5 of the Best Laptops Under $1,000 in 2026

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Buying a new laptop on a tight budget in an era where AI data centers are causing memory and storage prices to skyrocket is a daunting task. Due to the lack of memory, several companies have increased the price of their laptops, making once affordable devices expensive. Samsung has already increased the price of its Galaxy Book laptops, and Microsoft has also increased the price of Surface devices, pushing the starting price of its most affordable model above $1,000. That’s why if you’re thinking about upgrading your laptop in 2026, don’t wait: do it as soon as possible. But thanks to the diversity of the laptop market, there are still models that sell for less than four figures despite the current memory crisis.

If you have a budget under $1,000, we’ve scoured the web to find the best laptop models you can buy in 2026. The list includes laptops running Windows, ChromeOS, and macOS that sell new for under $1,000 and with no discounts. While all of our recommendations are suitable for everyday tasks, each has its own specialization. The Chromebook is intended to work primarily in the browser, while some options sport 2-in-1 designs for added versatility, and one of them is capable of gaming. You can learn more about how we selected the best laptops under $1,000 in the methodology section at the end of the article.

Apple’s recently launched M5-equipped MacBook Air starts at $1,099, putting it outside the $1,000 budget. However, if you want a MacBook for less than $1,000, you still have an option in Apple’s new MacBook Neo. This is Apple’s budget laptop and its cheapest MacBook model ever. As a budget MacBook starting at just $599, the MacBook Neo isn’t for everyone. It comes with Apple’s A18 Pro chip (the same one in 2024’s iPhone 16 Pro models), 8GB of memory, 256 or 512GB of SSD storage, and a 13-inch Liquid Retina display with a native resolution of 2,408 x 1,506 and 500 nits brightness. The Neo offers two USB-C ports and a 3.5mm headphone jack, as well as a 1080p webcam for your video calls.

Apple claims the Neo can last up to 16 hours of video streaming and 11 hours of web browsing thanks to the built-in 36.5 watt-hour battery. Since it costs less than a MacBook Air, it saves money in some areas. For example, it doesn’t have fast charging and includes a smaller battery, and you’ll have to spend $100 more to get Touch ID. However, overall, the Neo is a pretty solid laptop for school use and for people whose work is done exclusively in the browser. You can get the base MacBook Neo with 256GB for $599 or the 512GB model with Touch ID for $699.

The Acer Aspire 16 Copilot+ PC is a great Windows laptop that you can buy for less than $1,000 in 2026. As Consumer Reports’ best-value laptop, this model starts at just $700. The Acer Aspire 16 has a 16-inch screen, which is large for a laptop of its price. This 16-inch panel is a WUXGA display, featuring a 1920 x 1200 resolution, 120Hz refresh rate, and 350 nits of brightness. Under the hood of the Aspire 16 is a Snapdragon

The Acer Aspire 16 AI laptop comes with a 1440p webcam and a variety of ports, including USB-C, USB-A, a microSD card slot, HDMI, and a headphone jack. This laptop received rave reviews from Consumer Reports, which praised it for its good battery life, sufficient performance to handle basic daily tasks, and even said that this device is proof that “you don’t need to spend a fortune to get a laptop that performs every day.” CNET also praised the laptop for its incredible battery life of over 21 hours, clear webcam, and comfortable keyboard.

Another solid Windows option is the HP OmniBook 5 14. It starts at just $900 and has received rave reviews from PCMag, which crowned it the best Windows laptop under $1,000 for offering good battery life and decent performance. The OmniBook 5 14 is an ultra-thin and light laptop featuring a 14-inch OLED display with 1920 x 1200 resolution and up to 300 nits of brightness. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon

The laptop only comes with four ports, including two USB-C ports, a single USB-A port, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. HP promises up to 34 hours of battery life, and it performed exceptionally well in PCMag’s test (involving playing local 720p video), lasting 34 hours and 48 minutes. This laptop also impressed CNET reviewers with its incredible battery life, which was called a record. The team also praised the laptop for its screen, design, and sufficient memory and storage for its price. Charging the OmniBook 5 14 shouldn’t be a problem, as HP ships the model with a 65W USB-C adapter out of the box.

If you’d rather buy a Chromebook than a Windows or MacBook, you might consider the Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714. Launching in 2024, this laptop has been out for a while but is still worth considering even in 2026. In fact, reviewers from RTings and PCMag recommend it as the best Chromebook under $1,000. The Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714 features a 2-in-1 design and features a 14-inch WUXGA IPS panel with 1920 x 1200 resolution and 340 nits of brightness. The display supports touch and pen input, but unfortunately it doesn’t come with a stylus in the box. Five ports are available, including a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A port, two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports, a headphone jack, and an HDMI 2.0 port.

For wireless internet connectivity, it supports Wi-Fi 6E. PCMag and RTings were impressed with the device’s battery life, which lasted more than 10 hours. The base model of the Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714 starts at $700 and comes with 8GB of memory, 256GB of storage, and an Intel Core Ultra 5 115U processor. But if you’re willing to spend a little more for more storage, you can get the more robust variant with a 512GB or 1TB SSD for $780 or $870, respectively.

The Acer Nitro V 16 is a budget laptop aimed at entry-level gaming that has impressive specs under the hood and exceeds its price, according to ZDNet. At the heart of this laptop is an AMD Ryzen AI 5 240 processor, paired with 16GB of DDR5 memory and an RTX 5050 GPU from Nvidia’s latest GeForce RTX 50 series. For its sub-$1,000 price, it’s not the best option if you want a more powerful gaming laptop than a PS5. However, according to ZDNet’s analysis, the CPU and GPU combination that comes with this laptop is more than enough to allow it to “handle modern games smoothly.” But for a model meant to play modern games that are ever-increasing in size, the 512GB of PCIe Gen 4 SSD storage might not be enough.

As the name suggests, it sports a 16-inch WUXGA IPS display, featuring a 180Hz refresh rate and a resolution of 1920 x 1200. For a gaming laptop, Acer says this model comes with a dual-fan, four-input cooling system to prevent overheating during long gaming sessions. The company has included a variety of ports, including Ethernet, three USB ports 3.2 USB-A, a USB-C port, a single HDMI 2.1 port, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a microSD card slot. The Acer Nitro V 16 is available at Walmart for $998.

With a budget under $1,000, there are a wide variety of laptop models on the market as companies understand that not everyone needs high-end performance and features, or has the money to splurge on a high-end laptop. Even for us, choosing the top five options under $1000 can be a daunting task since we don’t want to rely on guesswork because not every laptop you will come across in the market is worth your hard-earned money.

With that in mind, we’ve done extensive research to identify models that have been highly rated by expert reviewers on reputable sites like Consumer Reports, CNET, ZDNet, PCMag, and RTings with MSRPs under $1,000, even if it’s just by a few dollars. All five laptops we’ve included on the list are recommended by these experts, and we’ve made sure to include models with different features to ensure every buyer has an option that meets their needs.