Best budget laptops under £200, £300 and £500

We run you through the best cheap laptops we've found and explain where you can compromise. False economy is rife, so use our advice and recommendations to avoid wasting your money.

The truth about budget laptops is that if you're paying less then £500, you'll have to make some compromises. We've seen sub-£500 Best Buy models, but they're few and far between, so you need to be careful which cheap option you buy if you want a good one.

We’ll take you through our top picks of the best for less than £500 and give our expert tips on where you can make compromises – and where you shouldn't. We'll also outline what to look for in a cheap laptop if you're buying for a child.

Whatever your budget, our reviews reveal which models are worth your money and which aren't. You can also see our expert pick of the best laptops

Best budget laptops under £500, £300 and £200

We've gathered the very best laptops for less than £500, ranked by Which? test score. We've been sure to pick out the best models for less than £300 and less than £200, too, if you really don't want to spend a lot. 

We select and update these products monthly and, where possible, the price is updated daily. Due to the fluctuating nature of prices, some prices might rise above £500 occasionally. However, we'd expect these devices to be priced below £500 most of the time. To see our picks this month, head to our best laptop deals.

Only logged-in Which? members can view our recommendations below. If you’re not yet a member, you can get instant access if you join Which? plus gain unlock all our independent, expert product reviews and service reviews.

(Recommendations checked November 2024.)

Take a look at all of our expert laptop reviews.

Cheap laptops to avoid

Shopping at the budget end of the market isn't easy. We've named the worst as Don't Buys because of poor performance, battery life, display quality or often all three in our independent tests. The laptops below are definitely models to avoid.

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From our laptops expert: What to expect when you spend less

Oliver Trebilcock, Which? laptops expert and senior researcher, says:

The quality of cheap laptops is always a mixed bag, which is why our reviews of cheap laptops are well worth checking. Below, I've summarised the three laptop price points featured on this page and what you should expect.

• Laptops for less than £200 If you’re looking for a decent laptop that costs less than £200, you won't get many extra features, but there are a few options available that have scored reasonably well in our tests. Ultra-cheap laptops are often best suited to simple computing tasks such as writing documents and sending a few emails. They're also ideal for children who only have basic homework to do.
• Laptops for less than £300 Up the budget and you’ll start to find higher-scoring models with faster processors and better screens, including reasonable Pentium processors.
• Laptops for less than £500 If you go up to this price, you'll find a lot more to choose from. Models often have faster Intel Core i3 – and, at a stretch, i5 – processors, as well as speedy solid-state drives (SSDs) and vibrant Full HD screens.

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The pros and cons of budget laptops

If you’re thinking of buying a cheap laptop, you should know what you can and can’t do with your new machine.

Pros of budget laptops

• Portability Very cheap laptops for less than £250 tend to be small, which means they often weigh around 1kg or less. They’re also typically very thin, so should fit in even the smallest of bags.
• Battery life Because these laptops have low-power processors, they often have exceptionally long battery life. Some of the best we’ve tested easily last more than 10 hours, so you shouldn't get caught out if you’re away from a power source for longer than expected.
• Cheerful designs Some budget laptops have more colourful, slightly rugged designs. While this won’t ever make or break a buying decision, it can be a nice bonus.

Cons of budget laptops

• Speed While laptops costing around £500 will be fast enough for almost everyone, if you cut the budget much more than this, speed will suffer. The very latest models are fine when web browsing, but they will slow down significantly if you try to have several programs running at once. Very cheap models can have lower-end Intel Celeron and Atom processors, the latter of which should be avoided at all costs. Read more about processor brands in our guide to AMD, Intel and Nvidia. 
• Screen quality Some cheaper options have screens that are lower resolution and significantly duller than their more expensive counterparts. This isn’t a universal truth, however, and some ultra-cheap laptops have impressive screens. Our laptop reviews reveal all.
• Low storage Small and cheap laptops, especially Chromebooks, have little storage. These laptops are best for working on documents stored in cloud services such as Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive. If you have a large collection of photos and videos, you might need to keep them on an external USB hard drive. Don't buy a Chromebook with less than 32GB and avoid Windows laptops with less than 64GB.

Our reviews assume that the user is an adult or a student in further education who will have certain minimum requirements. See our expert pick of the best laptops for students at school, college or university.

If you're buying for a younger child who only needs a laptop to do their homework, you can spend as little as £150 on a new budget model that should be up to the job. That’s not to say that you should completely ignore our reviews, as few budget options excel in our tests, but it does mean you can be a little more flexible.

Whatever you're spending, you should aim to buy one that’s not too old. Cheap laptops from a few years ago were slow when they launched and might feel even slower today, as programs and the web have become more demanding for older computers. 

What to look for in a budget laptop

Here are the minimum specs to look for if you’re buying for a younger child and have a budget of less than £200:

• Operating system Windows 11 in S mode or ChromeOS
• Processor Intel Celeron or Pentium
• Memory 4GB Ram
• Storage 64GB of storage (Windows) or 32GB of storage (ChromeOS).

We'd recommend a smaller, 11-inch screen (to make the laptop easy and safe to carry around). Avoid big, heavy laptops that a child will struggle to carry. 

You should also check it's going to be compatible with Windows 11 – use our free Windows 11 requirements checker tool. If the laptop's not compatible, support for Windows 10 will end in October 2025 and you'll stop getting important updates.

If you opt for Windows 11 in S Mode, your computer will only be able to install apps from the Microsoft Store. This means there's much less chance of your child accidentally downloading an app that’s actually a virus or full of spam. You can also set up their Microsoft account to be a 'child' account linked to your own account, so you can limit what they're allowed to do with the laptop and further restrict what apps can be downloaded from the Microsoft Store.

Protect your data - our tests reveal the best antivirus

Chromebooks are also worth a look. In fact, your child might already use one at school, as these are popular among educational institutions. Read our guide to the best Chromebooks for what to expect.

Steer clear of: 

• Processor Intel Atom and older Intel Celeron processors (look out for model numbers starting with N3 and N40, such as N3060 or N4020, as these are old and slow)
• Memory 2GB Ram (it's just not enough)
• Storage 16GB storage (this will get full very fast).

We’d recommend sticking to models from well-known brands, sold by trusted retailers, as you can more easily guarantee that they’re new and have a valid warranty. You'll also have access to a dedicated customer support service via the manufacturer’s website.

Buying a no-name brand from an online marketplace, such as Amazon Marketplace or eBay, for example, means that you might get little or no support. Some brands don’t even have websites, making them impossible to contact.

We survey thousands of laptop owners so we can reveal the most reliable laptop brands.

Where to buy a budget laptop

There are several online retailers that you can buy laptops from without spending lots of money. To help you narrow down the options, we've picked a few of the most searched-for retailers that offer laptops at £500, £300, and £200.

• Currys has loads of laptops available at most price points, including many of our top budget-friendly picks. Standard delivery is free on most orders, with faster delivery available from £7. You can click and collect laptops, too.
• John Lewis offers several laptops under £500, including some of our recommended models. Most models that fall under £500 are Chromebooks, and there are several laptops available that meet our recommended specs. You'll get free standard delivery on all laptops.
• Laptops Direct stocks laptops and Chromebooks that fall under £200, £300, and £500. Standard delivery costs £6, with next-day options from £10.

Our latest budget laptop reviews

Below are of the most recently Which? lab-tested laptops available for less than £500. 

Not sure whether to opt for a Chromebook or Windows laptop? Our guide on Chromebooks vs MacBooks vs Windows can help you make the right choice

Getting a good deal on a budget laptop

Just because a deal exists, it doesn’t mean that it’s special. Indeed, sometimes the 'sale' price is simply the usual price, but with a big red label on it. 

We've put together a full guide on laptop deals, including our latest five top picks, and a full suite of advice on how to get the best out of the UK's biggest retailers. The products featured on the page are hand-picked by experts and available to Which? members and non-members alike. 

Head over to our best laptop deals to find out more.

The cheapest monitors we've tested are less than £100. To find out how they perform, see our computer monitor reviews