Best budget laptop deals of January 2023: all under $500 / £300

Laptops are still one of the most useful and versatile tech products you can buy, but not all of us have a thousand pounds to spend on just one. Budget laptops may be more limited in what they can do, but you can get a bargain with one of these inexpensive models.

It’s possible to get a pretty solid laptop without spending a lot, especially if you’re smart and buy something during the current sale season. You can even get Intel Core i3 devices with touchscreens and SSDs, and we’re constantly keeping an eye out for the best prices.

If your budget is a bit higher, we recommend checking out our table of the best budget laptops (under $500/£500); if not, here’s a selection of sub-$500/£300 models that will suffice for occasional chores and get you out of a tight spot.

Some will be available for much cheaper and occasionally, perhaps with an additional voucher code, you could get one for less than $100/£100. Just be prepared for very basic specs.

Best places to buy budget laptops

There are many places where you can get a cheap laptop, including the following:

And in the UK:

You can also contact the manufacturers directly:

There are plenty more great deals on all kinds of tech on our main deals site.

Best budget laptop deals in the US

Best budget laptop deals UK

How to Find a Good Deal on a Budget Laptop

We review budget laptops throughout the year, and our favorite model right now is the Asus E410, which delivers an excellent overall experience, despite anticipated weaknesses such as a low peak brightness of the screen. While the more affordable SKU can be purchased direct from Asus for £229.99, a more powerful version can be had from Currys, running on Intel Pentium silicon, instead of a Celeron chipset.

The very fact that there are different SKUs for most laptop lines means you have to be careful what you’re buying: that laptop you just read about in this glowing review isn’t necessarily the same computer. laptop you just found at a bargain price. . Check things like screen size and resolution, processor model, and amount and type of RAM and storage.

For many people, these cheaper options will be more than enough for their needs, but it’s always helpful to have an idea of ​​what to look for in the first place. That way, if you see a good laptop deal that we haven’t mentioned here, you can figure out whether or not it’s a good buy.

The key things to watch out for are CPU, memory, storage type, and storage amount. At under $500/£300, you’re unlikely to find anything higher than an Intel Core i3/AMD A-series or Ryzen 3 processor; if you find a Core i5, grab that laptop immediately. You won’t find a better deal.

You’ll also see Intel Pentium and Celeron processors listed, and these are less powerful options often found in older models and Chromebooks/CloudBooks, but still more than capable if your needs are basic. By that we mean you’re looking for something that’s good for homework, answering emails, browsing the web or social media, and watching weird videos.

These configurations come with integrated graphics, and you shouldn’t expect to find a dedicated graphics card at this price. Your laptop will be more than capable of playing YouTube and movies, plus the occasional game, but if you’re really looking for something capable of high fidelity gaming, we’d recommend upping your budget to £500+ and opting for for a Core i5 like the bare minimum. We have other options here on slightly more expensive laptop deals.

At that price, you’ll likely find 4GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD, although at the budget end of the market you’ll often find solid-state storage replaced by a traditional mechanical hard drive. The advantage is more storage space; the downside is that they are slower, a little noisier and more fragile.

The screen size and overall design of a laptop are going to be purely personal choices. You’ll find everything from 11-inch to 15.6-inch screens at this price; a handful with Full HD (1080p) screens, but most with HD (720p) screens. Smaller laptops will generally be more easily portable, but it’s easier to get things done on a larger screen; especially if you want to watch videos, play casual games, or work with spreadsheets.

Don’t overlook Chromebooks, which your kids may be familiar with from school. The difference between these laptops and traditional Windows laptops is in the operating system installed on them. with Chromebooks instead of using Chrome OS. You’ll also find CloudBooks, which runs Microsoft’s simplified Windows 10 S.