Best laptop under $800 in January 2024

Feast your eyes on the best laptops under $800 in 2024, covering MacBooks, Windows laptops, and convertible models

Table of Contents Table of Contents

If you don’t know what the best laptop under $800 is that suits your needs, we’ve carefully chosen what we believe are the finest models available, covering a range of niches and use-cases, to assist you in finding the right one.

Each of our buying guides are frequently updated with the latest products that we consider worthy of inclusion, ensuring you get the best available. If you’d like to learn more about the market before delving into our reviews, you can scroll down to the “Things to Consider When Buying the Best Laptop Under $800” section below. If time is of the essence, our top three recommendations are the late 2020 MacBook Air with M1 chip, the ASUS ZenBook 14 OLED, or the Microsoft Surface Pro 8 if you’re looking for a 2-in-1 device. See the reviews further down this page for more models and the individual product reviews of each. Do also be sure to check out our Black Friday laptop deals page for some fantastic savings this month.

Today’s best laptop deals

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Best laptop under $800: reviews

The best 13-inch laptop for general productivity

Apple Macbook Air M1 (2020)

Screen Size

13.3 Inches

Processor

Apple M1 chip

Graphics and Video Support

Apple 8-core GPU

Storage

256GB or 512GB SSD

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Pros

• M1 chipset is still powerful for the money
• Bright and colorful screen
• Great battery life
• Superb build quality
• Solid speakers
• Solid webcam
• Looks great
• Light & portable

Cons

• Higher-specced RAM & SSD options can get pricey
• Webcam notch on top of screen can be irritating

Since the release of the latest MacBook Air with M2 chip, the price of the previous generation equipped with M1 chipsets has dropped substantially, which is great news for consumers. Ultimately the newer devices are very similar to this version, besides the processor itself, so for those who don’t need the additional processing power, this cheaper model just makes more sense.

As with most Apple products, the build quality and aesthetics of the MacBook Air are top-notch. The high-res display (2560 x 1600) is lush, vibrant, and bright (reaching a peak of 400nits), plus it has excellent color replication if you’re doing some color-based creative work (with 100% sRGB coverage and around 99% DCI-P3). Battery life isn’t quite as good as on an M2 MacBook Air, but you still get around 11 hours of general usage depending on what you’re doing, which is still quite impressive.

All told, there isn’t much to say that’s negative about this machine, and the base model actually represents good value for money, which isn’t something you can say about a lot of overpriced Apple products, however the RAM and storage upgrades beyond the standard 8GB/256GB do cost substantially more than the base loadout, which isn’t ideal.

A great 14-inch Windows laptop with OLED display

Asus Zenbook 14 OLED (2022)

Screen Size

14 Inches (16:10)

Panel type

90Hz OLED

Processor

Intel Evo i5-1240P

Graphics and Video Support

Intel iGPU

RAM

8GB/16GB

Storage

512GB / 1TB SSD

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Pros

• Solid performing CPU
• Bright and colorful screen
• Great contrast ratio of OLED panel
• 1TB storage for relatively cheap
• Good build quality
• Respectable speakers
• Decent webcam
• Looks great
• Light & portable

Cons

• Battery life could be better
• Fans can get loud on high performance mode

This ASUS ZenBook 14 OLED is a great challenger to the MacBook Air, with solid build quality, keyboard, and trackpad, an elegant design, and a good number of ports and sockets. The Intel Evo i5-1240P gives solid performance for a general productivity machine, capable of running light creative software.

The 16:10 high-res 2.8K display is just as good as the M1 MacBook Air’s – with an actual peak brightness of around 400nits, plus 100% sRGB and DCI-P3 coverage. Although you’ll often find it retailing with 8GB of RAM rather than 16GB, you can get a 1TB SSD for not much additional money over the baseline 512GB, which is very nice indeed. Being an OLED panel, you obviously get excellent contrast and black points too, and with a 90Hz refresh rate, you can enjoy light gaming in those non-demanding titles that the integrated graphics can manage.

As far as the negatives go, battery life, whilst not terrible, could be better, as you’ll get around 6-7 hours of general use with some YouTube thrown in. The fans can also get a bit loud on the higher performance pre-sets, but you only really need to do this if you’re working on some sort of more demanding creative software or the like (or perhaps some light gaming). Besides these points though, there again isn’t a whole lot to criticise this machine about – it really is a very impressive laptop.

Best 2-in-1 laptop under $800

Microsoft Surface Pro 8

CPU

Intel Core i5-1135G7 / i7-1185G7

Display

13-inch, 2280 x 1920 pixels, 120Hz

RAM

8GB/16GB

Storage

128GB / 256GB / 512GB / 1TB SSD

Touchscreen?

Yes

Ports

2x USB-C with Thunderbolt 4, Surface connect port, Headphone jack

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Pros

• 2-in-1 functionality
• Sharp 120Hz screen with great sRGB color replication
• Solid speakers
• Good build quality
• Now available for a reasonable price

Cons

• No USB-A ports
• Optional keyboard & stylus/pen can get pricey

The Microsoft Surface Pro series stands out as a popular choice among convertible laptops, seamlessly combining the functionalities of a windows laptop and a tablet. Unlike traditional 2-in-1 laptop designs with hinging bottom sections, the Surface Pro adopts a tablet-centric design: it features a detachable keyboard that magnetically attaches to the bottom and a kickstand for propping it up. This device combines the advantages of the Windows operating system, laptop functionality, touchscreen capabilities, stylus/pen support, and the portability of a tablet.

While the Surface Pro 9 is the latest model, the Surface Pro 8, released in 2021, offers compelling value, especially for users who don’t require a high-powered CPU for their daily tasks (with RAM being a more critical consideration for web browsing).

The Surface Pro 9, part of the 9th generation, provides options for either Intel 12th gen CPUs or Microsoft SQ3 processors. In contrast, the Pro 8, belonging to the 8th generation, is equipped with Intel 11th gen CPUs. Both versions feature two USB-C ports, a headphone jack, and a 13-inch, 2280 x 1920, 120Hz display. The 13″ device boasts high resolution and pixel density (267ppi), reaching a peak brightness of around 330nits. Notably, it covers over 100% sRGB for vibrant colors and has a color accuracy of approximately 1.24 (average deltaE*00), making it suitable for light, accurate color workflows. The absence of a USB-A port might limit functionality, but users can address this by using a separate USB hub plugged into the USB-C port. Be aware that some retailer listings do not include the keyboard or stylus with the device, and these accessories can be relatively expensive, though this is counteracted a bit by the overall value of the device.

The best laptop under $800 for gaming

Lenovo Legion 5 (RTX 3050 Ti, Ryzen 5 5600H)

CPU

AMD Ryzen 5 5600H

Graphics Card

Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti

RAM

8GB DDR4

Max Refresh Rate

120Hz

Resolution

1920 x 1080

Screen Size

15.6″

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Pros

• RTX 3050 Ti laptop GPU option for cheap
• powerful CPU option for the price
• 120Hz refresh rate for cheap
• Good battery life

Cons

• only 8GB of RAM

If you’re looking for a budget gaming device then this Lenovo Legion 5 is the best pick overall for the price. Gaming laptops aren’t cheap, so for this amount of money you can’t expect to being playing the latest AAA titles on high settings (see our best gaming laptop under $1,500 and $2,000 guides if that’s what you’re looking for), however you will certainly be able to play older titles on this rig, and even the odd new game if it’s not particularly demanding and/or you turn the settings down.

The Lenovo Legion 5 range consistently makes it into best-of guides every year, as they are great all-round devices. The GPU in this particular model is the RTX 3050 Ti laptop GPU, which isn’t exactly a powerhouse but when combined with the AMD Ryzen 5 5600H processor it performs pretty respectably for the money. The Ryzen CPU also ensures solid battery life: you get approximately 7 hours of non-gaming use, with all battery saving settings enabled.

The build quality is solid with a respectable keyboard and trackpad. The only real downside to note however is that for this price you’re limited to 8GB of RAM, and we’d advise bringing this up to 16GB. You can read our how to upgrade RAM on laptops guide for the simple steps you can use to do this.

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This to consider if you’re looking to buy the best laptop under $800

Before you pull the trigger on a new purchase, consider the below to ensure you get the right model for your needs.

CPU & graphics

For $800 you can easily get a machine with a processor powerful enough to do every day productivity tasks, and run some creative software to a reasonable degree. Most general productivity machines will just come with integrated graphics (iGPUs) where the graphics processing is done on the main CPU chipset. Gaming laptops will however come with dedicated GPUs – separate graphics cards that will require more power to run. For $800 you will only get a fairly entry-level gaming laptop, but you’ll be able to run older titles and some newer games on low settings.

Memory & SSD size

It’s recommended to have a minimum of 8GB of RAM, which should suffice for general usage and most basic software programs. If you tend to have multiple tabs open, use somewhat demanding creative software, or want to play games, opting for 16GB of RAM is a better choice. The amount of HDD/SSD storage you’ll need depends on your particular requirements, such as how frequently you handle large files, though for gaming we’d advise a minimum of 512GB. You can however always supplement your laptop’s internal storage with an external hard drive for additional space.

Battery duration

Battery life is an important consideration for most laptops – allowing you better flexibility of working or viewing media wherever you happen to be. For a general productivity laptop you should expect a minimum of at least 7 hours for the price of $800, though ideally more. Gaming laptops use up battery life quicker due to their more powerful components, so it’s common for these to last for less time.

Best laptop under $800 FAQs

How much should I spend on a laptop?

The amount of money you should spend on a laptop really depends on what sort of performance level and utility you’re looking for from it. A general productivity laptop, used to browse the web, write out documents, create spreadsheets, and watch YouTube can cost anywhere between $300 – $1,200, depending on the quality of the screen, quality of the keyboard and trackpad, plus general build quality and battery life. Creative laptops that require color accurate displays cost more money, and gaming laptops cost substantially more due to their high-powered components.

If you’re only after a general productivity machine however, then around the $800 mark is a good price to get a high-quality device.

Who makes the best laptops?

There isn’t just one brand who makes the best laptops overall. Apple often take the crown for best all-round, general purpose laptops with their MacBook Air series, but there are closely competing Windows laptops from the likes of Acer, Lenovo, Microsoft and more.

More specialised laptops have different brands that excel in their niches year on year, and there are a great many gaming laptop brands that closely compete.

Final Word

We trust that our guide to the best laptops under $800 has been helpful. If you haven’t found what you’re seeking here, be sure to explore our guides for the best laptops under $400, $600, and $1000 for more models across different price points. Besides this, if you’re interested in gaming laptops, our best gaming laptop guide might have just what you’re looking for.