It wasn’t simple, guys, to find the top picks and finest gaming laptops under the bottom line of £300. We had some misgivings when we originally chose to create this post. Why? Because a laptop needs to have powerful resources such as a decent CPU and plenty of RAM to play contemporary games, a cheap laptop may not reach the criteria and have those components.
A brand new Alienware laptop or a top-of-the-line MacBook Pro is not in everyone’s budget. Gaming laptops are often equipped with strong technology, vibrant designs, and are designed to provide customers with the best possible gaming experience.
However, gaming laptops are also expensive, and it’s difficult to discover the finest inexpensive gaming laptops that won’t break the bank. It’s important to remember that gaming generates a lot of heat, which is mitigated by either strong CPUs or cooling devices as mentioned.
What To Look for in a Gaming Laptop
A gaming laptop needs a powerful graphics card and processor to handle modern games graphics. However, this article focuses on gaming laptops for under £ 300.
Good Graphics Card
It’s not difficult to locate a gaming laptop. Searching for a gaming laptop Finding a gaming laptop for around £300 is a difficult task.
Cheap gaming laptops are those that cost less than £300. Gaming laptops under £300 may not have the same hardware as top-of-the-line laptops for playing recent games. However, beautiful pictures and a gaming laptop with a reasonable graphics card can be had for under £300.
We recommend skipping features like hard drive space in favor of a laptop with a strong graphics card, whether it’s an integrated graphics card, an integrated Intel UHD graphics card, or a standalone graphics card. AMD Radeon graphics cards, as well as Intel graphic cards and Intel HD graphics cards, are quite popular. Nvidia GeForce graphics cards are among the best graphics cards available.
Good CPU – The processor
It is all about lots of power! The bulky look and better designs are not so important if the CPU is not good. Finding a decent processor at a reasonable price might be difficult.
The majority of PCs will have a dual-core processor with sufficient processing capability to conduct daily work and online meetings. Even still, those PCs, or an ordinary workplace computer, may cost more than £300.
At the absolute least, opt for a dual-core CPU that can perform numerous tasks at the same time without slowing down your gameplay. Most laptops in this price range will use Intel Celeron CPUs or lower-end AMD processors.
Storage Capacity
Every laptop on the market will have a storage option, such as a standard hard drive, a Solid State Drive (SSD), or Shirley state hard drive in higher-end laptops.
A laptop hard drive is a vital computer component that saves photos, data, and directories as well as the operating system. The hard drive capacity determines how many files, photos, movies, and other types of data the laptop can store locally.
Storage capacity is vital in a gaming laptop. You might wish to save games to your computer, so you can play them later. However, in order to keep costs down and save money, we must compromise some storage space while shopping for a gaming laptop under £300. A compact hard drive might save you money if you don’t require a huge hard disk, memory-wise.
RAM
The quantity of RAM (or system memory) on a laptop determines how many apps may be opened and executed at the same time. Consider a three-foot-long office desk, for example. It’s possible that only a few documents will fit on top.
If you had a 10-foot-long desk, though, you can fit a lot more documents on it, and we need a lot more document space to play games. This is true when it comes to system memory. The more RAM accessible on a laptop, the more programs and apps it can execute at the same time. However, when it comes to games, these applications can take a lot of memory.
So on a gaming laptop under 300, we’re going to look at the laptop’s memory capacity. Even if you’re just playing one game, that game can consume a lot of computer memory. Even if you are just running one application at a time, you can still consume a lot of resources.
We spend hours researching and preparing this article. We spend a lot of time looking for laptops with decent memory in the £300 price range. Consider allocating a portion of your budget to system memory. System memory is restricted in laptops under £300. Consider making budget cuts elsewhere and focusing on critical components like decent graphics cards, a good CPU, and enough or plenty of system memory.
Battery Life
Another feature we’ll consider while looking for the best gaming laptop under the price of £300, is the laptop’s battery life in day performance. If you’re in the market for a cheap gaming laptop, you’re unlikely to find one with long battery life.
Long-term gaming needs a lot of energy. Let’s say you want to play games on your laptop when it’s removed from the power source. In that situation, you should prioritize a laptop with a long battery life run times. Keep in mind that we’re talking about low-cost laptops.
This is a budget gaming laptop, thus factors like battery life and average battery life won’t compare to top computers like MacBook Pros and Alienware laptops. However, computers under £300 that have good battery life and are still termed cheap laptops are available.
If you use your laptop largely when connected to an outlet, don’t spend a lot of money on battery life. Spend as much money as you can on graphics cards and computer RAM.
Now considering everything mentioned, you must know that a laptop needs some features also like:
HDMI Port
Low-cost laptops will be limited in terms of functionalities. A gaming laptop, on the other hand, should include at least one HDMI connector or some type of DisplayPort so that you can connect an external display and play your games on a larger screen if necessary.
USB Ports
Any laptop should have at least one USB port. USB ports on laptops allow you to connect peripherals like printers, keyboards, and other items like drawing pads and gaming controllers. Look for laptops with many USB ports so you can connect all of your devices.
Two USB ports should suffice if you’re merely attaching a USB gaming controller to the laptop. However, if you intend to use the laptop, a laptop with numerous USB ports is recommended. Because we’re looking at laptops under £300 in this post, we’ll probably focus on gaming laptops with at least two USB ports. Even so, we’ll almost certainly receive at least one USB port.
Laptop Weight
We all desire a tiny and light laptop, yet a thin and light laptop will increase the price. If you intend to use your laptop for business or to take it around town, you should consider the weight of the laptop.
Assume, nevertheless, that you want to utilize this laptop just for gaming and that you will mostly use it at home. If that’s the case, here’s another place where you can save money.
Operating System
It’s also worth thinking about the laptop’s operating system (OS). Apple’s operating system, for example, is only accessible on Apple computers, which are more expensive than inexpensive gaming laptops.
On the other side, many laptop manufacturers utilize Microsoft’s Windows OS, making it simpler to obtain Windows laptops for around £300. Also, while most games are compatible with both Mac and Windows operating systems, check the game’s prerequisites to ensure it is compatible with the laptop’s operating system.
Don’t worry! We combed the web for the finest gaming laptops for around £300. Enjoy!
HP Chromebook 11a-11-inch
Another popular laptop with gaming capability is the Acer Aspire 5 Slim A515-43-R19, which features integrated Radeon RX Vega 3 graphics, full HD display and a dual-core AMD Ryzen 3 3200U CPU. As stated this laptop operates at 1080p resolutions.
When it comes to current integrated graphics at this pricing point, the RX Vega 3 takes the cake. Unfortunately, with no specialized graphics cards available for less than £ 500, the hyper-budget gaming category is severely constrained. However, on medium settings, the RX Vega 3 graphics can easily handle popular games like Dota 2 and The Sims.
It’s an excellent value for money. Technology makes it an excellent choice for a budget gaming laptop that can run older games. It has a bigger 15.6-inch screen with IPS technology for improved viewing angles and overall picture quality, although being somewhat more expensive than £ 300.
This technology is an improvement over the TN panels featured in other low-cost laptops. Another advantage is the reasonably good quality on-board audio, which allows for gaming on the go without the use of a headset. With a lightweight design and up to 7.5 hours of battery life (though anticipate a lot less while gaming), the A515-43-R19L is a viable all-around laptop for education or vacation.
A backlit keyboard is another useful feature, which is ideal for gaming or working at night or in low-light environments. However, don’t expect to be able to play the most popular games with playable framerates starting in 2016.
Looking at older games and independent offerings is a good idea. If you examine all of the classics, there are enough excellent games to keep you entertained for a lifetime. If you don’t want to pay a little more for a dedicated graphics card but still want a little higher-quality and bigger display, the Acer Aspire 5 Slim A515-43-R19 provides some pleasant extras for only £ 50 or so more.
Pros
- High quality IPS display with good contrast
- Lightweight design with aluminium top cover
- Backlit keyboard
Cons
- Graphics only suitable for older games
- Flimsy touchpad
- Limited storage space out the box
ASUS L210MA-DB01 11.6-inch
We don’t always need a high-powered laptop to do jobs that are better suited to a lower-powered computer. This is where the 11.6-inch ASUS L210MA-DB01 comes in. This laptop, which costs little over £ 200, does day-to-day chores with ease, delivers a reasonable performance, and is undoubtedly one of the cheapest Windows 10 systems now available.
The ASUS L210MA-DB01 has a sleek, compact design that houses cheap components that are capable in their own right, but it is a little slower than our top selection under £ 400, the Aspire 5 A515-43-R19L. This is primarily due to the AMD Ryzen 3 3200U’s higher performance. However, because both laptops have just 4 GB of RAM, they are better suited to simple tasks.
You will be able to play games; but, new games or games that are in any way demanding will almost certainly cause problems; nonetheless, older game boy sophisticated emulators and games, as well as less demanding older titles such as Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War, will run just well. However, because this computer only has 64GB of storage capacity, you’ll have to be careful about wasting it.
The laptop is extremely light, weighing only 2.31 pounds and measuring 0.67 inches thick at its thickest point. The fanless CPU, as well as the eMMC storage, contribute to the lightweight design. The laptop’s 11-hour battery life on a single charge is amazing, so you won’t have to rush to charge it in the middle of a late-afternoon lecture.
You get a drab 1366 x 768 display with terrible viewing angles at this pricing point. Unfortunately, one of the major areas where cheap laptops make corners is display quality; yet, for all of the functionality and simplicity of use, the ASUS L210MA-DB01 11.6-inch laptop is a solid laptop that comes in a slender design with respectable components.
Pros
- Extremely affordable
- Lightweight, portable and silent fanless design
- Comfortable keyboard
- Lengthy battery life
- Bright screen
Cons
- Limited performance for more than basic applications and / or gaming
- Average touchpad quality
Lenovo Chromebook Flex 5 8 13.3-inch
Thanks to its 360-degree convertible design, the 2-in-1 Lenovo Chromebook Flex 82B80006UX 13.3-inch provides customers versatility with the numerous modes (tablet, tent, stand, laptop) it makes accessible to them. Its sleek graphite grey appearance, lightweight construction, and all-day battery life make it an excellent choice for school or college students, yet it also has the power to run certain more demanding business programs.
The laptop weights 2.97 pounds and has a maximum thickness of 0.67 inches. It has an Intel Core i3-10110U CPU that packs a solid punch, making it one of the cheapest laptops with this engine. However, it is held down by the 4GB of DDR4 RAM, which hampers productivity when compared to higher-priced laptops. The 64GB of storage capacity is likewise limited, so you’ll have to rely on Google Drive for all of your extra storage requirements.
It runs games from the Google Play store well, as well as certain older titles, and even manages some newer titles on extremely low settings, according to reviewers. Please see the review below for further information. Two USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type C ports, one USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type A port, and a single audio jack are among the connectors Lenovo has included to keep you linked to your devices.
At this pricing range, having two USB Type-C connections is a welcome addition. The battery life is unrestrictive, as it will last you the entire day on a single charge. Lenovo chose an excellent Full HD IPS display, which consumers complimented for its excellent touch responsiveness.
Because of the greater resolution, movies and videos will have sharp visual quality, and because of the IPS technology, you won’t have to adjust your display to find an appropriate viewing angle where it won’t seem washed out.
Pros
- Two USB Type-C ports
- High quality display
- Touchscreen is responsive
- Good battery life
- Great CPU for the price
Cons
- Quality control
- Average speakers
- Poor trackpad
HP Chromebook x360 14a 14-inch
The HP lightweight Chromebook. With measurements of 0.7 by 12.8 by 8.6 inches, the HP Chromebook x360 14a-ca0022nr has a sleek and beautiful mineral silver body that is incredibly portable, making it a perfect alternative for school kids, college students, and working professionals. Its 3.3-pound weight is a little substantial, but it should fit inside your bag without being noticed.
The screen flips through to tablet mode, with a responsive touchscreen display, because this is a 2-in-1. Anticipate a lower-quality display with a modest 1366 x 768 resolution, so don’t expect a high-resolution display.
However, at this price range, this is to be anticipated. It’s a step down from our top option for under £ 400, the Acer Aspire 5 A515-46-R14K 15.6-inch, but it has a Full HD IPS display. The HP Chromebook x360 has a respectable CPU and lpddr4 ram with lots of memory.
Celeron N4020 is a quad-core CPU with Intel UHD Graphics 605, allowing you to do things like video streaming, light casual gaming, and other media consumption without breaking a sweat. However, the 4GB of DDR4 RAM limits multitasking, so don’t expect to run a lot of apps at the same time.
It has a good number of ports, including a USB Type-C port and an SD card reader on the left side, as well as a volume rocker and a USB Type-A port on the right side, as well as the standard headphone/microphone combination.
It also has Bluetooth 5.0 and the newest 802.11ac wireless technology. The keyboard is claimed to be a joy to use, with tactile feedback that is responsive. The touchpad has a luxury feel to it as well. You get a meager 64GB eMMC SSD for storage, which will quickly fill up if you want to store music, movies, or other large files.
However, because ChromeOS is an internet-based operating system, taking advantage of the Google Workspace, which is free to use, is a good idea, as you will be able to store all of your work there.
Pros
- Excellent value
- Premium looking
- Great keyboard
- Responsive touchpad
- Responsive touch display
- All day battery life
Cons
- Low quality display
- Not a strong multitasker
Lenovo IdeaPad 320 15.6-inch
Travelers and students will appreciate the Lenovo IdeapPad 320 80XR00AGUS’s ruggedness. While it is not as light as other of the Chromebooks we’ve highlighted in this guide, it is still rather light for a laptop with a 15.6-inch display.
The LED matte display has a resolution of 1366×768 pixels, which is a pretty common resolution for laptops in this price range, and most customers appreciated the big size, particularly for video watching. Lenovo has incorporated a huge 1TB hard drive, enabling you to keep a lot of multimedia, but be aware that the mechanical hard drives run at 5400RPM, which is sluggish.
Chromebooks in this budget category, such as the Acer R11 CB5-132T-C7R5 11.6-inch, normally have quick SSD storage, but you’ll only be able to keep a few files. The IdeapPad 320’s slower hard disk, along with its weak Intel Celeron N3350 CPU, would undoubtedly result in a sluggish system. T Several customers have corroborated this, stating that it is sluggish for anything more than basic job processing.
It does, however, run Microsoft Office and QuickOffice well, and some have even said that the Intel HD Graphics 500 allows for some respectable gaming when it comes to classics like WarCraft III, Diablo II, and older Call of Duty titles.
The battery life isn’t excellent, lasting about 4 hours 30 minutes for most users, which is much less than what we observe with Chromebooks, which are often far more energy efficient. If you intend on spending the day at the office or in lectures, bring your power adaptor with you.
If that doesn’t seem ideal, the ASUS Chromebook C202SA-YS02 11.6-inch would be a better fit. The 4GB of memory isn’t much, and it won’t be enough for extensive Internet surfing and multitasking. You may, however, increase the RAM to 16GB, which would considerably boost performance.
Pros
- Expandable RAM
- Build quality
- Plenty of storage
- Relatively lightweight
- Large display
- Spacious keyboard
Cons
- Slow at times
- Slow HDD
- Below average battery
- Speaker quality
ASUS VivoBook 15.6-inch
While most affordable 15.6-inch laptops weigh more than 5 pounds, the ASUS VivoBook X540SA is much lighter, at just 4.41 pounds. It has a tough plastic structure that can easily handle being carried about on a regular basis.
The battery life is also much superior than that of some of its rivals, with some users reporting run periods of more than 7 hours on a single charge. In reality, 5-6 hours of online surfing or word processing and 3-4 hours of video streaming are possible. If these are your daily tasks, you must know it is possible.
The ASUS VivoBook X540SSA is equipped with an Intel Quad Core Pentium N3700 CPU and 4GB of RAM, making it ideal for simple work at home or in the office. However, since the existing 4GB of RAM is soldered to the mainboard, you can only add another 4GB RAM module. However, 8GB of RAM is more than ample for most simple programs given the Pentium processor’s limits.
While the CPU is considered a good processor and somewhat inferior to that of the HP-15 F222WM good processor, the GPU is marginally superior. Even several 2009 releases only run at 6-8 frames per second, thus this won’t be strong enough to handle current games.
If all you want to play are old school games like Red Alert, Warcraft 3, and Age of Empires 2, the HD Graphics Braswell GPU will suffice. If you prefer browser games, you may simply play them on your preferred web browser.
For video playing, the display provides excellent picture quality, and you can easily stream films in 720p. The ASUS VivoBook X540SA’s ultrafast USB 3.1 Type-C connector lets you connect to a variety of next-generation devices and peripherals, making it future-proof. An excellent choice for the budget price.
Pros
- Price
- USB 3.1 Type-C
- Decent battery life
- Light
Cons
- 4GB of onboard RAM can’t be removed
- Slightly under powered processor
- Slight keyboard and display flex
- Only two full size USB ports
Conclusion
To summarize the issue, below are some tips that will assist you in determining your ideal laptop need. To begin, compile a list of all the games you’d want to play. If you want to play any casual or low-medium graphical settings basic games, the goods we’ve described will provide a good FPS for the given screen size.
If you want to play AAA games on Medium-High settings, you’ll need to bump up your budget a little more. The processor, RAM, and HDD are the next items to consider. It is preferable to use a high-generation chipset, preferably one from the 7th or 8th generation. Because it is the norm in most games today, RAM should be at least 8GB.
Additionally, SSD storage should be used since it enables faster core performance while loading game data. We’ve gone through the finest gaming laptops under £300 that offer both high-end and entry-level specifications.
All of these items are fresh new and provide a variety of customizing choices. We’ll go with the Acer Aspire 5 as our top option on the list. It has a Ryzen 3200U CPU with Vega 3 graphics, 8GB DDR4 RAM, and 128GB of storage.
This laptop comes in a variety of models and storage capacities. In addition, the laptop has a Full HD 1080p display, which is by far the best on our list. Some honorable mentions are Acer Chromebook 314, Asus Vivobook l203ma, hp 14.
Read more articles in the Technology category