At $1200, you should, absolutely, buy a high performance laptop. Here, we’ll look at the best laptops under $1200. At this price point, your laptop, will be suitable for gaming, 3D Animation, CAD, Photo & Video editing, Architecture & Engineering. In fact, a laptop that costs less than 1200 dollars, is suitable for School, work, business and even family use. To get value for your money, there are a couple of specifications that are necessary and important. This, ensures that you get good performance when using your device.
First, lets talk about performance. At this price point, performance, is an important consideration. You don’t want your laptop to slow down when working on CPU intensive software. This can highly reduce your productivity. For that reason, a laptop with an Intel Core 7 or Ryzen 7, is the minimum you should get at around $1200. With this, you can be able to comfortably run the latest programs and issues, without running into CPU bottleneck.
In addition, for specialized programs such as Adobe Premiere Pro, Da Vinci Resolve, Photoshop, or even Architecture and Engineering programs like Revit, Solidworks, Lumion and 3DS, a dedicated GPU such as Nvidia or Amd is recommended. Most of these design and creative programs, offload some work to the GPU. Therefore, you get improved rendering times when working on these. All the laptops listed here come with at least 4GB of dedicated VRAM.
These days, you’ll find most people, running several programs at the same time. For example, you can have pdf, Word & Excel, Browser, and specialized software, all running at the same time. With little RAM, you won’t intuitively switch between these programs without running into performance issues. That is the reason why this list of best laptops that cost less than $1200, has only laptops with at least 16GB of RAM. This, enables you to run several programs at the same time, and switch between them, without having lags and freezes.
The display, is usually, an important feature of a laptop. Sadly, many people usually overlook this. A high refresh rate, in addition to color accuracy and a high contrast ratio and resolution, should come with all laptops that cost around $1200. All laptops listed here, have at least a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. When it comes to the display size, your preference take the frontline. However, most people find either 14 or 15 inch laptops to have the right mix between performance, productivity and portability. If you prefer larger displays, then the 17 inch laptops are appropriate. For smaller displays, you can have 13 inches.
If you’ll be using your $1200 on the go, then battery life, is of great importance. Carrying the power brick, will limit your movement, in addition to forcing you to sit next to a power outlet. Having a laptop that lasts many hours, is important for school, travel and work. The laptop you get, should last at least 8 hours of moderate usage without needing a recharge.
You can also have a look at the best laptops under $1500 in addition to the best laptops under $1000.
All the laptops listed here that cost less than $1200, have the above minimum specifications, to ensure that you get value for your money. In this list, you can get laptops from brands such as Lenovo, Apple, Asus, MSI, Acer, HP, and Dell.
The Following are the Best Laptops Under $1200:
Contents
Acer TravelMate P6 Business Laptop
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| CPU | 8th Generation Intel Core i5-8265U Processor (Up to 3 9GHz) |
| GPU | Intel HD Graphics |
| Display Size | 14 inches |
| Display Resolution | 1920x1080 pixels |
| RAM | 8GB DDR4 |
| Storage Space | 256 GB SSD |
| Operating System | Windows 10 |
| Ports | 1 - Thunderbolt 3 (Full USB 3 1 Type C) Port | 2 - USB 3 1 Gen 1 Ports (one featuring power-off USB charging) | 1 - HDMI 2 0 Port with HDCP support |
| Dimensions (L x W x H) | 12.8 x 9.06 x 0.65 inches |
| Weight | 2.6 pounds |
| Pros | Good performance, Quality display, Lightweight and Portable, Long battery life |
| Cons | Storage capacity may be inadequate for some people |
ASUS TUF Gaming A15 Gaming Laptop
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| CPU | 8-core AMD Ryzen 7 4800H Processor 45W (8M Cache, up to 4.2GHz) |
| GPU | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6GB GDDR6 |
| Display Size | 15.6 inches |
| Display Resolution | 1920 x 1080 pixels |
| RAM | 16 GB DDR4 |
| Storage Space | 512 GB Flash Memory Solid State |
| Operating System | Windows 10 Home |
| Ports | USBs, HDMI, Ethernet, Audio Jack |
| Dimensions (L x W x H) | 14.5 x 10.1 x 0.98 inches |
| Weight | 5.07 pounds |
| Pros | Good performance, Quality display |
| Cons | Quite heavy |
Lenovo ThinkBook 15 Business Laptop
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| CPU | Intel Core i7-10510U Quad Core Processor (8MB Cache, 1.8GHz-4.9GHz) 15W |
| GPU | Intel HD |
| Display Size | 15.6 inches |
| Display Resolution | 1920 x 1080 pixels |
| RAM | 24GB (8GB Soldered + 16GB) DDR4 2666MHz |
| Storage Space | 1TB NVMe Solid State Drive |
| Operating System | Windows 10 |
| Ports | USB, Ethernet, Audio Jack, HDMI |
| Dimensions (L x W x H) | 14.33 x 9.65 x 0.74 inches |
| Weight | 3.97 pounds |
| Pros | Good design and Build quality, Long battery life |
| Cons | NA |
MSI GF65 Thin 9SEXR-250 Laptop
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| CPU | 9th Gen Intel Coffee Lake Core i7-9750H Six Core (2.6GHz-4.5GHz, 12MB Intel Smart Cache, 45W) |
| GPU | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 6GB GDDR6 |
| Display Size | 15.6 inches |
| Display Resolution | 1920 x 1080 pixels |
| RAM | 16GB (2x 8GB) DDR4 2666MHz |
| Storage Space | 1TB (2x 512GB) PCIe NVMe SSD |
| Operating System | Windows 10 |
| Ports | USBs, Ethernet, HDMI, Audio Jack |
| Dimensions (L x W x H) | 14.13 x 9.99 x 0.85 inches |
| Weight | 4.1 pounds |
| Pros | Good performance, Quality display, Large storage capacity |
| Cons | NA |
HP Envy 17t Touch(10th Gen Intel i7 Laptop
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| CPU | 10th Generation Intel Core i7-10510U (1.8 GHz, up to 4.90 GHz, 8 MB cache, 4 cores) |
| GPU | NVIDIA GeForce MX250 (4GB GDDR5 dedicated) |
| Display Size | 17.3 inches |
| Display Resolution | 1920x1080 |
| RAM | 16 GB DDR4 |
| Storage Space | TB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD |
| Operating System | Windows 10 Pro |
| Ports | 1 headphone/microphone combo; 1 USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-C (Data Transfer Only, 5 Gb/s signaling rate); 1 USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A (HP Sleep and Charge); 2 USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A |
| Dimensions (L x W x H) | 15.94 x 10.47 x 0.88 inches |
| Weight | 6.1 pounds |
| Pros | Good performance, Quality display, Long battery life |
| Cons | Weight |
Huawei MateBook X Pro Signature Edition Thin & Light Laptop
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| CPU | 8th Gen Intel Core i7 8550U processor |
| GPU | NVIDIA GeForce MX150 |
| Display Size | 13.9 inches |
| Display Resolution | 3000 x 2000 |
| RAM | 16 GB LPDDR3 |
| Storage Space | 512 GB 512 GB NVMePCIeSSD |
| Operating System | Windows 10 Home |
| Ports | USB-A port, USB-C port, HDMI port and VGA port |
| Dimensions (L x W x H) | 11.97 x 0.57 x 8.54 inches |
| Weight | 2.93 pounds |
| Pros | Quality display, Good performance, Large storage capacity |
| Cons | NA |
Lenovo Legion Y545 Gaming Laptop
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| CPU | 9th Gen Intel Hexa-Core i7-9750H(6 Cores, 12 MB SmartCache,2.6GHz up to 4.50GHz) |
| GPU | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti |
| Display Size | 15.6 inches |
| Display Resolution | 1920 x 1080 |
| RAM | 16GB DDR4 2400 SDRAM |
| Storage Space | 1TB HDD + 256GB PCIE SSD |
| Operating System | Windows 10 |
| Ports | Bluetooth, USB 3.0, HDMI |
| Dimensions (L x W x H) | 14.2 x 10.3 x 1.3 inches |
| Weight | 6 pounds |
| Pros | Performance, Display, Storage capacity |
| Cons | Weight |
MSI GP65 Leopard 10SDK-049 Laptop
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| CPU | Intel Core i7-10750H |
| GPU | GTX 1660 Ti |
| Display Size | 15.6 inches |
| Display Resolution | 1920 x 1080 pixels |
| RAM | 16 GB DDR4 |
| Storage Space | 512GB NVMe SSD |
| Operating System | Windows 10 |
| Ports | USB 3 2 Gen2 Type C *1 USB 3 2 Gen1 *2 Steel Series per-Key RGB with Anti-Ghost key+ silver lining 720p HD Webcam |
| Dimensions (L x W x H) | 14.08 x 10.57 x 1.08 inches |
| Weight | 8.88 pounds |
| Pros | Very good performance |
| Cons | Quite heavy |
