The 3 Best Laptops Under $400 of 2025

The best laptop under $400 we've tested is the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i Chromebook 14 (2023). This 14-inch Chromebook is great for younger students or anyone needing a simple device for light tasks like text processing, web browsing, and video playback. It's a little chunky compared to more premium models on the market but still compact enough to be portable. Plus, its battery lasts around 13 hours of light use. We recommend the Core i3 configuration paired with 8GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and an FHD touch-sensitive IPS display, which you can often find on sale for around $400 USD on Lenovo's website. Cheaper configurations exist; however, you'll have to compromise on performance and display quality.

Performance aside, another reason we recommend getting the Core i3 mentioned above is its FHD IPS display, which has a peak brightness of around 360 cd/m². That's sufficiently bright for good visibility indoors, possibly even outdoors on a cloudy day. This display also has 100% sRGB coverage, so it doesn't look washed out like most budget devices. Above the display is an excellent 1080p webcam, which is also an uncommon thing to see for such a low price. The downsides of this laptop mainly concern the keyboard and touchpad; the former feels mushy, and the latter is small and sometimes unresponsive. Unfortunately, there are no biometrics for quick logins, though that's fairly typical on Chromebooks.

If you prefer or must use Windows, get the ASUS Vivobook 16 M1605 (2023) instead. For just a little over $400 USD, you can get a model sporting an AMD Ryzen 5 5625U CPU, 8GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage. This configuration can easily handle general productivity tasks like text processing, web browsing, spreadsheets, and video playback. Heavy multitasking is where you'll likely run into some problems due to RAM limitations. Thankfully, the memory is user-upgradeable, so you can add more yourself after purchase. There are 16GB models if you're willing to spend more, though upgrading it yourself might be cheaper, as SO-DIMM sticks are relatively inexpensive these days.

This laptop feels pretty well-built for the price, and it isn't overly bulky or heavy for a 16-inch device, so it's still easy to carry around. Its battery life is okay at a little over eight hours of light use, so depending on your workload, you may have to plug it in for a quick charge. Our main gripe is that its 1080p display doesn't get very bright, so visibility may be an issue in well-lit rooms. There's a fingerprint sensor for added security as well as a decent port selection comprising three USB-As, a USB-C, and an HDMI. Unfortunately, the USB-C doesn't support video output.

If you need a device mainly for media consumption, we have another Lenovo device to recommend (Lenovo makes a lot of budget laptops), the Lenovo Chromebook Duet 5 (2021). It's a 13-inch Chrome OS tablet with a detachable keyboard, similar to Microsoft's popular Surface Pro tablet PCs. This form factor lets you take the keyboard off when viewing content, which is convenient in tight spaces like an airplane, and it also makes the device easier to hold as a tablet. You can simply pop the keyboard back on when you need to type something out. The keyboard feels rather cramped and uncomfortable to type on for long periods, so it's best suited for short emails and other light work.

What makes this device stand out—especially for such an affordable device—is its beautiful OLED display. It's sharp, bright, and colorful, and like all OLEDs, it displays deep, inky blacks, making it great for dark room viewing. The speakers get reasonably loud, but they don't have much bass and sound slightly unnatural. Also, there's no 3.5 mm headphone jack, so it's best to use wireless headphones. The battery lasts around eight hours of video playback or 10 hours of light use, giving you plenty of time to get through multiple movies and TV show episodes. The display supports pen input if you want to take notes or draw, but you must buy the stylus separately.