Are you enrolled into a university or trying to make your profession programming? Or maybe you are just interested in programming and want to buy a new laptop that can handle your codes smoothly? Lacking on money too? Worry not, we have best budget programming laptop in this article under $1000.
What to Look For?
Before we get started on the laptops, we should investigate what type of requirements are needed to program. There are two important factors to consider while buying a budget programming laptop.
CPU
While executing your code, you will need a fast and efficient processor to handle them in the least time possible. The suitable range to be looking for are the AMD Ryzen 4th generation or equivalent CPU with at least 4 cores.
The new Ryzen chips from AMD is ahead of any other CPU in the current market. They are faster, efficient and cheaper than any of their competitors. We recommend you to buy laptops with Ryzen 4000 series CPUs if you’re looking to buy a laptop right now.
RAM
A fast processor is not enough because heavy programs will require more memory which means more RAM is necessary. The suitable range to be looking for are 8GB to 16GB which should be more than enough to handle your processes.
Other things like battery life and weight are always convenient to have but there is always a catch to them.
This list is sorted as our recommendation as highest at the top and lowest at the bottom.
Lenovo Ideapad Flex 5
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 4500U | GPU: AMD Radeon Graphics | RAM: 16 GB DDR4 | Display: 14.0″ FHD (1920 x 1080) Touch Display | Weight: 1.6kg (3.63 lbs) | Battery Life: 10hr | Storage: 256 GB PCIe SSD
Pros:
⮝ Amazing Battery Life
⮝Lightweight
⮝High Amount of RAM
⮝Touch Display
⮝New fast and efficient AMD CPU
Cons:
⮟ Decent Display
⮟ Plain Looks
This laptop is the most value for money in our whole line up of budget laptops. It comes at just under $600 packing super-fast efficient GPU and 16 GB RAM. It comes with the new generation AMD CPU which is faster than all the other CPU options. It is known for its amazing battery life which well exceeds any Intel CPU.
Flex 5 also has features like touch screen and flexibility to turn it into a tablet. The laptop is portable to carry around anywhere due to its small form factor and lightweight. It’s an amazing 2-in-1 laptop at a cheap price.
This is our choice for the best budget programming laptop!
Check out the latest pricing here!
HP Envy x360
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 4500U | GPU: AMD Radeon Graphics | RAM: 8 GB DDR4 | Display: 15.6″ FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS | Weight: 2kg (4.41 lbs) | Battery Life: 10hr | Storage: 256 GB PCIe SSD
Pros:
⮝ Excellent Performance AMD chips
⮝Great value
⮝Pen is included
⮝Great Battery Life
Cons:
⮟ Display not suitable for color-intensive work
⮟Not a lot of storage
The HP Envy x360 comes packing with amazing duo combo of AMD CPU and iGPU. This lets your laptop get its maximum potential out of the CPU and GPU giving you better performance. The RAM size of 8GB is more than enough as long as you do no plan to do graphic intensive work. However, it is capable of handling graphic intensive tasks to a certain extent.
Did we mention its flexible display? It is a tablet convertible with touch screen. The 15inch display is not neccessarily portable but it is certainly light enough to carry around for day to day tasks. The battery life is also amazing due to the new efficient AMD CPU.
Do you want a laptop or tablet? You can have both with this excellent laptop as this laptop can twist a 360 degrees!
Acer Swift 3
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 4700U | GPU: AMD Radeon Graphics | RAM: 8GB LPDDR4 | Display: 14-inch FHD IPS (1920 x 1080) | Weight: 1.2kg (2.65 lbs) | Battery Life: 11.5hr | Storage: 512GB PCIe SSD
Pros:
⮝ Portable and Lightweight
⮝Excellent Battery Life
⮝Best ultrabook processor on the market
⮝Fingerprint Reader
Cons:
⮟ Display not suitable for color-intensive work
⮟ Low-powered RAM
Like our lineups above, Swift 3 comes with the excellent combination of AMD CPU and iGPU. How this laptop differentiates from the other two is the better CPU which gives you more performance. However, it comes with a downside of a low powered RAM type which might not be enough for get the laptops maximum potential out.
Did we mention it comes with a fingerprint reader? Not only that its form factor and weight are one of the best here with 14inch and 1.2kg(2.65lbs.) respectively. The battery life is one of the best in our lineup!
Looking for a portable excellent battery life laptop with high-end business laptop features for cheap? This is it, chief! Check out it latest prices here!
Lenovo Legion 5
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 4600H | GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 4GB | RAM: 8 GB DDR4 3200MHz | Display: 15.6″ FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS, anti-glare, 250 nits, 120Hz | Weight: 2.5kg (5.51 lbs) | Battery Life: 7hr | Storage: 512 GB PCIe SSD + 1 TB 7200 RPM HDD
Pros:
⮝ Excellent 120hz Refresh Rate
⮝Plenty of Storage
⮝Very fast RAM and CPU
⮝Sleek minimalist looks
Cons:
⮟ Display not suitable for color-intensive work
Legion 5 comes packing with amazing performance with its AMD CPU and Nvidia Graphics card. This CPU is specifically focused for performance over battery. The battery life might sound poor but due to AMD’s excellent technology, it can compete with other ultrabooks. The graphics card is capable of handling many graphic intensive work flawlessly which is better than other integrated GPUs in our lineup.
The color accuracy may not be enough for graphic designing but it comes packing with a 120Hz screen which is excellent for gaming. The storage is also impressive considering our other laptops!
If you’re looking for a sleek laptop where you can game on smooth 120hz display and consists of very fast current-gen AMD processor, this is for you!
ASUS VivoBook 15
CPU: Intel i3-1005G1 CPU | GPU: Intel Integrated Graphics | RAM: 8GB DDR4 | Display: 15.6-inch FHD (1920 x 1080) Anti-glare LED | Weight: 3.75 lbs (1.65kg) | Battery Life: 4-5hr | Storage: 128GB PCIe SSD
Pros:
⮝ 88% screen-to-body ratio
⮝Small and light form factor
Cons:
⮟ Decent Display
⮟ Short Battery Life
⮟ Storage Capacity
If your budget is very limited and you don’t want to game, this is the laptop for you! This ultrabook is very light and thin but it packs a lot of punches. The storage may not be very large but it is very fast. No other laptops can beat this laptop in this price range of under $500 considering what we’re using it for.
Check out the latest pricing of this laptop here!
Acer Aspire 5 Slim
CPU: 10th Gen Intel Core i5-10210U | GPU: Intel UHD Graphics 620 | RAM: 8GB DDR4 | Display: 15.6″ Full HD IPS Display, 1920 x 1080 pixels | Weight: 1.9 kg (4.19 lbs.) | Battery Life: 5hr | Storage: 256GB PCIe SSD
Pros:
⮝ Lightweight
⮝Fingerprint Reader
⮝Cheap Price
Cons:
⮟ Average Battery Life
If you are not a fan of AMD then this is for you! The CPU and GPU are not inferior in anyway as it also comes packing with quite a performance. It also comes with business laptop feature like fingerprint reader. The laptop is portable interms of its weight as its just under 2kg(4.2lbs). The RAM is also a perfect combination for the CPU and GPU.
This is one of the cheapest ones in our selection with suitable memory and processor. This laptop really has no downsides as everything is just above average!
Check out the latest pricing of this laptop here!
Dell G5 SE
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 4600H | GPU: AMD Radeon RX 5600M | RAM: 8GB DDR4 3200MHz | Display: 15.6-inch FHD (1920 x 1080) Anti-glare LED | Weight: 2.49kg (5.5 lbs) | Battery Life: 7hr | Storage: 256GB PCIe SSD
Pros:
⮝ New Efficient AMD CPU
⮝Long battery Life
⮝Excellent Price-performance ratio
⮝SmartShift Feature
Cons:
⮟ Build Quality Subpar
⮟ Display not suitable for color-intensive work on the base model
This product is more focused towards the college student who wants to game as well as program on the side. This has more horsepower than all the other laptops in this list as it is mainly designed for gaming as well as other work such as programming.
The battery life is also amazing considering it as a gaming laptop. This is mainly thanks to the AMD CPU. This certainly isn’t portable but if you can withstand it, it is powerful!
You can get this variant for less than 900$ but, a config of 16gb RAM and 144Hz 300nits display will cost you just under $1000.
Apple MacBook Air 13”
CPU: 8th Gen Intel Core i5 | GPU: Intel UHD Graphics 617 | RAM: 8GB DDR4 | Display: 13.3-inch LED-backlit display, IPS technology; 2560X1600 | Weight:1.25 kg (2.75 lbs) | Battery Life: 12hr | Storage: 128GB PCIe SSD
Pros:
⮝Security
⮝Light weight
⮝Thunderbolt 3
Cons:
⮟ Low Storage
⮟ Low Performance to Price ratio
This laptop is specifically for the Apple enthusiasts where the weight, battery life and security are ideal whereas storage and performance for this price range are lacking. The thunderbolt 3 ports enables users with the option to get an external dedicated GPU.
Check out the latest pricing of this laptop here!
Further Reading:
Found out your pick for the budget programming laptop? Consider reading our other articles!
Co-owner of Technoloxy. Love tech and football. Also don’t mind some basketball. Also, tech.
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