The best laptops under £400 in 2024: Budget-friendly and reliable

Lenovo's IdeaPad Slim 3 is perhaps one of the ultimate laptops under £400, and it's in large part thanks to its stunning design and terrific 13th-generation Intel CPU. You'd be hard-pressed to find a laptop with an i5 processor, let alone a relatively new generation, making the IdeaPad Slim 3 an excellent choice.

Its full HD 15.6-inch display is solid, with plenty of colour and vibrance to enjoy at work or for casual binge-watching in the comfort of your home. The 8GB of RAM is ideal for all of your professional needs, including multiple program multitasking and note-taking in a document simultaneously.

A shining feature of the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3 must be its 512GB of SSD storage, which is certainly a rarity amongst laptops of this price.

If we were to nitpick about the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3, we'd certainly note its poor battery life, which doesn't provide much hope for those who plan to work on the go. Though eight hours might sound like a lot, that is the maximum amount of time the laptop will stay alive, without the stresses of intense programs, video watching, or gaming. The actual amount of time the laptop will have is likely much less, and this is only doomed to decrease over time due to a degrading battery.

That being said, if you're particularly bound to your desk or are nearby a plug, the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3's power for its price is sensational, it's a truly brilliant budget laptop.

In terms of performance, the MSI Modern 15 is unrivalled for its price. Sporting an Intel i7 12th-generation processor from Intel, it's almost certainly one of the best you can buy for the money. Performance with the i7 CPU is unparalleled in its price range, running programs large or small is a breeze for this affordable laptop.

The 512GB SSD offers excellent storage capacity, and speedy loading and saving times. The overall build quality of the MSI Modern 15 is fantastic, and it even has a light-up keyboard for use at night, which is a lovely touch on MSI's behalf. This solid hardware comes at a price, however, as the MSI Modern 15's battery life is almost certainly lacking. At around seven hours maximum, this laptop isn't ideal for long-time use on the go, so if you're in for a long trip without access to a port, you might want to reconsider grabbing it.

If performance is your primary concern, however, the MSI Modern 15 is the best choice for your money and is very easy to recommend.

If you find yourself on the go throughout your working day without a plug socket available at all times, then you'll need something that'll endure. Enter, the Lenovo V15 laptop, a smart choice for price-conscious shoppers in search of one of the finest deals online.

A remarkably well-made laptop from Lenovo, this powerful budget laptop has some truly impressive hardware onboard, including a gutsy AMD Ryzen 5 7520U CPU, 8GB of RAM and a solid 256GB of SSD storage for rapid accessibility and short boot-up times.

A 15.6-inch full HD screen compliments this laptop's wonderful metal frame with sturdy keys, creating a premium hand-feel with a satisfying heftiness. The Lenovo V15's finest feature, however, comes in the form of its 14-hour battery life, the highest we've seen in a budget laptop.

Enduring the long train ride home, a dull flight or even a day on the sofa without a convenient plug nearby, the Lenovo V15 is a sublime pick for anyone searching for the best battery life. This Lenovo might be a little bulkier than you're used to, but it's hardly a concern, its weight is light enough to make it viable for use on the go. It's a perfect laptop for programming, writing or other areas reliant on strong performance and excellent build quality, where your hard work isn't in jeopardy.

When it comes to creating laptops that far exceed budgetary limitations, Lenovo rarely drops the ball. The IdeaPad 1 is perhaps one of the best-priced laptops on the market right now, with very few flaws holding it back from being one of the best budget laptops of the year.

Out of the gate, the IdeaPad 1's sensational Ryzen 5 7520U CPU impresses, offering high clock speeds and four cores for strong multitasking capabilities. Working from a browser, a Word document and a spreadsheet simultaneously is no problem for this powerful laptop.

Then, there's the 512GB of SSD storage, which is exceedingly rare in cheap laptops: you will be able to store hundreds, even thousands of documents throughout this laptop's lifespan, without the need to upgrade your storage any time soon. It even has impressive battery life which is often the trade-off for cheaper laptops, nearing 12 hours of use in total.

We particularly love the overall build quality and design of the Lenovo IdeaPad 1, its metal body and strong amount of ports are perfect for multiple peripheral connectivity, which all fits onto a snug, ultra-thin design at around 1.6kg.

If we were to nitpick, we'd note the IdeaPad 1's standard 8GB of RAM, which isn't bad by any means for its price, but having 16GB would take this laptop to the very next level for its price. The perfect laptop for working from home, and one of the best of the year, the Lenovo IdeaPad 1 is a terrific choice for budget buyers anywhere.

A solid laptop for basic work built for durability and speed, the ASUS Vivobook Go 15 offers balanced performance at a bargain price. Beautifully designed with military-grade toughness, the ASUS Vivobook Go 15's good AMD Ryzen CPU provides the laptop with strong multitasking potential, despite being on the lower end of PC specifications.

8GB of RAM is plenty for basic computing tasks such as working from spreadsheets or browsing and is fairly commonplace in laptops of its price range. For those working on larger projects, the 128GB of SSD storage, though quick to use, isn't ideal for larger projects and long-term access to files. If you were to buy this laptop, using OneDrive or any other cloud storage method is a fantastic idea.

For its price, the sheer quality of the ASUS Vivobook Go 15 is a bargain of a laptop, well-made and with good computing power, and its build quality ensures that it'll last for longer than the average cheap laptop might.

If you're intrigued by folding touchscreen laptops, then you'll love Lenovo's excellent IdeaPad Flex 3 Chromebook, perfect for comfortable use on the go, at work or home. With a tough metal design paired with a durable 14-inch screen, the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 3's build quality and overall design far exceed its price, which is scarcely seen in cheaper laptop models.

Cheaper than our other picks, yet still a viable work laptop, we're particularly impressed by the Flex 3's touchscreen mode, which is simply perfect for late-night television streaming and drawing. Sometimes tapping an application with your finger is far easier than navigating with a touchpad, and it's precisely what the Flex 3 excels at: convenience.

In terms of hardware, the Flex 3's 8GB of RAM is solid for its price and is more than your typical Chromebook, but its weaker Intel Pentium Silver N6000 CPU and 128GB eMMC storage aren't the best on the market. Performance whilst completing undemanding tasks – shopping, streaming, study – will be solid, but anything more will cause performance problems. For more performance-hungry applications, you'll need to spend a little more.

A perfect all-around laptop for conquering the workday, the Dell Inspiron 15 3535 combines performance and strong build quality in what is one of the best laptop deals of the year. A good 15.6-inch size with a gorgeous full HD+ display, the Dell Inspiron 15 3535 impresses visually from the moment it's switched on.

What's most impressive about the Dell Inspiron 15 is its storage: with 512GB of SSD storage, it's certainly on the higher end of laptops in the £400 price range. Storing plenty of files, programs and apps is a breeze for the Dell Inspiron 15 3535, and you're unlikely to need any cloud storage for some time with it.

The AMD Ryzen 5 CPU onboard is also excellent, offering stable performance for the foreseeable future, even with higher-demand programs. For long-term office use, the Dell Inspiron 15 is unparalleled for performance, but it's not completely flawless.

For one, its nine-hour battery life isn't the strongest, it's likely to degrade quickly over time, and with plenty of use of web browsers throughout the day, you'll find its true battery life to be fairly mediocre.

But for most office workers with a charger connected throughout the day, the Dell Inspiron 15 is undoubtedly impressive, it's a fine choice for workers, students and casual users alike.

HP's 15s laptop is perfect for mid-budget buyers and is loaded with strong hardware for comfortable, lag-free browsing. A perfect laptop for note-taking, or tackling large spreadsheets, this easy-to-use laptop boots quickly and is made well enough to last for a long time.

Sporting a 12th-generation Intel i5 CPU, a rarity amongst cheaper laptops, it's made even stronger thanks to its 256GB SSD storage. The 8GB RAM is good, if not standard for laptop models of its price, and the same goes for its 15.6-inch full HD screen, which doesn't amaze but is certainly comfortable to the eye.

The HP 15s' largest flaw must be its lower-than-average 7.5-hours of battery life, which is low even for laptops under £400. Battery life degrades over time, and that maximum of seven and a half hours will steadily decline, especially while you're using demanding programs.

A remarkable choice for any laptop shopper in need of a bargain, the HP 15s is perfect for moderately demanding programs and simple note-taking on the go.

Certainly one of the tougher laptops on the list, the Acer Aspire Go 15's bulky metal frame gives this laptop a reassuring quality, with it you know that should anything happen to the laptop itself, be it an accidental slip from the desk or a bump in your backpack, it'll likely survive the ordeal.

Acer's thick metal laptop far exceeds the quality of competing cheaper laptops, and its quality keyboard similarly matches it in value. Problems arise, however, when looking at some of the Acer Aspire Go 15's cheaper hardware.

Though the 8GB RAM and 128GB SSD are standard, but it's the Intel i3-N305 CPU which falls a little short. This slower CPU is on the sluggish side, and while moderate use is bound to be fine, any intense multitasking is likely to be met with lag.

A beautifully made laptop with some minor flaws that halt it from being the best of the year, Acer's Go 15 is a sensational choice for students, office workers and casual users, and is made to endure throughout the years.

Certainly an upgrade from the Flex 3, this slightly pricier, yet still within-budget Chromebook from Lenovo is hands-down the best choice for your money. With admirable performance thanks to a nifty Intel i3 CPU and 256GB SSD storage, the IdeaPad Flex performs moderately well with the use of lighter programs such as Word and Excel, which is something of a trade-off thanks to its versatility.

The IdeaPad Flex 5 is made to be used almost as a tablet: its 14-inch size makes it incredibly portable, and flipping it over to its 'tent' mode adds a whole new level of comfort. Using it in bed, table-side or elsewhere is an absolute breeze, and the strong storage allows for easy file access.

Again, we must stress that the IdeaPad Flex 5's performance, while better than the Flex 3 is fairly slower than most laptops, which is a necessary price for a touchscreen and strong versatility, but it's certainly not the best for using demanding programs.

We'd certainly recommend the Lenovo Flex 5 as a great laptop for school work, as well as casual use: it's budget-friendly, durable, and incredibly fun to use.