The Best Notebooks For Less Than 300 Euros

Q2/2021 update. The price bracket of less than 300 Euros is sparsely populated as most devices fail to stay under this threshold. Devices that do make it tend to be limited to the bare essentials requiring a long list of sometimes massive compromises. The following table contains an overview over all devices in this incredibly low price range.

Florian Schmitt, ✓ Tanja Hinum (translated by Finn D. Boerne), 01/01/2018 🇩🇪 🇹🇷 ...

Because of the low price, cost has to be cut on all sides. Since the display is an important cost factor, it is affected in most cases. You should not expect excellent contrast or colors in this category. Battery size, and as a result battery life, used materials, available interfaces, and communication modules offer many possibilities for savings too. If you are looking for a simple typewriter and have low requirements in general, you might find an appropriate device anyway. For affordable devices please also consider the following rankings:

The Best Laptops For Less Than 300 Euros

Pos.	Date	Rating	Model	Height	Weight	Size	Resolution	Screen
1	07/2020	78 %	Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 3 11IGL05 Intel Celeron N4020 Intel UHD Graphics 600 4 GB Memory, 64 GB eMMC	17.5 mm	1.1 kg	11.60"	1366x768	glossy
2		75 %	LincPlus P1 Intel Celeron N4000 Intel UHD Graphics 600 4 GB Memory, 64 GB eMMC	16 mm	1.4 kg	13.30"	1920x1080	glossy
3	09/2020	74 %	Chuwi GemiBook CWI528 Intel Celeron J4115 Intel UHD Graphics 600 12 GB Memory, SSD	17.75 mm	1.3 kg	13.00"	2160x1440	glossy
4	02/2020	74 %	Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 1-14AST-05 AMD A6-9220e AMD Radeon R4 (Stoney Ridge) 4 GB Memory, 64 GB eMMC	20.9 mm	1.4 kg	14.00"	1920x1080	matte

The table above contains an overview over the best notebooks for less than 300 Euros reviewed by Notebookcheck over the course of the past 12 months as well as still relevant and available older products. In cases of identical score the more recent device is listed first. All prices in above table and price comparisons are updated daily and can thus differ.

Link: Link: all devices in this class reviewed

Editors' Comments

1st – Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 3 11IGL05

The Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 3 is a 11.6-inch convertible that can be purchased for around 300 Euros. It is silent and offers good battery life – an intriguing combination for not a lot of money. Unfortunately, the notebook’s performance is fairly poor, and it will take quite long to finish various tasks.

The storage device is based on eMMC technology and this quite slow overall. Thus, this cheap SKU is not necessarily worth purchasing. For around 100 Euros more you get twice the storage based on modern SSD technology as well as a faster processor. Most users will benefit from this upgrade.

Top 10 Laptops
Multimedia, Budget Multimedia, Gaming, Budget Gaming, Lightweight Gaming, Business, Budget Office, Workstation, Subnotebooks, Ultrabooks, Chromebooks

under 300 USD/Euros, under 500 USD/Euros, 1.000 USD/Euros

Best Displays, for University Students

Top 10 Smartphones
Smartphones, Phablets, ≤5-inch, Camera Smartphones The Best Smartphones for Less Than 160 Euros

2nd - LincPlus P1 Laptop

The LincPlus P1 is not really powerful, but that's not what the Celeron N4000 is made for: You get a decent keyboard with large keys, a sturdy aluminum chassis (!), the display manages a decent contrast ratio and there is no fan, so you always have a silent device. It is also possible to expand the storage.

You should not hope for a USB-C port though, which is not available. The webcam is hardly usable, either. You basically get a very affordable laptop that looks better than it really is. If the limited performance is sufficient for you, but you still want a good looking machine, the LincPlus P1 is still worth considering.

Pricecompare

4th - Lenovo Ideapad Slim

The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim is supposed to be a competitor for Chromebooks, but the APU is a bit slow for Windows 10. So you have to be careful not demanding too much from the system by limiting the number of active applications. This can be an issue in practice, especially since you only get slow eMMC storage.

In return, you get a matte screen, a silent and cool system, a two-year warranty, and a one-year license for Microsoft Office 365. We also like the keyboard, even though it is not illuminated.

if you don't need a lot of performance, you can have a look at the notebook, but everyone else will probably find better alternatives in this price range.

Pricecompare

Best Laptops under 300 USD/Euros in Comparison

Size Comparison

Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 1-14AST-05 LincPlus P1 Chuwi GemiBook CWI528 Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 3 11IGL05 ❌

Test Results

	Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 3 11IGL05 UHD Graphics 600, Celeron N4020, SanDisk DA4064	LincPlus P1 UHD Graphics 600, Celeron N4000, 64 GB eMMC Flash	Chuwi GemiBook CWI528 UHD Graphics 600, Celeron J4115, Morebeck-S100 256GB	Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 1-14AST-05 Radeon R4 (Stoney Ridge), A6-9220e, 64 GB eMMC Flash
Response Times
Response Time Grey 50% / Grey 80% *	38 (20, 18)	36 (20, 16)	37.6 (18.8, 18.8)	44 (24, 20)
Response Time Black / White *	25 (14, 11)	29 (17, 12)	30.4 (16.4, 14)	14 (10, 4)
PWM Frequency	250 (60)	250 (20)		147 (60)
Screen
Brightness middle	270	264	255.8	245
Brightness	259	256	246	226
Brightness Distribution	76	84	91	86
Black Level *	0.195	0.25	0.24	0.445
Contrast	1385	1056	1066	551
Colorchecker DeltaE2000 *	3.98	7.36	3.61	10.75
Colorchecker DeltaE2000 max. *	8.46	12.72	8.73	20.82
Colorchecker DeltaE2000 calibrated *	4	2.12	0.9	5.48
Greyscale DeltaE2000 *	2.57	8.74	5.9	12.85
Gamma	2.3 ^96%	2.41 ^91%	2.19 ^100%	2.42 ^91%
CCT	6332 ^103%	8741 ^74%	6805 ^96%	15973 ^41%
Color Space (Percent of AdobeRGB 1998)	43	62	63.1	39
Color Space (Percent of sRGB)	67	95	99	62
Noise
off / environment *			26.2
Idle Minimum *			26.2
Idle Average *			26.2
Idle Maximum *			26.2
Load Average *			26.5
Load Maximum *			26.7
Heat
Maximum Upper Side *	37.4	36.2	33	32.8
Maximum Bottom *	41.4	33.9	38	34.9
Idle Upper Side *	27.2	26.8	29	27.7
Idle Bottom *	27	25.4	30.4	28.7
Battery Runtime
Reader / Idle
WiFi v1.3	555	370	335	339
Load
Power Consumption
Idle Minimum *	2.4	2.9	7.1	3.2
Idle Average *	4.5	7.7	9.3	4.9
Idle Maximum *	4.6	8.2	9.6	5.4
Load Average *	12.8	13.8	14.1	13.4
Load Maximum *	14.3	14.5	24.4	14.7

* ... smaller is better

Benchmarks

PCMark 8 | 3DMark 11 | 3DMark

PCMark 8
Work Score Accelerated v2 (sort by value)
Chuwi GemiBook CWI528 UHD Graphics 600, Celeron J4115, Morebeck-S100 256GB	2926 Points ∼43%
Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 1-14AST-05 Radeon R4 (Stoney Ridge), A6-9220e, 64 GB eMMC Flash	2326 Points ∼34%
Home Score Accelerated v2 (sort by value)
Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 3 11IGL05 UHD Graphics 600, Celeron N4020, SanDisk DA4064	1811 Points ∼29%
Chuwi GemiBook CWI528 UHD Graphics 600, Celeron J4115, Morebeck-S100 256GB	1866 Points ∼30%
Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 1-14AST-05 Radeon R4 (Stoney Ridge), A6-9220e, 64 GB eMMC Flash	1106 Points ∼18%

3DMark 11 - 1280x720 Performance (sort by value)
Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 3 11IGL05 UHD Graphics 600, Celeron N4020, SanDisk DA4064	589 Points ∼1%
Chuwi GemiBook CWI528 UHD Graphics 600, Celeron J4115, Morebeck-S100 256GB	472 Points ∼1%
Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 1-14AST-05 Radeon R4 (Stoney Ridge), A6-9220e, 64 GB eMMC Flash	430 Points ∼1%

3DMark
1920x1080 Fire Strike Score (sort by value)
Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 3 11IGL05 UHD Graphics 600, Celeron N4020, SanDisk DA4064	345 Points ∼1%
LincPlus P1 UHD Graphics 600, Celeron N4000, 64 GB eMMC Flash	358 Points ∼1%
Chuwi GemiBook CWI528 UHD Graphics 600, Celeron J4115, Morebeck-S100 256GB	300 Points ∼1%
Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 1-14AST-05 Radeon R4 (Stoney Ridge), A6-9220e, 64 GB eMMC Flash	253 Points ∼1%
1280x720 Cloud Gate Standard Score (sort by value)
Chuwi GemiBook CWI528 UHD Graphics 600, Celeron J4115, Morebeck-S100 256GB	2672 Points ∼4%
Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 1-14AST-05 Radeon R4 (Stoney Ridge), A6-9220e, 64 GB eMMC Flash	1029 Points ∼1%