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Best Cheap Laptop Under $300 in 2021

Best Cheap Laptop Under $300 in 2021

If you want to buy a new laptop and your budget is $300 at most, the truth is that your options are pretty limited. But we did our best and researched to find the best laptops you can buy for less than $300 this year.

Initially, the article intended to share laptops with a maximum price of $200, but today’s reality is that it’s almost impossible to find a new notebook that cheap. So we raised the bar a little bit to have a few more options.

These laptops under $300 will be good enough to handle internet browsing, streaming movies and listening to music, as well as running less intensive software like text editing, minimal photo editing and playing classic games. You can’t really expect too much from a $300 laptop.

But sometimes, you just don’t need more and a very cheap laptop will tick all your needs. And we have the best cheap laptops under $300 for 2021 listed below so that you don’t have to waste hours searching.

Your best bet will most likely be choosing a Chromebook, as these are the cheapest laptops on the market right now. They have their advantages and disadvantages – we won’t get into details, but you can read this article dedicated to them if you want to find more.

We’ll also share some Windows-based laptops because that’s what you are probably used with, but do have in mind that we’re already running on limited options here. We’re confident, though, that you will love our findings nevertheless.

So without further ado, you can check out a list of these best laptops under $300 below, or read on afterwards for the complete reviews if you want to find out more about our recommendations.

Please note: always check the prices as they can change during the year – it’s best to simply check out all the products you are interested in because some more expensive ones get cheaper (while vice-versa is possible too):

Please note: Our blog gets commissions for purchases made through links in this article.

ModelSpecsBuy
Acer Chromebook Spin 31111.6″, 4GB RAM, 32GB eMMCClick here to buy
Lenovo Ideapad14″, 4GB RAM, 64GB eMMCClick here to buy
Yellyouth Full HD15.6″, 8GB RAM, 128GB eMMCClick here to buy
HP Stream14″, 4GB RAM, 64GB eMMCClick here to buy
Samsung Chromebook 415.6″, 4GB RAM, 32GB eMMCClick here to buy

Now let’s find out more about each of these great cheap laptops below:

Acer Chromebook Spin 311

Acer Chromebook Spin 311

We’re starting with what is considered by many the best Chromebook on the market. It is small, fast, durable and extremely cheap, which is exactly what we want from a budget laptop.

Its main disadvantage (for some) is that it runs on the Chrome OS and not Windows and you need a constant internet connection to use all its features. But apart from that, we have no real reasons to complain.

The Acer Chromebook Spin 311 is very small, at just 11.6″ – which makes it highly portable. It’s also a “spin” model, which means that you can easily transform it into a tablet – this comes quite in handy! It also means that you get a high quality touchscreen for the money!

In terms of performance, it does a good job for what’s created: running the Chrome operating system and offering a flawless internet browsing experience.

The Spin 311 is powered by an Intel Celeron Processor N4020, running together with 4GB of RAM. While these are definitely not the best specs in the world, they are perfect for our budget (and all your internet browsing needs).

A downside for cheap laptops is usually storage space and the Acer Chromebook Spin 311 makes no exception.

It only offers 32GB of eMMC storage: extremely fast, but also extremely limited so you’ll be better off investing in an additional SD card for extra storage or taking advantage of some free cloud storage options for your files.

But most chromebooks nowadays offer very little storage and since they are made for online use with all the Android-based apps available for download (and coming at smaller sizes), you shouldn’t have too many problems with the storage capacity unless you have a ton of photos and/or videos.

So if you only want to browse the web, stream online movies or watch Youtube, edit documents online and anything similar, the Spin 311 remains an amazing option. Just make sure that you have constant access to an internet connection!

The display offers a resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels, which is more than enough for a good image quality on the laptop’s small screen. You also get a more than decent battery life: up to 10 hours on a single charge.

While it doesn’t come with an HDMI slot, it does have modern USB Type-C ports, so connecting it to a larger screen wouldn’t be too difficult. All these make it a very solid first entry on our list of budget laptops under $300.

Click here to get yours today on Amazon.

Lenovo IdeaPad

Lenovo Ideapad Laptop

We’re moving to Windows laptops now and we’re sticking to smaller-sized laptops to stay within our budget. However, we do get a 14″ laptop from Lenovo, one that’s really good for the money.

This model is powered by an AMD A6-9220e processor running at a base speed of 1.66GHz and doing a decent job in terms of performance. It is paired up with 4GB of RAM and fortunately offers a bit more storage: 64GB on an eMMC drive.

The main advantage for many would be the fact that it comes with Windows 10 Home installed and also offers a Microsoft Office 365 Personal 1-year subscription for free.

Don’t get me wrong – the storage is still limited, but with a budget like ours, we don’t really have a ton of options here. So despite the small storage, the laptop itself is really good for the money.

The larger display makes it a lot easier to use by most users. It also offers HD resolution (1366x768px) and a decent battery life of up to 7 hours on a single charge. Another big advantage is the fact that it has an HDMI port included, so you can easily connect it to a larger TV for watching movies.

Don’t expect it to be the fastest laptop you have ever seen. It is usually a bit slower than Chromebooks running similar specs due to how Windows is built. So don’t expect a lot of multitasking on it – but expect it to do a decent job for the regular user.

Get yours on Amazon today.

Yellyouth Full HD Laptop

YellYouth Laptop

Maybe you have never heard about the Yellyouth brand before (we haven’t until we stumbled upon this laptop), but it definitely has the best specifications on our list. It seems to be durable so far so we can declare ourselves pleasantly surprised with this model.

As for the specifications, they are top notch for our budget: a qud-core Intel 64bit Celeron processor, 8GB of RAM and 128GB of eMMC storage. This is as good as it can get for our budget, without exaggerating!

And the great news doesn’t stop here: the Yellyouth laptop is also a full HD one, meaning that you get an impressive 1920×1060 px resolution out of it. Clearer, crispier image quality on a decent display! A large one, too, at 15.6″!

It comes with Windows 10 installed and it looks really good for a no-name laptop. Also runs really good, being ideal for kids, learning online or working online. It’s not the fastest on the market, but it’s probably the fastest Windows laptop you can get for under $300!

It doesn’t have the longest battery life, but that’s understandable for the price. However, it can last up to 6 hours on a single charge, which is still pretty impressive!

The only real problem that this model has is the lack of a brand name to make us trust it for long term usage. But that shouldn’t really be a big problem as all laptops nowadays are built well and durable.

And for the performance boost you’re getting (and all those extra goodies, like double the RAM and storage compared to other products in the same price range) it might just be worth the risk!

Click here to check it out on Amazon.

HP Stream

HP Stream Laptop

We’re getting back to more familiar brands now with this 14″ model from HP. The truth is that there isn’t a huge difference between this one and the Lenovo IdeaPad model recommended earlier. In the end, it’s just you picking the brand you prefer, in all honesty.

The main difference is that this model runs on an Intel Celeron processor instead of an AMD-made one. But they’re similar in speed – also paired up with 4GB of RAM and 54GB of eMMC storage.

This model comes with Windows 10 Home installed (the S version, which can be easily upgraded if you really want to – at a cost of performance, though). It offers Office 365 access for one year for free, which is definitely a nice bonus to have with this limited storage.

A quick parenthesis about this Windows S mode that everybody rushes to upgrade from: it’s not really a good idea when dealing with budget laptops, because upgrading also means that you will get a more power-hungry OS.

The S Mode is optimized for lower end laptops and we strongly recommend using it if your laptop comes with it by default as your device will run at optimal speed this way.

This 14″ laptop only delivers HD resolution (1366×768 px) which is still good enough for daily use, and honestly expected for our price range.

It does have a lot of ports, including an HDMI one, as well as a decent battery that can offer up to 7 hours of usage on a single charge. All in all, a decent laptop for the money – very similar to the Lenovo model above, as we said.

Click here to get it on Amazon.

Samsung Chromebook 4

We’re rounding up our list with another Chromebook. This is the latest Samsung Chromebook model, coming after the legendary Samsung Chromebook 3 which was always found on older lists of the best chromebooks in the world.

And the Chromebook 4 seems to match the high standards set by its older brother. And in this particular case, we’re talking about a large screen Chromebook – 15.6″ display, which is more than welcome.

Apart from the large screen with full HD resolution, Samsung’s model has pretty much standard specifications for a Chromebook: 4GB of RAM And 32GB of storage on an eMMC. We would’ve definitely loved at least 64GB of storage… but you can’t have it all for such a low price.

The laptop itself is powered by Intel’s N4000 processor, which delivers just enough power to keep things running smoothly under the Chrome OS. And you’re also getting up to 10 hours of usage on a single battery charge, which is pretty impressive too.

While it doesn’t really have a ton of bells and whistles, it is a perfect laptop for the money. It has USB type-C ports as well, which is always a bonus. It has a large screen which is really useful unless you want very high portability.

Even so, this Chromebook is light and thin, so not that difficult to carry around. And if you are already using an Android phone, you will feel right at home with it!

Click here to get it from Amazon today.

As you can see, we have quite a few solid options when it comes to getting a laptop for under $300. You can even choose between a more traditional laptop running Windows or a Chromebook – each coming with its own Pros and Cons.

But at least you now know which are the best laptops in this price range for 2021 and you can make an educated choice when it comes to purchasing yours.