We still believe that gaming on the cheap is a solution, so we’ve decided to take a look on Amazon and share with you the best cheap gaming laptops for 2018: gaming laptops that you can purchase for less than $1,000! And despite the low price, they will still deliver solid performance even for current generation games.

Update: We are constantly updating this article, with brand new products for you to check out. Make sure to bookmark it and visit each year for updated results on the best gaming laptops under $1,000!

So, without further ado, here are the best gaming laptops in 2018 (under $1,000). You will be really surprised, we believe, with the quality of laptops we managed to select below:

Dell Inspiron 15

The cheapest gaming laptop on our list at the moment of writing this article, the Dell Inspiron 15 is a surprisingly good product selling on the cheap! You can’t help but notice the sleek design and the backlit keyboard which is something us gamers love!

But it’s not just the looks that make it such a good purchase. Its specifications are really good too: powered by a 7th Generation Intel Core i5-7300HQ processor that goes up to 3.5GHz and 8GB of DDR4, it can easily handle current generation games.

The cherry on top? An amazing graphics card: the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 with 4GB of RAM. At this price, with these specifications, I’d consider this laptop a steal. Absolutely amazing!

However, there are a few things that some gamers might not like. For starters, we’re talking about a 15.6” gaming laptop here. Although it offers full HD resolution (1920 x 1080) and anti-glare display, with very good image quality, it might be considered by some a bit small for gaming. I personally prefer the 17.3” laptop monitors when I play my computer games, but for this price it’s impossible to find a good one.

Also, the HDD is pretty slow. It does offer a ton of storage since it’s a 1TB hard drive, but it’s a 5,400rpm one. But, as I said, you can’t be extremely picky at this price and despite its flaws, I still consider it a steal. It has a really good processor and an amazing graphics card and these matter the most when it comes to gaming.

So if you’re on a low budget, definitely give this one a shot. You’ll be surprised with how good it is!

Click here to get it on Amazon

Acer Nitro

Acer is usually my go-to brand when it comes to cheap gaming laptops. I often used their products over the years and I’ve never been disappointed.

To be honest though, this one is very similar to the Dell laptop above. At least that’s the conclusion you can draw after looking at the specifications: Intel Core i5-7300HQ Quad-Core with 8GB of RAM, the the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 graphics card with 4 GB RAM and a 15.6” display.

The main difference is that apart from the 1TB HDD, it also has an 128GB SSD. The latter is extremely good to have, even though not of a huge capacity: fast storage means insanely fast transfers and that’s helpful when playing games too.

So if you have a bit more money to spend, this one is a better choice in my opinion thanks to the SSD. But if having one is not really a must and you want to save some money, you can safely go with the Dell model above.

Click here to get it on Amazon

PROSTAR Clevo N855HJ

I know that Prostar is not a brand as well known as the others on our list, but I’ve been keeping an eye on them for a couple of years now and they deliver extremely good products at even better prices.

The N855HJ model, for example, is an excellent choice for gamers on a budget. It is powered by an amazing processor – the Intel Core i7-7700HQ, which can be turbo-boosted all the way up to 3.8GHz. It also has 16GB of DDR4 and the great graphics card that we’ve seen before: the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050, but this time with 2GB of RAM. Still a great choice and pretty impressive specs overall!

Even though it’s still a 15.6” laptop, it has a Matte type display and offers full HD resolution. The thing that I don’t really like is the HDD – 1TB of storage, which is awesome, but again only 5,400 RPM. Well… you can’t have them all when you’re on a budget!

Apart from these, Prostar’s gaming laptop looks good, comes with a backlit keyboard that you will love and it has tons of ports for you to connect additional peripherals and whatnot.

So if you’re looking for better processing power and more RAM, this one’s the laptop for you. There are even options with a SSD included which you can check out by following the link below, but they might take you above the budget. And you still haven’t completed our list – the 17” laptops are coming!

Click here to get it on Amazon

Lenovo Ideapad 700

It’s time to move to what I consider a proper screen size for a gaming laptop: 17.3”. Now this is how games should be played – but this comes at a cost. Fortunately, I’ve still been able to find 2 great products that are within our price range.

I’ll be honest with you and admit that I’ve had my fair share of problems with Lenovo laptops in the past – minor ones, it’s true, but annoying nevertheless. However, I’ve never heard anything bad about the Ideapad 700 that we’re recommending here, so I truly believe that it’s a great choice for a large gaming laptop under $1,000 (double check the price though!)

Powered by a 6th Generation Intel Core i7 processor, the Lenovo Ideapad 700 has 16GB of RAM and runs handles modern games without a problem. It doesn’t have the best graphics card ever – at least not compared to the other models on this list, but it’s still good.

The GPU is an NVIDIA GeForce GT940M with 2GB of RAM. Now this is definitely a good card that handles games without a problem, but definitely not as good as the GTX 1050. But you can’t have it all when you’re dealing with a limited budget!

In terms of storage, I have some good news: it comes with a combo offer, meaning that you get 1TB of HDD storage, but also a 128GB SSD for your operating system and favorite games to load faster.

Despite its size, the laptop is slim and easy, meaning that it’s extremely portable. The image quality is really good too and the backlit keyboard feels well when playing games. For some reason, it doesn’t look like a gaming laptop – its design is more like that of a regular laptop, but it definitely has some solid horsepower under the hood to let you play games. A lot.

This laptop is not as impressive specifications-wise if we compare it to the previous recommended models, but if you want the larger screen, you don’t have a ton of options…

Click here to get it on Amazon

MSI GL72M

Last but not least, a real beast from MSI. Large and beautiful, this 17.3” gaming laptop stretches the budget to the limit, but it’s well worth the price!

Powered by the 7th Generation Kaby Lake Intel Core i7-7700HQ Quad-Core processor and paired with 8GB DDR4, this laptop also comes equipped with a graphics card that can handle some serious gaming: the Nvidia GTX 1050!

You also get a 1TB HDD + 128GB SSD combo and a device that runs current generation games flawlessly. The monitor delivers crisp, full HD images at 1920 x 1080 px resolution and you will definitely be impressed with its overall design.

The keyboard is really high quality too: we’re talking about a Steel Series backlit keyboard that you will absolutely love!

In other words, it’s the best on our list – at least in my humble opinion. Too bad that it’s the most expensive too, but if you have the budget, it’s well worth it!

Click here to get it on Amazon

So these would be our recommended cheap gaming laptops under $1,000 for 2018: we have a really solid line-up here and I am sure that, no matter which of these great products you choose, you will be really satisfied and you’ll be able to enjoy gaming on the go like never before!

Final note: Prices might change at any time – they could go up as well as go down, so don’t waste too much time pondering the decision or you might end up having to pay more for any of these great laptops!

6 COMMENTS

  1. Hello,
    Which one of these laptops has the best graphics and frame rate for highly detailed games. I will mainly be playing FIFA but I would also like to be able to play games such as Battlefield 4 with the best possible detail. Which of the above laptops would be best suited to helping me achieve that?
    Thanks

    • Hello Jamo,

      You should not expect performances similar to a desktop gaming computer from these laptops. However, the best options are the last two – with the MSI having a slight advantage in terms of processor power, but with the Acer Aspire V3-772G-9829 compensating with its better Graphics card. So I would personally go for the Acer laptop.

  2. LENOVO Y SERIES YOU GUYS!!!! im running on the y410p with HD+ screen and i love it. it has intel i7-4700MQ, NVIDIA GEFORCE GT750m (about to be dual 750M’s when it arrives), 8gb ram, AMAZING speakers and with a beautifully low price starting at $789. heres the link to lenovos website for the y series laptops (go for the y410p/y510p, better cooling, more powerful cpu)

    http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/lenovo/y-series/

  3. I have the Lenovo Y410P as well, I splurged for the $1299 model with an Intel i7 4700MQ processor, an NVIDIA GEFORCE GT 755M, 8 GB RAM, a 1 TB HDD, 24 GB SSD, and the previously mentioned amazing speakers. It can run any game from Minecraft to Bioshock Infinite with maximum FPS. The SSD also allows for fast boot time if you want to put your OS on it. The design is also excellent, it is a dark, matte pattern on the outside with a glossy interior. It also includes a red, backlit keyboard. The only thing I have to complain about the laptop is the heat sink, well, let me explain… The heat sink is actually really great, it pumps out heat like there’s no tomorrow. This is good because it means that the insides are kept at a comfortable temperature while the heat is dispersed through the heat sink and vent. But… I have a habit of gaming or rendering things in GPU/CPU intensive software while laying in bed. This is problematic because it is, no joke, a fire hazard. If you are doing stuff like what I previously mentioned on a mattress that is insulated with sheets and blankets, it will heat it up to dangerously high temperatures, high enough to inhibit you from laying in that spot on your bed. Once again, this isn’t a problem unless you are spending hours doing those CPU/GPU intensive tasks. All in all, I give this laptop a 10/10. Biggest draw back is the price coming in at around $1,299. If you’re familiar with Lenovo, you know they always have a major sale. Currently you can get my exact model for $900. That’s pretty much it, I recommend the laptop to anyone and everyone that is looking for a great laptop.

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