The Best Cheap Windows Laptop (2024) without sacrificing quality

The realm of Best Cheap Windows Laptops continues to witness significant improvements. When considering your ideal choice, it becomes crucial to contemplate your top priorities and identify the trade-offs you are willing to make. Even the most outstanding budget-friendly Windows laptops showcase remarkable attributes, yet they are not devoid of certain imperfections that stem from their affordability.

You can almost definitely find a cheap laptop with a touchscreen, a premium-looking chassis, an HDMI port, a backlit keyboard, or support for a stylus, but you may need to decide which of these features you want the most and which you can do without.

It can be expensive to buy a laptop, and not everyone wants to spend thousands of dollars on the best Windows laptop.
Students and workers can be happy with cheap, simple systems that get the job done without bells and whistles or fancy branding. Here are a few Windows 10 laptops that all cost less than $400 and are good for most everyday jobs.

Best Cheap Windows Laptop Comparison Table

Acer Aspire 5

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15.6-inch display with a resolution of 1920 by 1080 pixels and a 16:9 aspect ratio; 8 gigabytes of DDR4 SDRAM; 256 gigabytes of solid-state storage Windows 11 Home in S Mode AMD Ryzen 3 5300U processor with four cores running at 2.60 GHz AMD Radeon Graphics shared memory

This is one of those low-cost laptops that not only has a quality appearance but also possesses cutting-edge capabilities like Wi-Fi 6 and a respectable amount of quick storage space as well. This notebook is ideal for use at the office or in the classroom.

HP Victus 15z

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Gaming is an expensive hobby, and the only way to find a laptop for under $700 that meets our needs is to look for deals. And at the time we wrote this, the HP Victus 15z-fb000 was the best choice we could find that fit this budget. This type is getting a little old, but if you’re on a tight budget, you can’t be too picky. AMD Ryzen 5000 series processors, starting with a Ryzen 5 5600H with 6 cores and 12 threads, run this model.

That comes with an AMD Radeon RX 6500M graphics card, which is a good entry-level GPU that should be able to handle most current games as long as you turn down some graphics settings. HP has another model with newer Intel processors, but the GeForce GTX 1650 GPU isn’t as good, and that’s the most important part for games. On top of that, this model comes with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD, so for the price, you get a really good setup.

Asus Chromebook Flip CX5

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That’s how good the Chromebook Flip CX5 is. It’s strong enough to survive bumps and jostles in a backpack or suitcase, and its velvety texture makes it very nice to hold. When you add a large number of ports, a smooth and comfortable keyboard, and a bright screen, you have a chassis that can compete with many affordable Windows laptops.

Performance is also very good. During our tests, we never heard its fan, even when we put it through a task that slowed down most devices. The battery life is pretty good, and it can easily last us a day. And the sound from the speakers was some of the best we’ve heard from a Chromebook. Even though the CX5 isn’t perfect, it’s one of the best devices we’ve tried for less than $700. Overall, this machine won’t let down cheap shoppers who don’t mind Chrome OS.

Asus Chromebook Detachable CM3

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If you like the Duet’s size and detachable form factor but are willing to spend on something a bit more upscale, you may find the Asus Chromebook Detachable CM3 to be a better choice. Like the Duet, the CM3 is a 10.5-inch 16:10 Chrome OS tablet with a fabric cover, kickstand, and detachable screen. But the CM3’s kickstand folds multiple ways: you can crease it lengthwise to stand the tablet up like a laptop or fold it the short way and stand the tablet up horizontally.

Plus, it comes with a built-in USI stylus and roomy keys with a surprising amount of travel. Battery life was also quite impressive: we averaged close to 13 hours of continuous work.  Where the CM3 lags a bit behind the Duet (and other cheap laptops you may try) is the power. Its MediaTek processor can be a bit sluggish compared to more pricier offerings. But the CM3 still offers a surprising number of perks for its sub-$400 price and makes a great student driver or secondary device. 

Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 2

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This list was led for the past two years by the first iteration of the Microsoft Surface Laptop Go, but now there is a new leader in town: the Go 2 model. As an update, it won’t light the world on fire, but Microsoft has added just enough changes to make it the best bargain laptop available — bar none.

To begin, it is really stunning to look at: both the lid and the keyboard are made of refined aluminum with a matte finish, and the entire device weighs only 1.1 kilograms. When you open the hinge, you will be greeted by a keyboard that is incredibly pleasurable to use, as well as a 12.4-inch touchscreen display that is crisp, roomy, and accurate. The display has a resolution of 1,536 by 1,024.

HP Chromebook X2 11

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It can be difficult to know where to seek if you are on a tight budget but want a detachable computer similar to the Surface Pro. The Microsoft Surface Go 3 is a good device, but it is painfully slow, and the Surface Pro 8 is unreasonably priced. The IdeaPad Duet from Lenovo is a solid Chromebook alternative, although it is on the small side and lacks adequate processing power.

The Chromebook X2 from HP is now available. A magnetic rear cover that also functions as a kickstand is included with this tablet, in addition to a clip-on keyboard cover that can be attached to the tablet. If you keep them both together, it functions as a laptop, but if you detach them, it becomes a sleek slate. In addition, despite the fact that it is slightly bigger and heavier than the little Surface Go 3 that Microsoft offers, it has a screen that is 11 inches in size and a keyboard that has more room.

Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 4

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The Lenovo ThinkPad E14 is probably for you if you need a laptop for more business use. This work laptop has everything you’d expect from a ThinkPad, like the famous TrackPoint, and a lot of ports, like USB-C (with Thunderbolt on Intel models), two USB Type-A ports, HDMI, and RJ45 Ethernet, so you have everything you need to connect to an office setup. It also has the original ThinkPad look, which many business users still love.

This laptop also has newer processors, such as 12th-generation Intel Core processors or AMD Ryzen 5025U series models, based on which version you choose. The AMD model is cheaper, so it might be a little more appealing, but as we’ve already said, it doesn’t support Thunderbolt. Performance-wise, though, both models will be great for all kinds of day-to-day tasks, with choices for up to a 10-core, 12-thread Intel Core i7 or an 8-core, 16-thread AMD Ryzen 7.

Microsoft Surface Go 3

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The Surface Go 3 is a great choice if you want to spend as little money as possible and just need a device to browse the web and keep in touch with family. It has an Intel Pentium processor, so you won’t get great speed for anything other than writing documents and browsing the web. However, it does have 8GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD, so it’s still a good choice.
Its best feature is how easy it is to use. It has a 10.5-inch screen with a 3:2 aspect ratio, which gives you more room for material.

The Full HD+ resolution is also pretty good for a screen this size. It’s a great screen for surfing the web, watching online movies, and making video calls. Also, the 5MP video is one of the best you’ll find in this price range, and there’s an 8MP camera on the back if you want to take a quick picture or just show off something in front of you. This is a great way to keep in touch with family and friends who live far away through video calls.

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