Top 10 Cheap Gaming Laptops Under 300 Dollars (2021)

HP Chromebook series without a single shadow of a doubt is a complete value for money devices. This machine will impress you with its features and really offers you an experience beyond the expectations. It would be quite hard to get a laptop under 300 for gaming with such impressive specifications of good battery backup, Full HD display an abundant amount of RAM.

HP Chromebook series really stood in the test of the time and evolved as one of the best budget gaming laptop series, and this HP Chromebook would surprise you with splendid features. Though the price slightly has been pushed forward towards 400 dollars, the features are beyond the imagination in this range.

HP Chromebook equipped with eight generation Intel core I3-8130U processor, with 15.6 inches Full HD display and 6GB dual channel memory.

The hard drive of one TB going to blow you away, the biggest edge would be the battery backup of more than ten hours.

The HP Chromebook comes with a backlist Keyboard, and I can guarantee there would be no other machine offering this features under this price range. The keyboard offers you a complete comfortable typing experience from the core.

HP Chromebook series has always been known for its good multipurpose laptop manufacturer. This machine as well is adorned with the two builds in stereo laptops for greater surround sound effect.

The laptop is a great combination of speed and productive multitasking, during the review we test the multi-tasking and speed of the machine, and it performed the way we expected and wrote.

If someone asks you about purchasing this laptop, you can say yes without a single doubt. There would be no better option in that range, and that is the reason, this laptop comes at number 1 slot of best gaming laptops under 300 dollars.

2. Lenovo Ideapad

Let me ask you a serious question? Are you really desired to get a good gaming laptop under $300? If yes, then Lenovo Ideapad Newest laptop has a multitude of gaming features.

This gaming machine is equipped with the AMD quad-core A12-9720P processor to help you play your favorite games without any hiccup.

The 8GB DDR4 RAM can handle the difficult task; the multitasking of this gaming machine is one of the biggest edges. In one TB of hard disk, you can store the hell of the video games.

This machine though has a little problem with Keyboards and show flexes under the stress gaming hours. But, a little problem cannot define the entire piece of electronics, and you will have a sturdy and reliable feature at the end of the day.

The Lenovo Ideapad has gotten the standard connectivity, the two full-size USB department, and One USB C-port has gathered a great amount of connectivity in the hands.

The machine is adorned with one SD card and an HDMI card slot so that you got no issue when it comes to connecting the Laptop with any television and camera.

Lenovo Ideapad comes with Windows 10 Home Basic installed and A DVD recordable optical drive, which makes it the ideal machine to play the favorite movies.

Ideapad is an ideal smart machine, but unlike the smart machine, it shows you no issue or resistance when getting it used.

Though the battery backup is not that good, 155 minutes are quite ideal for average usage. If you are planning to install some latest AA games into it, then have your charger in the bag.

The laptop has been designed for the web server or the first-time gamer, an entry level gaming machines which will display a great performance in general purposes.Getting the hands onto this machine ideally would land no trouble to you for sure.

3. Lenovo ThinkPad T430 (Certified Refurbished)

 

Lenovo has put a lot of effort into uplifting its ThinkPad series. This series has been timeless; it has been more than two decades this machine dominating the business devices markets.

The traditional competitors of this machine are Dell and HP. Though HP Chromebook somehow competed this Lenovo product, the battery performance and other key specs of the machines could not be surpassed.

ThinkPad T430 finally comes with the USB 3.0 ports this feature was long missed by the users and now Lenovo has two new ports in it.

The potential buyers are welcomed with the three different processors of Intel current Ivy bridges models. For those who are budget conscious, and does not want to exceed from $300 would love to get Core i5-3210M processor with 8GB RAM and further can be extended 16G if needed.

The machine offers just two cores with a speed of 2.9GHz, with the support to hyper threading technology. Lenovo Thinkpad have the variant option even for the hard drive, one can see different options accordingly the budget.

There is no SSD hard, no hard disk cache, just a classic hard disk; this has been put only to make the machine for budget-conscious users.

The high native resolutions also eat up lots of performance of the machine and cause buffer during the majority of the time while watching videos.

The biggest edge of this machine would be the 9-cell battery with an enormous 94 Wh, while the other model of the same series were managed with a 6-cell battery with 58 Wh. This machine easily can bear at least 10-12 hours of normal workload without asking you to inject the charger.

Though Keyboard has been a great aspect in the Lenovo ThinkPad series and this time as well they have offered a great keyboard but the layout seems non-standard.

4. HP EliteBook 840 G1 (Certified Refurbished)

 

HP Elite book series really stands heads and shoulders above the rest of the machines for business class or normal usage. The nice looking design, long battery life, and 4th generation processor will make you execute MS office; excel PowerPoint or entry-level games without any hiccup.

Though the HP series has dropped the optical drivers from all EliteBook notebooks making this machine thinner and lighter in weight

This machine has been constructed of premium materials, aluminum and magnesium with a silver based and black soft-touch finish on its lid.

The processor is the real treat which comes from this machine, 2.1 GHz Core i7-4600U CPU

Intel HD Graphics 4400, with optional 1GB AMD Radeon HD 8750 graphics card.

The storage capacity has also left as per the user’ use. You got varied options in the storage capacity, such as 256GB HDD can be extended to 1TB and SSD slot has also left vacant so that user could extend the SSD hard drive as per its usage.

This machine comes with Windows 8 Pro; the integrated camera is good enough for a conference call or skype call. The keyboard has an adjustable background light; the touchpad is sensitive and easy to use.

The battery life is the real taste of this machine, and user reviews also sail in the favor of the machine. The laptop can afford 6-8 hours in normal usage while in intense hours you will have to take the charger along with you.

Though the screen of the machine has not displayed any extraordinary performance it would be unnoticed for those who do not use high resolutions graphics.

The machine is a rocket when it comes to single thread performance, on multithreading this may not show some splendid results.

5. Dell Inspiron 

 

Though under this price range of $299, the more laptop you look forward is to tend to follow the Chromebook models of the laptops. And Chromebook models without any single doubt has marketed itself a simple school or office laptop and evolved one of the great competitions of this Dell Inspiron 15.6 product.

You need not to limit yourself only with the Chromebook, as Dell Inspiron series has evolved during the test of time and emerged as the winner.

This machine offers extensive experience of a traditional laptop, avoiding some of the hiccups what Chromebook offers you especially when you get to use that for multitasking, it slows down.

This machine is more than a traditional looking laptop and powered with AMD A6-9200 processor with 4GB of RAM speed to look after multitasking.

These two pieces when joins hands with the AMD Radeon R4 graphics, it produces stunning visuals and turbulence-free usage.

The storage is not an issue when it comes to Inspiron series it offers you a 500 GB HDD space enough storage to store your data and latest running games. Though the hard drive speed of the machine pulls the overall speed back down a bit and saving gets slow down.

If you are looking forward to a traditional laptop, this machine would be far better than any other listed in here. And you must not neglect the price range of the machine, as this falls fine under the best budget gaming laptop under $300 price.

6. HP 15.6

 

AMD processor has not been my first choice, but when I experienced these VAST 15.6 inches display with AMD quad-core A6-7310 APU processor laptop, this showed me the right value of the money.

This is an extraordinary gaming laptop which comes three hundred dollar price and offers admirably programs and functions.

The biggest edge of this machine would be its price; I can assure you that this would be the cheapest gaming laptop with that thunder of features.

It is a middle-level gaming machine which can fit fine all of your home gaming needs including office work and browsing.

This machine equipped with 4 GB RAM, 500 GB HDD storage and AMD Radeon R4 graphics to offer you smooth turbulence free experience of web-based social networking system and motions pictures online.

This has the capability to make you speak with your loved ones on a dedicated front came and comes with installed Skype and other important application in Windows 10 home basic.

Either you are going to compile the research papers or want to have some quality time with your kids playing the entry-level video games; this HP Notebook 15 is always there for you.

The machine offers fast multi-tasking and immersive gaming experience with 15.6″ 1366 x 768 HD resolutions, you would love to watch your favorite movies or TV shows in high definition display.

Though the 4GB of RAM could have been little more enhanced, you will notice this difference nowhere. But, if you feel that you are crashed at some point, an extra slot of placing DDR3 RAM has been given, and you can extend the RAM up to 8GB if needed.

7. Dell Latitude E6430

 

Dell Latitude series really stand the test of time and evolved one of the best series when it comes to average gaming machines. The price would be the biggest factor of this machine, price less than 300 dollars with such thunder features would be near to impossible.

Dell Latitude E6430 with 14.1 inch LDC and powered by Intel Dual Core i5-3320M 2.6GHz processor and 3MB cache. This machine has integrated 32 MB graphics with 8GB DDR3 SDRAM memory, which will take care of your multi-tasking job quite efficiently.

Though, 320 GB HDD hard drive could have been more extended towards 520 still an adequate amount of space to store the data.

The sound quality of the Dell Latitude series not hidden from anyone, and in this particular machine, the sound quality has been enhanced. Three USB ports, HDMI port with a microphone and Handphone offers you a widescreen resolution of 1366 x 768.

The battery backup of the machine is quite enough to handle web browsing or social networking usage for 7.5 hours to 3 hours.

It would be an entry-level gaming machine; you should not rely upon this machine to play AA series games.

8. HP EliteBook Folio 9470M

 

The HP Elite Book Folio 9470m is a good sturdy, business laptop and would hit the nail right on the head for the average user seeking a good machine for 300 dollars.

You know HP Elite book line has been focused all about business, and their targets were only the business users. They never claimed the best in the gaming experience, though average or entry-level gamers would get the amusement by playing the old videos games. This machine is less about the design and sleek lines and more about the packing, ports and battery life. The designs of the HP Elite series had not pleased the users and it seems the machines were buried in the sands and fetched out after five years.

The latest installment of the series HP EliteBook Folio 9470 shares some of the design languages of the old HP EliteBook, but the weight and bulk have been left aside.

This machine comes with Core i5-3427U with 8GB DDR3 RAM but an extra slot of an extra RAM can help this to get better in multi-tasking.

This machine shares 180GB Intel SSD and integrated Intel HD 4000 graphics which promises solid and spectacular performance.

The 180 GB SSD booted into Windows 8 and brings the desktop swiftly in 21 seconds which is the much better and faster than the previous HP Folio machine.

The HD Intel integrated graphics are capable of playing HD Movies but brutally failed to play even the mid-ranges of video games.

The default battery life of the machine can be lost long only for 4-7 hours which involves continuous Wi-Fi surfing and watching videos.

In a single threat working the machine can help you go through the battery for 7-10 hours.

Good news, HP EliteBook Folio 9470 did not replace the stereo, loud enough to fill the small conference room.

Another good feature was witnessed in this new machine, the heat issues were not found. The machines stayed pleasantly cool throughout the test, even after watching HD videos on full screen for 30-minutes.

9. Lenovo Idea Pad 330

 

Sometimes you want to get a superb performing gaming laptop with a sleek design and sharp display but want to keep things in hands under your budget. If you ask me one machine which combines the great performance and budget under $300, it would be no other than Lenovo Idea pad 330.

This machine is powered with Intel eight generation processor Core i3 and One TB hard drive to store the hell of the data without any hiccup.

It is a perfect example of a budget laptop that goes above and beyond the competitions.

Let’s dive into the features of this machine; Intel Core i3-8130U is more powerful than other machine listed here that use Intel Celeron process.

The 4GB of RAM offers you a definite speed more than the other gaming machine below 300 dollar prices listed. And one TB of the hard drive is enough storage, what you are going to grab in $299.

The battery life of this machine is not that good and could have been more improved, still for normal usage it would not run short than 6-7 hours.

Lenovo especially focused on the design of this notebook, and emerged successful in making a fairly thin machine,

The brighter and vibrant pictures will offer you a crisp screen, and you would love to play Overwatch and other old pc games on this machine without any hiccup.

10. Acer Aspire 1 A114-32-C1YA

 

Acer Aspire 1 A114 machine is powered with the Intel Celeron N3450 Processor and a very powerful and quite efficient machine what you can take along you to execute your casual tasks. The machine is light-weighted and can work fine without any need to plug in charging. This machine sports full HD 1080 display which makes it a vivid choice to watch high-definition movies and TV shows without single turbulence.

If you were looking forward to a perfect gaming machine, this should be an obvious choice. A perfect grab for Engineering Students, Programmers, Writer & Bloggers, and entry-level gamers, the design of this machine just lured the eyes, and experience will make you fall in love with it completely.

The graphics side of the machine is somehow weaker, powered with an Intel iGPU, a definitely shallows GPU and you can have much better graphics in that range. Though, the old gamers would love to have this and play the Call of Duty world at war, Left 4 Dead and others.

The efficiency of this machine comes from Intel Celeron N3450 processor and 4GB DDR3 RAM and 32 GB SSD for running operating system and core software programs.

The 32GB SSD hard comes with a pre-installed genuine copy of Windows 10 home basic, and this amount of space would run your OS quite efficiently along with some old indie games.

4GB of RAM can hold few programs such as Excel, Word and media view and this machine has not been a strong suit when it comes to multitasking.

I am not saying it is the most powerful machine, still, the longer battery backup can make you feel comfortable and you would not be required to plug-in charging after 2 hours. The long battery life of up to 9 hours is a strong side of the machine, undoubtedly.

We love another aspect of the machine; it is equipped with WI-FI standards a802.11 ac WI-FI adapter with Dual band Support.

Is it possible to purchase a gaming laptop for $300?

Yes, it is possible! But, you need to understand that the laptop would only be able to run entry-level video games, not AA series or high-ended video games. Two aspects are important to look into a gaming laptop

1. I) Processor
2. ii) Graphics card

And within the 300 dollar price range, you can only grab one; either you will have a good gaming processor or good graphics card. Other aspects such as RAM, Hard disk storage capacity or screen resolutions, are important but not that much compared to the processor or graphics card.

What Types of Games Can You Expect to Play on These Laptops?

A laptop under 300 dollar price cannot offer you to play Fortnite or Dotta 2. These machines can only get your hand on entry level games or web games. You will have to go a little above towards 500 dollars to get a good comparative gaming machine.

These are a cheap gaming machine, which can only execute the old PC games, such as Tekken 3, Counter-Strike and Grand theft auto III,

Laptop in that range would offer you the best office, excel and other application running experience. But, not expect multithreading from them, as most of the laptop would only bear the single threading efficiently.

What’s The Best Graphics Card on 300$ gaming laptops?

We have helped you to get your hands on one of the best gaming machines for 300 Dollar price range. You can look at the features and see what graphics card can be expected from them.

Overall, in the range of $300, you cannot expect a dedicated graphics card, which is a vital part of good gaming machines. Still, an integrated graphics card AMD Radeon R7, Intel HD graphics 620 and Intel HD Graphics 4400 could be expected from these gaming laptops.

What Do I Lose Out On At This Price Range?

For good gaming machines a good processor, Anti-heat system, A good resolutions, and graphics card are the important aspects. When you hunt for a good gaming machine for $300 there are some aspects you will have to neglect altogether.

You cannot expect multithreading, running of high-ended today’s video games, good gaming resolutions and Anti-heat system.

You will have an average gaming machine, with average specifications, still, we have compiled a list for you and you can see the best in hands under this tight budget.

How Can I Get a Better Experience from These laptops?

When you search for a gaming machine in this tight budget, you need to make your mind for average gaming performance. Still, to get a better performance from these gaming machines, you need to stick yourself with single-threading, MS office word, MS Excel or other basic web application.

You will get better results only when you put a minimal load to them, on heavy load and multithread functioning they will hang out or crash or will catch extra-heat resulting in severe damage.

laptop under 300 dollars is best for business purpose, writing papers or handling the simple task at school or universities.

Are this gaming laptop has the longest battery life?

Yes, there are some products even listed above which can promise the longest battery hours. Such as Lenovo ThinkPad T430 offers you 9-cell battery with enormous 94 WH, which easily can bear the normal working usage for 10-12 hours.

There are some other products under this range which can bear the normal work for 5-7 hours.

You can expect good battery hours from the machines for 300, but you will have to open your eyes and clear your head before diving into purchasing any of the machines. You need to get yourself prepared what aspect you want the most under this tight budget before actually purchasing.

Brand new vs. refurbished gaming laptops Under 300?

First, for an average user, it would be hard to find out if the computer is actually refurbished or has simply been cleaned and reloaded. A refurbished computer means that there was the problem in a particular item which has been sent the machine back and gets a replacement. Getting a refurbished computer can save you some bucks, but you need to have sharp eyes to get to know the actual age of the machine.

In a refurb machine, you usually get manufacturer’s warranty equal to a new machine.

A refurbished gaming laptop can save you some bucks, and if you have some experience of purchasing refurb machine, go ahead it would actually benefit you a lot.

For an average user, who has no deep knowledge of refurb, it would be ideal to get the hands on a new gaming machine listed above.

The Features we evaluate in order to make our recommendations?

Before deciding to get a laptop, you need to look upon your needs and desires attached to that machine. Are you going to get a laptop to play games, but not everyone plays the same games.

There are old PC games, indie titles games which are easy to run and play on an average laptop. For playing AA titles games, you required high-quality visuals and high-ended specifications.

So, we are here to get a normal gaming machine under 300 dollar price range. We did consider a good GPU, battery backup, hard-disk, screen resolutions size, and RAM. We tried to unearth a machine which could hold minimal game handling pressure could help us in handling simple and normal tasks such as web surfing, simple web applications, and MS Excel or MS office handling.