
Prefer MacOS to Windows? Then you’ll want the MacBook Air (M1, 2021), which is the best Apple laptop for CAD today. In which case, we'd say this is the best cheap laptop for CAD you can buy today. That said, if you’re not working on rich and colourful designs, and just want to produce standard technical drawings with your CAD software, that may not matter to you. Brightness, contrast, colour accuracy and viewing angles are all well below the standards set by the pricier laptops on this list. Although it’s a nice size at 15.6ins, and offers Full HD resolution, the picture quality overall reflects the budget price of this laptop. Where you will have to compromise is in the display. And up to 8.5 hours’ battery life is pretty impressive for the price, too.

With 1TB of storage, you get plenty of space to store all your designs. The Asus Aspire 5 is considerably more affordable, and still able to run CAD software smoothly and efficiently. In fact, with 8GB RAM and an 11th generation Intel processor providing 4.2GHz, it’s quite a capable performer. If the first laptop on our list is beyond your means, don’t stress.
