The 3 Best Laptops Under $400 of 2024

The best laptop under $400 we've tested is the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i Chromebook 14 (2023). This 14-inch Chromebook is great for younger students or anyone needing a simple device for light tasks like text processing, web browsing, and video playback. It's a little chunky compared to more premium models on the market but still compact enough to be portable. Plus, its battery lasts around 13 hours of light use. We recommend the Core i3 configuration paired with 8GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and an FHD touch-sensitive IPS display, which you can often find on sale for around $400 USD on Lenovo's website. Cheaper configurations exist; however, you'll have to compromise on performance and display quality.

The FHD IPS display is one of the best features of this laptop. Its brightness reaches around 360 cd/m², which is rare on budget Chromebooks. That's sufficiently bright for good visibility indoors, possibly even outdoors on a cloudy day. Above the display is an excellent 1080p webcam, so people can see and hear you clearly on video calls. Regarding the keyboard and touchpad, the former feels spacious but mushy, while the latter is small and occasionally unresponsive. Unfortunately, there are no biometrics for quick logins, which is to be expected for a budget-friendly device.

If you need a device mainly for media consumption but with the flexibility to do some work when needed, there's yet another Lenovo device (Lenovo makes a lot of budget laptops), the Lenovo Chromebook Duet 5 (2021). It's a 13-inch Chrome OS tablet with a detachable keyboard, similar to Microsoft's popular Surface Pro tablet PCs. This form factor lets you take the keyboard off when viewing content, which is convenient in tight spaces like an airplane, and it also makes the device easier to hold as a tablet. You can simply pop the keyboard back on when you need to type something out. It isn't a particularly good keyboard, as it feels rather cramped, but it'll get the job done.

What makes this device stand out is its beautiful OLED display. It's sharp, bright, and colorful, and like all OLEDs, it displays deep, inky blacks, making it a great device for dark room viewing. The speakers get reasonably loud, although they don't have much bass and sound slightly unnatural. It doesn't have a 3.5mm headphone jack, so it's best to use wireless headphones. The battery lasts around eight hours of video playback or 10 hours of light use, giving you plenty of time to get through multiple movies and TV show episodes. The display supports pen input if you want to take notes or draw, but you must buy the stylus separately.