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Reviewed / Betsey Goldwasser
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Credit:
Reviewed / Betsey Goldwasser
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It is absolutely possible to find one of the best gaming laptops under $1,000. Processors keep getting more powerful, and features reserved for flagship gaming laptops have trickled down to their budget cousins. High refresh rate displays, customizable keyboards, thin bodies, and decent battery—the “budget” options got ‘em!
Our pick for the best overall is the new Acer Nitro 16 (available at Acer) , a delightful PC that offers over seven hours of battery life, excellent 1080p gaming for demanding games, a slick profile that can travel with you, and good build quality that’ll keep you going for years to come. If the Nitro 16 isn’t quite right for you, we’ve picked out several other options that could be.
Lightweight
Bright HDR display
Good battery life
Capped CPU performance
No ethernet port
Stylish chassis
Great performance
Useful features
Dull, muddy screen
Loud when gaming
Poor webcam
Excellent 120Hz display
Snappy processor
Lots of useful ports
Middling graphics performance
Limited native game compatibility
Good non-ray-traced performance
Decent amount of connectivity ports
Great cooling
Incredibly loud fans
Poorly designed keyboard and trackpad
Finicky performance-management app
Decent single-core performance
Quiet and cool
Variety of connectivity options
Poor gaming performance
Slow storage
Lifeless screen
We test everything from processing capability to screen brightness.
We run the same rigorous set of tests on every gaming laptop that comes into our labs. We overwhelm the processor with tasks to determine how well it can handle the complex work involved with streaming, managing dozens of Chrome tabs, or (especially) high-powered gaming. We benchmark the graphics card to see how well it handles the speedy, smooth rendering of highly detailed imagery.
Gaming laptops are thin and light compared to PC gaming rigs, and there’s a lot of powerful hardware crammed into that space. We test fan noise to measure whether the fan noise will drown out your game. Likewise, we measure heat output to make sure the laptop won’t become painful to use.
We also test battery life, usually by setting the computer to cycle through basic tasks like web browsing until the battery dies. Gaming laptops are notorious for having poor battery life, but some are better than others. If a machine can’t even handle a couple of hours of web browsing, then gaming will be impossible unless you’re plugged in.
Finally, we consider the build quality. The machine should be light but feel substantial, and it should have enough ports for any gaming peripherals you’re using.
With cheaper gaming laptops, at least one area will usually take a hit. You may find solid battery life and great performance in a machine that gets too hot to touch. You may find a well-built powerhouse that’s too much for most batteries to handle. We note issues like that so that you can apply your priorities to our research to make your choices.
There isn’t an abundance of choices for gaming hardware these days, even when you’re constrained by budget.
A lot of the models we recommend for budget gaming include hardware that’s a step shy of the top-of-the-line. Intel’s Core i5 processors, or some of the older i7s, offer strong performance that feels modern without shelling out for the top of the line. AMD’s Ryzen 5 processors are also good. However, laptop makers are using more current-gen hardware in their budget machines combined with, say, a graphics card that’s one generation behind to drop prices even lower.
Your best budget bet for a graphics card is going to be something like the Nvidia 3050 Ti. It’s well-powered and can handle ray tracing. It offers G-Sync to link up with your display for smooth frame rates. But it’s nowhere near as expensive as the 3060 or the newly-announced RTX 40-series.
Your graphics card will affect the gaming performance of your machine more than the processor will, so whatever wiggle room your budget does have should usually go toward your graphics card.
Most gaming laptop displays run between 14 and 16 inches, and you’re unlikely to find much that’s bigger than that for budget prices.
At the end of the day, the refresh rate is going to matter as much or more than pure size. Higher refresh rates mean smoother motion in single-player games and better response times in competitive games online.
As components get more affordable, finding a good gaming laptop for less than a grand has gone from “impossible” to “a little tricky.” There are plenty of good computers out there with specs that you can tweak to find just the right balance between power and affordability.
For under $1,000, you aren’t going to be playing Cyberpunk 2077 with the settings cranked to the max. You may need to tone the graphics down or turn on Nvidia’s DLSS feature, which uses AI to assist in approximating graphics for the appearance of smoother performance. Still, you can get a decent foothold in the world of modern gaming for that price.
Adrien is the PC staff writer for Reviewed with over 4 years of experience covering laptops, desktops, software, games, and more.
Joanna specializes in anything and everything gaming-related and loves nerding out over graphics cards, processors, and chip architecture. Previously she was a staff writer for Gizmodo, PC Gamer, and Maximum PC.
Our team is here for one purpose: to help you buy the best stuff and love what you own. Our writers, editors, and lab technicians obsess over the products we cover to make sure you're confident and satisfied. Have a different opinion about something we recommend? Email us and we'll compare notes.
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