Best Light Weight
- Google Pixelbook Go
Best in Show
- ASUS VivoBook Flip 14
Best Bargain
- Asus Chromebook Flip C433
Touch screens are a nice feature on laptops that offers extra flexibility in how they can be used. It can be especially useful for some productivity tasks or just a nice change of pace. Touchscreens work particularly well on 2-in-1s where the keyboard can be folded away for a tablet experience.
Users should be aware that the touchscreen does tend to draw a bit more power than non-touchscreens which does result in a slightly shorter battery life. If battery life is particularly important to you, nd your use case, and you’re not sure that the touchscreen will make that much difference to you, then you might want to look at laptops with more traditional screens.
For those of you looking to get a new budget option, we’ve drawn up our list of the best budget touchscreen laptops of 2021.
Key Features
- Chrome OS
- Intel UHD Graphics 615
- Ultra-light 1.05kg
Specifications
- Intel m3-8100Y CPU
- 64GB storage
- 8GB RAM
The Google Pixelbook Go is a Chromebook directly from Google. One of its key selling points is the 2-hour battery life meaning that you can reliably use it for an entire day of work without having to charge it. Additionally, thanks to fast charging, 20 minutes of charge time can give you 2-hours of battery life, so you can keep going for longer.
The entry model uses an Intel Core m3-8100y CPU that has 2 cores, 4 threads, and a boost speed of 3.4GHz. It also comes with 8GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, and a 1080p 13.3-inch touchscreen. Another key selling point is how light it is at just over a kilogram or 2.33 pounds. Some users may struggle to get used to the differences of Chrome OS from Windows, especially older users.
- 2 hours of battery from 20 minutes of charging
- 12-hour battery life
- Cheap at $649
- 13.3-inch screen is pretty small
- May take time to get used to Chrome OS
- 64GB is a very small amount of storage
Key Features
- Chrome OS
- 2-in-1
- Nano edge display
Specifications
- Intel m3-8100Y CPU
- 64GB storage
- 8GB RAM
The Asus Chromebook Flip C433 comes with the same core configuration as the Pixelbook Go, with dual-core, quad-thread Intel Core m3-8100y CPU, 64GB of storage, and 8GB of RAM. While you do lose two hours of battery life, you get a larger 14-inch screen thanks to the much smaller bezels. The overall cost is also significantly lower, with an almost $200 price difference that is especially important for the budget class.
For folks exclusively familiar with Windows, the switch to Chrome OS may take a bit of getting used to. The 64GB of storage is very small but the inclusion of a free year subscription for 100GB Google 1 cloud storage is a nice bonus, although you may want to consider the potential continual running costs.
- Comes with a free year of 100GB Google 1 cloud storage
- 10-hour battery life
- Incredibly cheap at $479
- May take time to get used to Chrome OS
- 64GB is a very small amount of storage
Key Features
- Windows 10
- 2736 x 1824 resolution
- Detachable keyboard
Specifications
- Intel i3-1035G4 CPU
- 128GB storage
- 8GB RAM
The New Microsoft Surface Pro 7 is a tablet computer running full Windows 10 that comes with a detachable Bluetooth keyboard. The detachable keyboard adds some extra flexibility over other 2-in-1 designs as the keyboard can be fully removed and the device used in touchscreen mode or with the keyboard connected via Bluetooth.
It comes with a quad-core, 8 thread, Intel i3-1035G4 CPU with 128GB of storage and 8GB of RAM. The battery can last for 10.5 hours and can receive up to 80% battery charge with an hour of charging. The screen is 12.3-inches which is small for a laptop but comes with an unnecessarily high resolution of 2736 x 1824. Be careful shopping around, as not all models come with the detachable keyboard included.
- 80% battery from 1 hour of charging
- 5-hour battery life
- Cheap at $649
- 3-inch screen is very small
- A little pricy
- Positioning the screen with the keyboard can be annoying
Key Features
- Windows 10
- AMD Radeon graphics
- Comes with a stylus
Specifications
- Ryzen 7 5700U CPU
- 512GB storage
- 8GB RAM
The ASUS VivoBook Flip 14 is one of the increasing numbers of laptops taking advantage of AMD CPUs offering high performance with low power draw. It comes with an 8 core, 16 thread, Ryzen 7 5700U CPU that can boost up to 4.3GHz, 512GB of storage, and 8GB of RAM.
The 14-inch 1080p screen has narrow bezels for a sleek look. A stylus is included for users that prefer to use that over their fingers on the touchscreen. While it is slightly pricier than the previous entries on this list, it does come with a much more powerful processor and a larger hard drive that should be very capable for more intensive tasks.
- Narrow bezels
- USB 3.2 Gen 2
- Cheap at $719
- Some things still run better on Intel CPUs
- The strong CPU may suffer from poor cooling
Key Features
- Windows 10 Pro
- Intel Iris Plus Graphics
- 500 nit screen
Specifications
- Intel i7-1065G7 CPU
- 512GB storage
- 16GB RAM
The Dell New XPS 13 9300 comes with Windows 10 Pro, and a 500 nit screen with an unusual 1920×1200 resolution. It has a 4 core, 8 thread Intel i7-1065G7 CPU that can boost up to 3.9GHz as well as 512GB of storage and 16GB of RAM.
The screen has extremely narrow bezels for a sleek design. At $1000 it is expensive for the budget tier, while having a weaker CPU than the VivoBook Flip 14, however, the 16GB of memory is great for users with RAM intensive workloads.
- NVMe SSD
- Narrow bezels
- Not 16:9
- Expensive for the budget tier
Those were our recommendations for the best budget touchscreen laptops in 2021. Have you recently bought a budget touchscreen laptop? Which model did you go for and what sold you on it?
Did this help? Let us know!