The 5 Best Laptops Under $300 Reviewed

Gone are the days when a laptop costs $1000 or more. Even with inflation, the cost of a laptop keeps going further and further down. Laptops are built for every level of budget, and in some areas it’s quite rare for a household not to own a laptop.

We’ll be the first to tell you though, not all laptops are created equal. Some are much better than others, and some are merely internet browsers with negligible HHD or SSD drive for downloading apps.

It’s very sensible to have a budget in mind when you’re buying a laptop. It’s too easy to get carried away with admiring fancy features and hoping to get the world’s best laptop, only to realise you really don’t have the budget.

However, we’re happy to tell you that there are some really good laptops out there that cost under $300 a pop. We’ve been checking them out, and we’ve come up with our top 5 favorites, which we’ll be showing you very shortly.

After that we’ve also got a great little buying guide for you which walks you through all the different specs to consider before buying.

Let’s go…

Best Laptops Under $300

1. ASUS L203MA VivoBook

This dinky little laptop is super portable. At 11.6 inches, it weighs just 2.2 pounds.

Not only that but it also has a fantastic battery life, coming in at a whopping 10 hours on a full charge. Altogether making it a great laptop for those who are always out on the go.

What we really love about it though is that it comes with One Year Subscription Of Microsoft Office 365, all included in the price.

With this you can email with Outlook, type on Word, do spreadsheets on Excel, make presentations on PowerPoint, video conference on Teams, and record ideas with OneNote.

This subscription not only allows you to use the apps, which would normally cost money to buy, but it also gives you 1 TB worth of cloud storage, that’s 1000 GB!

Although the laptop’s screen may be small in size, it’s images are picture perfect, thanks to it’s high definition resolution.

The operating system is Windows 10 in S mode, but if like most people you’d prefer to work from Windows 10 Home, that can be arranged in just a couple of simple steps.

The laptop is also compatible with Google Classroom, making it a great choice for students or anyone doing online learning.

It has fast internet connectivity, with its 802.11ac protocol, so you’ll have no trouble getting online.

It’s got a really good CPU, an Intel one no less, that can run at 2.6 GHz. And it can multitask with the 4GB of RAM.

There’s plenty of ports, if you want to use it with a mouse or charge up your smartphone from it.

And if you wanted to download any media, or store any files locally rather than in the cloud, there’s 64GB of flash storage at hand. Plus there’s a slot for an SD card too.

2. HP Stream HD Laptop

Call us vain, but what we love about this laptop is it’s gorgeous pale rose gold look.

You’ll never pick up the wrong laptop by mistake, and it’s much easier to see the keyboard in low light. You can also buy it with a matching laptop case if you buy through Amazon.

Of course that’s not all it’s got going for it to make our top 5! We love that it’s screen is a full 14 inches wide. Especially since most laptops in this price range are usually just 11.6 inches. And it has a high definition resolution to boot.

It also comes with one year’s subscription to Microsoft Office 365, which includes use of the main Microsoft Office apps, and 1 TB worth of cloud storage. Great for remote workers and students alike.

Despite it’s speedy 2.6 GHz CPU, the HP Stream has an amazing battery life which can last for over 14 hours straight depending on what you’re using it for. Great for using on your commute.

You also get 4 GB of RAM for all your multitasking, and a very nice 64 GB of storage for all your files and downloads.

The operating system is Windows 10 in S mode, but if like most people you’d prefer to work from Windows 10 Home, that can be arranged in just a couple of simple steps.

It has great connectivity, with it’s 802.11ac protocol for your wifi, and Bluetooth 4.2.

It has plenty of ports for everything you want to plug into it, and they’re positioned on the left hand side, which is perfect if you have a mouse positioned on the right hand side.

3. HP 14 Series 14-inch Laptop

This laptop has a large screen for one in this budget, coming in at 14 inches. And the screen has a really good resolution too, coming in at a crisp and clear 1366 x 768.

We love that it’s all in white, really stands out, and makes the keyboard much easier to read too.

The other stand out feature is the inclusion of a Radeon graphics card, which is great news for gamers who love their graphic intense games.

Like many other new Windows laptops these days it comes with a 1 year subscription to Microsoft Office 365, which means you can use all your favorite Microsoft Office Apps, AND you also get a whopping terabyte’s worth of cloud storage. That’s 1000 GB!

The operating system is Windows 10 in S mode, but if like most people you’d prefer to work from Windows 10 Home, that can be arranged in just a couple of simple steps.

The battery life is really really good, coming in at 10 hours on a full charge.

The specs are great, the Athlon CPU goes up to 2.6 GHz, rivalling the more expensive laptops around. And there’s 4GB of RAM, which is what you need if you like to have a lot of apps open at once.

You also get 64 GB of flash memory, so if you want to store files on the laptop as well as in your ready paid for free One Drive storage – you’re all sorted. There’s also a multi-format SD media card reader too.

There’s great connectivity, with 802.11ac wifi protocol, and Bluetooth 6, and there are plenty of ports for everything you want to plug in.

True, it hasn’t had a lot of customer reviews just yet, but that’s only because it only became available in September 2020.

4. Jumper EZbook X3 Laptop

Where this budget laptop stands out is in just how much storage space it has to offer.

There’s a whopping 128 GB storage capacity for your photos, documents, music etc.

And there’s a LOT of external storage supported besides, including 128 GB TF card expansion and up to 1 TB (that’s 1000 GB) of SSD expansion.

The screen is 13.3 inches wide which is quite large for a laptop of this budget, but still remains very lightweight and portable at just 1.23kg. You can slide it into your backpack and take it anywhere.

The screen displays your images and movies in high definition, with a stunning resolution of 1920 x 1080. The screen is also IPS, which means that you can clearly see your images from every angle, and your eyes can relax.

The operating system is Windows 10 Home, which is perfect for most users, and there’s no messing around, trying to switch from S mode.

The battery life is quite good at up to 6 hours on a full charge, whereas many other laptops in this price range only provide about 3 hours.

You get a blazing fast internet connection, and a Bluetooth 4.2 connection too.

We also like that there’s a mini HD port for hooking the laptop up to another monitor or projector.

It also comes with a 12 months warranty, which is very reassuring since this brand is still relatively new to the game.

What is more reassuring though is that it’s already made the best seller lists with online retailers.

5. Dell XPS 15 7590

Dell is a laptop maker that regularly sets itself apart in the marketplace.

The XPS 15 7590 brings enough power to let you handle some complex data science without breaking a sweat.

A powerful Intel Core i7-9750 processor, clocking up to 4.5GHz, drives the bus here.

The NVidia GeForce GTX 1650 GPU graphics chip adds 4GB of VRAM to your game – similar to the graphic performance levels of the MacBook Pro.

And, while one of the big draws of the Mac machines is their ability to easily get their UNIX on, here you get Windows 10 giving you access to all the functions you could need.

Bringing the challenge to the Pro, the XPS 15 7590 comes pre-loaded with 16GB of RAM – that’s a lot of your hardcore processing taken care of. 256GB SSD of storage is one of the small issues that pushes the Dell down beneath the Pro in our list.

Oh, and in terms of battery life, you’re looking at an easy 14 hours here, which puts it ahead of even the MacBook Air on time between charges.

The XPS 15 7590 is probably the MacBookiest non-MacBook in town, so if you’re looking for a genuine alternative to the Apple behemoth, you can do worse than choose the Dell.

Laptops Under $300 Buyers Guide

Let’s get straight to it.

We’re going to level with you here

You can’t do as much with a budget laptop as you can with a high end, expensive laptop. Try as they might, they just don’t have the same capabilities. But that’s not to say it can’t do what you want it to.

For example, you can easily stream movies on a budget laptop that costs under $300, but downloading them is another story because you won’t have enough storage space.

Similarly a budget laptop under $300 is fine to learn a little coding on, but doesn’t have sufficient processing power to do the kind of data mining you’d do in ethical hacking.

Likewise, a budget laptop can be used to download some basic puzzle games, but not the kind of really graphic intensive games reminiscent of XBox or PlayStation Games.

And for those who don’t know, you can’t get an Apple brand laptop for under $300.

Don’t let all this put you off though, although there are things you can’t do with a budget laptop, there’s lots that you can, such as video conferencing, surfing the net, blogging, watching YouTube, streaming movies, online study, and using all your Microsoft Office apps.

Why you shouldn’t go for a Chromebook

If you’ve already started looking into budget laptops, you will have seen a number of Chromebooks available for under $300.

The thing is though, Chromebooks use the Google Chrome operating system. And yes, sure, the Chromebook does have many plus points, but it only offers you an internet browser.

And while many of it’s apps are free to use online, the space for downloads is a measly 32 GB at most. Even if you were to extend the storage with an SD card you won’t get that much.

You also won’t have access to all your Microsoft Office apps, or Photoshop. You will need an internet connection for everything you want to do, and despite the relatively fast boot up time, it can be frustratingly slow when retrieving or saving files.

Choosing a laptop under $300 pretty much limits your operating system choices to just Windows ones. But we would argue that that isn’t a bad thing.

Bill Gates’s Windows systems have been around longer and still get continually updated. They remain one of the better operating systems you can get.

For more information on a regular laptop vs. a chromebook, watch this video:

Traditional Laptop vs Hybrid 2-in-1 Tablet and Laptop

There’s no real right or wrong answer toTraditional Laptop vs Hybrid 2-in-1s.

There are pros and cons for each side of the argument, and at the end of the day the choice comes down to personal preference.

2 in 1 laptops are smaller, lighter, and eliminate the need for a pesky trackpad. But traditional laptops are far easier to type on, which makes them the better option for office work or study.

Top Tip

If you already have a particular piece of software or app in mind that you know you’ll be wanting to use on your new laptop, please check the laptop requirements before deciding what one to buy.

The laptops shown to you earlier in this article can run all of the more popular apps, but it’s better to be safe than to be sorry and check the requirements first, if only to put your mind at ease.

What to look for in a laptop under $300

Physical Dimensions

Laptops can vary in size from as little as 11 inches to as big as 17 inches. But laptops that cost under $300 are invariably between 11 inches and 14 inches.

But this is fine. Size isn’t everything. Sure you lose the number pad on the right hand side of the keyboard, but you still get the number keys above the letters of the keyboard.

And as for streaming movies, it’s the resolution that counts more than screen size. Which brings us onto our next section.

Screen Resolution

If you’ve been paying attention to the reviews, you’ll have noticed that you can get some really good budget laptops that can display images in full definition.

Good news hey? So there’s no need to settle for anything less.

Connectivity

Another important thing to think about is how good the internet connection is. A speedy 802.11ac protocol would be the best to look out for, since it’s currently the fastest one in this price range.

You should also consider what ports the laptop has. You might want one port for a USB stick, one for a mouse, one to charge your smartphone with, and one to hook it up to your TV.

Battery Life

Depending on how much you want to travel with your laptop, you may be looking for one with a good battery life.

In this sort of price range, you can expect to get laptops with a battery life of up to 3 hours or more. (Which is more than long enough to stream a film.)

CPU

The CPU is the processing unit of the laptop. The more advanced the CPU is the better. There are now different brands of CPU around, in addition to the still very popular Intel Pentium range.

CPU power is measured in GHz, and you should look for laptops with a CPU processing speed of 2.6 GHz or more.

RAM

The laptop’s RAM is what gives it the ability to multitask, so the more windows you like to have open at any one time on your laptop, the more RAM you need it to have.

We recommend that you look for laptops with at least 4 GB of RAM if not more.

Storage

The trend at the moment is for people to store their electronic files in cloud storage, and to stream entertainment rather than download it.

If however you feel more secure having your files in a physical space, or if you like to download, then you will need a means to store it.

Previously we all relied on hard drives, but now the techies have got us a better alternative, known as solid state drives, which are both faster and more reliable.

As such you don’t need it to hold as many GB of data as you would with a hard drive. A laptop with 64 GB of solid state drive, or SSD should stand you in good stead.

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