The top low-cost devices around

The budget laptop field is an exciting one right now. The previous reigning champion, the Surface Laptop Go, hasn’t quite lived up to its reputation with its third iteration and Chromebook Plus laptops are making waves. But, the new best all-rounder is a traditional budget Windows laptop. And it’s the HP Pavilion SE 14.

As is key with a top-budget laptop, the HP Pavilion SE 14 excels in value. This device doesn’t just give you cheap and expect you to deal with it. It has a solid build, a modern IPS display and, equally contemporary, biometric security.

Sometimes, budget laptops will ask you to swallow old specifications, like the Surface Laptop Go range, but not the Pavilion SE 14. It features one of Intel’s latest and greatest 13th generation chips and the result is more than enough power for productivity tasking. We even found you can squeeze a bit of very basic gaming out of this chip. Overheating wasn’t an issue either and we never found fan noise to be too bothersome.

With budget laptops, you are often asked to compromise on a quality keyboard and good audio too. The Pavilion SE 14 says “nay!”. It’s a sturdy and enjoyable typing experience while the speakers are surprisingly detailed and bassy.

Reviewer: Alun Taylor
Full review: HP Pavilion SE 14 review

If you’re after a versatile budget laptop, then the HP Chromebook x2 11 is a very alluring proposition. Unlike a lot of hybrid laptops, the Chromebook x2 11 acts more like a tablet, with the bundled keyboard and rear cover being fully detachable. The tablet portion is especially light, at just 580g, and felt very solid in hand. The keyboard keys offer solid travel and a decent amount of tactility with the trackpad offering a fantastic amount of real estate for the price. 

The display sits at 11 inches and has a quoted 400 nits of brightness. We felt that it was able to offer excellent detail with generally vibrant images and solid colours, making it a very safe bet for binging your favourite TV shows.

Chromebooks are not the most powerful machines out there, but the Snapdragon 7c chip housed inside the Chromebook x2 11 pumped out more than enough power to get through day-to-day tasks. It did not falter with multiple Chrome tabs open and it didn’t get particularly hot or loud, even during our benchmarking tests. If you’re looking for something that can take on light creative or gaming workloads then you may want to consider the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5, but the Chromebook x2 11 has you covered when it comes to productivity. 

Overall, the Chromebook x2 11 is the perfect pick for hybrid workers or students who will spend most of their time browsing the web or working with word processors. It’s highly portable design makes it perfect for working on the go and the detachable tablet opens up the doors for video streaming and doodling. At just £499, this is one of the most affordable 2-in-1 laptops on the market right now, packed full of flexibility and functionality. 

Reviewer: Reece Bithrey
Full Review: HP Chromebook x2 11

One of the more interesting launches of 2023 has been Google’s new Chromebook Plus initiative. The Asus Chromebook Plus CX34 is one of the first and it’s our top pick for a budget Chromebook.

The Chromebook Plus initiative sets new standards for reliable ChromeOS laptops, all while keeping the price surprisingly low. Previously, you could be saddled with a poor screen, disappointing webcam and a measly 4GB RAM when splashing out around £400/$400 on a Chromebook. Chromebook Plus shuns these kinds of devices and the result brings stunning value.

The Asus Chromebook Plus CX34 with its 12th Gen Intel Core i3 chip and 8GB RAM offers impressive swift performance. There’s little you can throw at a Chromebook, in a productivity sense, that this can’t handle. And this couldn’t be said of previous Chromebooks in this price bracket.

On top of the pleasing performance, the Chromebook Plus CX34 manages to pack in plenty of battery life to comfortably get you a day and beyond. There’s a great selection of ports too. The keyboard isn’t a letdown either, offering up an excellent typing experience.

Reviewer: Reece Bithrey
Full review: Asus Chromebook Plus CX34 review

The MSI Modern 15 is a great choice for those on a budget who fancy a large screen.

The Modern 15 features a 15.6-inch LCD screen with narrow bezels to aid in cultivating that modern look. With that being said, the 58% sRGB colour space coverage we measured with our colourimeter means this display is a little weak, and its 270 nits of brightness means it’s only suitable for indoor use. For the price, the panel here is fine, with a 1080p resolution offering decent detail and a contrast ratio of 1300:1 being more than passable.

The Modern 15 comes with an Intel Core i7-1255U, 8GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD, which offers up a great performance for the money. In this configuration, the laptop clocks in at £729, which stretches the ‘budget’ nature of it a bit, pushing it more into the mid-range territory. But the laptop is available at more affordable prices if you dial down the specs. While the fan speeds may be a little high, MSI offers some great software-based control for keeping the noise low when you need it to be.

The MSI is made entirely of plastic but feels right for the price. With a soft touch finish, the general frame doesn’t feel cheap at all. The port selection here is decent, with HDMI out and Micro SD, as well as a pair of USB 2.0 ports and a singular USB-C connection. We found the keyboard to feel decent too, with a solid amount of travel and key action that doesn’t feel spongy.

When it comes to battery life, the Modern 15 lasted for only around five and a half hours, with the different power modes only splitting results by a handful of minutes. This makes it a poor performer by comparison to other laptops at this price, which can offer up to eight hours, or more. You’ll be able to get through most of a working day here before you need to reach for a charger, and the Modern 15 uses its own cylindrical port, leaving the USB-C port free for any other cables or drives.

Reviewer: Andrew Williams
Full review: MSI Modern 15 review