Skip to main content

The best AMD Ryzen 4000 laptops

AMD’s Ryzen 4000 CPUs have taken the laptop market by storm. They’re faster than Intel parts, yet they still remain more affordable. It’s not the largest stable of laptops around yet, but there are enough to list our favorites, including Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5, which offers great performance at a low price.

Whether you’re looking for a new gaming laptop or a powerful student laptop, these are the best Ryzen 4000 laptops you an buy right now.

Get your weekly teardown of the tech behind PC gaming
Check your inbox!

The best AMD Ryzen 4000 laptops at a glance:

Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5

Image used with permission by copyright holder

The Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 14 isn’t the smallest 14-inch 2-in-1 you’ll find, at 0.82 inches thick and 3.3 pounds. It’s an all-plastic construction that’s not as durable as many all-metal alternatives too. But you’re only paying $600 for a six-core Ryzen 5 4500U CPU, 16GB of RAM, and 256GB of solid-state drive (SSD) storage. That’s remarkable.

Even more remarkable is the performance you get for that money. The Flex 5 beats out a number of more expensive laptops, in fact, it competes with any laptop running an Intel 10th-gen 15-watt CPU in tests like our Handbrake run that encodes a 420MB video as H.265. Seriously, even the high-end Core i7-1065G7 in the Dell XPS 13 takes 40 seconds longer to complete the test.

The IdeaPad Flex 5 also includes a high-quality active pen that slides into a charging port on the side of the laptop, and it works well as a 2-in-1 as long as you prop it up on something. Battery life is just average, although you could get a full day’s work out of the laptop if you don’t push the CPU too hard. Only the display, with a narrow color gamut and inaccurate colors, is a letdown for the creative types who might make use of all that power.

Read our in-depth Lenovo IdeaPad Fled 5 14 review

Acer Swift 3

Image used with permission by copyright holder

Simply put, the Acer Swift 3 is the fastest budget laptop we’ve tested so far. For just $650, you get an eight-core Ryzen 7 4800U process, which made mincemeat of our benchmarks and actually puts a little pressure on Intel’s latest 10th-generation 45-watt CPUs. The laptop also enjoyed 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. The Swift 3 finished our Handbrake test just 30 seconds slower than the 45-watt eight-core, 16-thread Core i7-10875H in the Dell XPS 15.

And performance isn’t the only thing the Swift 3 has going for it. It’s relatively small at 0.63 inches and 2.65 pounds, in spite of having a 14-inch display, and it’s well-built for such an inexpensive laptop. The keyboard is better than average, but the touchpad left a bit to be desired. And the display was disappointing, leaving it out of the running for creative professionals thanks to a narrow color gamut.

The battery life of the Acer Swift 3 was a little worse than the IdeaPad Flex 5, which makes sense given the faster CPU. So far, we haven’t seen AMD’s Ryzen 4000 CPUs quite match Intel’s efficiency.

Read our in-depth Acer Swift 3 review

HP Envy x360 13

Image used with permission by copyright holder

The HP Envy line is supposed to be a midrange notch below the more premium Spectres, and that remains true today. The gap has narrowed considerably, though, with the introduction of the Envy x360 13 with Ryzen 5 4500U CPU, which might not have quite as much panache as the Spectre x360 13 but it provides seriously faster performance.

Overall, the Envy x360 13 was slightly slower than the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 14, but only by a number of seconds on our Handbrake test. It still beats out Intel’s 15-watt Core processors and represents a tremendous performance value. Our review unit was $700 with a Core 5 4500U, 8GB of RAM, and a 256GB SSD, which is a bit more expensive than the true budget laptops on our list but still a great deal of laptop for the price.

Of the laptops we’ve discussed so far, the Envy x360 13 is the sleekest and the best-built. It doesn’t come with an active pen, which is a bummer, and its battery life is par for the Ryzen 4000 course so far, but it’s a great 13-inch 2-in-1 that gives the Spectre x360 13 a lot to worry about.

Read our in-depth HP Envy x360 13 Ryzen review

Asus ROG Zephyrus G14

Image used with permission by copyright holder

How do you pack a legitimate gaming laptop into a chassis that’s just 3.5 pounds and isn’t much larger than many 14-inch productivity thin-and-lights? In addition to the display, which cuts some size from the typical 15- or 17-inch gaming laptop, you build around the eight-core, 16-thread AMD Ryzen 9 4900HS and go from there.

Add in an Nvidia RTX 2060 GPU, and you have a bona fide gaming laptop. But this one’s not just fast in the GPU department, it’s also game-changing in the CPU department. The 350-watt Ryzen 9 4900HS matched up with 16GB of RAM in our $1,450 review configuration and ran circles around the usual six-core Intel 10th-gen CPUs. You have to jump up to Intel’s highest-end eight-core, sixteen-thread CPUs to keep up, and even here the AMD wins out.

With the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14, there are some downsides, like a thermal system that has to work extra hard to keep up. That means the fans are loud, and they run all the time. But it’s a trade-off worth making for this kind of performance.

Read our in-depth Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 review

Dell G5 SE

Image used with permission by copyright holder

The final laptop on our list is the Dell G5 SE, which goes all the way into AMD territory by equipping both an AMD Ryzen 7 4800H CPU and a Radeon RX 5600M GPU. Our review configuration included 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and a 1080p 144Hz display for a reasonable $1,200.

How did it perform? Simply put, the G5 SE competed strongly against laptops with Nvidia RTX 2060, proving that AMD can play the game as well as anyone. True, the G5 SE is a little chunky compared to some thinner competitive gaming laptops, but that allows the CPU and GPU room to breathe.

Overall, the Dell G5 SE offers tremendous value to gamers. You can spend as little as $880 and still get the Radeon RX 5600M GPU, putting the laptop into true budget gaming territory if so desired.

Read our in-depth Dell G5 SE review

Editors' Recommendations

Mark Coppock
Mark has been a geek since MS-DOS gave way to Windows and the PalmPilot was a thing. He’s translated his love for…
The 5 best laptops for Photoshop
Selecting the crop areas in Photoshop.

Photoshop is a powerful photo editing application that offers much more than simple cropping and resizing. The Adobe application lets you perform magic on your photos, including new AI features such as generative image creation and generative fill. But all that power requires the right laptop to make it all happen.

To begin with, you'll want a larger display unless you're doing your work in tight spaces. Today's 16-inch laptops are great choices. You'll also want a high-resolution display with dynamic and accurate colors, specifically a 2.8K or sharper panel with wide color coverage and accurate colors. And you'll want a fast processor that can churn through complex filters and layers, of course, with an absolute minimum of 16GB of RAM (preferably more).

Read more
7 best 2-in-1 laptops in 2024: tested and reviewed
The back of the Surface Pro 9, with the kickstand pulled out.

The 2-in-1 form factor has certainly come into its own over the last several years. There's really no reason to limit yourself to a clamshell, as there's a 2-in-1 that will meet the needs of all but the most demanding users in terms of sheer performance.

We've reviewed every great 2-in-1 you can buy, including Chromebooks, convertibles, and powerful 16-inch versions. The overall best 2-in-1 at the moment is the Microsoft Surface Pro 9, with its fantastic keyboard that's as easy to remove as it is to type on, a 120Hz display, and a haptic-enabled pen. It's almost as good a laptop as it is a tablet, which is what makes it the best overall 2-in-1.

Read more
The best 17-inch laptop deals from HP, LG, Razer, and more
An HP Omen 17 laptop on a desk.

A 17-inch laptop is one of the largest laptops you’ll find on the market. It offers superior screen real estate, as well as more room to pack in high performance hardware with its larger footprint. A 17-inch laptop is a good option if you like the mobile capabilities of a laptop but still prefer to do a lot of your work at a desk. It’s also a good option if you’re looking to save, as there are some impressive 17-inch laptop deals available right now. You’ll find among them 17-inch models from brands that make some of the best laptops in the business, including HP, Razer, and LG. We’ve rounded up all of the best 17-inch laptop deals into one place, so read onward for more details on how to save.
HP 17.3-inch laptop — $350, was $550

HP makes a huge range of laptop models to suit various needs, and this regularly places it among the best laptop brands. This 17.3-inch HP laptop is on the entry-level end of the model lineup, though it does have some slightly upgraded specs for getting your work or studies done throughout the day. It checks in with 8GB of RAM and a blazing fast 256GB solid state drive. It also has an Intel Pentium Silver processor and Intel UHD Graphics. While these are closer to the entry-level range, this laptop can still get things done. You’ll also find Windows 11 preinstalled to ensure you’re up and running in no time after breaking it out of the box.

Read more