The 4 Best Laptops Under $700 - Winter 2023 Reviews

The best laptop under $700 we've tested is the Acer Swift 3 14 (2020), a 14-inch ultraportable designed for general productivity. Its thin and light design makes it easy to carry around for school or work, and its battery lasts nearly 14 hours of light use, so you likely won't need to bring a charger. You can configure it with an Intel 11th Gen. Core i5 or i7 CPU and up to 16GB of memory and 512GB of storage. Intel's 11th Gen. CPUs perform well and can easily handle light tasks like text processing, web browsing, spreadsheets, and video playback. The SSD is user-replaceable, so you can upgrade it if 512GB isn't enough.

Regarding the display configuration, you only get one option: a 1080p 60Hz IPS panel. It looks sharp and provides just enough room for light multitasking, but it doesn't get very bright. It's fine for most indoor settings but not for well-lit or sunny environments. As for the keyboard and touchpad, the former feels cramped but decent to type on, and the latter is small but reasonably responsive. Its port selection includes two USB-As, one USB-C/Thunderbolt 4, a full-size HDMI, and a headphone jack. Our main gripe with this laptop is the webcam; the image looks soft and underexposed, and the audio is staticky.

If you prefer a Chrome OS device, get the Acer Chromebook Spin 713 (2020). This 13-inch model is a 2-in-1 convertible with a 360-degree hinge, meaning you can flip the screen around and use it as a tablet. It has a bright 3:2 QHD display, a spacious keyboard, and a decently large, responsive touchpad. As this is a discontinued model, some configurations are hard to find. Currently, the only one available under $700 is an Intel Core i3 model with 4GB of memory and 64GB of storage. The Core i3 is plenty fast for Chrome OS; the only downside is the 4GB of RAM, which isn't a whole lot. There's a Core i5 model with 8GB of memory and 128GB of storage, but it's more expensive. The battery lasts around 12 hours of light use and charges over USB-C, so you don't need to carry around a proprietary charger.

For gaming, we recommend the Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 (2021), the best gaming laptop under $700 we've tested. This 15.6-inch model is available with an AMD Ryzen 5 5600H or Ryzen 7 5800H CPU, and there are tons of GPU configuration options, from an entry-level NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 to an RTX 3060. There are three 1080p display options; we recommend getting the 120Hz or 165Hz panel for the best visual experience, as those panels have the fastest response time and FreeSync support to reduce screen tearing. You can get up to 16GB of memory and over 1TB of storage, but don't worry if you can't afford 16GB of RAM upfront because the memory is user-replaceable, meaning you can add more later on.

As for the overall build, this laptop feels surprisingly sturdy, especially for a model in its price range. The keyboard feels comfortable and tactile, and the webcam's video quality is pretty good if you want to stream. Unfortunately, it isn't very portable as it's rather bulky and heavy, and like most laptops with a discreet GPU, the battery lasts only an hour when gaming.

The best 2-in-1 tablet we've tested is the Microsoft Surface Go 3 (2021), a super compact and lightweight 10.5-inch tablet with a built-in kickstand and detachable keyboard. Its 1080p display looks very sharp and gets bright enough to combat glare, and above it sits an excellent 1080p webcam for video calls. There's also an IR camera for quick logins via Windows Hello facial recognition. The type cover keyboard protects the display during transport and feels surprisingly comfortable to type on. The downside is that you have to buy it separately. The battery lasts about seven hours of light productivity or a little over three hours of video playback, so you'll likely need to bring the charger. As for the configuration, we recommend the Core i3 model with 8GB of RAM, as it'll give you a smoother experience with fewer slowdowns than the base model with a Pentium Gold CPU and 4GB of memory.