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The best cheap laptops under $1,000, according to our testing
We reviewed the best cheap laptops for students, gaming, and everyday productivity, from the Lenovo Yoga 7i 14 (Gen 9) to the Acer Nitro V 15.
When it comes to shopping for the best cheap laptops, you can do a lot for less than $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.
That's where we come in. The Mashable team is constantly reviewing new laptops with different operating systems and use cases, and we recommend several affordable machines that meet most, if not all of our performance, battery life, and build quality standards.
Our top picks
As of March 2025, we think the Lenovo Yoga 7i 14 (Gen 9) is the best cheap Windows laptop we've tested. It has a peppy processor and a good battery life, it doubles as a tablet, and it starts at $899.99.
If you're really into Microsoft machines, look into the Surface Laptop Go 3. The company's current cheapest offering is a super portable notebook with a chic look and a clicky keyboard — though I'd encourage shoppers to find it on sale, given its older CPU. It otherwise starts at $799.99.
The best cheap Chromebook is the $499 HP Chromebook Plus 15.6-inch, with its big, vibrant display and competent everyday performance. It also supports some useful AI features and multimedia editing apps.
Cheap gaming laptops don't get much better than the Acer Nitro V 15, which combines a cool design with cool Triple-A performance for $999 as tested. (The base model is only $749.) We also recommend the Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE as an even cheaper "cheap gaming laptop" pick: It streams high-end titles well, comes with a really nice 120Hz display, and retails for only $649.
What about MacBooks?
Apple threw shoppers a curveball in launching its new M4 MacBook Air. With a starting price of $999 for the 13-inch size, it costs the same as the M2 model from mid-2022, our current "best cheap MacBook" pick. We haven't finished testing the M4 version yet, so you won't find it on any of our laptop buying guides, but it could very well be our new favorite sub-$1,000 MacBook in the near future. Our initial impressions were very positive.
With that in mind, the M2 MacBook Air remains our top pick in this category for now: It's speedy enough for most people, it lasts all day, it has an excellent keyboard, and it's easy to find on sale for extra-cheap following the M4 launch. (The Apple Store no longer sells it, but some retailers still have inventory available — which they're now trying to move.) At the time of writing, it was only $699.99 on Amazon.
Retailers are also slapping discounts on last year's M3 MacBook Air, which features a slightly faster processor, WiFi 6E support, and closed-lid support for two external displays. The last time we checked, it was $854 on Amazon and $849 at Best Buy. Those are very good deals — it originally retailed for $1,099 — but at the same time, there's now just $150-ish separating you from the newer M4 model. Unless that $150 is a dealbreaker, or if you're in a tough spot needing a new laptop ASAP, we recommend waiting to see how the M4 MacBook Air pans out in testing before going the M3 route.
Other cheap laptops on our radar
We currently have the latest Intel-powered Framework Laptop 13 on deck for testing. While it comes in just over our "budget" threshold of $1,000 when purchased prebuilt (the DIY Edition starts at $899), the fact that it's upgradable and repairable makes it seem like a solid long-term value. We were big fans of an older version.
We'll also soon review two sub-$1,000 Asus laptops. One is the all-new Asus ZenBook A14, the "world's lightest Copilot+ PC," which features an OLED display, a neutral-toned chassis made out of a durable material called "Ceraluminum," and an advertised battery life of up to 32 hours. (We briefly tried it in Asus' private showroom at CES 2025, and it left us extremely impressed.) The other is the Asus ZenBook S 15, a second-gen Copilot+ PC with a Snapdragon X Plus processor, a 3K OLED display, and an RGB keyboard. Both models start at $899.99.
Read on for Mashable's in-depth guide to the best cheap laptops of 2025. FYI: We've listed the pricing and specs of our testing units, which may not apply to each laptop's base model.
