The best laptops under $1,000 you can buy today
HP addressed almost every shortcoming of the previous Envy 13, a laptop that already had very few faults. The latest model introduces a Thunderbolt 4 port and slims down the display bezels, resulting in a modern, compact design. Everything else about the Envy 13 is either better or as good as it was before. The 1080p display is bright and vivid, the keyboard is a joy to type on, and you still get a Thunderbolt 4 input along with two USB Type-A ports for connecting mice, keyboards or webcams. Bringing an 11th Gen Intel CPU onboard has improved a winning formula. Our Core i5 model impressed in real-world and benchmark tests, and the Envy 13 lasted for almost 11 hours on a charge. The Envy 13 gets you a nearly flagship-level laptop at a not-so-flagship price. See our full HP Envy 13 (2021) review There’s just something about a ZenBook. They’re beautiful, tend to be incredibly slim and lightweight, and thanks to Asus, have some ace up their digital sleeves. In the case of the Asus ZenBook 13 UX325EA ($999 reviewed, $949 starting), the secret sauce is Intel’s new Tiger Lake chips. Under Intel’s new Evo initiative, Intel Tiger Lake chips offer more powerful performance, longer battery life, and the introduction of Thunderbolt 4 and Wi-Fi 6. Plus, you get the added bonus of the ZenBook’s beautiful yet durable chassis. See our full Asus ZenBook 13 UX325EA review If you prefer macOS to Windows 10, then go with the Apple MacBook Air. The biggest improvement to this year’s model is the new M1 chip, which delivers outstanding performance and excellent battery life, making the new MacBook Air the fastest ultrathin laptop ever. Apple’s powerful M1 MacBook Air makes the cut thanks to its brilliant $999 price tag. Even better, you’ll find plenty of deals knocking down that price even lower. You get unrivaled performance along with 14 hours and 41 minutes of battery life. This is a combination you’ll only find from the very best Windows 10 laptops, and even they can’t compete in head-to-head performance. Apple’s least expensive 13.3-inch model is also its most portable, coming in at only 0.6 inches thick and 2.8 pounds. It’s one of the best college laptops around, and for those looking to spend just under $1,000, you’re in for a treat. See our full Apple MacBook Air (M1, 2020) review The Dell G5 15 SE (2020) is a great mainstream gaming laptop thanks to its wild CPU performance, awesome battery life and bright 15.6-inch display. With its AMD processor, the system continuously blew out the competition. The notebook also impressed with its battery life, lasting over 7 hours. Throw in an AMD graphics card that can hold its own on even the most demanding AAA titles and you’ve got a certified winner. Plus, the laptop has a display that’s equal parts bright and vivid along with a seriously comfortable keyboard. And we’re fans of the iridescent silver paint slathered over the hood and the healthy port offering, which lets you attach all of your necessary peripherals. The Dell G5 15 SE (2020) is one of the best gaming laptops you can get for the price. See our full Dell G5 15 SE (2020) review the Asus Vivobook S 15 OLED squeezes into that happy medium of offering efficient performance in a premium-looking chassis — all under $1,000. Packing a 12th Gen Intel processor, a commendable 15.6-inch OLED display, and ample battery life, Asus did a fine job with this year’s Vivobook lineup. Or, should we say clean job. Asus also brings its special “Antibacterial Guard” that inhibits the growth of bacteria by more than 99%. The Asus Vivobook S 15 OLED excels as a capable work machine at an affordable price. It offers commendable performance, thanks to its 12th Gen Intel chip, delivers quality on-screen entertainment with its 15.6-inch OLED display, and can (kind of) get you through a full day of work. See our full Asus Vivobook S 15 OLED review Asus is no stranger to the favored 14-inch form factor, so it’s no surprise that the Asus Vivobook S 14 Flip OLED is a delight to use. Sure, this 2-in-1 laptop boasts a flexible, eye-catching design and a choice between an all-AMD or Intel configuration with promising processing power (on paper), but the spotlight shines brightest on its price: around $679/£649. Talk about being competitive. This is a budget laptop, through and through, but it’s the classiest one at that. At its most basic configuration, with an AMD Ryzen 5 CPU, 8GB of DDR4 RAM, and a 512GB SSD, it’s a 14-inch, 2-in-1 laptop that’s hard to beat at its $680 price point. What’s more, it’s hard not to admire its simplistic yet premium-looking design. But the more powerful it gets under the hood, the more value it loses. Its keyboard and touchpad aren’t up to scratch to contend with premium-built laptops, and its 14-inch OLED display doesn’t shine like that of a high-end 14-inch laptop. Keep this cheap, however, and you’re getting a convincing deal. See our full Asus Vivobook S 14 Flip OLED review The HP Pavilion 14 isn’t the type of sexy powerhouse that will change your life. However, it is a stable everyday performer that won’t blow your budget and will keep you pushing documents out at a good clip. It ticks off a lot of the boxes for students and workers participating in remote or in-person learning. At $549.99, the Pavilion offers an attractive, affordable laptop with solid performance for day-to-day document pushing and content viewing. Its combination of performance, lightweight, and budget price is very hard to beat, making it an excellent choice for those on a budget who only need a laptop to handle the basics and enjoy some content. See our full HP Pavilion 14 (2022) review The Chromebook Spin 713 carves a nice niche for itself with the enthusiast or professional crowd, as well as students and mobile professionals. Its powerful processor makes it great for running heavier Android or Linux apps. It also has an ample selection of ports and a bright and vivid display. The Spin 713 proved to be a great performer with its 2.4-GHz Intel Core i5-1135G7 processor, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB PCIe NVMe SSD and Intel Iris Xe graphics. Plus, it has above-average battery life, coming in at 10 hours and 35 minutes on the Laptop Mag battery test. There’s an awful lot to like about the Acer Chromebook Spin 713, no matter what you’re using it for. Avid writers will love the keyboard and extra screen real estate, while multimedia mavens will love the streaming capabilities of Google OS. The notebook offers a brilliant 2-in-1 form factor that feels much more high-end than its price tag would have you believe. It’s durable enough for daily use, and powerful enough to replace the functionality of many full-fledged laptops. Plus, the battery life is top-notch. See our full Acer Chromebook Spin 713 (2021) review The Lenovo ThinkBook 14s Yoga dares to be different — it wants to stand out from all the other sub-$1,000 business convertibles on the market. While it didn’t blow us away when we put it to the test, it did consistently win silver medals in every department. We’re suckers for a garaged stylus, with the all-aluminum ThinkBook 14s Yoga includes a Smart Pen that has its own silo for rapid charging while it’s not in use. Along with strong performance and good display, the ThinkBook 14s Yoga is a 2-in-1 that’s ideal for business users who hate scrambling for pens that never seem to be within reach. See our full Lenovo ThinkBook 14s Yoga review The design hasn’t changed at all, but the Surface Pro 7 now has a USB-C port for charging and connecting peripherals. Microsoft still sells the comfortable Alcantara-clad Type Cover and the super-responsive Surface Pen, which makes it easy to draw or take notes on this tablet’s vivid and bright 12.3-inch display. The updated Microsoft Surface Pro 7+ comes with an 11th Gen Intel Core processor, but you’ll find its best configuration is well above the $1,000 limit. See our full Surface Pro 7 review The Samsung Galaxy Book 2021 is putting the company on a path to greatness. Not only does its 11th Gen Intel Core i5 processor impress by delivering fantastic overall performance for a $750 laptop, but its decent keyboard, port variety and thin design make it a promising notebook for professionals. Still, there are some cogs that need some polishing to make the machine flow. While the laptop’s thin bezels make the most of the 15-inch display, the panel itself is dull. Samsung also needs to do something about its terrible touchpad and webcam. That said, these aren’t deal-breakers, especially since it offers exceptional performance for a laptop that’s well under the $1,000 mark. The Samsung Galaxy Book is a good laptop, especially for those with other Samsung devices. See our full Samsung Galaxy Book (2021) review The Asus ZenBook 13 UM325S is a great ultraportable laptop. It rocks awesome performance, stellar battery life, a lovely OLED display and powerful speakers. The only shortcoming is its compact design. It’s wonderfully portable, but it makes the keyboard and touchpad somewhat uncomfortable to use. But overall, the ZenBook 13 is one of the best ultraportable laptops out there, as long as you have smaller hands and can get used to its keyboard. Read our full Asus ZenBook 13 UM325S review The Acer Aspire 5 earns its place at the top spot of the best laptops under $500 page due to its strong 8th Gen Core i3 performance, bright 1080p display, and long battery life — all for an affordable price. Although the Aspire 5 is much thinner than its sibling, the Aspire E 15, the Aspire 5 boasts enough room for a battery that lasts nearly 9 hours on a charge. It doesn’t feature a DVD writer, but it still has a decent number of ports. The display emits an impressive 276 nits of brightness, which gives the screen some decent contrast. It even has an aluminum hood. To top it off, the bezels on the display are surprisingly narrow for a laptop this cheap. The Aspire 5 is one of the best cheapest laptops currently available. See our full Acer Aspire 5 review The Acer Swift 3, the one with the AMD Ryzen 7 4700U CPU, blew us away with its overall performance on our Geekbench 5.0 benchmark. Not only did the Acer Swift 3 outdo the laptops within its price range, but it also outperformed some top-tier, premium laptops such as the Dell XPS 13. The Acer Swift 3 also has good battery life. You’ll get more than 11 hours from the Acer Swift 3, which will last you a whole day. Equipped with a powerful CPU and great battery life, the Acer Swift 3 will only set you back $649, which is totally unheard of nowadays. However, for the price, you’ll have to sacrifice having a brilliant screen because the Acer Swift 3 has a dim display. Still, the Acer Swift 3 will give you a lot of bang for your buck. We highly recommend it. Read our full Acer Swift 3 review No matter how you configure it, the Dell XPS 13 (2019) is still one of the best laptops for your money. Even if you opt for the $979 configuration of Dell’s flagship notebook (the only one under $1,000) you’ll still get a stunningly slim chassis, a gorgeous InfinityEdge display, and solid internals that include a 10th Gen Intel Core i3 processor and a battery that can last almost 11 hours. As for the Dell XPS 13 (2020)? Well, that’s the best laptop you can buy. See our full Dell XPS 13 review The Realme Book is the first foray in the company’s addition of laptops. We would have given this an Editor’s Choice award if it was readily available in regions all over the globe, but it isn’t available in the UK or Europe. If you’re getting serious Macbook Air vibes about this metallic wedge, you’re not alone. Even the simple white packaging is all very Apple-inspired. This laptop, however, comes with 11th Gen Intel processors, Windows 10, and a Realme logo slapped on the front instead. You get a good ultra portable at an impressively affordable price. If you need something small and lightweight for conquering the daily workload and enjoying casual entertainment on the go, Realme has made a seriously tempting option — so it’s a shame that most of us can’t buy it. Realme had this to say about availability: “Due to the current global situation, a combination of manufacturing and market forces have combined, meaning that despite the dedicated work from our team, this time we aren’t able to launch the Realme book in Europe as initially planned. We continue to work hard to bring the best products to our users and we can confirm that future versions of the products are very much in our plans for Europe. We’re excited to share what’s to come in the future for Realme and our fans.” Read our full Realme Book review
How we test the best laptops under $1,000
To evaluate whether a laptop is worth your hard-earned money, we run industry-standard performance benchmarks such as Geekbench and 3DMark as well as a variety of real-world tests that we’ve developed in our labs. This includes the Laptop Mag Battery Test, which surfs the web at 150 nits of brightness until a laptop runs out of juice, as well as a custom spreadsheet test that measures a laptop’s processing power. For more on our process, see this page on how we test laptops.
How to find the best laptop under $1,000
When shopping for the best laptop under $1,000 there’s a lot to consider. Here’s a good breakdown of how to find the best laptop for you. What’s your budget? Sure you can find some diamond-in-the-rough, decent Windows laptops and high-quality Chromebooks for under $500, but you may have to deal with a low-performing CPU or a poor multitasker. If you’re a light laptop user, those will be OK, but if you need something more powerful, you may want to aim higher — the best mainstream laptops typically cost more than $700. If you can, we suggest aiming for the $700 to $900 range. Do you want a 2-in-1 or a clamshell? If you enjoy the awesomeness of converting your laptop into a tablet, then 2-in-1 laptops are a good choice. But keep in mind that most times, you’ll be able to get a lower price and stronger-performing features with a traditional laptop. How much battery life do you need? If you’re on the go, you’re going to need to make sure you snag a laptop that lasts more than 10 hours. But if you’re a homebody or you’re tied to your desk all day, perhaps you can sacrifice some battery life and save some money in the process. Check out our laptops with the best battery life list. What specs do you need? Aim for a Core i5 CPU if you want decent performance. Memory and storage, you should aim for 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. As far as display, don’t get anything less than a 1080p screen — your eyes will thank you later. You can spend a lot of time delving into specs, but here are the key components to think about. If you just want really good mainstream performance, go for a Core i5 CPU, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD, and a 1080p screen. Gamers and content creators should be on the market for a laptop with discreet graphics, but finding a high-performing GPU under $1,000 might not be an easy task.
