The Best Cheap Laptops We’ve Tested for 2025

These days, you can find a capable budget laptop—whether a full-size classic clamshell, an ultraportable, or a 2-in-1 convertible powerful enough for home, work, or school—for far less than $1,000. From economy Windows machines to Chromebooks to Macs, our editors and reviewers test more than 100 laptops each year, evaluating them for raw CPU and graphics performance, screen quality, battery life, connectivity, value, and more. Our current top cheap Windows laptop overall is the Acer…