The Best Cheap Laptops for 2025

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These days, you can pick up a capable budget laptop—whether a full-size classic clamshell, an ultraportable, or a 2-in-1 convertible powerful enough for home, work, or school—for well less than $1,000. From economy Windows machines to Chromebooks to Macs, at PCMag we've reviewed them all over our more-than-four-decade history. Our team of experts test more than 100 laptops each year, evaluating them for raw CPU and graphics performance, screen quality, battery life, connectivity, value, and more. Our current top cheap Windows laptop overall is the Acer Aspire 3, for its snappy processing, support for Wi-Fi 6, and long-lasting battery—all for less than $500. (Among low-cost Chromebooks, we like the latest version of the Asus Chromebook Plus CX34.) We've also selected a bunch more solid-value budget laptops for more specific scenarios, so check out our helpful spec-comparison chart and all the buying advice you need to get the right budget machine in your hands.

Ready to dive into the details around cheap laptops? Today's good news is that you'll have to accept fewer compromises with budget laptops than you did in the past. Low-power CPUs are more robust than ever, even as some of the nomenclature around them changes. (For example, Intel's traditional offering for under-$400 laptops, the Celeron and Pentium lines, have given way to new family names: the Intel N100 and Intel Processor, respectively.) Low-end chips in today's extreme-budget laptops will suffice for light web browsing and most basic productivity work, if you don't keep too many programs or tabs open at a time.

The benefits of low-power CPUs are especially true with Chromebooks (more on them later), and nowadays, even Apple is on the budget bandwagon, offering its older M1-powered MacBook Air as an ultra-affordable entry-point for Mac shoppers. (The current MacBook Air 13-inch, for comparison, sells for $1,099 with the newer M3 processor.) That said, the $400-to-$700 Windows laptop market is populated mainly by systems based on much peppier Intel Core and AMD Ryzen families of processors. Opt for these CPU lines if you need more than just the basics. (See more about how to choose a laptop CPU.)

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'll rarely 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 and Apple sphere, most come with 8GB. (A 4GB RAM count remains common in Chromebooks and under-$300 Windows laptops; avoid it in a Windows machine.) In terms of batteries, an ideal budget laptop has one with six cells or more. The battery life for a cheap laptop should come in at a minimum of seven or eight hours; these days, many will last quite a bit longer. (A lower-resolution, lower-brightness screen, which is a feature of some of these machines, can consume less power, all else being equal, and end up being a benefit of sorts.)

Regarding storage, almost no new systems still use spinning hard drives. Many inexpensive Windows machines opt for small-capacity solid-state drives (SSDs) of 128GB or 256GB capacity. Other budget systems, particularly Chromebooks and some under-$400 Windows laptops, will have only a small allotment (32GB or 64GB) of local storage but compensate for it with generous offers of additional free cloud storage. Of course, as with anything cloud-based, you'll need to be online to access it. Also, know that budget machines with this little local storage, among them many Chromebooks, rely on what is called "eMMC memory" as their primary storage. This is not the same as the flash memory used in a true solid-state drive (SSD), and it will feel a tad sluggish if you're used to an SSD.

Regarding features, budget laptops with USB-C ports are more common than they once were. (USB-C ports may used both to charge the laptop and to connect peripherals.) The older Type-A (the classic rectangular) USB ports are also common in this price range, but others, like HDMI out and SD card slots, are disappearing from many cheap and expensive laptops alike.

Wi-Fi comes standard, with some affordable options still opting for the 802.11ac (Wi-Fi 5) protocol that was the norm a few years back. The current Wi-Fi 6 standard is much more common for budget systems than ever, while the more advanced Wi-Fi 6E is still rare in budget models.

Touch screens are also rare in the most affordable laptops. (See our picks for the best touch-screen laptops.) That said, by definition, any 2-in-1 convertible machine will have a touch screen, as having one is necessary for using the machine as a tablet or in other orientations where the keyboard is covered up.

Is Buying a Chromebook Worth It?

Chromebooks used to be little more than glorified netbooks running Google's ChromeOS. While these ChromeOS-based laptops are still resolutely web-centric, they now have fuller feature sets. If you spend most of your working hours in the cloud, a Chromebook will offer you much of the functionality of a regular Windows or Mac laptop, and it may well deliver longer battery life, depending on the model.

It will also likely cost you a lot less than other types of notebooks, as many Chromebooks come in at less than $400. Just be sure you have easy access to stable Wi-Fi wherever you use one, as Chromebooks have limited offline functionality and scant local storage. However, Chromebooks have recently been leveled up to more commonly include Intel Core and AMD Ryzen processors, as well as feature more storage and memory, as part of Google's Chromebook Plus program. Chromebook Plus models have to meet a specific minimum spec laid out by Google for what it deems a premium experience, and these Plus models start at $399.

The Best Cheap Tablets and Hybrids: 2-in-1s on a Budget

Tablets rose in popularity throughout the 2010s, and though we have plenty of reviews of them—take a look at our overall roundup of the best tablets, as well as our favorite slates running the Windows and Android operating systems—they are sufficiently different from traditional clamshell-style laptops that they don't always make suitable substitutes. Some come with detachable keyboards, but most of these are far less comfortable for typing on your lap than a conventional laptop.

Convertible 2-in-1s, however, do make a good substitute for traditional clamshells. These machines let you flip between a laptop and a tablet by folding the keyboard out of the way. Consider one of these convertible systems if you primarily want the typing capability of a laptop but occasionally would appreciate the lie-back, passive-consumption convenience of a tablet.

See our guide to the best 2-in-1 laptops for more information about this popular market segment. In part because of their added complexity compared with traditional clamshell designs, you won't find quite as many affordable ones, but a few Windows and ChromeOS-based models cost $500 or less. They come in permanently attached (generally 360-degree-rotating-hinge) designs and detachable-keyboard designs.

When looking at one of the detachable tablets, though, make sure you know what comes in the box. In some cases, you need to buy the keyboard base separately, and the total cost may not be as low as it first appears. (Here's looking at you, Microsoft Surfaces.)

Ready to Buy the Best Budget Laptop?

Budget laptops tend to go in and out of stock frequently. We've broken out our current favorites in this guide, and while we update it continually, there's a good chance that at least one of our picks is back-ordered at any given time. But if you're on a strict budget, don't lose heart. You can find PCs that will offer enough performance to tackle your day-to-day tasks without a hitch. You can even score big deals on mainstream systems with our favorite money-saving tips for laptop buying.

For further in-depth breakdowns of our budget picks, look at our roundups of the best laptops for college students, the best laptops for kids, and the best Chromebooks. And for more general factors to consider when choosing a laptop, take a look at our buying guide with our top laptop picks overall.