Not all cheap laptops are slow, flimsy clunkers. Here are the 4 best weve tried.

As of March 2026, Apple users have a great new budget pick in the MacBook Neo. It has a fully aluminum chassis, and it's just as fast as a last-gen MacBook Air when running simple tasks like web browsing.

If you prefer Windows, the Acer Aspire 16 AI is super easy to recommend. It has a big, buttery smooth display, an impressive battery life, a backlit keyboard, a good mix of ports, and a healthy amount of RAM. It's the fastest sub-$900 laptop for multi-core tasks like video editing.

For those who can spend a little more...