The best laptop under £300 in 2024

While it only counts as under £300 during a sale, we think this is one of the best laptops for its price and well worth considering. Frankly, the set of specs here is so good that we'd still consider it even at £349. Most laptops in this price range sit at around 4 GB RAM and, if lucky, 128 GB of storage, so seeing the Vivobook 15 sport 8 GB and 256 GB respectively is fantastic. Factor in the Intel Pentium Gold processor and you've got a powerful piece of kit, all at a reasonable price.

The one thing holding this laptop back is its battery. While six hours isn't terrible, it isn't difficult to find other models with a good few extra over it. As such, if you tend to travel a lot and don't want to be tethered to a charging socket, you might want to factor that into your considerations.

If you want the best performance out of a laptop under £300, consider the ASUS Laptop 14 E410. The Intel Celeron processor is quite good, ensuring your browsing is nice and swift. If you often find yourself with several tabs open at once, this can be a real bonus. The laptop itself is fairly lightweight too, making this a great pick for taking with you on a commute.

Convenience is another strength of the ASUS Laptop 14 E410. It has a total of three USB ports, meaning you can connect it to a wired mouse, a wired keyboard, and a memory drive without having to juggle devices around. We do note that the screen is somewhat thin, meaning it could be prone to damage, but everything else appears fairly sturdy.

For a more sleek and stylish model, we recommend the ASUS Laptop Chromebook 14. The entire laptop is fairly thin and lightweight, which, combined with its neutral colours, makes it a solid choice for a work device. Beyond that, the display is really solid, providing you with a clear picture and vibrant visuals. Plus, it's nice that it's quite simple to set up.

The only notable drawback is a minor one: the keyboard layout. It shouldn't take long to adjust, but there are some odd placements here, notably the power button in the top right (where delete would normally be) and the shrunken enter key.

HP is a well-known name in the field of laptops, so you can trust that the HP Laptop PC 15s-fq2039sa is a great pick under £300. It has a pretty respectable battery life and the processor does a great job, but where it really shines is the screen. At 15.6 inches, it's a great size for working, watching videos, or just browsing the internet. It also displays in HD, which is always great to see.

Another quality to love about this laptop is its webcam. Finding a good built-in laptop webcam can be tricky, but this one is great for any digital meetings. It also displays in HD, so you won't have to worry about the video quality.

Storage capacity can become an issue in the long term, but luckily, the ACER Aspire 1 sports a respectable 128 gigabytes. It's not a massive amount for a laptop, but it's pretty rare for one under £300. This makes it a great pick for anyone who needs to download and send lots of projects, or even if you're a student writing up essays in Word. You should be able to squeeze a couple of video games in too.

The one thing holding the ACER Aspire 1 back from being an all-around stellar work laptop is that it has pretty poor webcam quality. If you don't mind showing up quite grainy in video calls though, you should enjoy this entry on the list.

If you find yourself caught choosing between a laptop or a tablet, why not consider this ASUS CX1? It's a 2-in-1 laptop that can fold over into a tablet mode. The screen features touchscreen controls, so naturally it's easy and intuitive to navigate.

A surprisingly great feature is the battery life. With the potential to last 9 hours from a full charge, this little 2-in-1 design is easily able to last longer on a single charge than many other laptops.

This HP laptop may seem unassuming at first, but it's a very solid all-rounder that is more than suitable for any essential laptop task you throw at it. It doesn't have any fancy additions, but it has the core fundamentals down to a tee. The case and overall design are very durable, so you won't have to panic if you ever accidentally drop it. The battery life is quite impressive as well and is further enhanced by the fact it remains solid even with frequent use.

Our only real complaint about this laptop is that the build is somewhat bulky. It's still plenty portable and isn't heavy at all, but this is not a slim laptop you can squeeze into a backpack without bother.

If you want to get a true budget option, try the Lenovo IdeaPad 1. The range of specs holds up when compared to the rest of our list, and you're still getting a quality product. It's even more compact and lightweight than any other, although that does come with a slight negative. The screen size is pretty small, so we don't recommend this if you need to strain your eyes working away for hours at a time.

In contrast to the so-so screen, the speakers are actually quite impressive. For such a small laptop, the dual stereo speaker is able to deliver great audio that even works fairly well with bass-heavy music. It's not a powerhouse, but it is more powerful than it initially looks.

At 13.5 hours of battery life, this Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3 is a very long-lasting and reliable Chromebook. It charges fairly quickly too, so even if you do get caught on low charge, you won't be stuck with plugged info too long. Part of this lengthy battery life is from the machine's so-so performance power, but we think the overall convenience wins out here.

We also want to note the keyboard on this laptop, as the keys are responsive and easy to glide across. It's a great pick for an affordable student laptop for writing up eassays.

If you're really looking to stretch your pennies, we suggest the ASUS CX1 11.6in Celeron 4GB 64GB Chromebook. It's obviously not as powerful as pricier options, but it's more than capable enough for general use. Scrolling the web, watching videos, doing a bit of work, etc.; it's got you covered. Not to mention, a 10-hour battery life is amazing for this price.

The main drawback of this laptop is actually its design. The screen has thick bezels around the rim that make it look quite small. If you're interested in a laptop mainly for watching videos, we'd probably suggest opting for a slightly bigger screen at least.