Ranking: Best laptops for under 1,000 dollars/euros

The base model of the 13-inch MacBook Air 2025 benefits from its extremely fast M4 processor and, in addition to the thin casing, also has a very good IPS display, silent operation and long battery life to offer.

The Apple MacBook Air 13 is an unbeatable overall package for around 1,000 euros.

The base SKU of the MacBook Air 13 M4 is available from all well-known retailers such as Notebooksbilliger or Amazon.de starting from 994 euros in Germany.

With the IdeaPad Pro 5 14, Lenovo has a compact multimedia notebook featuring a fast AMD Ryzen 7 processor as well as a 2.8K OLED with 120 Hz and an HDR brightness of up to 1,100 nits, with good color accuracy out of the box.

Lenovo's IdeaPad Pro 5 14 G10 left us impressed with its AMD processor, which is fast and has good performance sustainability, as well as battery life, which is long, aluminum casing and, of course, the new OLED panel.

Our test system is available at Campuspoint.de for 989 euros with no operating system pre-installed. At Lenovo's own German online store, a very similar model costs 1,099 euros (1,149 euros with Windows 11 Home included).

The updated ThinkPad E16 affordable office laptop, now in its 3rd generation, has Arrow Lake processors and a new high-resolution 120-Hz display. Battery life is long and up to 128 GB of RAM can be installed if required.

The third generation of the ThinkPad E16 is a really good office laptop, with our testing revealingno real weak points. Due in to its reasonable price to a very large extent, this is a very good product.

Our test device costs 899 euros at Campuspoint.de, and alternatively, the model can be configured at Lenovo Germany for 1,049 euros.

The 2025 model of the RedmiBook Pro 14 sports Intel Arrow Lake and a brighter IPS display with 120-Hz, both upgrades over the previous-gen model. Battery life saw an improvement as well. Despite its somewhat higher price, this is still a good overall product.

With the 2025 update of the 14-inch RedmiBook Pro, we get a fresh new Arrow Lake processor from Intel, which delivers good performance thanks to high power limits.

The RedmiBook Pro 14 2025 can be imported via TradingShenzen. Our test device costs 1,087 euros.

Lenovo has updated its affordable 14-inch ThinkPad E-series office laptop and, in addition to Intel's Arrow Lake processors, has also opted for a new high-resolution IPS display with 120 Hz. Battery life has also been improved, and the compact ThinkPad offers good maintenance as well as upgrade options.

With the ThinkPad E14 Gen7, you get a good and relatively affordable office laptop with an improved display and good battery life.

As tested, the system is available at Campuspoint.de for 999 euros; lower-end SKUs can be orderd from Lenovo Deutschland starting from 769 euros.

The MacBook Neo is the first affordable MacBook in many years. Powered by the Apple A18 Pro smartphone processor, the base SKU sells for 699 euros in Germany and $699 in the US. This is a laptop that looks and feels like a real MacBook and is surprisingly powerful for its size.

The Neo feels like a typical MacBook, with no major compromises compared to the Air models. And it is extremely affordable.

The 2026 MacBook Neo is available at Amazon.de for 699 euros and of course directly from Apple Deutschland for the same price.

Its strong price-performance ratio is probably the key advantage of the OmniBook 5 14. With a price of less than $600, this is one of the few sub-notebooks for the money to have an OLED screen offering better colors and black levels than most alternatives in the price range. It also has the long battery life characteristic of most Snapdragon-powered machines.

Users looking for OLED-standard P3 colors and not bothered by the issues of Windows on ARM will find the OmniBook 5 14 a strong and very affordable solution.

The OmniBook 5 Next Gen AI PC 14-he0354ng comes closest to the model tested; this is available from Mediamarkt.de for 839 euros. A slightly different model, the OmniBook 5 14-he0754ng can currently be ordered from HP Germany for 839 euros. Both come equipped with a 512-GB SSD.

While the stylish casing of the Yoga 7 2-in-1 may not be ultra-light by 14-inch laptop standards, it impresses with high-quality materials and good structural stability. The machine's display is fairly good, despite its highly reflective finish, not-particularly-impressive brightness, and some flickering at below-90-percent brightness levels. Typical for OLEDs, it has an excellent black level, very high contrasts and wide color gamut. However, the real strength of the reviewed AKP10 83JR002UGE model is the fresh Ryzen AI 5 340 APU from the Krackan Point family, which is both fast and and battery-saving.

Lenovo's Yoga 7 2-in-1 14AKP10 is a versatile 14-inch convertible with a powerful Ryzen AI 5 CPU, great battery life and a good OLED panel.

As tested, the Yoga 7 2-in-1 14AKP10 83JR002UGE is available starting from around 1,000 euros in Germany at various retailers, including computeruniverse.net.

The ExpertBook PM3406 is an affordable office laptop with a fast AMD Ryzen processor and advanced AI features. It has a sturdy aluminum casing offering a sufficient selection of ports, as well as good maintenance and upgrade options, along with comfortable input devices and good speakers. CPU performance is also good here.

All in all, the ExpertBook PM3 is a solid office notebook and the RRP of 979 euros includes three-year warranty in Germany.

Acer is not widely known for making business laptops, which is perplexing given that the TravelMate P4 TMP414-42 shows the Taiwanese brand very much can produce good laptops for getting things done. The machine impresses with its AMD Ryzen 5 CPU and bright matte display, as well as great input devices.

Acer's TravelMate P4 offers a bright matte display, a comfortable keyboard and a good touchpad as well as many ports and security features.

The TravelMate P4 TMP414-42 as tested costs around 1,080 euros at our partner Campuspoint. For students and others eligible for Acer's education program, the Acer notebook is available starting from 980 euros.