It is becoming increasingly a daunting task to find the very best gaming laptops under 400 dollars. This is primarily because, while it might be fairly easy to pick up any cheap gaming laptop for your virtual entertainment, the performance of the chosen device during an active gameplay goes a long way to determine what your gaming experience would be like.
In instances where gamers make a choice based on cost, as against the laptop’s technical specifications, it often results in a waste of money and time spent in buying the wrong product.
It will shock you that many active and part-time gamers have made this avoidable mistake, but you definitely won’t be in that category as long as you make a choice from any of our recommended ‘Best Gaming Laptops Under 400 dollars’
I delved into thorough research of the best gaming laptops in the market and specifically handpicked these laptops for under 400 dollars. The laptops listed here offer the best price and performance in terms of a good frame rate with low to medium settings on most last generation games as well as certain lightweight millennial games.
Other laptop-specific factors which I considered before arriving at this well-thought-out list are specifications like the laptop’s processor, RAM, operating system, screen size and resolution, battery life etc. All this add up to ensure you get a good gaming experience with absolute value for money spent.
Best Gaming Laptops Under 400 Dollars
Lenovo 80E301Y6US G50 AMD Gaming Laptop Under 400 Dollars
The Lenovo 80E301Y6US G50 AMD is powered by a 2-GHz AMD quad-core A8-6410 processor with 4GB RAM. With this laptop, you get a bright display on its 15.6 inches LED-backlit widescreen. This screen offers a spectacular display of 200 cd/m² brightness and 1366 x 768 resolution that showcases games, movies and Web content in crisp detail.
- RAM – 4GB
- HDD – 1 Terabyte
- OS – Windows 10
- Screen size- 15.6 inches
- Processor – 2 GHz A8-6410
- USB ports – 2 USB 2.0 and 1 USB 3.0
Pros:
- Bright display
- Very affordable
- Relatively fast processor
Cons:
- Poor battery life
With a bright screen display and lightweight design, the Lenovo G50-45 will come as an affordable notebook for gamers. You are assured that the minutest graphic detail in any scene of your game will be accurately shown on this gaming laptop.
HP 15-ay065 Gaming Laptop Under 400 Dollars
Coming with a 15.6-inch diagonal HD (1366X768 resolution), Intel HD Graphics 5500 with 3157 MB total graphics memory is HP 15-ay065. This 5th generation gaming laptop comes packed with an Intel Core i3-5005U Processor 2 to 2.9 GHz, 6 GB DDR3L SDRAM, Multi-Format Digital Media Card Reader etc. The Li-Ion 3 cell battery of this laptop keeps it running for more than 6 hours of active usage, ensuring you are ready to game on, no matter how distant your location might be from a power source.
Quick specs:
- RAM – 6GB
- HDD – 1 Terabyte
- OS – Windows 10
- Screen size- 15.6 inches
- Processor – Intel Core i3-5005U
- USB ports – 1 USB 2.0 and 1 USB 3.0
Pros:
- Has 1 HDMI port
- Long lasting battery life
- Enough storage capacity
- Strong processor and RAM
- DTS Studio Sound with dual speakers
- Full-size island-style keyboard with numeric keypad
- Super-multi DVD burner (reads and writes CDs and DVDs)
See Also: Best gaming laptop under 1500 Dollars
Cons:
- No dedicated GPU
Verdict:
The HP 15-ay065 is a decent gaming laptop. Coming with a robust processor and an ample RAM enables this laptop to deliver high-performance gameplay and still be able to multitask doing other basic functions every other laptop has to perform. This is a good product and thus merits to be listed here.
Dell Inspiron 15 5000 Gaming Laptop Under 400 Dollars
A 7th generation Intel Core i3-7100 Dual-Core processor easily makes this one of the very best gaming laptops you can get for under $400 without regrets. The memory space is domiciled on a 1 terabyte hard disk drive which affords you the liberty to install as many of your favourite games as possible. With its 15.6 inches screen, this laptop is sure to give you an immersive and captivating view to savour every view during gameplay. It comes with a HDMI port which gives you the privilege to connect to an HDTV or high-def monitor. Thus you can set up two screens side by side or just enjoy a bigger view of your current laptop display.
See Also: Best Gaming PCs Under 1000 Dollars
Quick specs:
- RAM – 6GB
- HDD – 1 Terabyte
- OS – Windows 10
- Screen size- 15.6 inches
- Processor – 2.4 GHz Intel Core i3
- USB ports – 2 USB 2.0 and 1 USB 3.0
Pros:
- Bluetooth 4.0
- HDMI compatible
- Built-in stereo speakers
- Touch screen functionality
Cons:
- Bulky and quite heavy
Verdict:
Definitely not every gaming laptop will come with Bluetooth 4.0 and touchscreen capability. If these extra specifications are part of your main consideration for a gaming laptop, then you have found yourself the Dell Inspiron 15 5000 which makes this list of great gaming laptops under 400 dollars worth purchasing. More to this is the ability of this laptop to carry out other basic computing needs and multi-task efficiently without noticeable lags.
HP Pavilion 14-al061nr 14 Notebook
The HP Pavilion 14-aI061nr Notebook spots the Intel Core i3-6100U processor with 2.3 GHz 8GB DDR3 (2-DIMM) RAM, this laptop runs on a 3-cell lithium-Ion battery and displays its content on a small 14 inches screen. The keyboards are full sized with numeric keypad ports. It also comes with a Bluetooth 4.0 to ensure you connect seamlessly to other Bluetooth enabled devices and move data with great speed.
Quick specs:
- RAM – 8GB
- OS – Windows 10
- HDD – 1 Terabyte
- Screen size- 14 inches
- Processor – 2.3 GHz Intel Core i3
- USB ports – 2 USB 2.0 and 1 USB 3.0
Pros:
- Bluetooth 4.0
- Backlit keyboard
- HDMI compatible
- Small and compact
Cons:
- Small screen display
Verdict:
Once you can put up with the limitations of playing your games on a small screen sized laptop, this is an ideal product to purchase. The good part of HP Pavilion 14-al061nr 14 inches Notebook is that it comes with most of the basic features most 15 inches screen sized gaming laptops under 400 dollars come with. So if you wouldn’t mind something smaller or in fact envisaged buying a gaming laptop with a much smaller screen size. This is an ideal product for you.
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HP 15.6 Inch HD High-Performance Laptop PC
The HP 15.6 Inch HD High-Performance Laptop PC is ideally one of the top recommended for the budget conscious gamer. Coming with a standard 15.6 inches display screen diagonal HD SVA Bright View Screen for Vivid Colors, an 8GB system memory for advanced multitasking running on a 3-cell lithium-ion battery. This gaming laptop is sure to give you the very best for your money. The downsides, however, is the 500 HDD driver and its processor of AMD A6-7310 Quad-Core processor, 2.0 GHz restricting you from installing and playing much newer generation games on this laptop and obviously limited storage space.
Quick specs:
- RAM – 8GB
- HDD – 500GB
- OS – Windows 10
- Screen size- 15.6 inches
- Processor – 2.0 Quad-core processor
- USB ports – 2 USB 2.0 and 1 USB 3.0
Pros:
- Lightweight
- LED Backlight display
- Long lasting battery life
Cons:
- Low HDD
Verdict:
This is a laptop that will serve your gaming needs and still be able to deliver on the most basic computer use without having to overhaul the settings. It perfectly offers a very good blend of all the basic feature a gaming laptop under 400 dollars should have and it is an ideal buy for the budget conscious individual.
See Also: Best Gaming Keyboards Under 50 Dollars
Conclusion:
My well-researched list provides you with a wide range of options to choose your preferred budget gaming laptop from. Picking a product from this list ensures you will likely get on your budget and purchase some of the features found on high-end gaming laptops. Being expensive doesn’t necessarily mean having the monopoly over some basic features all gaming laptops should have, however, finding a product in this category means it is just ideal for the level of gaming you want to put it to.