The Best Cheap Gaming Laptops For 2022 (Updated Guide)

Best Cheap gaming laptops can offer great performance while staying within your budget. Sure, there aren’t many cheaper models that can handle even the latest games, but nothing is impossible.

Nowadays there are many video cards and processors that are bundled in laptops to create a cheap laptop that can handle light but also heavier games. A combination that we often come across is the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 combined with an Intel Core i5 or AMD Ryzen 5 processor.

You can buy a laptop with this combination for less than €1000. If you have a little more budget, you can upgrade to an Intel Core i7 processor for about €1100, which can offer you even better performance.

We have made a list of cheap gaming laptops since we know that gaming is not a cheap hobby. If you’re not looking for the very highest graphics in your favorite games, these laptops can probably handle them. In addition to this, the laptops can also be used for things like graphic design. 

This list was compiled by looking at dozens of laptops. For example, we have assessed it on factors such as the quality of the display, the strength of the specs, but also the battery life and, certainly not unimportantly, the price-quality ratio.

HOW WE DECIDED

We first compared the specifications of every cheap gaming laptop, after which several models were dropped. We then read customer reviews of these products to arrive at a final judgment.

• 24 Laptops Viewed
• 51 Hours Of Research
• 381 Read reviews
• 9 Laptops Chosen

Check out the Best Cheap Gaming Laptop Below

1. HP Pavilion G 15-dk1955nd
2. Lenovo IdeaPad L340-17IRH
3. Acer Aspire 7
4. Lenovo Legion 5
5. Acer Nitro 5
6. MSI GF63
7. Asus ROG Strix G15
8. Asus TUF Gaming F15
9. Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3

Note: When a new cheap gaming laptop is launched we will update the list.

1. HP 15 Laptop – HP Fast Charge, Lightweight Design (15-dy2021nr, 2021) – Best Cheap Gaming Laptop

View the HP 15 Laptop (15-dy2021nr, 2021) at the shops below.

This gem from HP came in as number one in our test for cheap laptops for gaming. With a full HD screen, you can enjoy a razor-sharp image while playing your games on a screen diagonal of 15.6 inches (an excellent size).

The built-in video card, the GeForce GTX 1650 from the well-known brand NVIDIA, ensures that you can play games in good quality at a high frame rate. Some statistics in terms of FPS are as follows:

• Counter Strike: Global Offensive – ~185 FPS.
• Grand Theft Auto V – ~50 FPS.
• League of Legends – ~160 FPS (high settings)

The total storage capacity of this gaming laptop is 256 GB (SSD), but that is to be expected as this is not only one of the best models we have tested, but also one of the cheapest. An easy solution to get more storage space is by using an external hard drive.

Built into the HP Pavilion G 15-dk1955nd is an Intel i5 (quad-core) processor, which has turbo speeds of up to 4.5 GHz with a cache memory of 8 megabytes. This strong processor ensures that games load quickly and will not freeze when you have multiple programs open at the same time.

If we look at the number of connection options with this budget laptop, you are also in the right place. If you want to connect an external display, that’s no problem as it contains one HDMI port. In addition, you can also use an Ethernet cable instead of WiFi so that you can use the fastest possible connection.

If you don’t have external speakers, we can tell you that the built-in stereo speakers have good sound. In addition, it also contains a built-in microphone, making a gaming headset unnecessary.

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2. Lenovo IdeaPad L340-17IRH – Best Ultra Cheap Gaming Laptop

This gaming laptop is fast and cheap; exactly what you need. It contains an i7 processor, which makes some of the most CPU-intensive games such as The Witcher drop.

It contains the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 video card, so you can play most games on high settings. Below is a brief overview of the frames per second for some popular games.

Game	FPS
League of Legends	124
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive	117
Fortnite	103
Overwatch	77
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds	65

When it comes to storage, this cheap gaming laptop contains a storage space of 1256 GB (combination of HDD + SSD). What we find striking is that the manufacturer states that the Lenovo IdeaPad L340-17IRH has a battery life of 9 hours, which is a very rare feature for a gaming laptop.

The built-in Intel i7 processor ensures that a game starts quickly when you open it and that many processes can be run simultaneously on this laptop without any delay.

In addition to the good processor, the wired connection options are also good. It includes multiple USB connections for connecting your peripherals, and the HDMI connection allows you to connect an external monitor to enjoy a larger image than the 17.3-inch offered by this budget gaming laptop.

Another small benefit for the streamers among our readers; there is a built-in HD webcam (including a sliding privacy cover) so you don’t have to buy an extra webcam, which can save some costs.

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3. Acer Aspire 7 Laptop – Best Acer Aspire Budget Gaming Laptop

This laptop is perfect for gamers and, at the time of writing, is on offer for just €799. Unfortunately, Acer is no longer seen as one of the best laptop brands, but when we look at the specifications of this product, we are surprised.

The built-in video card can achieve good results in various games. Here’s a brief overview based on multiple tests:

• Fortnite – ~70 FPS.
• PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds – ~65 FPS.
• Apex Legends – ~65 FPS.

The 512 GB storage space not only ensures that you have enough space to install many of your favorite games, but also that this laptop boots very quickly. What we also thought was a nice addition was that this laptop contains a fingerprint scanner to log in with. This means you no longer have to remember a complicated password and no one else can get into your gaming laptop. (Unless of course, they cut your finger off :-P)

This Acer Aspire 7 (type A715-75G-56GB) contains an Intel i5 processor from the Coffee Lake Refresh family with a clock speed of 2.4 gigahertz, turbo speed of about four GHz, and a cache memory of 8 MB. The powerful processor ensures that everything starts up quickly and that your gaming laptop can handle multiple processes at the same time. This laptop has also a variant which comes under the budget of $200.

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4. Lenovo Legion 5 – Best Cheap 17-inch Gaming Laptop

The Lenovo Legion 5 is a budget gaming laptop that comes in many different models and sizes. For example, there is a 15.6-inch version with a very powerful video card, but also a somewhat lesser 17.3-inch version that contains worse specs.

For example, if we look at one of the cheaper ones, say the 15ARH05 82B5008FMH, we see that it still packs great specs for its cheap price. For example, this model includes an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Ti video card that allows you to enjoy the following performance in your favorite games:

• Minecraft: 141 fps
• League of Legends: 124 fps
• World of Tanks: 75 fps
• Fortnite: 103 fps

Also in terms of storage space, all models of the Legion 5 excel. For example, even the cheapest models include a 512GB SSD, which is more than enough for all the games you want to install on a cheap gaming laptop.

Since many gamers like to play in the dark, the makers of the Legion 5 have taken this into account. It includes a built-in keyboard backlight so you can see all your keys in the dark. This means you never have to play with the lights again. (Although this is a bit better for your eyes..)

In addition, the laptop stays cool thanks to the built-in cooling, and it doesn’t make much noise while playing games.

There is one drawback to this laptop, however, and that is that the quality of the webcam is not the best. We learned this from a number of reviews from customers who have tested this cheap gaming laptop.

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5. Acer Nitro 5 – Best Cheap 15-inch Gaming Laptop

The Acer Nitro 5 includes a powerful GTX 1650 video card that allows you to achieve great performance on the games you plan to play.

You can connect many different peripherals to the Nitro 5, as it offers a lot of connection options. For example, you have four different USB ports, and even an HDMI port to connect it to a second screen.

According to customers of this laptop, it can even easily exceed 100 fps on some games, which is excellent for a gaming laptop that is so cheap.

In addition to playing games, you can also do everything on it, such as multitasking, editing media, or even watching movies and series in full HD.

A small disadvantage is that it is completely made of plastic, even though it still feels quite sturdy despite this.

Finally, this laptop still has room for an Ethernet cable, so that you are no longer dependent on WiFi.

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6. MSI GF63 – Best Thin & Cheap Everyday Gaming Laptop

The MSI GF63 is a great choice if you’re on a tight budget and still looking for a nice laptop to play games on. The first thing we noticed was its display, which with a refresh rate of 144 Hz can display a nice and smooth image quality, which is an advantage in many games such as shooters.

Its powerful video card, the GeForce GTX 1650 MAX-Q, in combination with its i7 processor and 16 GB of RAM, ensure that you can easily play games such as Fortnite at the highest settings.

It contains several connections, including:

• card reader
• USB 3.1 ports
• Kensington lock
• USB 2.0 port
• Audio ports (for both microphone & headphones)

We often see from the reviews that the laptop boots quickly and is also easy to multitask on.

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7. Asus ROG Strix G15 – Best Cheap AMD-Powered Gaming Laptop

The display of the Asus ROG Strix G15 is Full HD, contains IPS technology for realistic color reproduction, and has a refresh rate of 144 Hz (adjustable to 60).

When we look at the inside we are amazed. It packs a powerful AMD Ryzen 7 processor, and a whopping 16GB of RAM, which is a lot for what this laptop costs.

What’s a nice addition is the built-in keyboard backlight of the ROG Strix G15. For example, it is possible to set different color patterns.

Now, most games that you can install on a cheap gaming laptop are often not the largest, but with 1 TB of storage, you have the advantage that your laptop will not be full quickly.

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What should you look for when choosing a cheap gaming laptop?

The cheapest laptop we found that was suitable for gaming was only €729. Of course, it seems great to buy such a cheap model, but this does not mean that it is also suitable for playing your favorite games. In order to be able to really properly assess a budget gaming laptop, there are a number of criteria that you should pay close attention to because they are of little use in the event of a bad buy. Using refurbished laptops can allow you to play your favorite gaming titles on a budget.

Does it have enough storage space for games?

Many cheap laptops that seem suitable for gaming because of their powerful processor and video card can still contain a pitfall; not enough storage space for games. Find a laptop that fits your budget, but also has enough HDD storage space for the games you plan to install.

Game	Required free space
Call of Duty: Warzone	209 GB
League of Legends	8 GB
Fortnite	26 GB
Minecraft	< 1 GB
World of Warcraft	62 GB
Overwatch	30 GB
Apex Legends	56 GB

How much storage space do popular games take up?

For example, you already need 209 GB of free space to install Call of Duty: Warzone, for example, which is the size of the hard drive of an average laptop. If you want to install five similar games on your laptop, you are already close to 1 TB (1000 GB), which is almost impossible to find in any budget gaming laptop.

Is the video card of a cheap gaming laptop powerful enough?

A powerful video card is needed to play games of good quality, and with a reasonable FPS (frames per second). If the video card in a cheaper gaming laptop is not powerful enough, you will not be able to play games in the quality you want.

The only solution to this is to lower the quality in your game settings and then hope the FPS goes up a bit. This is of course not possible, and you should clearly opt for a laptop with a reasonable video card. HowToGeek has a good tutorial showing you how to tell if your video card is good enough for playing certain games. We will indicate per laptop in our research results how many FPS certain games have run.

Can the processor and RAM handle your favorite games?

Processors have become more and more powerful in recent years, which has ensured that gaming laptops can handle more and more processes at the same time. The most famous processor brands are Intel and AMD Ryzen, which can be found in almost every cheap gaming laptop. Pay close attention to which processor is in the laptop, since each processor has different specifications such as the frequency in GHz and the number of threads it can handle.

Game	Recommended specs (minimum)
League of Legends	3,2 GHz Processor / 4 GB RAM
Fortnite	3,5 GHz Processor / 8 GB RAM
Minecraft	3,5 GHz Processor / 8 GB RAM
Grand Theft Auto V	3,5 GHz Processor / 8 GB RAM
Old School RuneScape	2,4 GHz Processor / 4 GB RAM

The recommended processor & amount of RAM for popular games.

RAM stands for Random Access Memory, also known as working memory. While processing data, a laptop temporarily stores data here, much faster than a hard drive does.

It is important to have enough RAM for playing games, as games that use many processes at the same time need to store a lot of temporary data. From Laptoid, we recommend that you choose a laptop that has at least 16 GB of RAM, so that you also have enough for some newer games.

Is the display suitable for gaming?

What is very important with a laptop if you want to play games on it is the size of the display. Of course, you won’t have a good gaming experience if you’re going to play a full-screen game like Fortnite on a 13- or 14-inch display.

We recommend a 15.6 or 17.3-inch display for playing games. Fortunately, most budget gaming laptops contain this format, but we also paid attention to this when choosing the products from our research.

When it comes to the quality of the display, many of the laptops in this price range include at least a Full HD screen, which is of course very nice since your goal is to game on it.

In addition, there is also the refresh rate. The refresh rate stands for the number of times the screen is refreshed, which makes sense when you look at the Dutch translation; refresh rate. When the refresh rate of a budget gaming laptop is 60 Hz, this means that the screen can generate and display a new image every second. Choosing a higher refresh rate naturally sounds very nice, but you will also notice this in the cost of the product.

What about the battery life?

In general, you should be happy if the battery of a cheap gaming laptop lasts a few hours. Since they often contain good specs and also have to perform intensive tasks, it is not surprising that they cannot last half a day without charging it.

What can I expect from a laptop with my budget?

Of course, there are cheap budget gaming laptops, but also more expensive models. Your budget ultimately determines what you can do with it since the real cheap models naturally contain lesser specs.

• €600 – €800 . Laptops in this price range are often only suitable for games that do not require a lot of power. Often these laptops contain an i5 processor and a simple video card such as an Intel UHD Graphics 600 , with which you should not expect very high FPS.
• €800 – €1000 . Most cheap gaming laptops from our research will fall in this price range. All laptops that we have listed in this price range have an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 , which ensures that most games can be played with a high FPS. This is often accompanied by an Intel Core i5 or AMD Ryzen 5 processor.
• €1000 – €1200 . Models from this price range are no longer always seen as cheap gaming laptops, but if you have a little more budget, you can enjoy an Intel Core i7 or AMD Ryzen 7 processor, often 16 GB of RAM and perhaps even a better video card if you have a manage to get a nice deal.

Which Cheap Gaming Laptop Should I Buy Now?

It is difficult for us to say which cheap gaming laptop you should buy exactly since everyone has a different goal in mind. To make it even easier for you, we have made an extensive table below with the specifications of all laptops.

Frequently asked questions about a cheap gaming laptop

We receive many questions from Laptoid, but we have also come across many questions online from consumers who were interested in this product. Below we will discuss the most requested.

Can a cheap gaming laptop also handle the latest games?

It all depends on the game you want to play. If you plan to play Call of Duty with your laptop, for example, it is not wise to go for cheap. A cheaper laptop can handle light games such as Minecraft, Old School RuneScape, or more extensive games in low quality.

Which screen size should I choose?

This is not a question where one answer is correct. Screen size comes down more to what the gamer himself prefers. For example, one gamer wants a smaller screen and the other a size of 17 inches. In addition, it does not matter if you are going to use a set-up with an external monitor, as you could also choose the smallest one.

Which ports does my laptop need?

In principle, ports are not mandatory if you are going to use your touchpad and no other peripherals. An Ethernet port can be useful if you don’t want to use WiFi and want the least possible delay on your internet connection. If you want to use an external display, make sure that the laptop has an HDMI or VGA port. In addition, you will need USB ports for peripherals such as a mouse or keyboard.

How long does the battery last?

The battery life of a gaming laptop differs greatly per product, but also per activity that you perform on it. For example, if you only edit documents or play games that are not CPU intensive, the laptop will last longer than if you play the latest games at the highest quality.

How much does a cheap gaming laptop cost?

In our research, we looked at laptops that you can buy with a budget of around €1000 (or less of course). There may be a number of models that are slightly more expensive, but we only do that if they really excel in terms of performance.

How do you choose the best cheap gaming laptop?

To determine the best tested cheap gaming laptop, we look at more than 10 different factors. For example, we check whether every laptop has the right video card or processor for what needs to be done on it, but also whether it contains a fair price-quality ratio. We weigh all these small reviews against each other in order to find the best one.

Conclusion

In this test, 24 laptops were examined, 7 of which came out as the best cheap gaming laptop in the survey, with the HP Pavilion G 15-dk1955nd at number one