4 Of The Best Cheap Laptops You Can Buy According To Consumer Reports

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Whether you're looking for a cheap laptop for home, work, or school, there are some pretty solid options on the market. You can go with Chromebooks, reasonably priced Windows laptops, or even older MacBooks that are available for significantly less than the latest models. However, if you're not computer-savvy, a laptop purchase can quickly become overwhelming with many things to consider, from which laptop brands are the most reliable to choosing the right specifications and operating systems.

This is where trusted sources like Consumer Reports (CR) come into play. CR is known for its rigorous testing and unbiased opinions. Like many other products, CR tests laptops, measuring their processing performance, display quality, battery life, and several other key factors, and then chooses a select few as its recommendations for the best laptops of the year. So, to help you pick a solid budget laptop, we have scoured through CR's recommendations and picked the following five options. All these laptops cost under $1,000 and cover a wide range of prices and specifications to meet different budget segments and requirements.

The Acer Aspire Go 15 is one of Consumer Reports' top picks for anyone looking to buy a budget laptop. It calls the Acer laptop a "great choice for everyday web browsing, emails, and streaming," thanks to its capable Core i5-1334U processor. At $350, it's undoubtedly a great value for money. The AG15-51P-510U variant recommended by Consumer Reports comes with 8GB of DDR5 RAM, 256GB SSD, and a 15.3-inch 1920x1200 IPS display.

Moreover, the Acer laptop runs on Windows 11 Home out of the box and packs plenty of ports for all your needs. You get two USB Type-C ports, with support for USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 speeds, DisplayPort Alt Mode, and 65W USB Power Delivery (USB PD). There are two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports, an audio jack, and an HDMI 2.1 port on board as well. This is an impressive port selection for a budget Windows laptop. Other highlights include Wi-Fi 6 for fast wireless connectivity and a 1080p camera for your video calling needs.

The presence of 8GB RAM can be a concern for the long-term usability of the laptop, as it's the bare minimum for modern computing needs. However, if you have the budget, a 16GB RAM model of the same laptop with 1TB of SSD storage can be purchased for just over $500.

According to Consumer Reports, the Samsung Galaxy Book 4 "hits the sweet spot of performance and value," with its modern Intel Core 7 150U processor and 16GB of RAM. It will cost you $584.90, and it is a good option if performance is a priority for you. It also features a 15.6-inch 1080p IPS screen with full coverage of the sRGB color space that's needed for accurate color representation of most online content.

Other features are also solid, such as 512GB of SSD storage, Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.1, Gigabit Ethernet, and a full-size backlit keyboard. Moreover, Samsung hasn't skimped on the port selection, with two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C ports, two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports, an audio jack, a microSD card slot, and an HDMI 2.1 port in tow.

The only aspect that can be considered a bit of a letdown is a 720p webcam, as even the $350 Acer laptop has a 1080p webcam. Otherwise, the Samsung offering is pretty reasonably configured for its price tag. If you want, you can shell out more to get more onboard storage; however, it'll be more cost-effective to get an external hard disk drive.

Whether you're especially looking for a cheap Chromebook or just need an inexpensive laptop for light multitasking, the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3 Chromebook is worth considering. When tested by Consumer Reports, this Lenovo machine lasted for an impressive 18.5 hours on a single charge, which is much higher than the company's claimed 13.5 hours of battery life. The organization also found its 14-inch 1080p display "sharp enough" for streaming and office work.

However, if you are someone who likes to open a ton of tabs while browsing the web, the IdeaPad Slim 3 Chromebook isn't powerful enough to handle heavy loads, as it comes with only 4GB of RAM and a MediaTek Kompanio 520 processor. Other features of this $220 (usually available for less than $200) Chromebook include 64GB of onboard storage, a 720p camera, and Wi-Fi 6 connectivity.

The port selection is pretty barebones, and it comes with a USB 3.2 Type-C port with DP Alt Mode and USB PD support, meaning you can charge the laptop or connect an external display using the same port. There is also a USB 3.2 Type-A port, a 3.5mm audio jack, and a microSD card slot on board.

Consumer Reports also recommends the 2022 version of the 13-inch MacBook Air with the M2 chip as one of the laptops that you can consider on a budget, as it's available for a discount after the release of the M4 MacBook Air. Despite being three years old and featuring a two-gen-old processor, it's still an excellent laptop for everyday computing, as Apple's M-series chips are pretty capable.

It comes with many of the same features as the M4, such as a 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display, 16GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, and a Touch ID fingerprint scanner. You also get Wi-Fi 6 for fast wireless connectivity and two Thunderbolt 3 ports with USB4 support to plug in external storage, peripherals, and USB docks. Plus, the MacBook Air (M2) packs a 52.6-watt-hour lithium-polymer battery, which Apple claims to deliver up to 15 hours of web browsing time, and a 1080p FaceTime camera that you can use for video calls.

While selecting the products recommended here, we consulted Consumer Reports' buying guides for the best laptops of 2025 and the best low-priced laptops, Chromebooks, and tablets. We focused on the models that are still on store shelves and available for under $1,000. We included laptops across multiple price ranges to meet the needs of different people, and also chose machines from all major platforms: Windows, Mac, and Chrome OS. Moreover, our recommendations have garnered excellent buyer reviews on online stores such as Amazon and Best Buy, with an average rating of over 4.3 out of 5.