What can be the reason for buying a laptop without an operating system?
Maybe the freedom. I mean you are free to install any operating system of your choice. You are not forced to use Windows, macOS, or Linux. It is you who decide after buying which OS suits you the most and get that installed.
Or maybe the bloatware that comes preinstalled in a laptop with an operating system by manufacturers, you do not like for various reasons.
Whatever the reason it is, you are interested in buying a laptop without a pre-installed operating system (OS) and you are looking for options?
We have done great research to help you easily pick laptops without OS on Amazon.
These are the best options you can go with, as per your budget range and computing requirements.
Also Read: Best Windows Laptops Under $1000
7 Best Laptops Without Operating System (OS) 2022
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Lenovo Legion Y540
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Lenovo IdeaPad 3 (Budget Priced)
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MSI GS65 Stealth Ultra Thin Gaming Laptop
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HP Pavilion 14
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MSI WF65 Mobile Workstation
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HP Stream 14-Inch Laptop (Under 300)
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HP 15 (For Business Users)
Best Laptops Without Operating System Reviews (2022)
These are some best laptops without OS installed. Let’s have a detailed review.
1. Lenovo Legion Y540
- Processor: 9th Gen Intel Core i7-9750H
- Graphics Card: GTX 1660 Ti 6GB
- Storage: 256GB SSD
- RAM: 16GB DDR4
- Display: 15.6 inches FHD IPS 60 Hz
Review:
Lenovo being the top brand in laptop manufacturing comes at the first spot, not just because it is a top brand but because this laptop is great.
This is the best laptop you can get hands without OS, get the freedom to install any Operating system you wish for.
It is a General-purpose laptop that can be used for anything. It can be a college student laptop, a medical student, for internet browsing, or anything you like.
Not just for the light tasks but hard computing operations, such as High res video editing, video gaming, or 3d modeling.
Look at the specification it comes powered with. It has a 9th Gen Intel Core i7-9750H processor that offers a 2.6 GHz base clock speed and goes up to 4.5 GHz using turbo boost. It is a six-core processor, enough powerful to help you play games and do other high-end tasks.
With 16GB RAM (Upgradable), and 256GB SSD storage (Upgradable) it allows smoothness in every operation.
Do not forget its dedicated graphics card. It has a GTX 1660Ti graphics card with 6GB dedicated space to let you tam high-end graphics operations.
From photo editing to video editing, and from 3d modeling to virtualization setup, this laptop is always there to support you.
And its 15.6 Inches FHD IPS display that has a 60 Hz refresh rate is also helpful in playing games to handling other operations that demand quick refresh rates.
In short, Lenovo’s designed laptop in Raven Black is a helpful addition. You can take it and install any operating system you like to install it is a renewed laptop but looks new.
Also Read: Cheap Chromebooks Under $100
2. Lenovo IdeaPad 3
Budget Priced
- Processor: AMD Ryzen 3 3250U Processor
- Graphics Card: AMD Radeon Vega 3
- Storage: 128GB SSD
- RAM: 4GB DDR4
- Display: 15.6 inches HD display
Review:
If you are on a tight budget and want an average laptop that helps in doing simple operations, Get Lenovo IdeaPad 3 laptop.
This laptop comes in hands under $400 price but comes with features that help in handling browsing, taking notes, virtual meetings, taking online classes, and use as a college laptop, or grad school laptop.
It has an amazing processor. With AMD Ryzen 3 3250U Processor it can hold up operations as well as any of the $1000 laptops would do. It Is not just the processor that makes it enough good for casual operation. It has 4GB RAM that can be extended if you like.
The laptop has SSD storage. You know how important SSD is these days. This 400 dollars laptop comes with 120GB SSD storage which you can upgrade later if find it less. You can install HDD storage or SSD storage, as per your budget in hand.
It also has a graphics card. AMD Radeon Vega 3 Graphics card, though is not as powerful as many others for casual operations, it is more than enough. It provides smooth graphics handling and helps you enjoy anything without any big issues.
The laptop has a physical shutter on the webcam. For those attending online lectures, or taking zoom meetings this feature is helpful. Anyone can pull this shutter and close the webcam without being about worry whether the webcam is on or off.
The only downside I find in this laptop is its display. It is a good display but HD resolution is not enough these days. It has 15.6 Inches HD screen that surely does not support Full HD resolution is something which is something that you might think is a downside.
Overall this laptop for the price is more than we can demand. It is a good school laptop, or a general-purpose laptop for checking emails, browsing, taking notes, preparing assignments, and much more others in the row.
3. MSI GS65 Stealth Ultra Thin Gaming Laptop
- Processor: 9th Gen Intel Core i7-9750h
- Graphics Card: RTX 2080 8GB
- Storage: 1TB SSD
- RAM: 32GB DDR4
- Display: 15.6 inches FHD display, 240 Hz
Review:
If you like to play games on the go, MSI got your back. This ultra-thin gaming laptop without an operating system ideally suits your needs. It has everything a gamer would require from a gaming laptop that is taken around.
Like it has a dedicated graphics card, it has the required display, processor, and more importantly, it is ultra-thin that is good for those who play games on the way.
This laptop comes with multiple configurations. You can choose many different configurations and go with what you find good for you.
In my view, the Intel Core i7-9750h Processor is the best option as it allows you to handle complex operations. And gaming is one of the complex operations that require a laptop with lots of muscle power.
It provides a 2.60 base clock speed that increases up to 4.5 GHz in turbo-boosting, and more importantly it is a six-core processor.
The second thing important for gamers and those with high-end tasks handling; graphics cards. This laptop has a Beastly RTX 2080 Graphics card with 8GB dedicated space.
This graphics card as you may know if you play games is one of the most powerful laptop graphics cards you can take on board.
Not just for playing games, this laptop provides smooth operation for high-end tasks such as Designing and cutting operations, ArcGIS or GIS application, Silhouette cameo, or many others.
Furthermore, this ultrabook laptop has 32GB RAM. Again, if you do not need this much RAM, you can pick a different configuration. This RAM size can be upgraded up to 64GB if you want some more RAM size onboard.
For storage, this laptop has 1TB SSD storage. The storage size is also expandable. You can reach up to 2TB SSD storage to store photos, movies, games, songs, software, or anything you like.
Its display is also mesmerizing. Like any great gaming laptop’s display, this display comes with Anti-glare panels that prevent your eyes from glaring in the sunlight. To help you view your screen in the sunlight or outdoors.
This laptop has a 15.6 inches FHD display with a 16:9 aspect ratio and provides 240 Hz refresh rates to provide accurate and quick refresh time. You can play games without any image breaking, or colour-bleeding.
One last thing, despite all these amazing aspects, one thing I would like to tell you about this laptop is its dedicated cooling system.
This laptop comes with a dedicated cooling system that prevents it from getting too much hot when playing hard-core games for extended hours.
4. HP Pavilion 14
- Processor: Intel Core i5-7200U
- Graphics Integrated
- Storage: 1TB HDD
- RAM: 8GB DDR4
- Display: 15.6 inches HD display
Any laptop list for any task or operation can never be completed without HP Laptop.
Here as well, HP comes with an amazing Pavilion series laptop without an Operating system to support you. It is a budget-priced laptop, not a 500 dollar laptop but it offers much more than the price it comes in hands.
This HP laptop covers all the bases. It has everything that a regular to professional user wants. It has a good processor in the form of Intel Core i5-7200U. It is a U series processor, and any processor with the U consumes less power to last long.
In other words, it is great for those who travel with a laptop. Digital Nomads with average computing operations can get this laptop onboard.
Or college students, PA schools, or medical school students can get this average-priced laptop to accomplish their regular tasks.
It has 8GB RAM that is upgradeable. With 1TB HDD storage, it allows good space to store anything you like. Yes, it lacks SSD storage but comes with extra space that allows an easier extension.
In simplest words, you can extend the storage with an SSD, make SSD for your OS, and use HDD storage as permanent storage for anything else you store.
Wait, it is not complete yet. It has an amazing backlight keyboard. The illuminated keyboard is helpful in the dark to help you type without any mistakes.
And about the display, the only downside. It has a 15.6 inches HD display. Yes, it is a WLED Bright View HD display that surely would not support FHD videos.
I did not say that this is good for watching movies or for editing tasks, it is good for general-purpose operations.
5. MSI WF65 Mobile Workstation
- Processor: 10th Gen Intel core i7-10750H
- Graphics Card: NVIDIA Quadro P620 4GB
- Storage: 512GB SSD
- RAM: 16GB DDR4
- Display: 15.6 inches FHD display, 60 Hz
Review:
Another great laptop that provides you with the freedom to choose any OS. This laptop grabs your attention because of its backlight keyboard.
It is a high-end gaming laptop that has an illuminated keyboard to help gamers roll on any game they like on the go.
It is a mobile workstation that comes with 15.6 inches FHD IPS display. This display provides 60 Hz refresh rates with 45% NTSC and thin bezels around.
The display is colourful, provides greater colour coverage to help video editors and photo editors get their tasks done at best. Yes, colour-covering becomes very important if you have to do editing.
With that said, this laptop can be used for High res video editing such as GoPro Video Editing or DaVinci Resolve. We have covered the best laptops for video editing under 1000, if you want a video editing laptop under the mentioned price, give that post a read.
It has a 10th Gen Intel core i7-10750H processor. It is one of the most powerful processors laptop ever comes powered with.
This processor with Six cores goes up to 5.0 GHz clock speed and makes you catch up with the highest scale computing operation that comes to your mind.
Yes, it’s 16GB RAM that comes in two slots, and 512GB SSD storage is also good go aspects. Keep in mind you can upgrade both RAM and storage.
The RAM size can be upgraded up to 64GB and storage up to 2TB SSD to help you get things rolled on smoothly.
More than anything do not forget that this laptop comes with NVIDIA Quadro P620 4GB GDDR6 graphics card. It is a Turing Architecture graphics card that brings the most advanced computer graphics into professional workflows.
Indeed it is a mobile workstation that comes equipped with USB-A, USB Type-C, HDMI ports to help you expand your workflow. This laptop has a USB Type-C port that surely allows it to connect to external monitors.
6. HP Stream 14-Inch
- Processor: Intel Celeron 4000
- Graphics: Integrated
- RAM: 4GB
- Storage: 64GB Emmc
- Display: 14-inches HD display
Review:
If you are on a tight budget and looking to buy a cheap laptop, HP Stream is a good laptop under 300 dollars.
It is one of the cheapest laptops that are good to go for regular computing operation. Do not go for it if you have end computing operations to handle.
It comes with an Intel Celeron N4000 processor which is considered good to handle tasks such as browsing, emailing, taking notes, or assignment preparations.
The most you can do using this laptop is to watch movies online or go online using social networking sites.
It has 14 Inches display, it is an HD display with WLED backlight support. With 4GB of RAM and 64GB eMMC storage this is on par with the budget we are spending on it.
Its battery though is very impressive, this little thing lasts around 14-hours if once charged completely.
With that, you can call it a travel-friendly laptop. On your way, you can use it to check email, reply to emails, attend zoom meetings or attend online classes.
For the price, I do not think you can get a better laptop than this.
If you are on a tight budget and your laptop use is not that much just browsing and emailing, I think this little laptop is great to go with without breaking your bank.
7. HP 15
- Processor: Intel core i5-1035G1
- Graphics: Integrated
- RAM: 8GB
- Storage: 256GB SSD
- Display: 15.6 Inches FHD Diagonal Display
If you are a business user and want to buy a good laptop without OS that fits your regular needs, Buy an HP 15 Business laptop.
This laptop looks elegant and incorporates a good range of configurations to help business users cater daily computing operations.
This laptop comes featured with an Intel core i5-1035G1 processor. It is a G-series processor, and G-series processors come with a good integrated graphics card to help you handle average to complex graphics editing operations.
This processor provides a 1.0 GHz base clock speed and goes up to 3.6 GHz with Intel Turbo Boost Technology.
It comes with 256GB SSD storage. This storage provides an instant boost to the laptop and makes this business series laptop boost up in seconds. You can expand the storage of this laptop, and make it good enough to handle your storage needs.
It has 8GB RAM, good enough to help you take care of regular tasks. This much RAM size is even great at handling high-end games.
It comes with a 15.6 inches FHD Diagonal display. This is a WLED backlight display that has an 82-per cent screen-to-body ratio to provide you enhanced view. It also has Anti-Glare panels to help you view the screen in sunlight without glares.
This laptop’s battery life as per HP’s claims lasts around 10-hours. If it is true, this range of the battery is more than enough to take care of regular computing needs. Even if you go on travel, just charge it up once a day and get it running all day.
Top Benefits of Buying a Laptop Without Operating System?
There are benefits to buying a laptop without an operating system. I have seen users commenting and mentioning their needs, why they need a laptop without OS.
These are some advantages, maybe your advantage or need is different than others. These are some general advantages, give it a read to understand your ambiguity.
We have written a dedicated post of top reasons to buy a laptop without an OS, read that post to learn why it is important.
You Already Have an OS License:
Yes, I saw one user comment on the HP website that he has a windows license already. And now he is interested in buying a new HP laptop, it would be useless to buy a laptop with OS installed, so he wanted to buy a laptop without a license.
That is one reason, many users purchase a license of an operating system. And the new laptop you purchase is also included for windows or Mac OS price, so for many users, it is just a waste of money.
But there are limited numbers of laptops that you can buy without OS. That makes their license useless.
Price:
A laptop without an OS installed comes at a cheap price. At least $100 is added for a Windows license, or more I guess.
If you buy one without OS installed, you can install an OS at your home from an ISO file for free, so this money you can save up if you buy without windows installed.
Install any OS you like:
Yes, freedom.
You get the freedom to get any OS installed. I mean if you purchase an HP laptop that most often comes with Windows OS installed, and you want Linux or any other OS installed in your laptop which is free then you are paying the extra money for no use.
Moreover, the absence of an OS installed allows you to explore more areas and learn more things than just Windows OS.
What Happens When You Buy A Laptop Without Operating System Installed?
First thing first, if you are a new user and do not have much technical knowledge regarding laptops and OS installed, it is better to buy a regular laptop with OS installed.
The benefits or advantages of buying a laptop without an OS installed are many. Some we have mentioned above, when you have a license, buying a laptop with OS installed make no use of that license that you already purchase.
Or you want some different OS installed, as you would be removing the OS installed already, and the OS in a laptop installed comes at a price, you technically would not like to pay for an OS that you want to remove from your laptop.
When you buy a laptop that does not have any OS installed it is like a Canvas.
You will have to install an OS. Either you install a Windows OS for which you already have a license. Or you make a bootable Disc or USB from ISO WINDOWS OS image downloaded from the internet to get a free OS installed in your laptop.
The same can be followed for Linux or Macintosh Operating systems.
How to install an Operating System on a laptop without OS?
It depends on the operating system you are desired to install.
If you want to install a Windows 10, the process becomes super smooth or easy. For Linux or Mac, it is different as most of us do not get to install Mac, that’s why it is a little difficult.
- Download a Windows ISO image from Windows official website.
- Download software that helps you make a bootable Windows USB or disk.
- Search for ISO to USB(From USB Windows Installation) or ISO to disc software on Google.
- Make a bootable USB.
- And then insert that USB into your laptop
Restart it and press Boot key (Boot key appears when we restart or start our laptop on left or right extreme lower corner, it can be from f2-f12 any key)
Now, the booting process should begin.
Once you get the Windows installed, you can register it using the license that you got.
Final Thoughts:
For those interested in buying a laptop without an operating system this guide is really helpful. Not only we review top laptops available on Amazon without an operating system but we also tried to answer the most frequent queries users have asked.
I am sure this guide will help you in finding the best laptop without OS.