The Best Budget Laptops Under $1,000 for Back to School
This article provides a guide for students looking for budget-friendly laptops under $1,000 in 2026. It highlights the impact of global memory shortages on hardware pricing and recommends specific models like the MacBook Neo.
Why it matters
Rising hardware costs are creating significant barriers for students, making informed purchasing decisions essential for academic success.
2026 is proving to be the best and, absolutely, the worst time to buy your next big back-to-school laptop. Your choices are more limited than ever if you hope to stick to a sub-$1,000 budget. Thankfully, the laptops on offer at this price point are some of the best in years.
At the same time that both Apple and PC makers are pushing lightweight laptops that don’t feel cheap, the ongoing memory shortage has spiked the cost of all RAM and SSD components. That has had a knock-on effect for components like discrete GPUs—the kind necessary for any more intensive task young engineers or data scientists may require.
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