The Best Laptop Deals In Australia - Live Now

• Gigabyte Aorus 17X AZF-C5AU665SP 17" Display Laptop, 4th Gen Intel Core i9, NVIDIA RTX 4090, 32GB DDR5, 1TB SSD – A$4,799.36 (was $7,499, 36% off)
• HP Envy x360 2-in-1 Laptop, 13th Gen Intel Core i5, 16GB DDR5, 512GB SSD – A$1,495 (was $2,199, 32% off)
• Lenovo Yoga 7 14IRL8 14" Laptop, 13th Gen Intel Core i5, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD – A$1,297 (was $1,799, 24% off)
• Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11, Intel Core i7-1355U, 16 GB DDR5, 512GB SSD – A$2,557 (was $3,619, 29% off)
• Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 5 13.3" FHD Chromebook, 8GB RAM, 256GB + Lenovo USI Pen + Duet Folio Keyboard – A$755 (was $1,079, 30% off)
• MSI Summit E13 Flip Evo 13.4" 120Hz 2-in-1 Laptop, 13th Gen Intel i7,16GB RAM, 256GB SSD – A$1,199 (was $2,599, 54% off)

Check out more Australian PC deals here.

The days when you couldn't get a decent laptop for under $2,000 are long gone. Today, it's possible to pick up a full-size, ultraportable, or 2-in-1 convertible Windows 11 notebook—powerful enough for home, work, or school—for around $500. Some compacts and Chromebooks cost even less. There are even (surprisingly enough) discounted Apple laptops that are actually cheap enough to appeal to budget shoppers.

To be sure, you should be ready to compromise in one or two aspects. Economy models don't have the latest and fastest processors or the most memory and storage, and you shouldn't expect an ultra-colorful, super-high-resolution screen.

But that doesn't mean they're not capable productivity partners. Check out our top tested picks below—our favorite low-cost laptops for 2024 from our recent reviews, broken out by usage case. Then, check out our buying-advice guide to learn what trade-offs to expect and how to match a budget notebook's strengths and weaknesses with what you plan to do with it. Note: We've also broken out our current favorite picks in a detailed spec chart further down.

Ready to dive into the details around cheap laptops? Today's good news is that you'll have to accept fewer compromises with budget laptops than you did in the past. Low-power CPUs are more robust than ever, even as some of the nomenclature around them changes. (For example, Intel's traditional offering for under-$400 laptops, the Celeron and Pentium lines, have given way to new family names: the Intel N100 and Intel Processor, respectively.) Low-end chips in today's extreme-budget laptops will suffice for light web browsing and most basic productivity work, if you don't keep too many programs or tabs open at a time.

The benefits of low-power CPUs are especially true with Chromebooks (more on them later), and nowadays, even Apple is on the budget bandwagon, offering its older M1-powered MacBook Air as an ultra-affordable entry-point for Mac shoppers. That said, the $400-to-$700 Windows laptop market is populated mainly by systems based on much peppier Intel Core and AMD Ryzen families of processors. Opt for these CPU lines if you need more than just the basics. (See more about how to choose a laptop CPU.)

(Credit: Kyle Cobian)

All of these CPUs also host the silicon that runs the laptop's graphics. The newest integrated graphics solutions can hold their own in browser-based games and even some online games like World of Warcraft. The higher demands of AAA titles, though, still require a discrete GPU, which you won't find in this price range. (If money is no object, check out our top-rated gaming laptops and ultraportables, as well as our favorite cheap gaming laptops.)

In years past, many of the barest-budget Windows laptops would come with just 2GB or 4GB of main system memory, but nowadays, at least in the Windows and Apple sphere, most come with 8GB. (A 4GB RAM count remains more common in Chromebooks and under-$300 Windows laptops; we'd avoid that little RAM in a Windows machine.) In terms of batteries, an ideal budget laptop has one with six cells or more. The battery life for a cheap laptop should come in at a minimum of seven or eight hours; these days, many will last quite a bit longer. (A lower-resolution, lower-brightness screen, which is a feature of some of these machines, can consume less power, all else being equal, and end up being a benefit of sorts.)

(Credit: Molly Flores)

Regarding storage, almost no new systems still use spinning hard drives. Many inexpensive Windows machines opt for small-capacity solid-state drives (SSDs) of 128GB or 256GB capacity. Other budget systems, particularly Chromebooks and some under-$400 Windows laptops, will have only a small allotment (32GB or 64GB) of local storage but compensate for it with generous offers of additional free cloud storage. Of course, as with anything cloud-based, you'll need to be online to access it. Also, know that budget machines with this little local storage, among them many Chromebooks, are using what is called "eMMC memory" as their primary storage. This is not the same as the flash memory used in a true solid-state drive (SSD), and it will feel a tad sluggish if you're used to an SSD.

In terms of features, budget laptops will come with (almost always) at least a couple of USB 3.0 ports (one may be an oval, newer-style USB-C port, though that port may also be the port for the laptop's charger), and possibly a USB 2.0 port or two. You also may get an SD card slot, but these are fading from laptops cheap and expensive.

Wi-Fi comes standard, with some affordable options still opting for the 802.11ac (Wi-Fi 5) protocol that was standard a few years back. The current Wi-Fi 6 standard is much more common for budget systems than ever, but the more advanced Wi-Fi 6E is still rare in budget models.

(Credit: Molly Flores)

An HDMI output and a USB-C port are definite pluses; you can find these on even some of the cheapest models. You shouldn't always expect a touch-screen display, however. (See our picks for the best touch-screen laptops.) Any 2-in-1 convertible machine, though, will by definition have a touch screen, as having one is necessary for using the machine as a tablet or in other orientations where the keyboard is covered up.

Is Buying a Chromebook Worth It?

Chromebooks used to be little more than glorified netbooks running Google's ChromeOS. While these ChromeOS-based laptops are still resolutely web-centric, they now have fuller feature sets. If you spend most of your working hours in the cloud, a Chromebook will offer you much of the functionality of a regular Windows or Mac laptop, and it may well deliver longer battery life, depending on the model.

(Credit: Molly Flores)

It will also likely cost you a lot less than other types of notebooks, as many Chromebooks come in at less than $400. Just be sure you have easy access to stable Wi-Fi wherever you use one, as Chromebooks have limited offline functionality and scant local storage. However, Chromebooks have recently been leveled up to more commonly include Intel Core and AMD Ryzen processors, as well as feature more storage and memory, as part of Google's Chromebook Plus program. Chromebook Plus models have to meet a specific minimum spec laid out by Google for what it deems a premium experience, and these Plus models start at $399.

The Best Cheap Tablets and Hybrids: 2-in-1s on a Budget

Tablets rose in popularity throughout the 2010s, and though we have plenty of reviews of those—take a look at our overall roundup of the best tablets, as well as our favorite slates running the Windows and Android operating systems—they are sufficiently different from traditional clamshell-style laptops that they don't always make suitable substitutes. Some come with detachable keyboards, but most of these are far less comfortable for typing on your lap than a conventional laptop.

(Credit: Molly Flores)

Convertible 2-in-1s, however, do make a good substitute for traditional clamshells. These machines let you flip between a laptop and a tablet by folding the keyboard out of the way. You should consider one of these convertible systems if you primarily want the typing capability of a laptop but occasionally would appreciate the lie-back, passive-consumption convenience of a tablet.

See our guide to the best 2-in-1 laptops for more information about this popular market segment. In part because of their added complexity compared with traditional clamshell designs, you won't find quite as many affordable ones, but a few Windows and ChromeOS-based models cost $500 or less. They come in permanently attached (generally 360-degree-rotating-hinge) designs and detachable-keyboard designs.

Make sure, though, when looking at one of the detachable tablets that you know what comes in the box. In some cases, you need to buy the keyboard base separately, and the total cost may not be as low as it first appears. (Here's looking at you, Microsoft Surfaces.)

So, What Is the Best Cheap Laptop to Buy?

The best inexpensive laptops tend to go in and out of stock frequently. We've broken out the specs of our current favorites here, and while we update this guide constantly, there's a good chance that at least one of our picks is back-ordered at any given time. But if you're on a strict budget, don't lose heart. You can find PCs that will offer enough performance to tackle your day-to-day tasks without a hitch. You can even score big deals on mainstream systems with our favorite money-saving tips for laptop buying.

For further in-depth breakdowns of our budget picks, look at our roundups of the best laptops for college students, the best laptops for kids, and the best Chromebooks. And for more general factors to consider when choosing a laptop, take a look at our buying guide with our top laptop picks overall.