If you primarily browse the web, work on word-processing files, and watch YouTube clips, you might not need a pricey flagship laptop. In fact, for $300 or so, you can buy a Windows 10 machine that works just fine for your needs. We've assembled a list of some of the best low-price laptops.
Will one of these computers be a good choice for editing videos? Absolutely not. But several are highly portable, with an 11-inch screen, and they have impressive battery life.
If you're looking at very low-price laptops, you might also consider a Chromebook. Those machines have advantages, too, and they are becoming more versatile now that they are starting to use Google Play Store apps.
What you get with a Windows 10 laptop is a more traditional operating system with a smaller learning curve, and the ability to use applications that aren't available for Chromebooks.
Asus VivoBook E200HA-US01
The VivoBook E200HA is a portable and affordable small laptop. Weighing in at 2.1 lbs, it’s a great coffee shop or travel companion for the on-the-go consumer.
While its Atom processor powers the laptop to only a fair performance rating, the machine costs just $200. And in our testing, it ran for 15 hours between charges.
The machine has a slender 32GB of storage, so users would be wise to invest in a low-profile flash drive or to use cloud services like Dropbox, Microsoft OneDrive, or Google Drive to store photos, videos, and other large files.
HP Stream 11-y010nr
The latest HP Stream 11 shares the same name with a previous model, but it has more going on under the hood. The RAM doubles to 4GB and battery life improves by a third, to more than 12 hours. The processor is faster, too.
The price is around $200. As with every machine listed here, this is a laptop for browsing the web, posting on social media, and streaming movies—don't go trying to play video games and do 3D modeling on it.
Public service announcement: Check the model number before you buy, because there are still a few of the older models floating around. You want the new-and-improved version.
Lenovo ThinkPad N22
If we had a "best bang for the buck" award, it might go to the Lenovo Thinkpad N22. Priced at only $170, it is the least expensive model in the Consumer Reports ratings, but it performs as well as competitors that cost twice as much.
Here's a nice bonus: This is one of the few laptops you can buy with a matte screen, which reduces glare and makes things easier when you want to work on the patio.
The speakers are a particular weakness of this laptop, so one accessory we'd recommend is a pair of headphones or an external speaker, to improve both volume and sound quality.