When hunting for the best cheap laptops, you usually have to look in the $400 to $500 range. Generally, dipping below that price point requires a big dropoff in performance, specs, or quality. Gateway is trying to buck that trend with a discount on the Gateway 14.1 Ultra Slim Notebook. The PC, which normally costs $499, is currently on sale for $379 through Walmart.
Despite its price tag, the Gateway 14.1 Ultra Slim Notebook runs on an 11th Gen Intel Core i5 processor, has Intel Iris Xe graphics, and features 16GB of RAM. It also has 512GB of storage. While the CPU inside is a generation old, it's still a nice chip that should handle lighter workloads.
As its name suggests, the Gateway 14.1 Ultra Slim Notebook has a 14.1-inch display (1920 x 1080 LCD IPS). It also has a built-in fingerprint scanner, 512GB of storage, and gets up to 10 hours of battery life, according to Gateway.
There is one area that the Gateway 14.1 Ultra Slim Notebook struggles in. The PC only has a 1MP front-facing camera. If you work from home, study from home, or just need a good camera, you should pick up one of the best webcams for Windows PCs. The built-in camera in Gateway's laptop was likely chosen to lower the cost of the device, but it is worse than those seen in some competing devices.
Overall, the Gateway 14.1 Ultra Slim Notebook appears to be a solid budget laptop with specs trimmed down to reduce the price of the machine. With the current discount bringing the PC down to $379, it's a bargain within its category. Just note that any laptop within this price range isn't going to be as robust as those in higher price brackets.
