The 4 best cheap laptops for 2026: Apple's MacBook Neo made the list

The new Apple MacBook Neo is the ideal laptop for most students and casual users who want the Mac experience on a budget (i.e., elite build quality and an intuitive operating system). It's not a multitasking champ, but it's a beast at handling lighter workloads that revolve around basic everyday tasks.

The MacBook Neo starts with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage for $599. For $100 more, you can double your disk space and add Touch ID. College students, their parents, and school faculty can save $100 with the Apple Store's education discount.

Read Mashable's full review of the Apple MacBook Neo.

You have to feel a little bad for similarly priced Windows laptops and Chromebooks. Apple's new MacBook Neo is a budget-tier game-changer, squashing the competition when it comes to build quality and single-core performance. (That refers to how snappy it feels in simple scenarios like web browsing, sending emails, and streaming videos — the things most casual users need a laptop for on a regular basis.)

Our testing found that the MacBook Neo's A18 Pro chip is just as zippy as an M4 MacBook Air when used for single-core tasks. In fact, it's better than two $3,000+ Windows laptops we've tried in this regard. It's only going to feel slow if you try to open too many apps and tabs at once; that's the downside of being limited to 8GB of memory.

The MacBook Neo isn't as fast as the Acer Aspire 16 AI or Asus Zenbook A14 (below) in heavier multi-core tasks like video editing, but it's fine for throwing together a simple video in Final Cut Pro if needed.

Lots of budget laptops' builds incorporate plastic, but the MacBook has the rare fully aluminum chassis — and it comes in fun colors like citrus and blush. Its 13-inch Liquid Retina display has a higher resolution than all of the other laptops on this list, so it's going to look the sharpest. It also boasts the best speakers. They support both Dolby Atmos and Spatial Audio, Apple's surround-sound technology. (I've tried a lot of pricier Windows laptops with crappier speakers, so good audio quality at this price point is a feat.)

The MacBook Neo weighs the same as a 13.3-inch MacBook Air — just under three pounds — so it's easy to carry around in a backpack.

Low-cost Windows laptops with Snapdragon processors offer slightly better battery life than the MacBook Neo (again, see the Aspire 16 AI and the Zenbook A14). But the Neo still holds its own with about 15 hours of stamina per charge. Its biggest drawback is actually just its port selection: It only has two USB-C ports.

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The 2025 Acer Aspire 16 AI is the best entry-level Windows laptop I've tested. If you're looking for an affordable, well-specced, decently future-proofed computer with ample multitasking performance, a fantastic battery life, and a big, smooth display, this one is tough to beat. Plus, it's quite portable for its size.

The Aspire 16 AI starts with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage on Amazon. Its record-low price there is $429.99.

Note: The 2026 Acer Aspire 16 will be configurable with new Intel Core Ultra Series 3 and AMD Ryzen AI 400 Series processors. It will be available in Q2, but we don't know its pricing yet.

Truth be told, the $700 Aspire 16 AI almost feels slightly underpriced for all that it brings to the table. This includes 16GB of memory, which makes it much better-suited for multitasking than the MacBook Neo. It won't get sluggish if you open too many browser tabs at once.

The Aspire 16 AI runs on a competent Snapdragon X chip. It can't compete with Apple's A18 Pro chip in single-core tasks — it's about 40 percent pokier — but it outperforms it in multi-core tasks like light video editing by about 12 percent. It actually offers the best multi-core performance out of all the laptops we've tried that cost less than $900.

The Aspire 16 AI's battery life also impresses. In our benchmark, it ran for 17 hours and 22 minutes before dying. Our current median battery life for Windows laptops is 14 hours, so it's an overachiever in its category. This tracks for most laptops with Qualcomm's first-gen Snapdragon X series chips.

As an aside, I want to point out that Snapdragon chips are ARM-based CPUs. Without getting too in the weeds, this means they're not compatible with certain specialty apps. (This is also something that afflicts the Asus Zenbook A14, below.) This is mainly a problem if you need a budget laptop for college coursework or light gaming, but since the Aspire 16 AI is more geared toward general everyday use, I consider it a non-issue here.

I think most buyers will feel spoiled by the Aspire 16 AI's display, which has an anti-glare finish, touchscreen capabilities, and a variable 120Hz refresh rate. It could still be brighter and crisper, but those specs are great for $700. I mean, the $1,099 M5 MacBook Air still has a mediocre 60Hz refresh rate.

This is a 16-inch laptop, so you get a good amount of screen real estate, but not at the cost of extra heft. At 3.42 pounds, the Aspire 16 AI is pretty light for its size and not too heavy to haul around. Apple's current 16-inch MacBook Pro weighs 4.7 pounds, for reference.

The Aspire 16 AI's "budgetness" is most apparent in its gnarly speakers and middling webcam. (Its picture is crisp, but it dulls and flattens its subject in a way that almost makes you seem posterized.) Its build quality also underwhelms: Its hinge wiggles a bit, and its keyboard deck is made from plastic. That's not uncommon at this price point, but the all-aluminum MacBook Neo feels way more premium.

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The elegant and long-lasting Asus Zenbook A14 is my favorite laptop for most people with a budget cap of $1,000. Its ultralight yet rigid build makes it especially great for frequent travelers and remote workers; it's a leading MacBook Air alternative. I'll also note that it's the only laptop on this list with an OLED display, if that's a spec high on your wishlist.

Look for the ZenBook A14 on sale at Best Buy, where it's dipped down to as low as $550 before (a steal). It starts with 512GB of storage and 16GB of RAM.

Note: The 2026 Asus Zenbook A14 will have a new matte keycap coating, run on a new Snapdragon X2 Elite processor, and start with 24GB of RAM. We don't know its pricing or availability yet.

I've been hyping this 14-inch laptop since I first saw it at CES 2025. It's a near-perfect Windows ultraportable and an awesome value.

Picking up the Zenbook A14 for the first time usually elicits a gasp from people. Asus built its chassis out of a lightweight magnesium-aluminum alloy called "Ceraluminum" that's scratch-, smudge- and shock-resistant. The base configuration is only 2.4 pounds, or 0.3 pounds less than the MacBook Neo, yet it doesn't feel frail. The Ceraluminum makes it super durable without weighing it down. It's slightly thicker than the Neo, but that's so it can squeeze in an HDMI port and a USB-A port.

In a market saturated with boring silver laptops, I think the Zenbook A14's modern-organic look is refreshing. It has a tan "Zabrinskie Beige" finish with a matte, almost ceramic-like texture, and it's accented with gold reflective logos. It's different without being too obnoxious for an office. Top that off with a bright, vivid OLED display, and this laptop is quite the looker.

Build quality-wise, the Zenbook A14's speakers are the only thing about it that screams "bargain bin." Their audio quality is dreadful. If you plan on listening to music or watching a lot of movies on it, enlist your favorite pair of headphones or earbuds.

The Zenbook A14 is a solid performer for the money. The MacBook Neo still beats it in single-core workloads (by about 31 percent), but it doesn't have any multi-core competition among other laptops under $1,000. It's just five percent slower than the 13.8-inch Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 with the upgraded Snapdragon X Elite chip (11,875), a $1,400+ machine that we've deemed the best Windows laptop for most people, regardless of price point.

Last but not least: The Zenbook A14's battery life. It's awesome. It ran for 21 hours and 47 minutes in our video rundown test before dying, making it the fifth longest-lasting laptop we've ever tried. Our longest-lasting MacBook died exactly half an hour sooner.

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You can snag a MacBook Neo for $499 with Apple's education discount, but if you're not eligible for it, the Acer Chromebook Plus 516 is only $479 (and often on sale for much less). It's the best option for folks with the most limited budgets and those who like the simplicity and security of ChromeOS. It's an especially smart buy for a young child whom you don't trust with a nicer computer.

The Chromebook Plus 516 is regularly marked down to between $299 and $349 at Best Buy, where it's bundled with a carrying case. It has 8GB of RAM and just 128GB of slower UFS storage, but you get 100GB of cloud storage for free for a year after you buy it (via Google One).

All of the sub-$500 laptops we've tested are Chromebooks, and this particular model has the best performance of the pack, relatively speaking. That includes the fastest processor and the longest battery life; it lasts just over 14 hours per charge (or four hours longer than our Chromebook category median). We didn't record a single-core result for it, but in multi-core tasks, it's 55 percent slower than the MacBook Neo and 73 percent slower than the Acer Aspire 16 AI.

The Chromebook Plus 516 has a fully plastic chassis, which isn't surprising to see at this price point, but our reviewer said it still feels sturdy and durable. This also makes it lighter for a 16-inch laptop, coming in well under four pounds. It houses a good mix of modern and legacy ports, including an HDMI port and pairs of USB-C and USB-A ports. Its keyboard isn't backlit, but it "has a great feel," per our tester.

The Chromebook Plus 516's large 1200p display is prime for watching movies. (While it's only rated at 300 nits, it looks brighter in person.) Of note, there are three other "Chromebook Plus" models sold for under $500 as of early 2026, and all three of them have fuzzier 1080p screens.

Speaking of: As a Chromebook Plus, this device supports several AI-powered software features that regular Chromebooks don't, like Live Translate, Help me read/write, and a built-in Gemini chatbot. It also comes with free trials of Google AI Pro, Adobe Express Premium, and Luminar (a photo editing app).

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