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These are the best budget gaming laptops money can buy. Credit: Reviewed / Betsey Goldwasser

The Best Gaming Laptops Under $1,000 of 2023

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These are the best budget gaming laptops money can buy. Credit: Reviewed / Betsey Goldwasser

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Editor's Choice Product image of Acer Nitro 5 (2022)
Best Overall

Acer Nitro 5 (2022)

The Acer Nitro 5 may be a budget PC, but it gets the details right on the hardware and the design. Read More

Pros

  • Great 1080p performance
  • Quality keyboard and trackpad
  • Chassis stays cool

Cons

  • Mediocre battery life
  • Muted display, mediocre audio
  • Chunky chassis
2
Editor's Choice Product image of Acer Chromebook 516 GE (2022)
Best Chromebook

Acer Chromebook 516 GE (2022)

The Acer Chromebook 516 GE is a gaming-focused device that has more to offer than a standard Chromebook, like a high refresh rate display. Read More

Pros

  • Fantastic performance
  • 120Hz display makes everything smoother
  • Plenty connectivity options

Cons

  • No Thunderbolt 4 connectivity
  • Speakers don’t sound great
3
Product image of Asus TUF Dash 15 (2022)

Asus TUF Dash 15 (2022)

The Asus TUF Dash F15 is a thin and stylish gaming laptop that doesn't sacrifice performance. Read More

Pros

  • Stylish chassis
  • Great performance
  • Useful features

Cons

  • Dull, muddy screen
  • Loud when gaming
  • Poor webcam
4
Product image of Dell G16 (2022)

Dell G16 (2022)

The Dell G16 packs in plenty of cooling hardware and doesn’t put limits on its power draw. It's a great choice for utility-minded gamers. Read More

Pros

  • Sturdy chassis
  • Good performance
  • Great screen

Cons

  • Awful battery life
  • Thick
5
Editor's Choice Product image of Lenovo IdeaPad 5 Gaming Chromebook (2022)

Lenovo IdeaPad 5 Gaming Chromebook (2022)

The Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming Chromebook is ideal for most productivity and web-based tasks, and cloud gaming. However, it’s still a standard Chromebook. Read More

Pros

  • Excellent 120Hz display
  • Snappy processor
  • Lots of useful ports

Cons

  • Middling graphics performance
  • Limited native game compatibility

You don’t need to spend a fortune to get the best gaming laptop under $1,000. Processors keep getting more powerful, and features reserved for flagship gaming laptops have trickled down to their budget cousins. High refresh rate displays, customizable keyboards, thin bodies, and decent battery—the “budget” options got ‘em!

Our pick for the best overall is the Acer Nitro 5 (available at Amazon for $1,299.99) , a delightful PC that offers over seven hours of battery life, excellent 1080p gaming for demanding games, a slick profile that can travel with you, and good build quality that’ll keep you going for years to come. If the Nitro 5 isn’t quite right for you, our other picks are just as great.

An open and powered on laptop with a pair of hands over the keys playing a game
Credit: Reviewed / Jackson Ruckar
Best Overall
Acer Nitro 5 (2022)
  • Processor: Intel Core i5-12500H
  • Graphics: Nvidia RTX 3060
  • Memory: 16GB DDR4
  • Storage: 512GB
  • Display: 15.6-inch, 1920 x 1080p, 144Hz, IPS
  • Battery life: 3+ hours

We love the Acer Nitro 5. The configuration we reviewed does still go for over $1,000 when it’s not on sale. But the RTX 3050 Ti model drops below that, and it performs almost as well as the RTX 3060. It supports ray tracing and offers twice the speed of the GTX 1650 in our previous Nitro 5 budget pick.

This Nitro 5’s all-black color scheme and subtle colored highlights look more mature than many of the RGB light shows you tend to see in the gaming space. It’s bulky, but it uses its space to circulate air and keep its high-powered hardware cool. The keyboard and trackpad are both comfortable and easy to use. Finally, the display produces gorgeous colors and its 144Hz refresh rate is useful for fast-paced esports titles.

Battery life is the most lackluster feature of this gaming laptop. Our test unit didn’t even last four hours when gaming on battery power. We also wish that the display’s color gamut was more vibrant. Still, Acer gets the essentials right in its affordable Nitro 5.

Read our full Acer Nitro 5 review.

Pros

  • Great 1080p performance

  • Quality keyboard and trackpad

  • Chassis stays cool

Cons

  • Mediocre battery life

  • Muted display, mediocre audio

  • Chunky chassis

An open and powered on laptop showing a scene from a video game
Credit: Reviewed / Kris Wouk
Best Chromebook
Acer Chromebook 516 GE (2022)
  • Processor: Intel Core i5-1240P
  • Graphics: Intel Iris Xe Graphics
  • Memory: 8GB LPDDR4X
  • Storage: 256GB SSD
  • Display: 16-inch, 2560 x 1600, 120Hz LED
  • Battery life: 7+ hours

Chromebooks have had cloud gaming support for a while, but gaming-specific Chromebooks are a new development, like Acer's Chromebook 516 GE. We love this well-constructed, powerful, and pleasantly affordable Chromebook, whether you use it for cloud gaming or not. But what makes it a “gaming” Chromebook?

The Acer’s Chromebook 516 GE’s answer includes special keyboard features like anti-ghosting and RGB lighting. It also has a high refresh rate display customarily found only on traditional gaming laptops. This Chromebook’s entire package gives you more features for the same or lower price than many of Acer’s Windows-based productivity laptops like the Swift 3.

Of course, you can play games in the cloud on any device. A specific machine like the 516 GE—any gaming Chromebook—is less important than a stable, speedy Internet connection. (As good as the Wi-Fi 6E adapter is on this device, it can’t do magic.)

Acer did include an Ethernet port with this device, and a wired Internet connection is plenty stable for cloud gaming. Unfortunately, too much of the gaming experience is dictated by factors like Wi-Fi speeds that the device can’t control.

Read our full Acer Chromebook 516 GE review.

Pros

  • Fantastic performance

  • 120Hz display makes everything smoother

  • Plenty connectivity options

Cons

  • No Thunderbolt 4 connectivity

  • Speakers don’t sound great

Other Gaming Laptops We Tested

Product image of Asus TUF Dash 15 (2022)
Asus TUF Dash 15 (2022)
  • Processor: Intel Core i7-12650H
  • Graphics: Nvidia RTX 3060
  • Memory: 16GB DDR5 4800MHz
  • Storage: 512GB SSD
  • Display: 15.6-inch, 1920 x 1080, 144Hz IPS
  • Battery life: 6+ hours

The Asus TUF Dash F15 is another stand-out gaming laptop we enjoyed. The model we reviewed is just a smidge out of the budget range, but configuring the Dash F15 with a Core i5-12450H and an RTX 3050 drops the price to $900 or less without cutting too much of its gaming performance. You only get 8GB of RAM, but you can always add more since the memory isn’t soldered to the motherboard.

The Dash F15 comes with an important feature for increasing its gaming performance: a MUX Switch. When enabled, the laptop’s discrete GPU processes every frame before sending them to the display, reducing latency and boosting gaming performance by a small percentage. When disabled, the GPU will route information through the CPU’s integrated graphics first. That will boost your battery life at the cost of some fps.

Like a lot of sub-$1,000 gaming laptops, the Dash F15 gets loud and hot when under a full load, and the built-in speakers produce a thin, tinny sound. Combine those two and you probably won’t hear much of what you’re playing.

We recommend using a headset or headphones, especially for playing games that incorporate 360-degree sound.

Read our full Asus TUF Dash F15 review.

Pros

  • Stylish chassis

  • Great performance

  • Useful features

Cons

  • Dull, muddy screen

  • Loud when gaming

  • Poor webcam

Product image of Dell G16 (2022)
Dell G16 (2022)
  • Processor: Intel Core i7-12700H
  • Graphics: Nvidia RTX 3060
  • Memory: 16GB DDR5 4800MHz
  • Storage: 512GB SSD
  • Display: 16-inch, 2160 x 1440, 165Hz IPS
  • Battery life: About 2 hours

The Dell G16 is a utilitarian gaming laptop that puts performance above all else. It consistently outputs between 74 and 108 fps at 1080p on the highest graphics preset in some of the most demanding games. Less demanding games like Fortnite will average much closer to the G16’s 165Hz refresh rate even at max settings.

It’s thicker and heavier than most gaming laptops with the same performance and price range. However, that thickness creates extra space for a better cooling design to keep CPU temps down. The G16 also offers easy access to its internal hardware.

But it has abysmal battery life, even for the most basic tasks. Forget about ever trying to run games on battery power. Its fans are loud, and they run for ages on default settings even when the internal components are cool. Still, if you’re looking to replace your gaming desktop and tend to use a headset or an external speaker setup, these things shouldn’t matter too much.

Finally, if you want this laptop for under $1,000, you will have to wait for a sale to get this exact configuration. Or you can bump the graphics card down to an RTX 3050 Ti and get the G16 from Dell for $900 if it’s on sale.

If you downgrade to a base G15 model with a 12th-gen Core i5 and an RTX 3050 Ti, you can still have a great gaming experience. The speed difference between the Core i5 and Core i7 is only 200MHz.

Read our full Dell G16 review.

Pros

  • Sturdy chassis

  • Good performance

  • Great screen

Cons

  • Awful battery life

  • Thick

Product image of Lenovo IdeaPad 5 Gaming Chromebook (2022)
Lenovo IdeaPad 5 Gaming Chromebook (2022)
  • **Processor:* Intel Core i5-1235U
  • **Graphics:* Intel Iris Xe (Integrated)
  • **Memory:* 8GB DDR4
  • **Storage:* 256GB SSD
  • **Display:* 16-inch 2560 x 1600p 120Hz IPS
  • **Battery life:* 12+ hours

There isn’t a lot that makes the Lenovo IdeaPad 5 Gaming Chromebook a “gaming” laptop, either. It offers the same features as Acer’s Chromebook 516 GE. It has a similar 120Hz display, RGB lighting, anti-ghosting keys, and Wi-Fi 6E, yet costs more when it’s not on sale. That’s a bummer considering it has the slower processor of the two.

Also like Acer’s 615 GE, Lenovo’s gaming Chromebook is compatible with Nvidia GeForce Now, Xbox Cloud Gaming, Luna, Utomik, and others. GeForce Now can stream games at 120 fps, and it’s the only one that supports ray tracing.

When it is on sale, the IdeaPad 5 Gaming Chromebook instantly becomes a better value. It may have a weaker processor, but its battery lasts five hours longer than what Acer offers.

You can go with a “non-gaming” Chromebook and still have a good cloud gaming experience. But the gaming Chromebook options presented here offer high refresh rates that traditional Chromebooks can’t match.

Read our full Lenovo IdeaPad 5 Gaming Chromebook review.

Pros

  • Excellent 120Hz display

  • Snappy processor

  • Lots of useful ports

Cons

  • Middling graphics performance

  • Limited native game compatibility

Product image of MSI Sword 15 (2022)
MSI Sword 15 (2022)
  • Processor: Intel Core i7-12650H
  • Graphics: Nvidia RTX 3060
  • Memory: 16GB DDR4 3200MHz
  • Storage: 1TB SSD
  • Display: 15.6-inch, 1920 x 1080, 144Hz, IPS
  • Battery life: About 4 hours

The MSI Sword 15 offers solid gaming performance. Unfortunately, it’s a poor value compared to literally every other entry on this list. Still, it’s worth it if you can find it on sale for under $1,000 or spring for the base model with an Intel Core i5-12450H and Nvidia RTX 3050.

Its gaming performance is decent. The Sword 15 routinely hit a minimum of 60 fps in all the games we tested at 1080p on the highest graphics preset, even Cyberpunk 2077. That’s respectable, but other options like the Acer Nitro 5 and HP Victus 16 crank out higher fps in the same games.

The Sword 15’s 1250:1 contrast ratio is good for a budget gaming laptop. Just expect details to get a bit murky in games with darker scenes like Dead Space and Outlast.

Our biggest gripe with the Sword 15 is its design and construction. The display’s hinges aren’t tight enough to keep it from wobbling. The trackpad is awkwardly off-center to the left, which can get in the way when you’re gaming. And the downward-firing speakers are on the bottom of the laptop.

Read our full MSI Sword 15 review.

Pros

  • Good non-ray-traced performance

  • Decent amount of connectivity ports

  • Great cooling

Cons

  • Incredibly loud fans

  • Poorly designed keyboard and trackpad

  • Finicky performance-management app

Product image of Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 (2022)
Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 (2022)
  • Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 6600H
  • Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050
  • Memory: 16GB DDR5 4800MHz
  • Storage: 512GB SSD
  • Display: 15.6-inch, 1920 x 1080, 165Hz IPS
  • Battery life: About 4 hours

We only recommend the Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 if you can find it for two-thirds of its full price, or around $600. It’s not that this gaming laptop can’t keep up with the other budget laptops on this list—it’s that competitors have better-looking, better-designed laptops for less.

Your other option is to find the same laptop model with a better GPU, an RTX 3050 Ti ($83) or RTX 3060, the latter being our preference for the money. But the RTX 3050 Ti is not that much slower than the RTX 3060, and doubling the storage capacity to 1TB bumps up the price by only $70, keeping the overall price around $900.

Read our full Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3.

Pros

  • Decent single-core performance

  • Quiet and cool

  • Variety of connectivity options

Cons

  • Poor gaming performance

  • Slow storage

  • Lifeless screen

How We Tested Gaming Laptops Under $1,000

These are the best budget gaming laptops money can buy.
Credit: Reviewed / Betsey Goldwasser

We test everything from processing capability to screen brightness.

The Tests

We run the same rigorous set of tests on every gaming laptop that comes into our labs. We overwhelm the processor with tasks to determine how well it can handle the complex work involved with streaming, managing dozens of Chrome tabs, or (especially) high-powered gaming. We benchmark the graphics card to see how well it handles the speedy, smooth rendering of highly-detailed imagery.

Gaming laptops are thin and light compared to PC gaming rigs, and there’s a lot of powerful hardware crammed into that space. We test fan noise to measure whether the fan noise will drown out your game. Likewise, we measure heat output to make sure the laptop won’t become painful to use.

We also test battery life, usually by setting the computer to cycle through basic tasks like web browsing until the battery dies. Gaming laptops are notorious for having poor battery life, but some are better than others. If a machine can’t even handle a couple of hours of web browsing, then gaming will be impossible unless you’re plugged in.

Finally, we consider the build quality. The machine should be light but feel substantial, and it should have enough ports for any gaming peripherals you’re using.

With cheaper gaming laptops, at least one area will usually take a hit. You may find solid battery life and great performance in a machine that gets too hot to touch. You may find a well-built powerhouse that’s too much for most batteries to handle. We note issues like that so that you can apply your priorities to our research to make your choices.

What You Should Know About Buying Budget Gaming Laptops

What kind of CPU should I look for in a gaming laptop?

There isn’t an abundance of choices for gaming hardware these days, even when you’re constrained by budget. Most processors are from Intel or AMD.

A lot of the models we recommend for budget gaming include hardware that’s a step shy of the top-of-the-line. Intel’s Core i5 processors, or some of the older i7s, offer strong performance that feels modern without shelling out for the top of the line. AMD’s Ryzen 5 processors are also good.

These chips are more than capable, but as you put your laptop through its paces, you will notice a difference compared to the top-of-the-line.

What graphics cards work for a cheap gaming laptop?

Your best budget bet for a graphics card is going to be something like the Nvidia 3050 Ti. It’s well-powered and can handle ray tracing. It offers G-Sync to link up with your display for smooth frame rates. But it’s nowhere near as expensive as the 3060 or the newly-announced RTX 40-series.

Graphics cards have their processors, and that will affect the performance of your machine more than the processor will, so whatever wiggle room your budget does have should usually go toward your graphics card.

Displays

Most gaming laptop displays run between 15 and 16 inches, and you’re unlikely to find much that’s bigger than that for budget prices.

At the end of the day, the refresh rate is going to matter as much or more than pure size. Higher refresh rates mean smoother motion in single-player games and better response times in competitive games online.

What’s a good price for an affordable gaming laptop?

As components get more affordable, finding a good gaming laptop for less than a grand has gone from “impossible” to “a little tricky.” There are plenty of good computers out there with specs that you can tweak to find just the right balance between power and affordability.

For under $1,000, you aren’t going to be playing Cyberpunk 2077 with the settings cranked to the max. You may need to tone the graphics down or turn on Nvidia’s DLSS feature, which uses AI to assist in approximating graphics for the appearance of smoother performance. Still, you can get a decent foothold in the world of modern gaming for that price.

Meet the testers

Adrien Ramirez

Adrien Ramirez

Staff Writer

@itsaramkat

Adrien is the PC staff writer for Reviewed with over 4 years of experience covering laptops, desktops, software, games, and more.

See all of Adrien Ramirez's reviews
Joanna Nelius

Joanna Nelius

Senior Editor, Electronics

@

Joanna specializes in anything and everything gaming-related and loves nerding out over graphics cards, processors, and chip architecture. Previously she was a staff writer for Gizmodo, PC Gamer, and Maximum PC.

See all of Joanna Nelius's reviews

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