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Reviewed / Jackson Ruckar
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Credit:
Reviewed / Jackson Ruckar
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The HP Pavilion Plus 16 is well-rounded and a viable alternative to the larger MacBook Pro 16, MacBook Air 15, or LG Gram 17. Read More
The Asus Zenbook 14X OLED sports a 13th-gen Intel processor and follows in the Acer Aspire Vero’s tracks with the use of recycled materials. Read More
The best laptop under $1,000 may not be able to do everything that more expensive laptops can. That’s why it’s important to know what features matter the most to you so you can get the best deal on a laptop possible.
After testing top-rated affordable laptops, the HP Pavilion Plus 16 (available at HP) rose to the top thanks to its discrete graphics power and its versatile 13th gen Intel Core i5 processor. It’s not technically a gaming laptop, but it can stand tall among the best gaming laptops under $1,000 with ease.
There are plenty of other great laptops for under $1,000 on the market, and we're here to help you find the best one for you in your price range.
The HP Pavilion Plus 16 has it all, and it won't give you sticker shock.
The Lenovo Yoga 9i is a stellar 2-in-1 that feels good to use in every form factor.
The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 2023 still keeps up with 2024's gaming laptops.
The MacBook Air 13 and Air 15 are excellent laptops for those that prefer MacOS's clean interface.
Stays cool on your lap
Touchpad with built-in Numpad
Pleasing sound
Middling performance
All ports are on the right side
Lacks a built-in card reader
Solid performance
Sturdy, tactile keyboard feel
Minimalist, professional look
Just okay screen brightness
Loaded with bloatware
Whether you need a Chromebook for web browsing or a high-powered machine for gaming, you should be able to find a great laptop under $1,000. Still, you’ll likely have to make some choices about what’s most important to you. Here are some things to consider:
Laptops under $1,000 are usually mid-range models with powerful hardware and good design. At this price point, you’re getting good performance for most everyday tasks that won’t feel sluggish after a year or two of use, plus solid build quality and a few nice bells and whistles like facial recognition. The best laptops under $1,000 also have 8+ hours of battery life and excellent HDR-ready displays, but it’s harder to find a laptop under $1,000 with discrete graphics processors or all-metal bodies.
How well your computer can multitask, handle intensive tasks like gaming, and store all your files is determined by the CPU, graphics chip, RAM, and storage inside your PC. The better the specs, the snappier the laptop will feel as you work.
For a laptop under $1,000, you should expect a midrange or better processor like the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H or the AMD Ryzen 7 8840U with a base frequency of 3 GHz, boost speeds above 4.5 GHz, and 8 fully-powered cores (Intel calls them performance cores). Usually, the processors also have power-efficient cores that handle less demanding tasks and conserve a laptop’s battery life battery than the full-powered cores would.
Graphics power is hit-or-miss among laptops under $1,000. While some gaming laptops under $1,000 have midrange discrete graphics processors like the Nvidia RTX 4050, it’s more common for laptops at this price point to forgo a discrete graphics card and use the core processor’s integrated graphics instead. That said, Intel’s latest Arc graphics processors and AMD’s latest Radeon graphics processors can easily handle lighter 3D games like Shadow of the Tomb Raider. More intense modern games, like Elden Ring, can usually run at playable frame rates (think 30 frames per second at 1080p resolution), but getting to 60 FPS is more of a struggle.
Laptops under $1,000 may also skimp on memory and storage. If you can, you should look for laptops that have 16GB of DDR5 memory and 512GB of solid state drive storage or better. A laptop with 8GB of memory, like a base MacBook Air 13, will be fine for web browsing and light to medium productivity, but it will struggle to keep up with massive files (like a 200-page Word document).
The size of a laptop display is measured by its diagonal length. You’ll usually find laptops in one of three main sizes—13 inches and under, 15 inches, or 17 inches. Sometimes, you will see 14-inch laptops and 16-inch laptops, as well.
The smallest laptops under $1,000 are very portable and more suitable for lighter work and browsing the web. You lose some portability with laptops with 15-inch displays, but they are more useful for photo editing and watching videos. While 17-inch displays can be a pain to lug around, the bigger screen is worth it for video editing and other creative work.
When looking for the best laptops under $1,000, you’ll want to keep an eye out for resolution and display type. A laptop with a 1080p screen will be enough for many, but it’s becoming commonplace to see laptops in this price range include a 1440p or higher resolution display.
Most laptops under $1,000 use IPS LCD displays, but if you’re able to find a laptop with OLED you’ll get better black levels and contrast. Usually, OLED displays also have better color accuracy and recreation, as well.
We test laptops for their processing capability, graphics, battery life, and screen brightness.
We put laptops under $1,000 through the same tests as the best laptops you can buy. Every computer we test is evaluated on processing capability, graphics, battery life, and screen brightness.
Additionally, we also use each laptop for an extended time, looking at factors like price, build quality, design, and portability.
Adrien is the PC staff writer for Reviewed with over 4 years of experience covering laptops, desktops, software, games, and more.
Joanna specializes in anything and everything gaming-related and loves nerding out over graphics cards, processors, and chip architecture. Previously she was a staff writer for Gizmodo, PC Gamer, and Maximum PC.
Our team is here for one purpose: to help you buy the best stuff and love what you own. Our writers, editors, and lab technicians obsess over the products we cover to make sure you're confident and satisfied. Have a different opinion about something we recommend? Email us and we'll compare notes.
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