet connection and an outlet are musts.
Why we picked this:
Gaming Chromebooks (or cloud gaming laptops) are a relatively new species of budget gaming laptop, and the Chromebook 516 GE was one of the first models to hit the market back in late 2022. It kicked off the genre on a high note: It has plenty of ports, a 1080p webcam, an anti-ghosting RGB keyboard, and a quality (not cheap-feeling) build, said Mashable lead shopping reporter Dylan Haas.
It also performed shockingly well in our testing; while there was some expected fidelity loss, the games Haas streamed never once lagged or stuttered — including Cyberpunk 2077. But “[the] real showstopper is the laptop’s display,” he wrote. “[The] 16-inch, 1600p screen looks fantastic and boasts clear, bright, and vibrant colors.” It would be nice if Acer bumped its battery life a bit, though: Six hours per charge is fantastic if you’re talking about a regular gaming laptop that plays natively, but it’s less impressive for a cloud-based machine that uses far less power.
Note: We’ll soon review the next-gen Framework Laptop 16, which is now available for purchase.
Read Mashable’s review of the Framework Laptop (2021).
Who it’s for:
The 2023 Framework Laptop 13 is a bit of an investment upfront, but its modular design translates to long-term savings for users who like to upgrade their specs every few years. Even if you lack DIY wizardry, the learning curve involved isn’t too intimidating.
Why we picked this:
Unlike many consumer laptops, which have soldered-on parts, the Framework Laptop 13 has fully replaceable and repairable components. So, instead of buying another brand-new machine when your processor, RAM, storage, keyboard, or display conk out, you can simply Frankenstein in a different part — a great way to save money in the long run.
The best part is that almost anyone can do this: “It’s with the tech coward’s perspective that I am happy to report the Framework Laptop is nothing short of an industrial design miracle for newcomers,” wrote Mashable’s Perry, who tested an older version. If you feel a little more confident in your computer-tweaking abilities, consider the fully customizable DIY Edition (which starts at $849) instead of the pre-built model.
Mashable staff tested all of the laptops in this guide. (We tried a previous version of the Framework Laptop 13). At minimum, this involved inspecting their build quality and using them for a variety of real-world tasks for several weeks at a time. We worked with different kinds of documents, checked emails, watched videos, took photos on their webcams, participated in video calls, listened to music (via Spotify), played games (if possible), and experimented with any unique software features or use cases they claimed to support.
Additionally, we ran industry-standard benchmark software testing on a handful of the newer laptops featured here (specifically the Lenovo Yoga 7i 14, the Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 3, the HP Chromebook Plus 15.6-inch, and the Acer Nitro V 15). We recently started implementing these benchmarks in our testing, and you can expect to see them in all of our new laptop reviews going forward:
Performance benchmarks
We evaluate the overall performance of our testing units by putting them through the pertinent version of Primate Labs’ Geekbench 6. (We use the Windows version for Windows laptops, including gaming laptops, and Android for Chromebooks.) This test measures CPU performance in a handful of common tasks, and we record the resulting multi-core scores. The higher the score, the better.
To get a sense of gaming laptops’ graphical prowess, we also play Cyberpunk 2077 on them. If they had a discrete/dedicated NVIDIA GeForce RTX graphics card (as opposed to an integrated GPU that’s built into the CPU), we do this once with its DLSS tech off and again with DLSS on. This tests their raw GPU power and their performance with AI upscaling, respectively. We follow this up with 3DMark’s Time Spy benchmark for gaming PCs and record their scores. Again, higher is better.
Battery life benchmarks
To find the laptops with the best battery life, we assess our loaners’ stamina by having them run battery benchmarks. We look to see about nine to ten hours of battery life in the Windows laptops we test, for reference, with over 12 hours being exceptional. Gaming laptops are a different story: They only need to last at least two hours per charge to get our approval. (They earn extra brownie points for reaching the four-hour mark.) Meanwhile, eight hours is our baseline for Chromebooks, and nine to ten hours is the ideal.
We used UL Solutions’ PCMark 10 battery life stress test on the Surface Laptop Go and the Acer Nitro V 15, and Principled Technologies’ CrXPRT 2 battery life test on the Chromebook Plus 15.6-inch. Both tests ran a series of apps and functions until the laptop conked out.
On the Yoga 7i, we conducted a video rundown test that involved playing a looped 1080p version of Tears of Steel, a short open-source Blender movie, at 50 percent brightness. Going forward, we will only be using this rundown method to test laptop battery life.
After evaluating each model’s performance in these tests, we made our final recommendations based on whether they offered a good overall value for the money. For the purposes of this guide, we defined a “cheap laptop” as one that costs less than $1,000. We made a lone exception to this rule for the Framework Laptop 13 ($1,049): It requires a bigger upfront investment, but it’ll save you money on repair and replacement costs for years to come.
Finally, it should be noted that these aren’t the only cheap laptops we’ve tried — we’re constantly testing and assessing new models across different categories, and many don’t make the final cut. With that in mind, you can expect this guide to evolve on a pretty continuous basis. We’re always on the lookout for new top pick contenders.
Frequently Asked Questions
Certain times of the year are better for laptop shopping than others. If you’re looking for a good deal on a laptop, we recommend buying around Black Friday, during back-to-school season (with a close watch on Amazon’s Prime Day sale), and over long holiday weekends. If you’re just after brand-new models with the latest specs, bargains be damned, you’ll see them hitting the market in January and February after the Consumer Electronics Show (CES).
For more intel and buying tips, check out our guide to when you should buy a laptop.
Haley Henschel is a Chicago-based Senior Shopping Reporter at Mashable who reviews and finds deals on popular tech, from laptops to gaming consoles and VPNs. She has years of experience covering shopping holidays and can tell you what’s actually worth buying on Black Friday and Amazon Prime Day. Her work has also explored the driving forces behind digital trends within the shopping sphere, from dupes to 12-foot skeletons.
Haley received a B.A. in Journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and honed her sifting and winnowing skills at The Daily Cardinal. She previously covered politics for The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, investigated exotic pet ownership for Wisconsin Watch, and blogged for some of your favorite reality stars.
In her free time, Haley enjoys playing video games, drawing, taking walks on Lake Michigan, and spending time with her parrot (Melon) and dog (Pierogi). She really, really wants to get back into horseback riding. You can follow her on X at @haleyhenschel or reach her via email at [email protected].
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