“If you’re looking for a gaming laptop that doesn’t cost too much, but can still give you the performance and features of a high-end machine, then your search is over. In this article, we’ll show you how to find the best budget gaming laptops under 1500$.”
“We’ve compiled a list of our top 5 picks which includes specs and reviews for each one so that there’s no confusion when it comes time to make your purchase. We hope this helps!”
At a Glance:
Lenovo Legion Y545
- The elegant, understated design
- Great gaming and overall performance
- Comfortable keyboard
Dell G5 15 S
- Blistering CPU performance
- Strong graphics (compared to budget gaming)
- Great battery life
HP Gaming Pavilion 15
- Affordable
- Solid gaming and overall performance
- Great battery life
Gaming laptops have seen great improvements over the years in their design, specifications, features, and battery capacity. Along with the top-tier and highest-performing laptops, budget-friendly laptops have also acquired such benefits. You can also get a budget-friendly laptop that can run the most recent titles. All thanks to the AMD Ryzen 4000-series CPU’s and Nvidia’s GTX 16-Series GPUs line-up. Even some high-end GPUs have also been seen in some budget-friendly options for a great gaming experience.
So if you are someone who is searching for a good gaming laptop but is limited by his budget? Then, don’t you worry at all, because we have got you covered by arranging all the best performing budget gaming laptops!
| Design | Best Laptops | Retailer |
|---|---|---|
Best Pick | Check Price | |
Staff Pick | Check Price | |
Budget Pick | Check Price |
Lenovo Legion Y545
Best Pick| CPU: 2.2-GHz Intel Core i7-9750H CPU |
| GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti GPU with 6GB of VRAM |
| RAM/Storage: 16GB/128GB SSD |
| Display Size/Resolution: 15.6/1920 x 1080 |
The Lenovo Legion Y545 is an affordable option which is a great competitor for the title of best gaming budget-friendly laptop. The laptop offers great overall performance with special attention to a better gaming experience. The laptop is equipped with great internal specifications such as an Intel Core-i7 processor and an Nvidia GTX 1660 Ti GPU. The laptop doesn’t have a flashy design or form-factor, on the contrary, Lenovo opted for a subtle and sophisticated design.
By highlighting the GPU of the laptop, we’d like to mention that the GPU offers great power to the machine. The laptop has a decent 1080p display, which will cater to all your entertainment needs! Even though the laptop is budget-friendly but it still features exceptional audio quality and a great keyboard. The laptop is highly recommended if you are looking for a cheap and budget-friendly gaming laptop.
Pros
- The elegant, understated design
- Great gaming and overall performance
- Comfortable keyboard
Cons
- Below-average battery life
- Runs hot when gaming
Dell G5 15 S
Staff Pick| CPU: AMD Ryzen R7 4800H |
| GPU: AMD Radeon RX 5600M |
| RAM/Storage: 16GB/512GB SSD |
| Display Size/Resolution: 15.6/1920 x 1080 |
The Dell G5 15 SE is another budget-friendly gaming laptop in our buying list which offers great features. The specifications of the laptop are great while considering its price tag. The laptop offers great battery life, exceptional CPU performance, and a high bright display (15.6”). The laptop is equipped with an AMD Ryzen R7 4800H CPU which completely outperforms its competition. Specifically talking about the battery life, you can get around 7-hours of laptop usage between charges. Moreover, by bundling the CPU with AMD Radeon RX 5600M, you get a performance that is enough for even the most demanding titles.
The 15.6” display of the laptop is also fairly bright and vivid along with great functionality due to its choice of ports. The laptop is equipped with a decent and comfortable keyboard for all those gamers out there. The Dell G5 15 SE is among the best laptops for the price available in the market.
Pros
- Blistering CPU performance
- Strong graphics (compared to budget gaming)
- Great battery life
Cons
- Middling graphics (compared to mainstream gaming)
- Dim and dull 60Hz display
- Chunky design
HP Gaming Pavilion 15
Budget Pick| CPU: 2.6-GHz Intel Core i7-9750H CPU |
| GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 GPU with 4GB of VRAM |
| RAM/Storage: 12GB/256GB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD |
| Display Size/Resolution: 15.6/1920 x 1080 |
An entry-level laptop into the gaming world is the popular HP Gaming Pavilion 15-dk0046nr. In a nutshell, the laptop is equipped with all the great specifications such as an Intel Core i7 CPU, Nvidia GeForce GPU, above-average battery life, and a blazing fast SSD. Also, it all comes in a surprisingly portable form factor. The laptop has a top place in the list of best budget-friendly gaming laptops due to its specifications and endurance.
The Pavilion 15 shouldn’t be considered great only because it offers performance within a budget. Even If we remove the budget-friendly tag the laptop will outperform many of its competitors. The laptop is capable to run recent titles at a fairly good frame rate. In terms of battery performance, the laptop can give you enough juice to survive at least 6 hours between charges. The temperature of the laptop is also fairly low, even while gaming. Hence, considering all the offerings of this beast we’d highly recommend putting it on your list of gaming laptops.
Pros
- Affordable
- Solid gaming and overall performance
- Great battery life
Cons
- Dim, somewhat dull display
Acer Nitro 5
| CPU: AMD Ryzen 5-4600H |
| GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 with 4GB of VRAM |
| RAM/Storage: up to 8GB/256GB SSD |
| Display Size/Resolution: 15.6-inch/1920 x 1080 |
Nitro 5 is introduced by Acer to make it easy for everyone to enter the gaming laptop community. The price tag of the laptop is lower than $700, but it offers all the performance a gaming enthusiast can require for a better gaming experience. The laptop is equipped with a 15.6” IPS panel which wouldn’t offer poor viewing angles.
The laptop is equipped with a great combination of CPU and GPU e.g. AMD Ryzen 5-4600H and Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 with 4GB of VRAM, respectively. This deadly combination will not disappoint you in any case, whether you are doing gaming or other work on it. The laptop comes with 256GB of storage and 8 GB of RAM. All the users who think these storage and RAM options are on the lower side can upgrade them afterward. There is no other option available for a good gaming laptop in this price bracket unless you opt for a gaming PC.
Pros
- Long battery life
- Strong CPU performance
- Ridiculously affordable
Cons
- Mediocre graphics
- Dull display
- Muddy audio
Lenovo Legion 5i (15-inch)
| CPU: Intel Core i7-10750H |
| GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti |
| RAM/Storage: 8GB/512GB |
| Display Size/Resolution: 15.6/1920 x 1080 |
The name Lenovo is popular for providing great value-money offerings with its products, which is no doubt 100% true with Legion 5i. The laptop is highly recommended for those users who want a bigger screen to completely enjoy their gaming experience. The 17.3” display of the laptop offers 1080p resolution and completely utilizes all the offerings of the machine’s CPU and GPU. The laptop is equipped with a combination of Intel Core i7-10750H and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti CPU and GPU, respectively. The laptop offers 8 GB of RAM along with 512 GB of internal storage. Besides the mentioned features, the laptop comes along with a great number of modern options such as a Wi-Fi 6 and an anti-glare display. Moreover, considering the display size of the laptop you’d think the laptop will be heavy. But to your surprise, the laptop only weighs 5.5 pounds, which is incredibly light.
Pros
- Impressive VR benchmark score
- Rival-beating fps on AAA titles
- Decent speakers
Cons
- Dim display
MSI GF63 8RB
| CPU: 2.2-GHz Intel Core i7-8750H CPU |
| GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti with 4GB of VRAM |
| RAM/Storage: 16GB/256GB M.2 PCIe SSD with a1TB 5,400-rpm hard drive |
| Display Size/Resolution: 15.6-inch/1920 x 1080 |
The MSI GF63 is for all those users who want to enjoy a great gaming experience without breaking the bank. The laptop offers commendable performance due to its Intel Core-i7 processor bundled with an Nvidia GPU. You can get this laptop at a fairly low price and can enjoy the most recent titles at a lower setting. The laptop is highly recommended for an entry-level gamer.
But don’t take the laptop lightly, as it features an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 Ti with 4GB of VRAM. Even though, the most significant and highlighted feature of the laptop is its Intel Core i7 CPU. The laptop is perfect for casual gamers as it offers optimal performance about its price tag. To all the users, who want a more powerful laptop, we’d like to recommend them to spend a little more to get the performance they desire.
Pros
- Relatively slim and light Weight
- Fast performance
Cons
- Dim and dull display
- Low-travel keyboard
- No gaming utilities
Asus TUF A15
| CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 4800H |
| GPU: Nvidia RTX 2060 |
| RAM: 16GB DDR4-2666 |
| Screen: 15.6-inch Full HD IPS 144 Hz |
| Storage: 1TB M.2 NVMe |
| Battery: 90 Wh |
| Dimensions: 14.1 x 10.1 x 1 inches |
| Weight: 5.07 lbs |
The Asus TUF A15 features AMD 8-core Ryzen 7 4800H as its heart, and due to this, it’s among the top and highly recommended laptops on our list. The more impressive specifications include speedy 1TB NVMe SSD and RTX 2060 graphics, which give this laptop the title of hell of a gaming laptop.
The versatility of the laptop is great along with great affordability in terms of a gaming laptop with such a battery life that it’s extremely difficult to not recommend it. One of the highlighted drawbacks of this laptop is that there are multiple RTX 2060 based options in the market around the same price tag. The thing to note is that even with such a price tag, the laptop competes even with more expensive mid-range gaming laptops
Pros
- Impressive new 8-core AMD APU
- 90 W/h battery
- Decent 144 Hz FHD screen
- Robust design
Cons
Dell G3 15 SE
| CPU: Intel Core i7 9750H |
| GPU: Nvidia GTX 1660 Ti Max-Q |
| RAM: 16GB |
| Screen: 15.6-inch Full HD IPS 144 Hz |
| Storage: 512GB SSD |
| Battery: 51 Wh |
| Dimensions: 0.85 x 14.4 x 10 inches |
| Weight: 5.40 lb |
We have developed this buying list because we know that finding a great-performing gaming laptop with a limiting budget is a tiresome task. We know that many budget-friendly options available in the market have some sacrifices with them. But, the Dell G3 15 performs equally well in all the departments without having any hurtful sacrifice in performance. It offers decent 1080p gaming along with such specifications that you won’t be disappointed after getting it.
Also, the battery life of the laptop is great thanks to its 51 watts per hour battery. The laptop has also seen its fair share of improvements over its predecessors in terms of its design. Now the laptop comes in a sleeker and slimmer form factor. To give the laptop a more high-end feel, the laptop features a 15.6” 144Hz display with thin bezels around it. The laptop has a welcoming look with a toned-down design. The only drawbacks of the laptop include less rich colors offered by the display.
Pros
- Affordable configuration options
- Good battery life
- Powerful laptop
Cons
Acer Predator Triton 500
| CPU: Intel i7-10750H |
| GPU: RTX 2080 Super with Max-Q |
| RAM: 32GB |
| Screen: 15-inch IPS-level, 300Hz, G-Sync |
| Storage: 1TB NVMe SSD |
| Battery: 84WHr |
| Dimensions: .7″ x 14.11″ x 10.04″ |
| Weight: 4.63 lbs |
The Acer Predator Triton 500 is similar to a warm-blooded predator when it comes to performance. The budget-friendly laptop comes with such a performance that it can operate recent titles at approximately 81 frames per second on average. The laptop features 32 GB of RAM, which is more than any of the options mentioned in our buying list. The display of the laptop is 15” IPS-level which features a 300Hz gaming experience. The performance of the laptop is extremely great all thanks to the deadly CPU and GPU combination e.g. Intel i7-10750H and RTX 2080 Super with Max-Q. The only drawbacks of the laptop include increased temperature during intense gaming sessions. We’d also be happy to see improved battery life. Nonetheless, the laptop is highly recommended for all gaming enthusiasts.
Pros
- Thin Profile
- Gaming Performance
- Configuration Options
Cons
- Runs hot
- Battery life
Dell G5 15 SE
| CPU: AMD Ryzen R7 4800H |
| GPU: AMD Radeon RX 5600M |
| RAM/Storage: 16GB/512GB SSD |
| Display Size/Resolution: 15.6/1920 x 1080 |
The Dell G5 15 SE is another budget-friendly gaming laptop in our buying list which offers great features. The specifications of the laptop are great while considering its price tag. The laptop offers great battery life, exceptional CPU performance, and a high bright display (15.6”). The laptop is equipped with an AMD Ryzen R7 4800H CPU which completely outperforms its competition. Specifically talking about the battery life, you can get around 7-hours of laptop usage between charges. Moreover, by bundling the CPU with AMD Radeon RX 5600M, you get a performance that is enough for even the most demanding titles.
The 15.6” display of the laptop is also fairly bright and vivid along with great functionality due to its choice of ports. The laptop is equipped with a decent and comfortable keyboard for all those gamers out there. The Dell G5 15 SE is among the best laptops for the price available in the market.
Pros
- Blistering CPU performance
- Strong graphics (compared to budget gaming)
- Great battery life
Cons
- Middling graphics (compared to mainstream gaming)
- Dim and dull 60Hz display
- Chunky design
Summary Best Budget Gaming Laptop Under 1000$
| Design | Best Laptops | Retailer |
|---|---|---|
Best Pick | Check Price | |
Staff Pick | Check Price | |
Budget Pick | Check Price |
Conclusion Best Budget Gaming Laptop Under 1000$
If you are looking for a budget-friendly gaming laptop, now is the time to buy. With advancements in technology and cheaper prices of components, there are more options available than ever before. Whether you want an AMD or Nvidia GPU with great performance specs at a discounted price point, we have just the model that will fit your needs today! Looking for something under $1000? No problem! We’ve got plenty of choices for all budgets right here on our website. Plus if you’re not sure what hardware specifications are best suited to your specific needs but know how much money you can spend, check out our handy chart below where it lists every product by price range so you can find exactly what’s perfect for your budget without having to do extensive research.