The 5 Best Budget And Cheap Laptops For Students - Fall 2024

The best budget laptop for students we've tested is the ASUS Vivobook 16 M1605 (2023). This 16-inch ultraportable laptop feels quite sturdy despite sporting a full-plastic chassis. While it might not fit into smaller bags, it's still relatively portable due to its thin and lightweight design. You might need to bring a charger with you, as the battery lasts around eight hours of light use, but thankfully, you can charge the laptop via USB-C. The overall user experience is good; it has a comfortable keyboard, a large, responsive touchpad, and a decent 720p webcam. The FHD+ display looks reasonably sharp but a bit dim, a common drawback of budget-friendly devices. You get Wi-Fi 6E wireless connectivity, a fingerprint sensor for quick logins, and a decent port selection with three USB-As, a USB-C, and an HDMI. The USB-C doesn't support video output, so you'll have to use the HDMI port to connect an external display.

Configuration-wise, this laptop has AMD Ryzen 5 or Ryzen 7 CPUs, which are more than adequate for handling most student workloads, like text processing, web browsing, and video playback. You can perform some moderately CPU-intensive tasks like programming. Still, anything that requires lots of GPU processing power is out of the question, as the integrated graphics processor is pretty weak. You can get this laptop with 8GB or 16GB of RAM. If you have trouble finding a 16GB model, you can get an 8GB model and upgrade it via the empty SO-DIMM slot, which might be cheaper. Storage options max out at 1TB—the SSD is also user-replaceable.

If you want to spend even less, our pick for the best cheap laptop for students is the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i Chromebook 14 (2023), a 14-inch Chrome OS model. Size and price aside, the most important thing to know about this laptop compared to the ASUS Vivobook 16 M1605 (2023) above is that it has much less processing power and runs Chrome OS, so it's more limited in what it can do. This means it's best suited for students—particularly younger grade school students—who only need a simple device to browse the web and write papers. It has a compact design that makes it easy to carry around, 13 hours of battery life in light uses, Wi-Fi 6E, and a surprisingly good 1080p webcam. The keyboard feels a bit mushy, though, and the touchpad is small and not always responsive to inputs.

Regarding the configuration, you can get this laptop with an Intel N100, N200, or Core i3 CPU paired with 4GB or 8GB of RAM. We highly recommend getting the Core i3 configuration paired with an FHD display, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage, which you can regularly find on Lenovo's website for around $400 to $500 USD. Not only will you get a smoother experience (especially when multitasking), but you'll also get a much nicer display. The cheaper configurations are fine if you have a very limited budget; just know that the overall user experience won't be as good.

Talking about a budget MacBook is always weird because Apple doesn't make budget laptops, and MacBooks are typically quite expensive compared to Windows and Chrome OS devices. That said, if there ever were a budget MacBook, the Apple MacBook Air 13 (M1, 2020) would be it. Released nearly four years ago, this model is officially discontinued, but you can still get the base model (with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage) for around $650 to $700 USD from retailers like Walmart. Its build quality is outstanding and miles above anything in this price range, and it's among the most compact 13-inch laptops around, thanks to its sleek design. You get a nice Retina display, a spacious keyboard, Apple's industry-leading haptic touchpad, and a high-quality webcam. Port selection is limited, though, as there are only two USB-Cs with support for a single external display.

Performance is great. You can get better performance on the newer M2 and M3 MacBook Airs, but the M1 still holds up and is more than fast enough for most students. This chip doesn't need active cooling, so you'll never have to worry about fan noise, and its incredible power efficiency results in 13 hours of battery life in light uses. Apple keeps updating their devices for a long time, so you'll get the latest software features, including ones from the newly released OS version, macOS Sequoia. Unfortunately, the memory and storage aren't user-replaceable, though that's something we've come to expect from Apple. The wireless adapter is also soldered, so you'll have to stick with Wi-Fi 6 speeds.

If you're shopping for a younger student who only needs a device for simple homework assignments and media consumption, consider the Lenovo Chromebook Duet 5 (2021), a 2-in-1 Chrome OS tablet. Like Microsoft's popular Surface Pro tablets, this form factor lets you detach the keyboard when it isn't needed, and you can pop it back on when you need to type something out. It fits easily into small bags, and you won't have to worry about bringing a charger, as the battery lasts around 10 hours of light use. If you need to charge it, you can do so over USB-C, so you don't have to deal with a proprietary charger.

This tablet's standout feature is its OLED display. It gets bright enough to combat glare in most indoor settings, and unlike the display on most budget devices, it doesn't look washed out, thanks to its full sRGB and DCI P3 coverage. This OLED panel does use PWM (Pulse-Width Modulation) dimming, meaning it flickers, but it's unlikely to be an issue since the flicker frequency is very high. The other thing to know about the OLED display is that it's susceptible to permanent burn-in. Unfortunately, the keyboard feels rather uncomfortable to type on due to its cramped layout and high operating force, and the touchpad is small and sometimes unresponsive. The upside is that the type cover keyboard comes with the device, so you don't have to spend extra for it.

The best budget gaming laptop for students we've tested is the ASUS TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition (2023). This AMD system is a great option if you want a device that can double as your gaming rig and as a workstation for students in technical fields like engineering or 3D modeling. It isn't a full workstation replacement, as it's designed primarily for gaming, but unlike the laptops mentioned above, it'll at least give you a good amount of processing power to get the job done. The gaming experience is great, as its AMD CPU and GPU can easily push high frame rates in intensive AAA games.

Display options include a 165Hz FHD+ or a 240Hz QHD+ panel; both support variable refresh rate to reduce screen tearing. There's a wide port selection for peripherals and external displays, including an Ethernet and HDMI 2.1. You can only get up to 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, though these components are user-replaceable. Unfortunately, the fans get pretty loud and can be distracting in quiet classrooms. Another downside is that this laptop is fairly bulky, so it might not fit into smaller bags. Battery life in light uses is excellent at around 13 hours, but that cuts down to around two hours when gaming or performing intensive tasks.