People search for a gaming laptop under £400 every month. Here is what that budget buys in the UK, and where the price of a machine built for games begins.
Typical prices in the first week of October 2026
Each figure is the middle value of the daily readings we took at UK retailers. It shows what shops charge, rather than one lucky promotion.
| Model | Typical price | Processor | Memory | Storage |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3 15 | £399.99 | Intel Core i3-1315U | 8 GB | 128 GB |
| Asus Vivobook Go 15 | £457.49 | Ryzen 5 | 8 GB | 512 GB |
| HP Laptop 15 | £502.99 | Intel Core 5 | 16 GB | 512 GB |
| Acer Aspire Go 15 | £531.99 | Intel 120U | 16 GB | 512 GB |
| Acer Aspire 3 15 | £630.90 | Intel N355 | 8 GB | 512 GB |
| Asus Vivobook 16 (Ryzen AI 7) | £1,131.99 | Ryzen AI 7 350 | 16 GB | 1 TB |
| Lenovo LOQ 15 | £1,322.49 | Intel Core i5-13450HX | 16 GB | 512 GB |
| Acer Nitro 16 | £1,594.49 | Ryzen 7 260 | 16 GB | 512 GB |
At £400 you get an everyday laptop
The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3 15 sits at £399.99 with 8 GB of memory and 128 GB of storage. That covers essays, spreadsheets, streaming and video calls. The storage figure is the weak point, because Windows and a term of documents take a good share of 128 GB. The Asus Vivobook Go 15 costs £457.49 and doubles both memory and storage, which is the better buy at this end.
From £500 the money buys capacity
The HP Laptop 15 lists 16 GB and 512 GB at a typical £502.99. The Acer Aspire Go 15 matches both figures at £531.99. Between £500 and £650 the pattern holds: more memory, more storage, the same class of processor. Paying more inside this band does not buy speed.
Where games start
The Lenovo LOQ 15 and the Acer Nitro 16 are the first machines in our UK log built for games. The LOQ 15 was recorded at £1,049.99 and its typical price sits at £1,322.49, with a Core i5-13450HX and 16 GB of memory. The Nitro 16 starts at £1,461.99. Both carry processors from a different class than the office machines above.
When waiting pays
The Lenovo LOQ 15 has been recorded at £1,049.99 against a typical price of £1,322.49. That gap of £272 is the difference between a promotion and a normal week, and it is the largest saving in the table. The Asus Vivobook 16 shows the same pattern: a low of £677.99 against a typical £1,131.99. The Acer Aspire 3 15 runs from £463.99 to £630.90. A buyer who waits two or three weeks for a discount saves more than one who moves up a band.
The range between £650 and £1,000
The Acer Aspire 3 15 at £630.90 and the Lenovo LOQ 15 at £1,049.99 sit at opposite ends of that range. Money spent between them buys the same class of office machine with more memory or a larger screen. The Asus Vivobook 16 tops that group at a typical £1,131.99, with 16 GB of memory and 1 TB of storage.
How to decide
- Study, browsing, films: £400 buys enough. Take the 512 GB model at £457.49 over the 128 GB one at £399.99.
- Four years of use: 16 GB of memory starts at £502.99. That specification ages better than a faster processor.
- Current games: budget £1,050. The models built for games start there in our readings.
- Storage: 128 GB is the one specification to avoid at any price in this table.
Our laptops under £400 for gaming guide collects the picks in the low band. For general work the under £400 work guide lists the models that pass our checks, and students should start with the under £700 student guide. The Lenovo LOQ 15 page carries the price history we hold for the first gaming machine in the table.
Where these prices come from
Every figure is the middle value of the readings we recorded at UK retailers between 5 and 8 October 2026, one row per model per retailer per day. Prices are the lowest in-stock offers of those days, including VAT.