A few years ago, a 4K screen was unheard of. However, now top brands like Dell, HP, Lenovo, and others offer a 4K display as an option for their flagship products. Knowing which models are the best 4K laptop options is important because they’re expensive.
We’ve selected our favorite 5 cheapest 4K laptop under $1500. These include the Dell XPS 13, HP Spectre x360 15, Lenovo ThinkPad T470s, Asus ZenBook UX305UA, and Acer Swift 3.
Table of Contents
1. Dell XPS 13 Plus
- The best 4K laptop
- Irresistibly fresh design
- Great OLED screen
- Helpful performance modes
- Excellent haptic touchpad
- The webcam has been improved
- Gets warm on the bottom
- No headphone jack
It has a gorgeous screen, runs Windows 10 smoothly, and looks stunning with its 4K display.
Read More: What Gaming Laptop Has The Best Cooling System?
What Did We Think Of The Dell XPS 13 Plus?
It’s not surprising that the XPS 13 (2nd generation) is one of the best laptops for watching movies and playing games, but it’s also one of the best laptops overall.
With its latest models, Dell has gone beyond anything we’ve seen before from an X1 Carbon laptop. It includes a haptic touchpad, touch-sensitive buttons, and a full-sized keyboard with minimal spacing between keys.
The Dell XPS 13 is also one of the most powerful 13-inch notebooks. We reviewed the 3.5K version with an Intel 12th gen Core i7-1285H processor, 12GB of DDR4 memory, and a 256GB M.2 SATA SSD.
However, if you’re looking for an affordable laptop with excellent display quality, we recommend checking out the Dell XPS 13 (9370). It has a 4K+ IPS screen, supports a wide range of colors, and offers good contrast, and it comes with a fast processor and plenty of RAM.
There’s one caveat to all this: The 4K+ screen does require more power than the 1080p screen.
2. Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 5
- The most powerful 4K laptop
- Excellent build quality
- Superior entry-level display
- Solid performance
- Good keyboard and touchpad
- Very powerful configuration options
- Performance was inconsistent
- Battery life was middling
ThinkPads are awesome-to-use machines, and the X Series is no different now with an even better 16:10 4K display.
What Did We Think Of The ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 5?
If you’re not concerned about style or don’t care about having 4K laptop performance in a system that doesn’t look like a screaming “Look At Me!” then the ThinkPad X1 Gen 5 is what you want.
While the X1 series has retained previous models’ rigidity and sturdy feeling, the latest versions have been slimmed down. They feature sleeker bodies and thinner bezels than their predecessor Thinkpads.
With its slim bezel design, the XPS 13 2-in-1 has an InfinityEdge display with a high-contrast 4K+ screen that offers excellent color reproduction and bright viewing angles.
It comes equipped with a 12th-generation, 14-core/ 20-core Intel Core i7-12700HQ quad-core CPU, 8GB of DDR4 memory, and a 256GB M.2 NVMe solid state drive (
The GeForce RTX 30 series GPUs are powerful graphics cards that create an ideal setup for more demanding applications such as video games or esports. Up to the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, they can be configured.
3. Razer Blade 15
- The best gaming 4K laptop
- Sleek design
- Comfortable keyboard and touchpad
- Exceptional gaming experience
- 300Hz refresh rate
- Ideal port selection
- Runs hot
- Very expensive
It would help if you got this because the Blade is an amazing gameing laptop, and 4K makes the visuals pop.
What Did We Think Of The Razer Blade 15 2022?
The Razer Blade 15 laptop is one of the best laptops available for playing games on the move. It’s been one of our top recommendations for years now.
If you want to buy a 4K video editing laptop, you’ll probably have to spend more than $1,000. The latest Razer Blade 15 supports a 4K IPS display that the factory has individually calibrated.
It has a 144Hz refresh rate, which means it displays images at 60 frames per second (fps). It uses a GeForce RTX 3080Ti graphics processor, an 8th generation Intel® Core™ i9-12900K Processor, 32 GB of DDR4 memory, and a 1 TB hard drive.
This is Razer’s latest gaming laptop featuring its new Core i7 processor. It has a 2560×1440 resolution screen with a 240 Hz refresh, which means it’s perfect for playing fast-paced video game titles.
However, if you’re looking for something faster, the Razer Blade Pro 15 G5 is available with a quad-core Intel Core i9 CPU and Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 graphics card.
4. Dell XPS 15 9520
- The best 15-inch 4K laptop
- Streamlined and solid build
- Aesthetically perfect
- Strong productivity and creative performance
- Above-average battery life
- Excellent keyboard and touchpad
- Superior OLED display
- Outstanding audio
- Expensive
- Performance ceiling limited by thin chassis
Why you should get this laptop: The Dell XPS 13 Plus is bigger, with more space for enjoying that gorgeous 4K display.
What Did We Think Of The Dell XPS 15?
Bigger and better but not quite as portable as its smaller brother, the Dell XPS 15 takes the top slot for our best 15-inch laptop list, and the 4K version is one of our favorites.
If you want a cheap price and good battery life, go for the 1080p version; however, the XPS 15 offers the best value if you want a high-quality display. It has a wider 16:10 screen which is great for working on documents and spreadsheets.
Thanks to its powerful Intel 12th-generation processors, the Dell XPS 15 offers solid computing power, up to 64GB RAM, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050Ti GPU for good gaming and creative applications.
It’s easy to see why this Dell XPS 15 laptop is so popular. It looks good and works well too.
Read More: How Many Watts Does A Gaming Laptop Use?
5. Dell XPS 17
- The best 17-inch 4K laptop
- Outstanding build quality
- Streamlined good looks
- Thin and light
- Excellent productivity and creative performance
- Solid midrange gaming performance
- Superior IPS display
- Great keyboard and touchpad
- Expensive
- Limited collection of ports
- Some thermal throttling
Why you should buy it: You want a big, beautiful, powerful laptop for your daily driver.
What Did We Think Of The Dell XPS 17?
A 17-inch screen may seem crazy today, but the Dell Xps 17 proves that big screens can be comfortable and incredibly valuable to buy.
Dell has produced some stunning displays in their XPS line over the last few years, and the XPS17 is no different. With such a large screen, vibrant, and bright display, it’s the perfect laptop for any professional video editor who wants to take full advantage of that 4K resolution.
It has an excellent trackpad, making it ideal for long typing sessions. Even if it isn’t designed with games in mind, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card is powerful enough to run most games at high settings without lag.
Upgrade Options
The AMD and Intel build path of this gaming PC feature such high-end components that there is little space left for improvements.
Some upgrades can improve your overall experience with this gaming PC. These include an SSD drive for faster boot times and better performance, a graphics card for smoother gameplay, and a CPU cooler for quieter operation.
Building Tips
Before building a computer, be sure to take good precautions. You don’t want to end up with an expensive mistake!
FAQs
Q1. Are Chromebooks good gaming laptops?
A. It does depend on what kind of game you plan to enjoy playing. Most likely, no. Chromebooks cannot run Windows applications, so they can only run web and Android apps. However, if you’re interested in playing the newest video game titles, a Chromebook may not be your best choice. Because Chromebooks don’t come equipped with powerful enough hardware to run these types of software, they’ll struggle to keep up with the latest releases. That said, Google is working hard to make it possible for Chromebook users to stream video game titles directly to their devices. Shortly, we should see this feature rolled out to Chromebook owners.
Q 2. Can you game with integrated graphics?
A. These days, the latest CPUs with integrated GPUs can play many modern games at decent settings. For instance, Intel’s new Iris XE series of chips with built-in GPUs can handle some of the newest titles at 1080p and 60 frames per second (FPS). However, keep in mind that not all integrated GPUs are equal. Some may only be able to do basic tasks such as playing older games or displaying simple images.
Q 3. What size laptop is best?
A. This depends on what you intend to do with your computer. If you’re planning to travel a lot with it, then a smaller ultraportable size of around 13 to 14″ is best. However, for those who want to game, a larger 15 to 17″ screen is better. Also, make sure you consider the weight of the machine before buying it. Ultra-thin machines can weigh a featherweight 2 pounds, while beefy ones can weigh 3 or 4 pounds.
