Looking for cheap gaming laptops that can run Apex Legends, this is the right place to look for.
Apex Legends is one of the most popular Battle Royale games and like any first-shooter game, Apex Legends not only requires a power-efficient CPU, but also a high refresh rate display, a discrete graphics card, and at minimum 8 Gigs of memory.
While not all laptops have these luxuries and by tweaking some settings, you can play Apex Legends on most mid-range laptops. However, we believe that Battle Royale games demand the best device to run games and just being able to run games won’t makes you a pro player. So, we recommend you the best gaming laptop for Apex Legends that won’t compromise on many things (especially performance) and won’t cost you a fortune.
Cheap Gaming Laptops That Can Run Apex Legends
1) Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3
- Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 6600H
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050
- RAM: 8 GB DDR5
- Storage: 256 GB SSD
The Ideapad Gaming 3 introduces Lenovo’s powerful gaming lineup in a budget range. Pairing with a powerful GPU and CPU, the Ideapad 3 performs remarkably in almost all areas. While it has a few caveats, none stop us from recommending it to the cheap gaming laptops that can run Apex Legends.
The Ideapad 3 has a straight design similar to other Lenovo budget notebooks. Painted in a greyish black all over the body and screen, the Ideapad Gaming 3 looks a bit bulky and not surprisingly gaming-orientated. The Plastic build is decent with few wobbling and flex issues on the keyboard and screen. Other than that, the Ideapad Gaming 3 is among the best-made and value-for-money laptops for budget users.
The Lenovo Ideapad Gaming 3 is equipped with AMD Ryzen 5 6600H processor to handle tasks effortlessly, even if it’s not at the top of the mountain in our benchmarks score, it delivers much better and more efficient performance than counter-intel processors.
It sports NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 discrete graphics and roughly gives you around 60 FPS in the most demanding gaming titles. The FPS scores can go high if you set graphics settings to low to medium. However, it won’t perform well in 4K gaming, and continued stuttering and lag will make your gameplay less enjoyable. If you want to play 4K games at reasonable FPS, go for RTX 3060 graphics and i7 processors that will give you much smoother and high frame rates even in 4K resolution.
The Lenovo Ideapad Gaming 3 display is sharp, incorporates a 120Hz refresh rate, and has decent pixel density to display texts, images, and graphics clearly and sharply. The Color reproduction is poor and the contrast ratio is okay in a medium-bright environment. When I watch the Rebel Moon teaser trailer on the IPS screen, it looks good but found some color washout and dark scenes seems slightly darker than I expected. For regular office users and gamers, it won’t be as noticeable, but if you ever had a color-calibrated monitor or display, you’ll immediately feel the difference.
The Lenovo Ideapad Gaming 3 comes with a full-size keyboard. It is a roomy and standard keyboard with a good amount of traveling and response. The keys are well-built and don’t requires much force to actuate, however, they feel cheap, and slightly more room in between would make an absolute banger for gaming.
The trackpad is mediocre and needs upgrades. It is fairly large and tracks all the movements, however, it won’t feel smooth while dragging or dropping files. The clicks need a bit more pressure to register.
The cooling on the Lenovo Ideapad Gaming 3 is impressive and keeps it cool most of the time. The fans also stay quiet and only audible when you throw a lot of tasks simultaneously.
Pros
- Good gaming performance
- Plenty of connectivity
- Nice keyboard
- Good sound and a webcam
Cons
- Lackluster display
2) HP Victus Gaming
- Processor: Intel Core i5-12500H
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti
- RAM: 8 GB DDR5
- Storage: 512 GB SSD
HP Victus Gaming is an affordable choice that combines powerful components inside a solid build chassis and yet is priced very reasonably. The Victus series can run most gaming titles with ease and innards components have pretty decent oomph, just don’t set your expectation too high.
In our previous lists, we recommended HP’s cheapest gaming series ‘Pavilion’ to run titles without issues, but currency they don’t features the latest components and relies still on an old generation processor and GPU to fuel the machine. While they perform still better with those components, they aren’t as good or features-equipped as the latest released components from NVIDIA and Intel, or AMD.
Coming to the HP Victus, the new laptop is now powered by a 12th generation i5-12500H processor that is an improved and more efficient chip than its predecessor. Further, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 graphics delivers exceptionally well-graphic performance without ghosting or stuttering.
Gaming laptops are notaries for their heavy weight and HP Victus is no separate from its siblings. Carrying it on campus will be painful due to 5 pounds of weight. The hinge of Victus 15 is decent and keeps the laptop stable when you type aggressively, however, it can also open with one hand.
From a design perceptive, the Victus is a mixed bag. Its got a bold look yet the simplest aesthetics suitable for professional use. The color accuracy and contrast make it a go-to choice for content creation as well.
The 15.6 Inch display looks stunning and features a 144hz refresh rate. There is a model with the NVIDIA GTX series and 60Hz refresh rate that is priced at $50 less, but this model is a much better choice for both gaming and content creation. The panel responds well with reflection and diffuses the intensity of bright lights, however, viewing angles suffer a bit and pictures look best when you glance straight at the display. Also, it doesn’t suffer from the grayish colors that usually budget laptops produce in dark rooms.
The keyboard built is impressive and far better than cheap laptops and HP’s own Pavilion series. It feels and looks premium, the keys are well-spaced, respond instantly, and feature white backlighting. Notably, there is no RGB lighting which may disappoint some folks, but for me it was fine. HP went with all the buttons including OMEN Gaming Hub, Volume buttons, and full-number pad.
To scroll and move the cursor, the Spacios touchpad does a job fine, buts it’s not something extraordinary that gets extra praise for it.
Most gaming titles that I have run while testing the laptop, ran them without any noticeable issues. Given that it has an i5 processor, I expected that AAA title’s gameplay will suffer majorly, but I was surprised with how well Victus handles titles without burning too much. Performance lovers will be more than happy with its power.
However, the high performance has a huge impact on battery life, which runs out pretty quickly. I was able to churn out just 50 minutes of gameplay before a low-battery notification interrupted the screen. The numbers can go up if you don’t play games and casually browse or stream, but still, it won’t hit the mark of Full-day battery.
HP provides ample ports to connect Pendrive, external display, fast data transferring devices, and wired internet connectivity.
The HP Victus is a great gaming machine with luxurious performance, a bright display, and a plethora of ports that surprisingly doesn’t cost much.
Pros
- Smooth gameplay
- Amazing port selection
- Nice display and colors
- Gaming and work laptop
Cons
- No RGB
- Bad battery
3) Acer Nitro 5
- Processor: Intel Core i5-12500H
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti
- RAM: 16 GB DDR5
- Storage: 512 GB SSD
The Acer Nitro 5 is a cheap and dependable laptop with outstanding performance and features that attract budget enthusiasts. There are other laptops with the same hardware and similar prices, gamers looking for laptops solely for gameplay will find the Acer Nitro 5 a charming choice when it comes to cheap gaming laptops that can run Apex Legends.
Acer’s Nitro series usually comes in a minimalist design but red-centric covered colors set it apart from the rest. The build is pretty much the same as the last predecessor and no major improvement this year. Crafted from plastic with minor issues in wobbling and flex, Acer went only for hardware change. While it’s a big disappointment from Acer, power-hungry folks will immediately settle for performance over a sturdy build.
Fueled with a 12th generation i5-12500H processor and discrete NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 graphics, Acer Nitro has the potential to handle modern titles with smooth gameplay. The 144Hz of refresh rate ensures that games achieve higher refresh by tweaking some graphic settings.
At the time of testing, I have run a bunch of benchmarks to measure its potential against productivity tasks. PCMark 10 test results were better than expected. Comparing them with the ‘U’ series Ryzen 7 and i7 processors, Acer strongly holds its number higher.
The display is roomy and colorful with a high refresh rate that makes motion smooth and scrolling flawless. Though, It isn’t bright enough to use in a bright room. The color reproduction is also good, but way behind what HP’s new Victus offer. The Victus has a better contrast ratio and the capability to deliver better bright colors.
For graphic benchmark, I have used the 3DMark test to measure scores against top contenders like Ideapad Gaming 3 and HP Victus, the Acer Nitro 5 outranks them marginally but falls behind the Dell G15’s score.
The Nitro 5 battery averaged around 6 hours on my daily productivity tasks that includes word processing, browsing, and editing photos in Adobe Photoshop. Battery’s performance while gaming is not impressive and barely lasts 90 minutes before requires an outlet to charge the machine.
We also test four real-world games using software to measure FPS, cooling, and temperatures. The first gameplay was Asssasing’s Creed Valhalla at 1080p medium settings, the result was continuous 62 FPS. when I change the graphic settings to Ultra-High, the framerates drops to 38 and the temperature reached the maximum that my fingers were feeling the heat coming from the laptop. The second test was Rainbow Six Siege (Not hardware hungry as Assassin) on ultra graphic settings at 1080p quality, everything ran smoothly with maximum achievable frames at 140. The other two games GTA V and The Witcher 3 were also perform better than expected and run lag-free almost all the time.
Meanwhile, the keyboard deck eas extremely hot and inconvenient to play directly from the keyboard. So, while innards components have massive potential weak thermals may reduce performance, resulting in occasional frame drops and suturing.
The keyboard itself is fair for typing and a few minutes of gaming. But, the keys feel a bit cheap and aren’t responsive as Victus’s keys. Trackpad on the other hand is well-built, spacious, and smooth enough to handle daily usage except gaming.
The Acer Nitro 5 is a strong choice for gamers who expect maximum performance, but are okay with mediocre build factor. Also, content creators and work-from-home professionals can benefit from its potential to handle productivity tasks without sneezing.
Pros
- Great performance at low-cost
- All necessary ports
- Good keyboard
- High refresh rate display
- Plethora of connectivity ports
Cons
- Dim display
- Build quality needs major improvements
4) Dell G15 5511
- Processor: Intel Core i5-11400H
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050
- RAM: 8 GB DDR4
- Storage: 512 GB SSD
The Dell G15 5511 is a well-priced gaming laptop that offers unmatched gaming performance. Many laptops in the range are tried to be good gaming notebooks but Dell G15 really shines where others suffer.
The Dell G15 has a very aggressive look appealing for gamers and with bold design, it’s not a pleasant experience to take anywhere in the backpack. University students and commuters will feel pain while carrying it out on campus or at the office.
But, the bold design boats impressive cooling and a sturdy build. Despite being made from plastic, it can tackle some accidental bumps and register less wobble. By the look, the G15 is similar to Dell’s Alienware lineup with an extended back and light-up logo. However, there aren’t fancy lights or per key RGB that expensive Alienware laptops incorporate.
With an extended back, the hinge feels solid and doesn’t move or wobble while typing aggressively or moving around. However, it’s not easy to open the lid with one hand, even if you tried there is too much resistance.
Out of the box, Dell G15 5511 sports a nice 1080p display that is common in budget gaming laptops. The 120Hz panel delivers a smoother response with less motion blur and eliminates ghosting.
The common issue in cheap gaming laptops lies in their brightness with most laptops maxed out at 250 nits, Dell’s give a slight advantage and reach up to 280 nits. It’s bright enough to use directly under the sun, but you have to set the setting at the peak.
IPS panels tend to do a better job in contrast and color accuracy, and Dell G15 is no expectation. It produces reasonably vivid colors with blacks to see more details in dark scenes. In low light, the black looks grayish a full brightness, so it isn’t a pleasant experience to watch content during the night.
The model we tested packs one-year-old hardware including an Intel Core-i5-11400H CPU and 4 GB of NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 graphic card. Even though they are older, they can handle almost all titles and heavy tasks without breaking a sweat.
I played Overwatch and Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p, everything run smoothly almost all the time with frames achieving 60 FPS and 50 FPS respectively. There was some minor lag when I switch On most graphic settings, but the biggest impact was on the frames that drastically decreased to 30 FPS.
These are common performance issues in a gaming laptop that are powered by an i5 processor, but if you like to play games at ultra settings with a resolution of more than 1080p (such as 1440p or 4K), i7 or Ryzen 7 processor (H -series) would be the best choice, but they will cost you way more.
The keyboard and trackpad of the laptop are comfortable and good for typing and occasional gaming. If you play games for more than one hour, you will feel some heat on the deck and on the finger when you press a key. For hardcore gamers, we recommend spending some money on a gaming keyboard and mouse to experience games without any interruption.
During my testing, the battery lasted just one hour while playing games. It can go up to 4 hours but when you casually browse or watch videos on YouTube.
The Dell G15 5511 is a budget-friendly laptop with decent performance and while it has some flaws, budget lovers will not be disappointed.
Pros
- Great gaming performance
- Plethora of ports
- Room for upgradability
- Great heat management
- Give playable framerates in most titles
Cons
- Not for commute
- Display could be better
5) Asus TUF F15 Gaming Laptop
- Processor: Intel Core i5-11400H
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2050
- RAM: 8 GB DDR4
- Storage: 512 GB SSD
The Asus TUF F15 is a great midrange gaming laptop that balances performance and affordability. While it has few flaws and a shorter battery than its counterparts, the Asus TUF F15 is still a good choice when it comes to cheap gaming laptops that can run Apex Legends.
The TUF F15 boasts a pretty impressive design and robust build quality. Sure, it is a bulky machine and probably pains your shoulders while commuting, but if you like a solid build and can live with heaviness, Asus TUF is a great pick to have.
It is powered by Intel Core i5-11400H CPU and a dedicated NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2050 GPU, which offers great performance for gaming, multitasking, and editing. The 15.6-inch display gives plenty of room to experience games at the fullest and the 144hz refresh rate allows smooth gameplay with high frame rates and less lagging.
The panel is reasonably bright and vivid with truly immersive colors and visuals. The 300 nits of brightness are ample in direct sunlight and show all the details with less reflection. However, viewing angles suffer a bit while leading from the sides.
To sum up, the Asus TUF F15 Gaming laptop is a budget-friendly and solid gaming laptop for work-from-home users and student gamers.