The best budget gaming laptops: Expert tested

My pick for the best budget gaming laptop is the Asus TUF A15. Not only is it priced comfortably, but it offers great components like a 6000 series AMD Ryzen 7 CPU and Nvidia GeForce 3050 Ti graphics card. It also has one of the most impressive batteries in a gaming laptop, offering up to 12 hours of use on a full charge.

 *Lowest price at the time of writing. Please note that prices may vary based on retailer and available promotions, sales, or discounts.

Tech specs are usually overrated when picking a PC, but not when it comes to gaming systems. Purchasing a cheap gaming laptop is definitely a case where you have to get the most bang for the fewest bucks without sacrificing your gaming experience. It’s a careful balance, though, as doubling your RAM or getting a better graphics card will impact your budget. 

The closer you get to the $1,000 price point, you’ll likely get more than just the basic gaming laptop specs: maybe a newer processor, 16GB of RAM, or a 512GB solid-state drive. However, if you’re watching every dollar, you’ll have to make do with those bare minimum specs.

Two other important considerations are weight and battery life, neither of which is a gaming laptop’s specialty. The laptops on this list fall on either side of the 5-pound mark, but if you’re planning to take the laptop on the go, a lighter system might be of greater importance to you. You also shouldn’t expect miracles when it comes to battery life, as more powerful components being pushed to the max by PC games will chew through a charge. However, if staying unplugged as long as possible is crucial, serious consideration should be given to the Asus TUF A15’s impressive 12-hour battery. 

Obviously, price is key when it comes to budget gaming laptops, so we kept the list of models as close to or below $1,000 as possible. These laptops are from well-known brands available through major retailers like Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart, as well as their own online stores. 

Other factors critical to making the list that we recommend considering when choosing a budget gaming laptop for you are:

• CPU: Your gaming laptop’s processor is its most crucial component. It’s the brain of your laptop and does most of the heavy lifting while you’re playing games. Whether you’re an Intel or AMD user, you’ll want to opt for a laptop with a CPU released within the last five years. Not only does this ensure that it will be compatible with other components like your motherboard, but it also guarantees that your build will be supported by updates for most of your laptop’s life.
• Battery life: Gaming laptops tend to have shorter battery lives than their office-bound counterparts, but you should be able to squeeze at least 6 hours of use out of a full charge while browsing the web or streaming video. Your gaming battery life mileage will vary, but for under $1,500, aim to get at least 3 hours of playtime on a full charge.
• Display size: I did my best to include the most popular screen sizes for gaming laptops, typically between 15 and 17 inches. Larger screens give you more in-game viewing area but often cost more. Smaller screens are affordable but may not have QHD or 4K options or middling refresh rates.
• Graphics card: Contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to have the latest, most powerful GPU to get the most out of your favorite games or new releases. And if you’re working on a smaller budget, opting for an older graphics card can make a big difference in budget. 
• Storage: A 500GB capacity should be more than enough to handle everything; however, you can upgrade the laptop with a larger drive later on. Keep in mind that storage space determines game download capacity. While you can set up external drives to accommodate, choosing a base storage drive with plenty of room for your operating system, game library, and essential programs like web browsers and office suites is important. 

As an avid PC gamer myself, I understand what budget-conscious gamers are looking for when shopping for a new laptop. When researching and testing each laptop featured on this list, I kept things in mind that I would look for when shopping for a personal upgrade, like:

• Brand integrity: It may be tempting to snap up that $400 laptop from that weird Amazon seller with the alphabet soup name. But what you save isn’t worth the headache of dealing with nonexistent customer service, long overseas shipping times, or possible fraud. It’s best to stick to trusted, verified brands and sellers like MSI, Asus, Acer, and Dell.
• End-user upgrades: Upgrading a laptop is a bit trickier than a desktop, since you need laptop-specific components. But PC gamers can save a decent chunk of change by purchasing a lower-end laptop and dropping in better components like more RAM, larger storage SSDs, or better graphics cards later. 
• RAM and storage caps: Not all gaming laptops are created equal. If you plan on upgrading your rig yourself at a later date, it’s important to make note of the upper limits of how much memory and storage a model will support. Because nothing is worse than wasting money on hardware you can’t use.

The word “budget” is sort of subjective when it comes to gaming laptops. But for this list, I tried to keep my picks close to or under $1,000. While they probably won’t blow you away when it comes to things like storage, you can still get a worthwhile machine if you’re willing to compromise on some components like graphics cards or having a high refresh rate. 

If you’re alright with your laptop having an older GPU or are comfortable upgrading things yourself later on, you can find even better prices than what I’ve managed to scrape up. You can even find certified pre-owned units, but they often aren’t covered by any sort of warranty, so if a component fails, you’re going to have to pay out of pocket to fix or replace it.

Yes, actually. For most games, you won’t need more than 16GB of RAM. And while some models support up to 32, 64, or even 128GB, chances are that unless you’re going to also use your laptop for things like video editing or 3D modeling and rendering, you’re just spending money to show off at that point. How much RAM you need will depend on what you want to get out of your gaming experience, but most people won’t need more than 16GB.

SSD stands for “solid state drive,” and HDD stands for “hard disk drive.” Given it’s based on older technology (using a physical disk), an HDD or hard drive is typically more affordable. They’re also much more prone to damage since they have physical parts that can break down and wear out over time and are more susceptible to shocks and drops. 

Conversely, a solid-state drive uses flash memory and a specialized chipset to store programs and files. This helps prevent damage from normal wear and tear and makes accessing said programs and files much faster. And if you have an SSD as your boot drive, you can get your computer up and running in seconds. However, they do tend to be on the pricier side. 

Crucial, makers of storage and memory solutions, recommend an SSD if you want a storage drive that uses less energy and runs at cooler temperatures (important for content creators and enterprise workstations), while an HDD is recommended if you need a lot of storage space without spending a fortune on a new drive.