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Best Overall
Asus Zenbook 14 OLED (2024)
Best Cheap Gaming Laptop
Acer Nitro V
Best for Chromebook Lovers
Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook Plus
Great Value
Acer Swift Go 14 (2024)
Computers have put people on the moon and sent cute robots to Mars. You’d think somewhere in the miraculous technological utopia of our age, we’d also be able to get decently cheap laptops. All I want is something portable enough that it won’t give me back strain from toting it around all day and powerful enough for basic work. A light, fast enough laptop for under $800—is that so much to ask?
Fortunately, it’s possible, but there are trade-offs. You can’t edit videos or play hardcore games on them, and the displays won’t be as sharp as on pricier models. We’ve tested tons of cheap laptops, and for everyday tasks, these will do everything you ask of them—and leave some money in your bank account.
Be sure to check out our other computing guides, including the Best Laptops, Best Linux Laptops, Best Gaming Laptops, and Best MacBooks. Our How to Choose the Right Laptop guide can also help.
Updated October 2024: We’ve added the Lenovo Chromebook Duet Gen 9, Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus, and Acer Aspire Go 14.
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How to Find a Good Laptop
For our full take on what to look for in a laptop, see our guide Choosing the Right Laptop. The condensed version (even if your budget is limited) is to try to get at least an Intel i5 processor and at least 8 GB of RAM. 16 GB is even better. Recent versions of Windows (both 10 and 11) use an astronomical amount of RAM (sometimes as much as 6 GB in my testing). If you only have 8 GB total, that doesn’t leave much RAM for applications, and results in a slower laptop.
Aim for these specs: Try to get a laptop with at least a 10th-generation Intel Core i5 processor, 16 GB of RAM, and 128 GB of storage in the form of a solid state drive. We suggest getting a 13- or 14-inch display that’s close to FHD (1080p resolution). If you’re going to use it for watching movies, consider a 2-in-1 model (although these do tend to cost more). If your budget is tight and you want the most bang for your buck, or you just want to keep something out of the landfill, consider the used or refurbished laptop market. I’ve had great luck buying used laptops on eBay from all sorts of sellers (both pros and regular people).
To score the best deal, make sure you know the market. Do some research to figure out what kind of machine will suit your needs. The easiest to come by, and therefore (usually) the best deals, tend to be the more boring, business-oriented models. I happen to like ThinkPads, which are used by—and then dumped all at once by—large corporations, which means there are lots to choose from, and they’re cheap.
Finding used laptops on eBay: Once you know what you want, search for it on eBay. Scroll down and check the option to show only “Sold Listings.” Now take the 10 most recent sales, add up the prices, and divide by 10. That’s the average price; don’t pay more than that. Keep the lowest price in mind—that’s the great deal price. Now, uncheck the Sold Listing option. See what’s between the lowest price and the average price. Those are the deals you can consider. I suggest watching a few. Don’t bid or participate at all. Just watch them until the end and see how high the auctions end up going.
Once you have a feel for the market and what you should be paying, you’ll know when you’ve found a deal. When you find it, wait. Don’t bid until the last few minutes of the auction. You don’t want other bidders to have a chance to react. Remember that if you miss out on something, it’s not the end of the world. There’s always something new being listed on eBay.
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Photograph: Asus
Best Overall
Asus Zenbook 14 OLED (2024)
Asus’ Zenbook 14 (7/10, WIRED Recommends) offers good performance, great battery life, and an OLED display—all for under $1,000. This model has an AMD Ryzen 7 8840HS with 16 GB of RAM and a 512-GB SSD. We were impressed with the performance, especially given the price, though the fan can get a bit loud. Graphics and gaming aren’t entirely workable, with rather pitiful frame rates throughout, but battery life is outstanding, clocking in at 15 hours (measured by looping a YouTube video at full brightness).
This is a small, portable machine and it manages to pack in plenty of ports despite its slim form. There are two USB-C ports (one of which is needed for charging), a USB-A port, and a full-size HDMI output. The keyboard is thoughtfully laid out and very nice to type on. It’s worth noting that this model is frequently out of stock at Walmart but you can usually snag it directly from Asus at a higher price.
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Photograph: Acer
Best Cheap Gaming Laptop
Acer Nitro V
The Acer Nitro V (8/10, WIRED Recommends) may not be the most powerful gaming laptop, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find better value in a gaming laptop around $700. The 144-Hz display provides enough headroom to keep up with the frame rates the hardware can put out. With the GeForce RTX 3050 included in the cheapest model, you can achieve decent performance at low to medium settings in more intense games. For a little extra cash, you can boost performance with an upgrade to an RTX 3050 Ti or RTX 4050, depending on the model.
When we first reviewed the 2022 model, we were pretty impressed by this laptop’s cooling performance, with two fans and four exhaust ports keeping things from getting too warm or too loud. This being a budget gaming laptop, there are some sacrifices, like webcam quality and a less-than-vibrant screen. Still, it’s a good little performer if you want to get in some light gaming on the go. Read our Best Gaming Laptops guide for more.
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Photograph: Lenovo
Best for Chromebook Lovers
Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook Plus
Chromebooks have a reputation for being underpowered. To change that, Google launched Chromebook Plus, an umbrella category for a new class of devices from various manufacturers. The “Plus” stands for better performance—faster processors, more memory, more storage, and better video cameras. Our favorite of the models we’ve tried so far is Lenovo’s Flex 5i Chromebook Plus (8/10, WIRED Recommends). It’s the fastest Chromebook we’ve tested. It features a 3.75-GHz Intel Core i3-1315U CPU, 8 GB of RAM, and 128 GB of flash storage. The Flex 5i has two USB-C ports (one is used for charging) plus one USB-A port.
You also get a microSD card slot for expanding the storage capability, making this a good choice for those who don’t want to keep everything in the cloud. The 14-inch touchscreen uses a 2-in-1 design, making it ideal for media streaming. As on most Chromebooks, the screen isn’t the best, with mid-level brightness and a standard 1,920 x 1,080-pixel screen resolution.
There are plenty of other great Chromebook Plus models, so make sure you read our Best Chromebooks guide for more cheap laptops.
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Photograph: Acer
Great Value
Acer Swift Go 14 (2024)
Acer’s Swift Go 14 (7/10, WIRED Recommends) has a chintzy build quality, a stiff touchpad, and lackluster keyboard backlighting, but it’s hard to beat the performance you get at this price. There’s also an array of ports that make it very versatile, including a microSD card slot. The Intel Core Ultra 7 155H chip with 16 GB of RAM makes for a surprisingly powerful punch when it comes to productivity work, and our tester noted decent results in AI tasks as well. We averaged 11 hours in our battery test (with a full-brightness YouTube video on loop), which is respectable.
It’s frequently available for $799 at Amazon, so wait for a price drop before you buy.
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Photograph: Brenda Stolyar
Best Cheap Tablet
Apple iPad Air (2024, M2)
Do you need a cheap laptop? Could you get by with a tablet? The 2024 iPad Air (8/10, WIRED Recommends) uses the same all-new M2 processor that powers the 13-inch MacBook Air, making it powerful enough to replace a laptop for some people. If you want great battery life and something that doubles as a way to browse the web from the couch, watch movies in bed, and still get a bit of work done during the day, the iPad Air fits the bill. If you don’t want to spend that much on the Air, the base model iPad ($349) is even cheaper.
The rub lies in getting work done. If you’re mostly working with word-processing documents, web-based tools, and other tasks the iPad is good at, it works great. But if your work involves software that doesn’t run on the iPad, get a real laptop.
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Photograph: Daniel Thorp-Lancaster
Best Ultra-Portable Chromebook
Lenovo Chromebook Duet Gen 9 (11 Inch, MediaTek)
Lenovo’s Chromebook Duet Gen 9 (8/10, WIRED recommends) quickly became one of my favorite gadgets of 2024 despite its small size. That’s the whole point with this 11-inch detachable laptop, which is incredibly fun to use around the house and throw in a bag when it’s time to go. The keyboard detaches from the screen, so it makes for a nice tablet when paired with ChromeOS’s Android apps, and then you can get some work done when you attach the keyboard. At nearly 10 hours on average, its battery life will easily get you through the day too.
It’s powered by a battery-sipping MediaTek Kompanio 838 processor that can handle more than 10 Chrome tabs open at a time. The small keyboard and trackpad require an adjustment if you’re coming from a full-size keyboard, but they’re also what helps it stay portable. The included Lenovo Pen is great as well for signing documents or doodling, and you can easily dock it out of the way on the back of the display when you don’t need it.
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Photograph: Apple
Best Cheap MacBook
Apple MacBook Air (M1, 2020)
Yes, there’s finally an Apple machine in this guide. The MacBook Air (9/10, WIRED Recommends) from 2020 with the original M1 chip has been superseded by a bevy of more recent Airs, but it remains a powerful laptop for the money. Our model is still going strong despite daily use. The battery is in good shape too (surprisingly), still allowing for a full day’s work. The one downside is that you can only buy the base model with 8 GB of unified memory and 256 GB of storage. That’s fine for basic things like web browsing and document editing, but if you’re looking to push it, you’ll likely hit some slowdowns.
Make sure you pay no more than $649—we’ve seen newer M3-powered MacBooks go for as low as $849, or M2-powered MacBooks dip to $750, so it might be worth saving for something more modern.
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Photograph: Daniel Thorp-Lancaster
Best Gaming Chromebook
Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE
Chromebooks have started dipping their toes into the gaming space in recent years, and the Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is one of the best. While it isn’t designed to be a hardware powerhouse, the 516 GE embraces its role as a cloud gaming machine. If you’re OK with streaming games via services like Nvidia GeForce Now or Xbox Cloud Gaming, you’ll feel right at home.
With the 516 GE, you get a 120-Hz screen that can keep your frame rates as smooth as game streaming services can pump out. It’s also just a great little productivity machine thanks to a spacious 16-inch, 16:10 display that puts out vivid colors. For those times when you don’t have an internet connection handy, Steam is available in beta for Chromebooks—just don’t expect to download and run any graphically intense games.
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Photograph: Daniel Thorp-Lancaster
Best Premium Chromebook
Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714
The Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714 (9/10, WIRED Recommends) checks a lot of boxes. It has a surprisingly premium feel for such an affordable machine, and the keyboard and trackpad are excellent for those of us that type all day long. It also has one of the best displays I’ve seen on a Chromebook, with fantastic colors that pop off the glossy touch display.
It isn’t all rainbows though. The speakers on the Spin 714 are pretty awful, damaging what would be an otherwise stellar laptop for media consumption. Despite its excellent 2-in-1 design, it’s also just a little too hefty to consistently use in tablet mode; you’ll be much better off rotating the display to watch movies in tent mode. If you spend most of your time in a web browser, the Spin 714 offers plenty of power and pleasing features to make it a good productivity laptop that feels premium without emptying your wallet.
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Photograph: Dan Thorp-Lancaster
Best Windows Laptop Under $500
Acer Aspire Go 14
The Acer Aspire Go 14 (7/10, WIRED recommends) won’t win any style or performance awards, but it holds up well as an incredibly affordable Windows laptop. The one major thing it has going for it is fantastic battery life. I was able to hit upwards of 14 hours on a charge, which could make this a great budget option for students who need something that’ll last a whole day on campus.
The Aspire Go 14 comes in two low-power processor flavors, with your choice of an AMD Ryzen 3 7320 CPU or an Intel Core i3 N-series. Either way, you’ll get basic tasks like browsing and writing done with ease. Just keep in mind this is a $300 laptop (occasionally less on sale), so the screen quality, sound, and webcam are far from great.
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Photograph: Daniel Thorp-Lancaster
Best Cheap 15-Inch Laptop
Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus
Sometimes, all you want in a laptop is something thin and easy to tote around. That’s where the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus (8/10, WIRED Recommends) comes in, sitting at just 0.47 inches thick and 2.58 pounds. That’s less than half an inch, making it the thinnest and lightest Chromebook Plus you can get right now.
You’d think that thinness would lead to some big sacrifices elsewhere, but Samsung managed to keep the hardware rather impressive here. The 15.6-inch AMOLED screen looks fantastic, with vivid colors and detail, while the Intel Core 3 100U processor handles ChromeOS with ease. This is also currently the only Chromebook with Google’s new Quick Insert key, which gives you easy access to shortcuts for accessing GIFs and emoji, a list of recently opened websites, AI tools, and integrated Google Drive search, among other things.
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Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
Best Android Tablet
OnePlus Pad 2
WIRED reviews editor Julian Chokkattu says the OnePlus Pad 2 is a great successor to last year’s OnePlus Pad, which came after Google rejuvenated the Android tablet market with some much-needed software updates and tablet-optimized apps. This 12.1-inch LCD is spacious, and after pairing it with the Smart Keyboard and Stylo 2, you can get some light work done. OnePlus has added its Open Canvas multitasking system, ported from the OnePlus Open folding phone, and it lets you do things like have three apps running simultaneously side by side, or even two apps side by side and a full-size app below them. It’s a wonderful system that offers more flexibility than many other tablet computers.
It’s a bit more expensive than before, and you have to factor in the cost of the accessories, but the specs are top-notch, with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, 12 GB of RAM, a long-lasting battery, and a 144-Hz screen. It’ll get a decent length of software updates, and the selfie camera sits in the center so you won’t be at a weird angle in your video calls.
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Photograph: Daniel Thorp-Lancaster
Best-Looking Chromebook
Asus Chromebook Plus CX34
If you want to stand out from the crowd a bit and don’t need Windows, the Asus Chromebook Plus CX34 (7/10, WIRED Recommends) is the best-looking Chromebook. When I got my hands on the CX34, I was impressed by its beautiful white design that stands out in a sea of gray slabs. It’s not left wanting for power, either, with the Core i5 CPU inside offering plenty of performance to easily handle multiple tabs and app juggling.
Another bright spot for the CX34 is its webcam, which looks crisper than you’d expect for a $500 laptop. That said, you’ll have to do without a backlit keyboard, and the 16:9 display feels dated next to the 16:10 options that are getting popular across the Chromebook market. There’s a lot of competition at this price among Chromebooks, but this is by far the most attractive one.
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Photograph: Acer
Other Laptops to Consider
Acer Swift 3 for $487: We loved Acer’s 2021 version of the Swift 3, but it was over $700 at launch. Now that it’s more affordable, this notebook is a better buy. It wraps a powerful 11th-gen Intel Core i7 chip, 8 GB of RAM, and a 256-GB SSD in a thin, no-nonsense design with a 1,920 x 1,080-pixel IPS LCD display. (IPS is a little nicer than some types of LCD.) The Swift 3 scored well for battery life in our video-based battery drain test, and it boasts four USB ports, including one USB-C port. I’ve also used the Intel i5 model, which gets even better battery life, but with a noticeable loss of computing power.
Acer Aspire 3 for $579: There are a lot of budget 15-inch laptops available. The Acer Aspire 3 offers the best value among those I’ve tested. You should get the model with an Intel Core i5 (or AMD 5000 series chip), integrated graphics, 8 GB of RAM, and a 15.6-inch IPS display (1,920 x 1,080 pixels). It’s big, and the display is not the sharpest, but it won’t strain your eyes. There are ports galore (Ethernet, USB, USB-C, HDMI, headphone jack), and it’s powerful enough for most everyday tasks. The keyboard is decent, and at 4 pounds, this machine is one of the lighter budget 15-inch laptops around. It’s a shame the speakers don’t get very loud.
Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 3 for $723: Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Go 3 (5/10, WIRED Review) is a good pick for students and makes a cheap alternative to the MacBook Air above, for those who need Windows. The keyboard is one of the best for getting your essays typed up. Overall, performance is excellent, though what you’re paying for here is the elegant, svelte design. If you can afford it, spring for the model with 16 GB of RAM. The big downside based on our testing is the battery life, which is not great; we managed only six hours on average.