What are the best laptops under 1000 euros in 2024?

The hunt for the perfect laptop can be a daunting task. You navigate a sea of specifications, brands, and features, all while keeping a watchful eye on your wallet. But fear not, budget-conscious explorers! In 2024, the sub-1000 euro laptop market offers a treasure trove of capable machines for everyday use, productivity, and even some light entertainment. Here is our selection of the best laptop models, with excellent value for money, under 1000 euros.

The best laptops for value for money

Laptops are becoming more and more accessible and affordable models are increasingly offering them. After our guide dedicated to the best HP laptops in 2024 in all segments, we offer you here our selection of mid-range laptops. This bracket is essential for a budget of between 500 and 1,000 euros maximum: this is where we find the computer models with the best quality/price ratio.

In this selection, you will see that you can easily find more than satisfactory laptops within a budget of 1000 euros maximum, both in terms of power and finish.

The benchmark for quality/price ratio at 1000 euros: ASUS Zenbook 14 OLED (UX3405)

Asus has updated its famous Zenbook, notably by adding a new chip, the Core Ultra. Excellent idea! On the design, we find the dark blue at Asus, a featherweight of 1.2 kg, and a beautiful finesse on the aluminum chassis. The finishes are good and everything is solid.

The touchpad is very successful, while the keyboard could have deserved a little more bounce, but nothing unforgivable. Connections include a USB-A 3.2 port on the left, an HDMI 2.1 port, a combo jack, and two USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports on the right.

As always, Asus stands out by offering an Oled screen. The 14-inch panel offers a “3K” definition of 2880 x 1800 pixels with a maximum refresh rate of 120 Hz, which is good at this price.

The Zenbook 14 OLED is equipped with the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor (or Core Ultra 5 125H depending on the configuration chosen) from the Meteor Lake generation, with an NPU dedicated to artificial intelligence calculations.

CPU performance seems similar to the previous generation, but the specificity lies in much better energy management. Result: the 75Wh battery offers an impressive autonomy of 15 hours in office and video use. This allows this type of PC to compete with MacBooks and their ARM chip. The Core Ultra chip is also designed to manage AI, but for the moment, the fields of application are really limited.

In short, we highly recommend the new Zenbook 14 which combines the good points, between a good quality lightweight chassis, an excellent screen, an efficient chip, and superb battery life. If you want to stay below 1000 euros, you will have to choose the configuration with the Core 5 chip.

Apple's Option: Apple MacBook Air 2020 M1

Apple's MacBook Air is a best-seller for the brand, a true emblem of its range of portable computers. Especially since 2020, when Apple said goodbye to Intel and began integrating its own SoCs, starting with the M1, based on the ARM architecture. Result: increased autonomy and perfect silence, the computer simply not needing ventilation.

You will have understood, that the MacBook Air of 2020 is an excellent machine, the ideal efficient and autonomous ultraportable — provided you agree to use macOS. Pretty, thin, all-aluminum, it weighs 1.29 kg and can be forgotten in a bag.

The keyboard is excellent (be careful, this is Apple's somewhat special layout), as is the very large glass trackpad, which remains one of the best on the market. If the finishes are excellent, we will however regret a screen that is not quite up to standard. This is a 13.3-inch IPS LCD panel with good definition but with color calibration and a level of contrast that leaves a little to be desired…

Performance is fortunately excellent thanks to the M1 chip, accompanied by 256 GB of storage and 8 GB of RAM. The autonomy is excellent, you can count on at least 10 hours, all without any heating.

The MacBook Air M1 is sold at 1199 euros by Apple. But for months, you will almost systematically find it below 1,000 euros on the vast majority of e-commerce sites, at 999 or even 950 euros. If you see it displayed at 1050 or 1100 euros, we strongly advise you to wait a little bit (a few days may be enough!) to see its price come down.

FURTHER: What are the best laptops for students in 2024?

A good price-performance ratio: Huawei MateBook D16 (2024)

Now discreet on the smartphone market in our region, Huawei continues to offer extremely interesting laptop PCs like this MateBook D16. As its name suggests, it has a 16.1-inch screen, but its extremely thin edges give it more of the size of a classic 15.6-inch screen.

As always with Huawei, we find a chassis with aluminum finishes, with total sobriety which gives it the air of a MacBook from 2015. The keyboard is a bit soft when the touchpad could have been larger. On the panel, we find a completely ordinary screen, 16 inches with a resolution of 1920 x 1200 pixels. No anti-reflective treatment here.

The version we tested of the MateBook D16 features a powerful Intel Core i9-13900H processor. It is too much and not suitable for this model: we recommend choosing the version with an i5-12450H, which sells from 649 euros and will be much more relevant. In terms of battery life, the 56 Wh battery provides 10 to 11 hours of mixed-use, which is very good. It heats little when in use and its fans will save you money.

For entry-level, and for those looking for a laptop with a large screen, this is an interesting option.

The attractive low price: Honor MagicBook 14 AMD (2022)

The Chinese manufacturer Honor is also trying its hand in the laptop PC market with the AMD MagicBook 14. This is an ultraportable full of ambition that relies on AMD to offer you superb performance under 1,000 euros. Above all, the PC is heavier than most devices available in this market segment.

Keep in mind that this model is a clever mix of compromises because, despite its weight, the MagicBook 14 offers a fairly sober design. The keyboard takes up the majority of the available space, which allows for faster typing. We will still regret a connection with a single USB-C port, a USB A 3.2 Gen 1, a full format HDMI, a combo jack port, and two somewhat dated USB-A ports.

The laptop is equipped with a 14-inch LCD panel. The image displayed is good even if we deplore a lack of brightness preventing you from fully exploiting it outdoors. We will quickly move on to the camera which is still not very good and which offers the least advantageous viewing angle. On the software side apart from Windows 11, the addition of PC Manager by Honor allows an in-depth connection with Honor smartphones without intruding too much on the user experience.

Within the MagicBook 14, the manufacturer trusts the AMD Ryzen 5 5500U with 6 cores. The processor is coupled with 8 GB of LPDDR4 RAM and 256 GB of storage. The performance offered is good for office automation, but also for running free-to-play games. It also includes a 56 Wh battery which charges via the USB-C port with the PowerDelivery standard. It offers a good battery life of 13 hours and 18 minutes, which is a good performance for the ultraportable sector.

In summary, if it is not the best laptop for less than 1000 euros, the Honor MagicBook 14 remains an excellent choice marketed below 700 euros. It's good value for money.

Ideal for office automation: Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 Pro (14ACH5 O)

With this new version of the Slim 7, Lenovo has switched to an OLED screen. With its ultraportable format, its thin borders, and its 14-inch screen, the Chinese brand is stepping into the footsteps of Apple and Asus. The different configurations available all use AMD 5000 series processors or 11th-generation Intel chips.

These different available configurations range from 899 to 1,149 euros. Currently, the version for less than 1000 euros is the 14IHU which has an Intel i5 chip.

The maximum definition offered is 2.8 K (2,880 x 1,800 pixels), and a minimum of 2.2 K, which is a very good point in this price range. The icing on the cake: a refresh rate of 90 Hz.

The design is very refined, the aluminum chassis benefits from good finishes, a large and precise touchpad, and a pleasant keyboard. With 1.30 kg on the scale, it hits the mark as an ultraportable.

In terms of performance, the different Ryzen processors used in the configurations, including the one in our test (a Ryzen 7 5800H), fulfill their mission with minimal heating during use. The Yoga Slim 7 Pro is ideal for office use. For gaming, it will struggle to satisfy gamers with its integrated Radeon Vega chip, which is roughly at the same level as an Intel Iris Xe – which is very respectable in this price range.

We just regret a few weaknesses in the autonomy of this laptop, as well as in the connectivity, with the notable absence of an HDMI port and an SD card reader. It nonetheless remains a laptop PC with excellent value for money.

AMD configurations of this laptop are now unfortunately often out of stock. We then advise you to turn to the Intel versions of the product, in particular the 14IHU, with an Intel i5 i5-11320H chip and 16 GB of RAM.

The eco-responsible ultraportable: Acer Aspire Vero 14 (2022)

If you are looking for a laptop with excellent value for money, the Acer Aspire Vero 14 is a good choice. The PC stands out for its eco-responsible design. Above all, it is a product that opens very simply with a few turns of the screw to access the components and repair everything easily. If it is categorized as ultraportable, the Acer PC still weighs 1.5 kilos when packed tightly.

The Acer Aspire Vero 14 has a screen that is quite classic on the market. This uses LCD technology with refreshing at 60 Hz. Our measurements made it possible to detect a maximum brightness of 327 cd/m2. The screen also has a nice contrast ratio. The Vero software suite is simple even if we regret an overload of advertisements or unnecessary applications to delete from the start.

However, the Acer ultraportable is not left out in terms of its performance. The configuration of the device is centered around the Intel Core i5-1235U processor with 16 GB of LPDDR4X RAM as well as 512 GB of PCIe 3.0 storage. If office use is good, the laptop does not particularly shine in video games. Especially since the Aspire Vero 14 has a nasty tendency to heat up.

As for the integrated battery, it is 56 Wh. Nothing very surprising. Above all, the machine keeps its promise since it is charged by a 65 W Power Delivery charger. This is a universal charger. In use, it is capable of lasting 9 to 10 hours. Its price of 899 euros is very attractive.

A gaming laptop PC for less than 1000 euros

Do you want to be able to play on your laptop, but not spend more than 1,000 euros? In 2023, it's possible. Of course, you won't have the latest graphics card from Nvidia, but you will still be able to run games. On the other hand, give up on ultraportability: these are 15 or 17-inch machines that are not very light. But for the broke gamer, it works!

In this vein, the HP Victus 15 model “fa0002sf” is a good option to consider. It is equipped with a recent chip, the Intel Core i5-12450H, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 GPU, 16 GB of RAM, and 512 GB of SSD, for only 799 euros when it is on sale (999 euros on sale). rest of the time). It has a 15-inch Full HD panel. For the price, it's excellent. This laptop also has the advantage of having a chassis that remains sober, dark gray, and matte, with a white backlit keyboard.

Of course, given the price, you have to make concessions: this chassis is plastic, and the keyboard is too soft. You won't have to wait for autonomy worthy of the ultraportables mentioned above either. It is more of a machine designed to be used at home to watch multimedia content and play games that are not too recent or not too demanding. We welcome the presence of an HDMI 2.1 and Ethernet port.

Do not hesitate to look at the different configurations available on the product page, prices and availability change often.

Choosing the best laptop under $1,000

Mid-range PC at 1,000 euros: what concessions should I make?

Contrary to what one might think, a mid-range laptop does not necessarily make big concessions on its characteristics. On the other hand, in this price segment between 600 and 1,000 euros, manufacturers sometimes neglect the finishes, the fineness of the chassis, or the quality of the components, in particular screens which are often less good. Battery life is generally a little worse on these laptops.

What can I do with a 1000 euro PC?

Since performance often remains comfortable, mid-range laptops will be very suitable for even advanced office uses. You can even do some photo editing or put together a short video on occasion. For more regular use of demanding software, it will be better to increase your budget.

AMD or Intel, which processor brand to choose?

Formerly the preserve of Intel, the laptop PC market has opened up to competition in recent years. In question, the impressive progress of AMD, which with its Ryzen 4000 and then 5000, arrived with first-rate performance. Not only do the brand's chips compete with their rivals, and very often even pulverize them, but they do so without reducing autonomy. As a bonus, AMD configurations are often even cheaper.

The 12th and 13th generations of Intel processors have limited the damage a little, but the fact is that competition is now raging in the world of laptops.