£300 laptops worth buying

The best laptop under £300 in the UK is the ASUS Chromebook Plus CX34 CX3402CVA at £289 on Amazon UK at the time of writing (October 2026), and the best Windows laptop under £300 is a renewed Dell Latitude 5420 at £254. The Chromebook Plus CX34 has a 6-core Intel Core 3 100U, 8GB of RAM and Google updates until June 2032. The Latitude 5420 has an Intel Core i5-1135G7, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD and Windows 11 Pro, with a one-year Amazon Renewed Guarantee.

New Windows laptops are the trap at this price. Every new Windows laptop at or under £300 that Compare Electronic found on Amazon UK in October 2026 ships with 4GB of RAM, Microsoft's bare minimum for Windows 11, and most pair it with 64GB to 128GB of storage.

What is the best laptop for under £300?

The ASUS Chromebook Plus CX34 is the best laptop for under £300 because it is the only new laptop at this price that clears every minimum in Compare Electronic's budget laptop rules: 8GB of RAM for ChromeOS, fast storage rather than eMMC, a 1920x1080 screen and a processor from the last three years. The Chromebook Plus badge guarantees most of that, because Google only grants it to Chromebooks with at least 8GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, a Full HD IPS screen and a 1080p webcam.

Buyers who need Windows should buy renewed, not new. A renewed business laptop from 2020 or 2021 at £254 to £289 has four times the RAM and four to eight times the storage of a new £279 Windows laptop, and both picks here run Windows 11 on processors Microsoft supports. For a bigger budget, see Best laptop under £500 UK 2026.

1. ASUS Chromebook Plus CX34 CX3402CVA - best new laptop under £300

The ASUS Chromebook Plus CX34 CX3402CVA costs £289 on Amazon UK at the time of writing (October 2026), £11 under the budget. ASUS fits an Intel Core 3 100U with 6 cores, 8 threads and a 4.7 GHz boost, 8GB of LPDDR5 and 128GB of UFS storage, a faster class of flash than the eMMC chips in cheaper Chromebooks. The 14-inch 1920x1080 screen is anti-glare and rated at 250 nits, and the 1080p webcam has a privacy shutter.

ASUS rates the 50 Wh battery at up to 10 hours and the laptop weighs from 1.44 kg. The ports cover two USB-C with charging and display output, two USB-A and HDMI. Google lists its Auto Update Expiration as June 2032, so the £289 laptop costs about £51 per year of guaranteed security and feature updates from October 2026. The limits are ChromeOS itself, which cannot install Windows programs, and 128GB of storage, which suits a cloud-first student.

2. Dell Latitude 5420 (renewed) - best Windows laptop under £300

The renewed Dell Latitude 5420 costs £254 on Amazon UK at the time of writing (October 2026) in a listing with a UK keyboard, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD and Windows 11 Pro. Intel launched the Core i5-1135G7 in the third quarter of 2020; it has 4 cores, 8 threads, a 4.2 GHz boost and Iris Xe graphics, and it appears on Microsoft's list of processors supported by Windows 11.

The Latitude 5420 is a business laptop, so it has ports consumer laptops at this price lack: two Thunderbolt 4 ports, Ethernet, HDMI 2.0 and a microSD slot. Dell lists its maximum weight as 1.37 kg. The trade-offs come with age: Dell sold the 5420 with several screens, so brightness depends on the unit, and a battery from 2021 holds less charge than when new.

3. Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 1 (renewed) - best keyboard under £300

The renewed Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 1 costs £289 on Amazon UK at the time of writing (October 2026), with a UK keyboard, an Intel Core i5-10310U, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB NVMe SSD and Windows 11 Pro. The ThinkPad keyboard is the reason to choose it over the cheaper Dell: it is the best typing keyboard under £300, which matters for long essays and coding.

Lenovo launched the T14 Gen 1 in 2020 with a 50 Wh battery, a 17.9 mm chassis and a weight of 1.55 kg, plus Thunderbolt 3, Ethernet and a microSD slot. The 10th-generation Core i5-10310U is on Microsoft's Windows 11 list but is a generation older than the Dell's chip and has slower integrated graphics.

Why not buy a new Windows laptop under £300?

Because every new one Compare Electronic found on Amazon UK in October 2026 has 4GB of RAM. Microsoft lists 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage as the minimum for Windows 11, so these laptops run the operating system with almost nothing to spare, and they slow down as soon as a browser and Teams are open. The cheapest new Windows laptops with 8GB of RAM start above £300.

Storage type is the second trap. Samsung rates its eMMC 5.1 chips at 250 MB/s for reading, against 2,100 MB/s for its UFS 3.1 chips and about 3,500 MB/s for a PCIe 3.0 NVMe SSD. Amazon listings sometimes call eMMC an SSD, as with the ASUS Chromebook Plus CX15, so check the manufacturer's spec sheet. The full list of budget traps is in Best laptop under £500 UK 2026.

Should you buy a Chromebook or a Windows laptop under £300?

Buy a Chromebook for browser-based work and long software support; buy a renewed Windows laptop for desktop programs. The ASUS Chromebook Plus CX34 runs Google Docs, Microsoft 365 in the browser, Android apps and most university platforms, gets updates until June 2032 and has malware protection built into ChromeOS. It cannot install Windows programs such as SPSS, desktop MATLAB or full Microsoft Office.

A renewed Latitude 5420 or ThinkPad T14 runs all of them, with 16GB of RAM for heavy multitasking. Students should check their course software list before choosing. The rest of a student's kit is covered in the University tech checklist UK 2026, and higher-budget picks in Best student laptop UK 2026.

Is a renewed laptop from Amazon UK safe to buy?

Yes. Amazon's Renewed Guarantee gives a replacement or refund if a renewed product is faulty, defective or does not work as expected for one year from delivery, on top of UK statutory rights. Business laptops such as the Latitude 5420 and ThinkPad T14 were built for daily office use and repair, which makes them better second-hand buys than consumer laptops of the same age.

Three checks reduce the risk: buy a listing that states a UK keyboard, as both picks do; check the seller's rating; and expect the battery to last less than the original rating. The differences between new, renewed and refurbished are covered in New vs renewed vs refurbished tech.

Best laptop under £300 UK 2026 compared

The renewed Dell Latitude 5420 gives the most RAM per pound at £15.88 per GB, and the ASUS Chromebook Plus CX34 is the only new laptop and the lightest pick to carry.

Verdict

The ASUS Chromebook Plus CX34 CX3402CVA at £289 is the best laptop under £300 in the UK: new, light, and supported by Google until June 2032. The renewed Dell Latitude 5420 at £254 is the best Windows laptop under £300, and the renewed Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 1 at £289 is the pick for heavy typists. Skip new Windows laptops at this price: 4GB of RAM is not enough for Windows 11.

Buyers who can stretch further get a new Windows laptop with 16GB of RAM; see Best laptop under £500 UK 2026 and Best mid-range laptop UK 2026.