I spend a lot of my time testing and reviewing new laptops. But no matter how hard I try, there will always be people that go to Amazon.com and buy whatever cheap, crappy thing comes up for the “best laptop” search term. That’s especially true now that these retailer pages are showing up in Google search results for the same query.
As I perused Amazon’s list, I found myself getting angry at the number of laptops I saw that no one should buy. And I mean that. In almost every case, you’ll find laptops that have better alternatives at the same price, but Amazon won’t show them—for whatever reason.
I hope I’m not the first person to tell you that buying unknown products on Amazon is not a smart idea, but when it comes to your laptop, it’s an especially bad idea. Your work, school, gaming, or creative ambitions will all be severely hampered by buying one of these machines. The egregious thing about these laptops isn’t that they exist, but that Amazon ranks them higher than proper laptops—the kind people should actually buy.
Ultra-Cheap Windows Laptop
You’ll never get the same results, but all the times I’ve tried searching (including in Incognito), I saw tons of ultra-cheap Windows laptops that cost under $300. You might look at these and wonder what could be wrong, especially since some of these sport seemingly solid specs like “Quad-Core” processors and 256 GB of storage. But don’t be fooled.
One of the most egregious examples that showed up on page one of Amazon’s results was this HP laptop. Despite being a nearly four-year-old laptop with a typo in the title (who doesn’t want an “Ultral” Light laptop?), this is apparently an “Amazon’s Choice” selection that comes highly recommended with four out of five stars. These kinds of laptops are propped up by ratings from years ago, when this laptop would have been slightly more relevant. It would have been a stretch in 2022, but today? No way.
The laptop comes with an Intel Celeron processor, which is way too slow for a Windows 11 laptop. I’ve tested plenty of these in my day to know that you’ll feel it chug along with even the most basic tasks. The title of the product is also highly misleading, saying it comes with 192 GB of storage. Only 64 GB of that is onboard storage—the rest is from the bundled 128-GB SD card. Even worse, the storage you get is eMMC, a much slower (and cheaper) storage format.
Lastly, it comes with Windows 11 S Mode, a version of Windows that doesn’t allow you to download applications from a web browser. Then there’s the kicker: the 1366 x 768-resolution screen. Never buy a laptop with anything less than 1920 x 1080 resolution in 2026, no matter how cheap it is. That’s the same problem with two other HP laptops right on the first page: the HP Stream 14 from 2024 and this HP 15.6-inch Laptop from 2025. Both have 1366 x 768-resolution screens.
Check out this 2025 Asus Chromebook CX15 instead, a laptop I tested last year. Despite being about the same price, it comes with a 1080p screen, as well as a proper 128-GB solid-state drive. It’s still an Intel Celeron processor, but it’s at least a newer chip, and it’ll run much better in ChromeOS than in Windows 11. It’s better in every imaginable way.
If you really need Windows on the cheap, check out this Acer Aspire Go 15, which at least comes with a 1080p screen, a 256-GB SSD, and a proper version of Windows 11 Home.
Mediocre Deals
The majority of laptops on page one fall into the first category of ultra-cheap Windows laptops. But there were two others that stuck out as simply bad deals. These can be more misleading, as they aren’t as obviously bad.
This Acer Nitro V gaming laptop showed up toward the bottom of the list and seemingly comes with decent specs. A 165-Hz refresh rate IPS display, 16 GB of RAM, and a terabyte of storage. But the RTX 4050 graphics card included is just not fast enough to be worth $950 in 2026. For example, you can get a newer version of the Acer Nitro V with the RTX 5050 for $750. It comes with less storage, but don’t forget: you can always add on storage with an external SSD. You can’t make your GPU faster without buying an entirely new laptop. (Well, usually.)
The most damning comparison is the Lenovo LOQ 15. You can get a Lenovo LOQ 15 with an RTX 5060 for $970. This is one of my favorite deals in gaming laptops right now, providing a huge upgrade in performance over the RTX 4050.
Beyond the outdated Acer Nitro, I also spotted this Samsung Galaxy Book4. This is not a terrible laptop on its own, but at $565, there are better options. There’s the Asus Vivobook 14 (or 16), which costs $650 and occasionally dips down to $550. It comes with the 8-core Qualcomm Snapdragon X, providing it with much more battery life than the Galaxy Book4. There’s also the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3X, which has the same chip but comes in even cheaper at $584.
If you want great deals on laptops that are actually worth buying, check out our Best Budget Laptops, Best Budget Gaming Laptops, and Best Chromebooks recommendations, which I frequently update.
Unknown Brands
You always know it’s bad when the brand of the laptop isn’t mentioned in the title of the product. Oh, you’ve never heard of the well-known, reliable laptop manufacturer Jumper? Or Nimo? Yeah, I haven’t either. Yet, Amazon seems to think these are appropriate to recommend as some of the best laptops.
Like the HP laptops above, these are extremely cheap Windows 11 laptops—all under $300. The Jumper laptop suffers from some of the same problems, such as the eMMC storage and Intel Celeron processor, even if the company at least manages to include a 1080p display. The large touchpad and edge-to-edge keyboard look nice, too. Yet, I would never recommend a laptop that isn’t from a reputable manufacturer. It’s not that it’s impossible that these laptops could be decent, but buying some that have almost no independent reviews isn’t a good idea.
You’ll also see the brand Nimo pop up, specifically around the topic of gaming laptops. Marketing these as gaming laptops is very misleading, as they don’t come with a discrete graphics card—or any other notable gaming features. This Nimo laptop is no more a gaming device than any other $600 Windows laptop you can buy. You can’t actually buy a worthwhile gaming laptop for this much, and these off-brand companies are preying on that fact.
It’s Not All Bad
There are a couple of laptops that appeared on page one of the Amazon results that were promising. Amazon put the 13-inch M4 Apple MacBook Air high up, which is also our top pick for the best laptop you can buy. Amazon also recommended the Dell 15 Laptop, which is a budget device that looks solid. I haven’t tested it yet myself, but it’s a 2025 laptop for $530 that comes with decent specs, such as a 120-Hz refresh rate, 16 GB of RAM, and 512 GB of storage. But that’s really it. The rest of the results are flooded with sponsored results of varying degrees of quality.
Walmart, which has become another popular online laptop retailer, does an even worse job, appealing to the lowest common denominator. It falls into the same traps as Amazon, surfacing ultra-cheap, outdated HP laptops under $300, and tons of unknown knock-off brands like “RNRUO” and “Coolby.” This problem is even worse at Walmart; 24 out of the 40 laptops offered on page one are from these mystery brands, and most of the rest are from HP. It’s really a shame, as Walmart and Amazon both have great deals on some of my favorite laptops, but they’re often buried unless you’re specifically searching or filtering for them.
Best Buy fares much better. A search for “best laptops” brings up some solid options, like the Dell 14 Plus, the MacBook Pro, the Zenbook S 14, the Lenovo Legion 7i, and the Acer Chromebook Plus 516. Lots of good stuff across a variety of categories, companies, and prices. There are still older HP laptops included here, such as this 2023 laptop, but it’s not nearly as bad as Amazon and Walmart.
Maybe none of this is surprising to you. For me, I was surprised by just how dire the situation has become. As prices rise in 2026 due to grim economic realities and the ongoing memory shortage, cheap laptops will grow in importance, and retailers like Amazon need to do a better job of directing people toward devices that are actually worth buying.
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