These low-cost laptops can handle everyday computing (and sometimes more) with aplomb, with some of our top picks ringing up below $400. Here’s how to achieve the perfect balance of price and features in a budget laptop, whether it’s running Windows 10 or Chrome OS.
Gone are the days when a decent laptop would cost you north of $1,000. It’s now possible to pick up a full-size or ultraportable Windows 10 notebook with a processor powerful enough for use at home, school, or work, for around $500 to $600. It’s also easy to find full-featured Chromebooks and hybrid systems that give you both laptop and tablet functionality in one device for as little as $300. You should be prepared to compromise in one aspect or other, however. While it’s certainly possible to find a powerful laptop with a 15-inch screen, you might have to make do with a flimsy keyboard and touchpad. Likewise, you could buy an impeccably made ultraportable that uses a modest CPU and a small storage drive to achieve its low price. Understanding those trade-offs, and matching up a budget laptop’s strengths and weaknesses with what you will do with it, is the key to making a happy purchase. Here’s help. Components and Connectivity: What to Know The good news is that you’ll have to accept fewer compromises with the budget laptops of today than you did in the past. Intel’s Celeron and Pentium processors (which power most of the under-$400 laptop set) have evolved to the point that they can support most of your web browsing and basic productivity needs without feeling sluggish. (That’s especially true with Chromebooks; more on them later.) That said, the $400-to-$600 Windows laptop market is mostly populated by systems based on the much peppier Intel Core i3 and Core i5 families of processor, and, increasingly in 2020, with more and more systems based on AMD’s robust Ryzen U series chips. Opt for these latter CPU lines if you need more than just the basics. All of these CPUs also host the silicon that runs the laptop’s graphics. The newest integrated graphics solutions can hold their own in browser-based games and even some online games like World of Warcraft. The higher demands of AAA titles, though, still require a discrete GPU, which you won’t find in this price range. (If money is no object, check out our top-rated gaming laptops and ultraportables, as well as our favorite cheap gaming laptops.) In years past, many of the barest-budget Windows laptops would come with just 2GB or 4GB of main system memory, but nowadays, at least in the Windows sphere, many come with 8GB.
