Full disclosure: Laptops in the $300 or less price range won’t be any good for PC games. It’s priceless for a screen with 4K resolution or a refresh rate higher than 60Hz, and its RAM will max out at around 8GB. (Not bad, but not spectacular either.) You’re also not likely to get more than 500GB of storage space on a cheap laptop.
As for the screen, most of the best laptops under $300 are smaller. Manufacturers are starting to make more in the 14 to 15.6-inch range, but most measure around 11.6 inches. Some machines in this price range feature niceties like touchscreens and backlit displays, but they are few and far between.
You’ll mostly be looking for basic, minimalist laptops that are best for light tasks like browsing the web, writing and editing documents, making video calls, and streaming, which again may be all you need. Basic is not necessarily a bad thing.
