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Buying a laptop for your kid is just as tricky as buying one for work or household use—perhaps more so. Many schools consider laptops essential educational tools and equip their classrooms with them. Some even require parents to purchase one for their kids. (And, of course, kids want them—to play games on!) That's where the laptop experts at PCMag come in. We've reviewed thousands of laptops over the decades since our founding. Our analysts test every model with rigorous, repeatable tests, assessing laptops on the basis of CPU and graphics performance, screen quality, design, usability, ruggedness, and value. Our current overall best laptop for kids is Acer's Aspire 3, an affordable 15-inch model with decent performance and battery life, but we stand behind all our picks, chosen for specific scenarios and budgets. Read on to see them all, plus our detailed kid-laptop buying advice and a helpful spec comparison.
Our Top Tested Picks
Acer Aspire 3 (A315-24P)
Asus Chromebook Plus CX34
Apple MacBook Air (M1, Late 2020)
Lenovo Flex 3 Chromebook
Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i 14-Inch (2022)
Acer Nitro V 15 (ANV15-51-59MT)
Acer Chromebook 516 GE
Framework Laptop 13 (2023)
Best Prime Day Laptop Deals for Kids This Week*
- Dell Inspiron 15 3520 Intel i7 1TB SSD 16GB RAM 15.6" Laptop — $499.99 (List Price $699.99)
- Dell Inspiron 15 3520 Intel i5 512GB SSD 15.6" Touch Laptop — $459.99 (List Price $579.99)
- HP Pavilion x360 Intel i5 256GB SSD 15.6" 2-in-1 Laptop — $459.99 (List Price $799.99)
- Acer Aspire 3 A315 Ryzen 5 512GB SSD 15.6" Touch Laptop — $349.99 (List Price $599.99)
- Asus Vivobook 16 Ryzen 7 1TB SSD 16GB RAM 16" Laptop — $499.99 (List Price $599.99)
*Deals are selected by our commerce team
Best Overall Windows Laptop for Kids
Acer Aspire 3 (A315-24P)
- Smooth everyday operation
- Extensive battery life
- Current Wi-Fi connectivity
- Competitive starting price
- Limited performance headroom
- Dated, somewhat flimsy design
- Lackluster display
- Top configuration is outclassed
The Acer Aspire 3 (A315-24P) undercuts the competition with decent performance in its base configuration. It’s basic as bricks, though, and the higher-end configuration just isn't as competitive.
Best Chromebook for Kids
Asus Chromebook Plus CX34
- Affordable price even with improved specs
- Leading performance in every test
- High-quality FHD display
- Decent port array, Wi-Fi 6, and Bluetooth 5.2
- Durable MIL-SPEC-certified design and antimicrobial coating
- Average battery life
- No touch capability (at this price)
- Limited UFS storage is just adequate
The Asus Chromebook Plus CX34 proves that budget-friendly Chromebooks have more to offer than ever before, with more performance and even better features.
Best Apple Laptop for Kids
Apple MacBook Air (M1, Late 2020)
- Good value, especially for a MacBook
- Much-improved performance, thanks to Apple’s new M1 processor
- Exceptional battery life
- Sleek, portable metal design
- High-quality keyboard, touchpad, and display
- Multiple color options
- Port selection limited to two USB Type-C connections
- Still no touch-screen option
Now often discounted, the 2020 M1-equipped MacBook Air packs better performance than its predecessors, rivaling at times the M1-based MacBook Pro. It's a good value for students.
Best Convertible 2-in-1 Chromebook for Kids
Lenovo Flex 3 Chromebook
- Responsive 12.2-inch touchscreen
- Low price
- Compact and lightweight
- Decent port selection
- Flexible 2-in-1 design
- Middling Intel N100 processor
- Storage limited to 64GB eMMC
- Lagging battery life
- Plastic construction with unwanted chassis flex
The Lenovo Flex 3 Chromebook is a highly affordable 2-in-1 with a charming design, a responsive touch screen, and a helpful array of ports.
Best Budget Windows Laptop for Kids
Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i 14-Inch (2022)
- Sturdy as a tablet or laptop
- Includes both HDMI and USB-C ports
- Responsive, bright touch screen
- Decent performance for the price
- Display's color coverage is lacking
- Battery life is shorter than average
- Active pen not included
- Proprietary power port instead of USB-C charging
The panel and battery could use some tweaks, but Lenovo’s IdeaPad Flex 5i 14-inch is a solid-value budget convertible laptop with a nice keyboard and decent performance for the money.
Best Gaming Laptop for Kids
Acer Nitro V 15 (ANV15-51-59MT)
- Attractive price
- Suffices for 1080p gaming
- Wide selection of ports
- Lengthy battery life
- Lagging processor performance
- Limited 512GB SSD
The Acer Nitro V 15 won’t top any charts, but it's a fine value in a budget gaming laptop, driving more-than-60fps performance for well under $1,000 while dodging any major design potholes.
Best Gaming Chromebook for Kids
Acer Chromebook 516 GE
- Superb performance in gaming (and everything else)
- Powerful hardware for a Chromebook, from processing to storage
- Rich port selection
- RGB keyboard with anti-ghosting tech
- Gorgeous 120Hz display
- No touch screen
- USB-C ports aren't Thunderbolt 4
Acer's rousing Chromebook 516 GE is among the first Chromebooks designed specially for cloud-based gaming. If this machine is any indication, we may be seeing the birth of a promising new class of laptop.
Best Kids Laptop for Long-Term Savings and Upgrades
Framework Laptop 13 (2023)
- Repairable, upgradable, and user-friendly design
- Lightweight and portable, with 11-hour battery life
- Swappable ports enable extreme customization
- Expanded ecosystem of parts and accessories
- Highly customizable before checkout
- Expansion cards cost extra
- Pre-built system comes at a premium
- No touch-screen or OLED options (yet)
With its new 13th Gen Intel mainboard, the latest Framework Laptop 13 is a smarter buy than ever. Its sustainable, upgradable design promises that upgrading it down the line will cost a fraction of buying new.
First and foremost, as a preface to our advice: Our focus here is on younger kids. If your child is at the university level, check out our roundup of the best laptops for college students. And you'll find even more choices in our overall roundup of the best budget laptops. Also check our top picks for the best Chromebooks for kids for more on ChromeOS concerns and education aspects, especially for the lower grades.
If your child is also of the age that they may be looking to play PC games on the same machine they'll use for schoolwork, that is a whole other set of considerations. We'll address that in a section near the end of this article, but know that gaming machines cost more than our other picks here.
Which Operating System Is Best in a Kid PC?
Before you begin to evaluate features, you'll start with the essential question that has plagued PC shoppers for decades: Which operating system should I choose?
Most parents will choose between Microsoft's Windows and Google's ChromeOS. In addition to running web apps within the Chrome browser, ChromeOS can run apps from the Google Play store designed for Android smartphones and tablets, including Microsoft Office. If you've decided against buying a smartphone for your kids but they talk your ear off about wanting to play mobile games, buying a Chromebook might be a good compromise.
Apple fans aren't limited solely to expensive premium laptops anymore, so macOS is also a viable choice. Thanks to a partnership between Apple and retailers like Walmart and Best Buy, the 2020 MacBook Air is more affordable than ever, so you can set your older kids up with a new MacBook (with older hardware) instead of using Apple hand-me-downs.
Windows 10 and Windows 11 have also become more useful for kid-oriented laptops, thanks to S Mode, which is aimed at the education market and, among other security enhancements, prevents apps from being installed unless they're available on the Microsoft Store. This means you can block games and apps based on their content ratings (something you can also do with Google Play apps). When your son or daughter gets older and more responsible, you can easily upgrade to the full version of Windows to remove these limitations.
If your child's school has specific software that runs only on Windows, your operating system choice will be decided for you. If not, you'll want to look closely at ChromeOS, since a few Chromebooks include decidedly kid-friendly features (such as easy-grip coatings, or display lids that double as whiteboards). Again, check out our Chromebooks-for-kids guide and best Chromebooks for gaming for more on the specifics around this OS.
Features like these transform an ordinary cheap laptop into a school-friendly machine that kids won't outgrow or wreck in a few months. Arguably the most important, though, is how rugged the case is.
Built for Backpacks: Rugged Laptops for Kids
A few Chromebooks and inexpensive Windows laptops have spill-resistant keyboards, meaning they should survive splashing with an ounce or so of water unscathed. It's much rarer to find entire laptops that are waterproof; the rugged ones that are (models like Panasonic's Toughbook line or Dell's Latitude Rugged Extremes) typically cost several thousand dollars and aren't geared toward kids at all, but rather workers in emergency-services, outdoorsy, or shop-floor professions. Likewise, it's relatively easy to find reinforced lids or cases bolstered with rubber to help absorb drops from a few feet, but you won't see fully ruggedized machines anywhere close to this price range.
Portability is another critical concern, especially for middle- and high-schoolers who walk to school with backpacks laden with heavy textbooks. Most laptops in this category with screen sizes from 11 to 13 inches weigh about 2.5 pounds. Go above 3 pounds, and you're putting a real burden on your child's shoulders.
Battery life is important, too, but it's no longer the limiting factor that rendered the laptops of a decade ago useless if they spent more than a few hours away from a power outlet. Even some of the cheapest laptops now deliver times of about 10 hours on PCMag's battery rundown test, thanks (mostly) to power-sipping Intel processors.
What Specs Should My Child's Laptop Have?
The final consideration is how your kids will use the laptop, which in turn determines the processor, storage, and memory configurations you should select. Tasks such as taking notes, writing papers, or making PowerPoint slides require little more than the bare minimum, which means that an Intel Celeron or Pentium processor will suffice; a few budget Chromebook models now also use AMD or MediaTek mobile processors. These collectively are the lowest performance tier in budget laptops. (The exception to that: AMD's Ryzen C series chips, much peppier AMD processors that are purpose-built for Chromebooks.)
The next step up is an Intel Core i3, which you should consider if your kid's teachers regularly have them stream online educational videos. An Intel Core i5 or i7 or an Apple M-series chip is best, but they're all but impossible to find on a laptop or Chromebook that costs about $300.
Suppose you opt for a more powerful processor so your kids can stream videos. In that case, consider a 2-in-1 convertible or detachable laptop, which can double as a tablet thanks to a hinge that rotates 360 degrees, or a screen that detaches entirely from the keyboard base. Most hybrids and convertibles are more expensive than the price range we've discussed, but you can find a few high-quality models for less than $500 (especially in the Chromebook crowd). These are best for middle-school-age children or older since these machines are naturally less durable than a conventional laptop.
A typical minimal configuration for memory and storage is 4GB of RAM and 64GB of flash memory. The former (memory) amount is adequate in a budget Chromebook but not a Windows machine; 8GB is the best baseline for anything running Windows. Consider bumping up the storage capacity to at least 128GB for a Windows system, since the operating system files on a Windows PC can take up more than 20GB, leaving your kid with a paltry 40GB or so of built-in storage.
The exception is if you choose a now-rare laptop that has a roomier but slower (and more easily breakable) spinning hard drive or one with a built-in SD card reader. (Hard drives have disappeared from Chromebooks, and from just about all budget laptops, too, barring some older models.) In the latter case, you could stick with the base configuration and ask your kids to store their bulkier files on SD cards if needed, which you can buy in 32GB capacities for about $20 each. But getting what you need up front as internal storage is a much better idea.
Time for Fun: What About Graphics and Games?
Just because you're selecting from relatively slow processors and limited memory capacities doesn't mean gaming is out of the question when your kid is done with their schoolwork. Some games are, of course, even educational. For instance, Microsoft has an educational version of its immensely popular open-world construction game Minecraft. Students can use it to explore real-world history like the Oregon Trail, solve math problems as they understand how long and challenging the trail was, and research fur-trading companies to learn about the economic concepts of monopolies and supply and demand.
Minecraft and similar games will run on Core i3 systems with as little as 4GB of RAM—it'll even run on some Chromebooks—but if your kid is looking forward to playing them, you'll make the experience much more enjoyable by selecting a laptop with 8GB. And new to the laptop market: gaming Chromebooks, which are built to take advantage of Android games and cloud gaming services.
If your child plans to do more intense gaming, you'll need to increase the power and the price to a full-fledged gaming laptop (or maybe a desktop). Gaming laptops employ a dedicated graphics chip, dubbed GeForce GTX, GeForce RTX, or Radeon RX.
You won't find current-generation gaming laptops for less than $700. However, $800 is the on-ramp for machines with game-worthy GeForce or Radeon dedicated graphics chips, and prices rise rapidly from there as you add features and power. Most kids will be satisfied with a budget model under $1,000, however. (See our guide to budget gaming machines.)
Ready to Buy the Right Laptop for Your Kid?
Giving your son or daughter a laptop endows them with a portal into the mighty internet, even if the laptop itself may not be the most potent you can buy. It's up to you (and your kids' teachers) to ensure that tool isn't harmful. Fortunately, both Chromebooks and Windows laptops have parental control features, and a laptop's size relative to a smartphone makes it easier to monitor activity and set ground rules like disallowing computer use after homework is finished.
We trust our advice has armed you with the rudiments you need to buy with confidence, and we continually update this roundup with the latest models. You can also check out our roundups of our favorite tablets for kids and our top phones for kids.
