If you're looking for the best budget gaming laptop in 2026, there's good news and bad news.
Let's start with the bad: the RAM crisis is still ongoing, with hardware demands for AI datacenters leading to a spike in costs for memory as well as other PC components such as GPUs and SSDs. This has led to a knock-on effect on gaming laptop prices, which has made finding a laptop that gives you a good amount of bang for your buck a lot harder.
The good news is that it's still possible to find a great budget gaming laptop in 2026, thanks in part to the powerful gaming components recently put out by the likes of Intel, AMD, and Nvidia. The gaming laptops of today are sleeker, more powerful, and offer better battery life than ever, and that includes budget options. Even some older components, like Nvidia RTX 4000 series of laptop GPUs, can offer very respectable performance at a more reasonable price.
The other bit of good news is me! I'm here to help you pick the best gaming laptop for you, cutting through the jargon to bring you only my personal top picks of the laptops we've reviewed. I've consulted with our expert gaming laptop reviewers to pull together the best cheap gaming laptops on the market right now that will deliver exceptional value for their prices.
I've reviewed dozens of gaming laptops over the years I've been working as a tech journalist, and over TechRadar's 18-year history, we've reviewed more than 350 gaming laptops across all budget and performance classes, so we know what makes a budget gaming laptop a good value. I'm using all of that collective expertise to bring you the best cheap gaming laptops that are worth your money from different manufacturers to help you find the best gaming laptop for you and your budget.
I've been testing and reviewing gaming laptops (along with all other kinds of hardware!) for nearly a decade, starting my tenure as a tech journalist at Maximum PC magazine more than 8 years ago before joining the TechRadar team. I've reviewed more than a hundred laptops, many of which were gaming-focused machines, so you can trust that my recommendations are backed up with a wealth of technical knowledge and experience.
The best budget gaming laptops in 2026
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I don't want to waste your time, so I've trimmed our list down to just three products, aggressively sorting the wheat from the chaff to present you with only the very best budget gaming laptops that I'd actually be happy to spend my own money on. You can check them out in more detail below; my current top pick is the rather excellent Asus V16, which comes in a variety of configurations to suit your needs.
The best budget gaming laptop overall
✅ 1080p performance is your top priority: The Asus V16 averaged 105fps in Civilization VII at 1080p in our lab test, giving you reliably high frame rates in modern titles.
✅ You want good battery life: With over 12 hours of battery life in movie playback and a lightweight, slim chassis, the V16 is easy to carry and can handle gaming sessions without being plugged in.
❌ Lowest possible price matters to you: The Lenovo LOQ Essential 15 undercuts the V16 on price, but you’ll give up gaming performance and some future-proofing.
❌ You care about physical design: The MSI Cyborg 15 offers a flashier design and a more comprehensive port selection if those are higher priorities for you than pure performance.
The Asus V16 stands out as the best overall budget gaming laptop by delivering a lab-tested 105fps in Civilization VII at 1080p, outpacing most competitors at this price point in pure gaming performance. And that was merely with the cheapest RTX 4050 configuration; if you're able to spend a little more, the RTX 5050 version offers even more bang for your buck.
When we put the V16 through its paces with Cyberpunk 2077, it handled the action smoothly at high settings. Our reviewer reported a consistently playable frame rate with no stutters or hitches, even in busy city scenes. If you want solid 1080p playability in AAA titles, the V16 is up to the task.
In our battery rundown tests, the V16 demonstrated over 12 hours of life during movie playback, while gaming sessions saw just under 2 hours of battery life. Considering how poorly many gaming laptops do in terms of battery longevity, this is a seriously solid showing for a more budget-oriented machine. The 16-inch display strikes a balance between immersive play and portability, and the thin chassis makes it easy to slip into a backpack. At just under 4.5 pounds, it’s a genuinely portable option for gaming away from home.
During extended gaming sessions, the keyboard area did get warm, but the surface stayed comfortable enough for long use. Fan noise stayed surprisingly restrained, even with the GPU under load.
Against its closest rivals, the V16’s strengths are clear. It delivers noticeably better gaming performance than the Lenovo LOQ Essential 15, though the LOQ can be found for less if you’re willing to sacrifice frame rates and future-proofing. The MSI Cyborg 15 offers a flashier design and a more varied port selection, but can’t match the V16’s balance of speed, battery life, and keyboard quality.
Read our full Asus V16 review
The best budget gaming laptop for value
✅ Value for money is your top priority: The Lenovo LOQ Essential 15 might not be the most powerful laptop, but in terms of pure bang for your buck, it's one of the best options right now.
✅ You prefer a simple and effective design: Stripping back RGB lighting and flashy branding, the LOQ Essential could be mistaken for a mainstream office laptop, but still offers a port selection that should satisfy gamers.
❌ You want something future-proof for AAA games: Since it uses an older Nvidia RTX GPU, the LOQ Essential might start to struggle with new triple-A games as time goes on.
❌ You're picky about keyboard quality: The LOQ Essential's keyboard is great for typing, but with little travel and dampening, it's less ideal for aggressive presses during gaming sessions.
Now, if what you're looking for is a gaming laptop for a rock-bottom price that can actually play modern games, then the Lenovo LOQ Essential 15 Gen 9 is the one you want.
Among the best budget gaming laptops, it stretches a tight budget further than anything else we’ve tested this year. Starting from just $569 for an RTX 2050 configuration, from the jump it gives entry-level gamers what they need for reasonable 1080p play, so long as you understand its limitations.
Even the modest RTX 3050 unit we reviewed this year could only play modern AAA titles at acceptable framerates with some settings tweaks. In Cyberpunk 2077, for example, it only averaged 37fps at 1080p on Ultra settings without upscaling, and there are weaker configurations than this one, so if you do go for the base configuration, understand that you'll need to make compromises on graphics quality to keep things playable.
That all said, its 15.6-inch 144Hz IPS display is nice and vivid, and it does a good job at resisting reflections. It's pretty thin for a gaming laptop, and its lightweight chassis looks more like a mainstream notebook than an RGB-heavy gaming device.
The value here, especially to start, is about as good as you're going to find on the market right now, and you can configure it for better performance if you spend a bit more.
Read the full Lenovo LOQ Essential 15 Gen 9 review
The best budget gaming laptop by design
✅ You care about aesthetics: The MSI Cyborg 15 is the most visually striking laptop on this page, with lots of customizable RGB lighting and a generally solid design.
✅ You want plenty of ports: Unlike the Asus V16 at the top of my list, the Cyborg packs a good range of ports including USB-C, USB-A, and Ethernet.
❌ You want maximum bang for your buck: While the physical design and pricing are solid, the RTX 3050 model of the Cyborg 15 is only middling performance-wise.
❌ You want something portable: None of the laptops in this list could be called 'lightweight', but the MSI Cyborg 15 is the heaviest.
Gaming laptops have a certain look that you don't get anywhere else, but for a budget gaming laptop, flashy design is usually the first thing to go to keep the price reasonable.
Not so with the MSI Cyborg 15, which is the best-looking budget gaming laptop thanks to gaming-centric design features; a slender, semi-transparent chassis; programmable RGB lighting; and subtle, speckled surfaces that give it an undeniably cool look.
Starting at just $649, the Cyborg 15 is among the most affordable you'll find on the market right now. Just understand that this very low price comes at the cost of performance in demanding AAA titles, which struggled to hit acceptable framerates of ~50-60fps at 1080p on high settings in games like Cyberpunk 2077 when our Reviews Writer, Lewis Maddison, tested it recently; and that was with a more expensive RTX 3050 configuration.
On the plus side, the keyboard not only helps the premium look and feel, it’s genuinely nice to type and game on, with bright backlighting that stays readable in the dark, and transparent keycaps for the WASD keys, making them easy to spot in the dark.
Port selection covers the basics (USB-A/USB-C, HDMI, ethernet, and 3.5mm), and MSI’s software makes quick tweaks, like fan speed, easy, with handy preset Fn shortcuts to further enhance your experience. Battery life is firmly below par, but it's fine for short stints, just not any marathon gaming sessions.
There are definitely some compromises being made on the low end to keep things affordable, like a display lid that has more flex than it should, but if style matters and your budget is tight, this one will get the job done and look good doing it.
Read the full MSI Cyborg 15 (2025) review
The best budget gaming laptop: FAQs
What specs should I look for in a budget gaming laptop?
• CPU: For gaming, an Intel Core i5 is perfectly suitable, as the GPU is far more important than the CPU and the i5 can handle any processing just fine.
• GPU: For most average gaming needs, an RTX 3050 and higher is what you're looking for, though anything from the newer RTX 40 or RTX 50 series of GPUs offer even better performance, but this makes the overall price of the gaming laptop more expensive.
• RAM: 16GB of RAM will take care of all your memory needs for any game, though you can get away with 8GB for all but the latest titles if you need to shave off some money.
• Storage: At least 516GB is preferable since that will allow you to install a good amount of games on your PC before having to upgrade or purchase an external hard drive.
• Display: An HD display is good enough for most games, and at least a 120Hz refresh rate should ensure a smooth gameplay experience.
How we test the best budget gaming laptops
Testing a gaming laptop isn’t as easy as you might think. But, then again, neither is narrowing down your options and choosing the best one for you, which is why we take our job seriously. Even if that means gaming for hours on end – hey, someone’s gotta make the sacrifice, right?
In all seriousness, we put every gaming laptop we test through its paces to make sure it delivers as promised and is worth your hard-earned case. That means that on top of playing the latest and hottest games on it, noting things like gaming and thermal performance, we also run synthetic benchmarks like PCMark 10, 3DMark and Geekbench 5 as well as battery tests.
Because a gaming laptop is only as good as its peripherals, we take a look at how smooth and fast the display is, how comfortable and responsive its keyboard is, whether or not there are enough ports on hand, and how good its overall design is. We also test its webcam, in case users want to utilize it for game streaming.
We then take everything we’ve learned about the gaming laptop and compare it to its price – whether or not it’s performance and features are worth that price tag, and whether or not it offers the best value to customers.
How to choose the best budget gaming laptop
While there are tons of different budget gaming laptops to choose from, said choices can be overwhelming. Then there's the fact that some retailers will try to over inflate the price of some laptops when its specs should discount it far more.
That's why it's important to come in knowing what specs are best for your needs, so you can not only choose the perfect laptop that suits them but you also know which offerings to avoid on altogether. And that's where we come in, with all of the information you need to make the most informed decisions.
