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Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
The best laptops for 2025, tested for performance, battery life, design, and value
All products featured here are independently selected by our editors and writers. If you buy something through links on our site, Mashable may earn an affiliate commission. Choosing the best laptop is a largely subjective decision that comes down to your primary use cases, your preferred operating system, and your budget. In other words, there's no such thing as a universally best laptop. This is an annoying fact of life for both laptop shoppers and those of us doling out "best laptop" recommendations, since we can't make custom judgment calls for everyone in need of a new machine. (I would love to, but I've got a thing after this.) However, I can confidently point you in the right direction of some standouts that I and other members of the Mashable team have vetted and approved. SEE ALSO: Laptop specs explained: A jargon-free guide to what's inside your computer As of May 2025, we think the new 15-inch Apple MacBook Air (M4) is the best MacBook for most people. It's a sleek-as-ever notebook featuring impressive performance, open-lid support for two external displays, a great 12MP Center Stage camera, and an extremely reasonable starting price of $1,199 (making it $100 cheaper than its M3 predecessor). SEE ALSO: As tariffs come for tech, these are the best cheap laptops under $1,000 The best Windows laptop we've tested is the 13.8-inch Microsoft Surface Laptop 7, a sophisticated and snappy Copilot+ PC boasting an unrivaled battery life of nearly 23 hours. Note that Microsoft makes an Intel version that may appeal to users wary of Windows on ARM for app compatibility reasons, but it's a business-oriented model with a significant markup. Read on for Mashable's in-depth guide to the best laptops of 2025. FYI: We've listed the pricing and specs of our testing units, which may not apply to each laptop's base model Now is an especially weird time to be shopping for a new laptop: President Donald Trump's tariffs on almost all imports have upended the tech market, causing some computer manufacturers to increase their prices and others to temporarily pause U.S. sales. We're monitoring this situation closely and will update this story if any of our top picks are affected. (None have been impacted so far, but the Asus ZenBook A14, a new contender we have in hand for testing, is now $100 pricier because of tariffs.) We'll soon test the following laptops: The Framework Laptop 13, a popular modular and repairable laptop with a Mashable Choice Award-winning predecessor. The Asus ZenBook A14, a featherlight Copilot+ PC with a durable "Ceraluminum" chassis, an OLED display, and a ridiculous rated battery life of up to 32 hours per charge. I briefly checked it out at CES 2025, and it took home our Best of CES laptop category award. The Asus Vivobook S 15, a sub-$1,000 Copilot+ PC with a 3K OLED display, an RGB backlit keyboard, and a rated battery life of up to 19 hours. The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x (Gen 9), a handsome mid-ranger with an OLED touchscreen and a rated battery life of up to 23.5 hours. The Acer Predator Helios 16, a 16-inch RTX 4080 gaming laptop priced at $2,299.99. The MSI Stealth A16 AI+, a 16-inch RTX 4070 gaming laptop that costs just under two grand. I recently tried the Dell XPS 13 (9450), a 2024 Lunar Lake PC that's the last of its kind. (Dell phased out the XPS series earlier this year.) It's easily one of the prettiest and most stylish laptops I've ever gotten my hands on, largely thanks to its edge-to-edge design and the tandem OLED touchscreen display on my review unit: It's luscious, bright, and finished with an Anti-Reflect coating that makes it immune to annoying glares. At 13.4 inches, the XPS 13 is an ultraportable stunner. What's more, the XPS 13 lasted over over 13 hours in our battery life test. That's not an especially long runtime compared to other Windows laptops in our database, but it's well above the category's current median. However, the XPS 13 over-prioritizes form over function in several ways that I found frustrating. Its zero-lattice keyboard is cramped, stiff, and topped off by an odd touch function row. Its fussy touchpad would click when I wanted to scroll and drag when I wanted to click, and I couldn't feel its haptics even when I had them turned all the way up. Most egregiously, the XPS 13 only has two Thunderbolt 4/USB-C ports — there's not even a headphone jack! (First, they came for our smartphones...) The overall value prop for its internals just isn't there, either. My mid-range Intel Core Ultra 256V loaner with 16GB of memory and 512GB of storage costs $1,849.99. (Most Windows laptops and MacBooks we've tested in that price range are stronger performers with at least 1TB of storage, and some have double the RAM.) Granted, the XPS 13 starts at $1,199.99 if you scrap its tandem OLED display, which is an optional add-on, but I think that's one of its biggest draws. I ultimately rated it a 3.8/5. In January, I tested the HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14, a 2-in-1 Lunar Lake laptop priced at $1,899.99 as tested (with an Intel Core Ultra 258V processor, 32GB of RAM, and 2TB of storage). It's a beautiful machine with a colorful 3K OLED touchscreen display, a satisfying keyboard, a velvety touchpad, and a dark aluminum chassis that gives it a moody and elegant look. It also lasted an impressive 15 hours in our battery life test. That said, it has some baffling port placements and some very disappointing performance benchmark results. In a Geekbench 6 multi-core test, my OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 scored slightly lower than the M2-powered MacBook Air from 2023 and significantly lower than its own predecessor. That would be last year's HP Spectre x360 14, which had a mid-range Core Ultra Series 1 processor as tested. I expected way more from a machine with Intel's freshest upper mid-range CPU. Ultimately, I rated the OmniBook Flip 14 a 4.4/5 — very respectable, but just short of being a Mashable Choice Award winner. It's a flashy premium hybrid for splurgers who want a future-proofed laptop that won't work very hard, but the zippier Lenovo Yoga 9i 14 feels like a better value for most people at $1,449.99 as tested. If you're choosing between the two HP models, I'm also tempted to recommend the Spectre x360 14 over the OmniBook Ultra Flip 14. It offers more power and better top-firing speakers for a comparable price.
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Yahoo
Best Windows laptops for 2025: Our top pick lasts longer than the M4 MacBook Pros
All products featured here are independently selected by our editors and writers. If you buy something through links on our site, Mashable may earn an affiliate commission. The best Windows laptops run an impressive gamut, from Qualcomm-powered workhorses that refuse to die to dual-display stunners and subtle gaming stations. (Some of them, dare we say, will tempt even the most devoted Apple Macbook disciples.) Users who need a new laptop for everyday productivity, creativity, or entertainment have no shortage of options. And that's for better or worse. To help you pick out your next PC from the crowded Windows market, we've broken out our best laptops rundown into this separate guide to the best Windows machines of 2025. All of these laptops have been thoroughly hands-on tested by members of the Mashable team for performance, build quality, and battery life, and we stand by their value — or at least think they're worth hunting down on sale. As of April 2025, Mashable's favorite Windows laptop is the 13-inch Microsoft Surface Laptop 7, an elegant workhorse powered by the impressive Snapdragon X Elite processor. It's got high-end power, a premium design, interesting AI features, and an incredible battery life. It's actually the longest-lasting laptop we've ever reviewed: Even the latest M4 MacBooks can't keep up. For almost as much Snapdragon oomph at a lower price point, opt for the HP Omnibook X 14, the best mid-range Windows laptop. It's not much to look at, but it's plenty power-efficient and equipped with a great keyboard. It also comes with the same AI tools as the Surface Laptop 7. SEE ALSO: The best laptops for 2025, tested by our experts Those on an even tighter budget should look into the Lenovo Yoga 7 14 (Gen 9): Solid performance, a good amount of ports, and a versatile 2-in-1 design have made it our new favorite cheap Windows laptop. It dethrones our previous pick, the Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 3, a pretty ultraportable with specs that are too dated for 2025 buyers. If you're shopping for a convertible across all price points, the Lenovo Yoga 9i 14 (Gen 9) is our top 2-in-1 laptop overall, earning praise from our reviewer for its gorgeous 2.8K OLED touchscreen, its peppy (albeit piping-hot) CPU, and its clear Bowers & Wilkins soundbar. For a twist on the hybrid form factor, we also highly recommend the 2024 Asus Zenbook Duo, a beautiful dual-screener. We've got additional picks for specialty users — the Alienware m16 R2 is the best gaming laptop we've tested thus far, and the Acer Swift X 14 is our go-to Windows laptop for photo and video editing. Read on for Mashable's in-depth guide to the best Windows laptops of 2025. FYI: We've listed the pricing and specs of our testing units, which may not apply to each laptop's base model. Our team has several Windows laptops in hand for testing, including two AI-ready gaming laptops: the latest Intel-powered Framework Laptop 13, an upgradable and repairable PC the new Asus ZenBook A14, the "world's lightest Copilot+ PC" (and the winner of Mashable's Best of CES award in the laptop category this year) the latest Asus VivoBook S 15, a Copilot+ PC that comes in just under $1,000 the latest Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x (Gen 9), a mid-range Copilot+ PC with an OLED touchscreen the Acer Predator Helios 16, a 16-inch gaming laptop with a 240Hz display and an RTX 4080 GPU the MSI Stealth A16 AI+, another 16-inch gaming laptop with a 240Hz display and an RTX 4070 GPU I just finished testing the Dell XPS 13 (9350), a 13-inch Lunar Lake Copilot+ PC with an anti-reflective tandem OLED touchscreen display. Above all, it's a gorgeous laptop: That display is one of the nicest I've ever seen, and its edge-to-edge design gives it a super premium, minimalist look. It also lasted more than 13 hours in our battery life test, which is great when you factor in that power-sucking display. However, the XPS 13 favors prettiness over practicality in certain ways that make it a pain to use. Namely, its zero-lattic keyboard felt cramped, its glass touchpad often misbehaved, and its port selection was dire. (There are just two Thunderbolt 4/USB-C ports — that's too much minimalism, IMO.) Those might've been more forgivable if the XPS 13 didn't cost so much. My testing unit with a firmly mid-range Intel Core Ultra 256V CPU, 16GB of RAM, and only 512GB of storage goes for $1,849.99. You can knock that down to $1,199.99 if you go without the OLED display upgrade, which feels way more reasonable, but at the same time, that was the one thing I liked most about it. I rated it a 3.8/5 overall. Earlier this year, I tested the HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14, a slick convertible with awesome build quality, an excellent 15-hour battery life, and a beautiful design that includes a 3K OLED touchscreen. It's a knockout, but its weird port placements and middling Geekbench 6 multi-core score kept it from earning a Mashable Choice Award. (I rated it a 4.4/5 overall — so close!) To give more context to the latter point, my $1,899.99 testing unit had an Intel Core Ultra 258V processor with 32GB of RAM and 2TB of storage. (That's a brand-new upper mid-range CPU.) In our Geekbench 6 benchmark, it scored slightly worse than the 15-inch M2 Apple MacBook Air from 2023 and significantly worse than its predecessor, last year's HP Spectre x360 14, which had a mid-range Intel Core Series 1 CPU as tested. For nearly $2,000, I wanted way more oomph from the OmniBook. I do think the OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 is a decent splurge for future-proofers, but it's not well-rounded enough to be one of our top picks. Stick with the Yoga 9i 14 if you're looking for the best hybrid laptop out there, or look into the Spectre x360 14 if you want to stay within the HP family — it offers better performance and audio quality for about the same price as the OmniBook model.
Jordan News
04-03-2025
- Jordan News
Best Lightweight Laptops of 2025 - Jordan News
Some laptops are designed to stay at home and function like desktop computers that you can move from room to room. Some laptops are designed to stay at home and function like desktop computers that you can move from room to room. اضافة اعلان Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 (2.96 pounds) is the best lightweight Copilot Plus PC. (Matt Elliott/CNET/TNS) On the other hand, the design of other laptops prioritizes portability, making them light enough to fit into your bag for daily commutes and frequent travel, allowing you to return home at the end of the day without shoulder pain. The options you see here fall into this latter category, but these are not just the smallest laptops we've reviewed. These are the lightweight laptops that CNET editors have tested over the past year. Many new models were recently announced at the 2025 Consumer Electronics Show, based on next-gen laptop chips from Intel, AMD, and NVIDIA. However, there is a slight delay — from two weeks to several months — between the unveiling of a laptop and its availability for purchase. The three lightweight laptops featured here were all released last year but remain current with modern components. While we will offer additional recommendations when reviewing new laptops for 2025, this is the ideal time to find a lightweight laptop from 2024, as many of them are available at good discounts. 1. M3 MacBook Air (2.7 lbs / 1.224 kg) - Best Lightweight Laptop For the latest MacBook Air from Apple, not much has changed from the previous version, except for the transition from M2 chips to M3 chips. The performance differences between the two devices are modest, but graphics performance has received a notable boost. The biggest features include support for Wi-Fi 6E, faster connectivity, and the ability to run dual external displays, albeit at the cost of closing the MacBook Air's lid. The 13.6-inch Liquid Retina display is gorgeous, and the build quality of the MacBook Air is slim yet sturdy. Not only is the M3 Air one of our favorite lightweight laptops, but it's also the best overall laptop. Thanks to its blend of portability, build quality, performance, and battery life, it's considered the best laptop for most people. M3 MacBook Air (2.7 pounds) is the best lightweight laptop. (Josh Goldman/CNET/TNS) 2. Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 (2.96 lbs / 1.342 kg) - Best Lightweight Laptop with "Copilot Plus" Feature The Surface Laptop 7 reflects previous ARM-on-Windows efforts, which struggled with performance and limited compatibility, as many x86 apps couldn't run on an ARM-based system. This time, both performance and compatibility have improved. Additionally, its battery life is remarkable. The Surface Laptop 7 is the longest-lasting 13- or 14-inch laptop. Its luxurious runtime, combined with a weight under 3 pounds, makes the 13.8-inch Surface Laptop 7 an ideal travel companion. We wish there were an OLED screen option, and you will need to do a compatibility check for your important applications before adopting an ARM-based Surface Laptop 7, but if you can get past those hurdles, you'll get a lightweight, long-lasting Windows laptop. 3. Lenovo Yoga 9i 14 Gen 9 (2.9 lbs / 1.315 kg) - Best Lightweight 2-in-1 Laptop The premium Lenovo Yoga 9i convertible laptop is ultra-slim, lightweight, and compact. It doesn't differ much from the Lenovo Yoga 7 mid-range convertible, but it's noticeably lighter at under 3 pounds. The reduced weight is a clear advantage in easing the burden when traveling with the device, but it also makes the 2-in-1 more manageable in tablet mode. The Lenovo Yoga 9i also upgrades to a high-resolution OLED display, and the amazing sound you get from its unique rotating soundbar hinge is exceptional. Its audio/video outputs are outstanding, giving this versatile device a strong boost as an entertainment machine. CNET Magazine, Tribune Media Services.
Yahoo
27-02-2025
- Yahoo
Best Windows Laptop for 2025
If the laptop announcements at CES 2025 from Acer, Asus, HP, Lenovo, Samsung and others have you thinking about an upgrade, then you've arrived at the right place. Below you'll find our favorite Windows laptops that CNET experts have tested and reviewed. These models were all released in 2024 but will stick around for a while longer -- and often at deep discounts. It'll be a few months before many of the laptops unveiled at CES will become available. The best Windows models from 2024 offer plenty of performance and battery life to provide a long lifespan. Keep reading to see our current favorites, and you can also check out the best laptops from CES. We really like the look and long battery life of the new Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 Copilot Plus PC, but the HP Pavilion Plus 14 remains our pick as the best overall Windows laptop. It doesn't have the battery life of the Surface Laptop 7, but it also lacks the potential compatibility issues you might run into with a laptop with neither an Intel nor an AMD CPU but an Arm-based Qualcomm Snapdragon X processor. We love the Pavilion Plus 14 for its all-metal enclosure, strong performance and gorgeous OLED display. Sitting between the meat-and-potatoes Pavilion line and the higher-end Envy line, the Pavilion Plus series offers attractive features at affordable prices. The Pavilion Plus 14 would make a good match for many people shopping for a Windows laptop. Other models we've tested and reviewed are great fits for narrower audiences, from budget models and two-in-one convertibles to high-powered gaming laptops. With decades of experience testing and reviewing laptops, our laptop experts conduct performance testing under controlled conditions in the CNET Labs and also perform extensive hands-on tests to assess the design, features and performance of each laptop we review. You'll find a good number of recommendations here, but we also have more specific picks in different laptop categories, starting with the best overall laptop and also including the best gaming laptop, best cheap gaming laptop, best laptop for college students and best two-in-one laptop. If you narrowed it to a specific brand, check out our picks for the best Dell laptop and best HP laptop. Beyond Windows, we have recommendations for the best MacBook and best Chromebook. There are a lot of Windows laptops. A lot. Which makes narrowing it down to just one more than a little tricky. The HP Pavilion Plus is exemplary because it can meet the needs of a lot of people while still being affordable. It's available in 14- and 16-inch sizes; we tested the 14-inch model, which is small enough for travel but big enough that you won't feel cramped while working. HP offers AMD and Intel processors, which can also be configured with entry-level discrete graphics. There are also multiple displays to match your budget, including a beautiful OLED panel. The starting price is $1,000, but HP regularly discounts it by hundreds of dollars. We tested an AMD model, and HP still sells both AMD and Intel configurations of the Pavilion Plus 14, but the customizable model with the cheap OLED upgrade is now an Intel-based unit with a Core Ultra CPU. We recommend getting that OLED screen; It adds only $60 to the package and is worth it -- especially when you can find it on sale and get the OLED upgrade for little more than $700 in total. That's a great price for a well-rounded, well-built laptop with an OLED display. See at HP Power in motion. AI-ready. The XPS 14 balances performance and mobility in a striking form factor. Create on the go with its lightweight 3.7-pound design, slim 18mm size and long battery life. It's powered by AI-enabled Intel Core Ultra processors. See at Dell The Surface Laptop 7 reverses earlier Arm-based efforts that were plagued by lackluster performance and limited compatibility. Many x86 apps were unable to run on an Arm-based system. This time around, performance has improved, and so has compatibility. We saw a strong overall performance from the Snapdragon X Elite processor and jaw-dropping battery life. The Surface Laptop 7 ran for nearly 20 hours in testing -- that's the longest runtime of any 13- or 14-inch laptop we ever reviewed -- including the M3 MacBook Air. The Surface Laptop 7 competes with the MacBook Air in performance and battery life and supplies a similarly sleek and solid build. We wish there was an OLED display option, and you'll need to do a compatibility check for your mission-critical applications before embracing the Arm-based Surface Laptop 7, but if you can get past those hurdles, then you'll get a well-built, good-looking and long-running Windows ultraportable. You don't necessarily need to spend the roughly $2,000 that our test system costs; one of the lower-priced configurations that starts at $900 should meet the needs of most people. See at Best Buy Dell's new Copilot Plus PC lasted for more than 23 hours on our YouTube streaming battery drain test. That's longer than any laptop we've tested in the past year and one of the longest laptop runtimes we have ever seen. Inspiron 14 Plus 7441's design is fairly basic and doesn't match the sleekness of Microsoft's own Copilot Plus PC, the Surface Laptop 7, or Apple's MacBook Air, but the Inspiron 14 Plus 7441 still supplies a rigid, all-metal chassis and crisp, 2.5K IPS display. At just $800, it's a bit more affordable than Microsoft's and Apple's models and is a great pick for a general-purpose, long-lasting laptop. See at Dell The Dell XPS 16 9640 has a striking, minimalistic design that features a borderless touchpad, a nearly flat keyboard with little to no spacing between the keys and a Function row that consists not of physical keys but touch-sensitive icons. Powering the 4K OLED display is a powerful duo of an Intel Core Ultra CPU and up to RTX 4070 graphics. At $3,200, our XPS 16 9640 test system costs less than the $3,999 configuration of the mostly maxed-out MacBook Pro 16 we tested at the end of last year but is still at the high-end of the premium laptop class. It offers the design and performance that befits its price and Dell's numerous customization options mean you can likely land on a configuration that meets your needs and budget. See at Dell It delivers no surprises or revolutionary upgrades from past iterations, but the ThinkPad X1 Carbon's security features, build quality and performance remain excellent. Its 14-inch display and 2.5-pound weight are the sweet spot of enough screen space to work long stretches without needing to connect to an external display, while also being light enough for daily travel. With an industry-best keyboard, long battery life and greener construction, the X1 Carbon Gen 11 is a near-perfect business laptop. Lenovo has increased pricing from previous Gen 11 to Gen 12 models to where we've reached a point where the latest ThinkPad X1 Carbon is no longer our recommendation for business execs unless your organization is large enough to qualify for volume pricing. For individual buyers, it's simply too expensive for the performance, and battery life it provides. For most business users, the previous Gen 11 is the better buy -- especially for just $1,349 at Walmart. See at Amazon For just $300, Acer's entry-level Aspire Go 14 holds its own against other budget models that cost twice as much or even more. The design can't be described as enticing or exciting, but it's functional and unlikely to offend. Performance from the quad-core AMD Ryzen 3 7000 series CPU and 8GB of RAM suffices for basic use, and its battery life is surprisingly long. The 14-inch display features a modern 16:10 aspect ratio and is sufficiently bright, but it suffers from poor viewing angles that might take some getting used to before you settle on the right angle to position the display. Another drawback is the tight storage of the laptop's meager 128GB SSD. Neither drawback is a deal-breaker when you consider the bargain-basement price. The Aspire Go 14 provides great value with its acceptable build quality, capable performance and long battery life. See at Acer Like other gaming laptop makers, Acer has two lines: a budget-friendly Nitro series and midrange and premium models that carry the Predator label. Oddly enough, it's under the latter you'll find our budget gaming pick: the Helios Neo 16. It's strikingly similar to the Acer Nitro 16 but with slightly better build quality and graphics performance. The only place it really faltered was its speakers, which put out disappointingly flat audio with nonexistent bass. The Predator Helios Neo 16 with a Core i5 CPU and RTX 4050 graphic cost $1,200 when we reviewed it. That model is no longer available, but a higher-end Core i7/RTX 4060 model is for just $1,150. See at Acer One of the first of the new generation of 18-inch laptops, the m18 is now in its second R2 iteration. It can get expensive if you push it up to a high configuration -- an RTX 4090 and Core i9-14900HX exceeds $3,000. If the big screen is most important to you, it starts at $1,900 with a respectable Core i7-14650HX and RTX 4060. Don't expect great battery life, and the fans can get loud when you're pushing it. See at Dell Two items help make the Microsoft Surface Pro 11 our favorite two-in-one detachable laptop: Qualcomm's new Snapdragon Elite X processor and an excellent OLED display. The Arm-based CPU delivers competitive performance and far fewer compatibility issues for mainstream use than previous Windows-on-Arm efforts. It helps the Surface Pro 11 deliver a long runtime. The 13-inch OLED display supplies a crisp, 2.8K resolution along with P3 calibration and real HDR capability. It's the best Surface Pro we've seen in a while, but you still have to pay extra for a keyboard and stylus. The Surface Pro 11 starts at $1,000 but costs can quickly escalate. For example, the Flex keyboard with Slim pen adds a hefty $450 to our test system, which costs $1,700 for a Snapdragon Elite X processor, 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. See at Best Buy The X1 Fold is still more of a proof-of-concept product than a mass-market device, but it's the best foldable laptop we've seen to date. It feels cramped in laptop mode when the display is folded into a small, 12-inch screen. It works better as an all-in-one with the 16.3-inch OLED display unfolded and propped up against the separate kickstand with the Bluetooth keyboard in front of it. The kickstand can hold the display in either landscape or portrait mode, and it works well in either orientation. The ThinkPad X1 Fold 16 puts us one step closer to getting a foldable laptop that's more than just a curiosity for deep-pocketed early adopters. Its design is sleeker than that of Asus's thick and clunky Zenbook 17 Fold. Its price is much more reasonable than HP's Spectre Foldable PC. Lenovo has dropped the price of the X1 to where it now starts at around $1,900. Our test system with the keyboard folio included rings in at just over $2,300. See at Lenovo Acer Swift 16 AI: It's thin. It's light. It's long-running. And it boasts a big, bright 16-inch OLED display. So, what's holding this Copilot Plus PC back from being more than just a big-screen productivity machine? Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5i 16 Gen 9: For a 16-inch laptop, it's thin, light and long running too. But it's hard to look past the budget display. HP Pavilion Aero 13: When it comes to runtime, Snapdragon X laptops and the MacBook Air run laps around it. Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i: It's thin and light for its size, but a short runtime and a few design miscues make this a low-cost laptop to skip. Acer Swift Go 14 AI: This Snapdragon X-powered laptop can run all day, but its overall look might put you to sleep. Acer Swift 14 AI: It's a long-lasting if basic Copilot Plus PC, but do we really need an AI indicator light on the touchpad? Lenovo ThinkBook 14 2-in-1 Gen 4: I wish you could upgrade the display, but this low-cost two-in-one business laptop lets you add more RAM and a second SSD after purchase to extend your investment. Lenovo Yoga 7 16 Gen 9: Lenovo's 16-inch convertible is a good budget buy, but it's better as a secondary machine than your daily driver. Lenovo Yoga 9i 14 Gen 9: Lenovo's flagship two-in-one has AV advantages over its midrange sibling, but you'll pay a premium price for the OLED display and quad speakers. Asus Zenbook S 14: Intel's Core Ultra Series 2 processors show improvement from the first generation, but Apple's and Qualcomm's ARM-based chips still lead the way. HP OmniBook X 14: The latest Copilot Plus PC runs for more hours than there are in a day. Lenovo LOQ 15IAX9I: It's super cheap, with a dedicated Intel Arc GPU that lends it a wee bit of 3D muscle for casual 1080p play. HP Envy x360 16: This midrange convertible impresses with a premium OLED display. Its AMD Ryzen 8040 series CPU makes it pretty fast too. Asus ROG Zephyrus G16: It's a top gaming laptop for creators, too. Dell Inspiron 2-in-1 7445: A dim display dulls Dell's otherwise well-rounded, AI-equipped and affordable 14-inch convertible laptop. Acer Swift X 14 (2024): The design won't wow you, but the 14.5-inch OLED display powered by RTX 4070 graphics is a great combo for on-the-go content creation. Dell Inspiron 16 Plus 7640: Content creators may bemoan the display choices, but this midtier, 16-inch laptop offers well-rounded performance from its Core Ultra chip and RTX graphics. Asus Zenbook 14 OLED Q425: It's a boon to get an OLED display in a portable package with great battery life for roughly $1,000, but the fit and finish feel decidedly midrange. Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 12: The latest X1 Carbon has many charms, but they will remain out of reach for many business buyers constrained by budgets. Dell XPS 14 9440: The radical look is sure to turn heads, but some of the daring design elements could be turnoffs. HP Omen Transcend 14: Neither a featureless slab nor a carnival of lights, HP's latest 14-inch Omen has its own unique flair. It doesn't scrimp on substance, either. Lenovo Slim 7i: With an OLED display and a solid build, this is a rugged option for mainstream shoppers, but other touches are decidedly midrange. Dell Inspiron 14 Plus 7440: For a reasonable $1,000, this 14-inch Dell model based on an Intel Core Ultra CPU lets you be productive and remain portable. Alienware m16 R2: This middle-class option for mainstream gaming fares better than average and is a sensible option for 1440p play. Acer Predator Triton 14: With fast performance and a bright HDR screen, this mainstream 14-inch gaming laptop can be a great gaming value. M3 MacBook Air 13: Apple's 2024 MacBook Air update is a straightforward performance boost to power you through the future of work, school and play. The review process for laptops consists of two parts: performance testing under controlled conditions in the CNET Labs and extensive hands-on use by our reviewers. This includes evaluating a device's aesthetics, ergonomics and features with respect to price. A final review verdict is a combination of both objective and subjective judgments. We test all laptops with a core set of benchmarks, including Primate Labs Geekbench 5 and 6, Cinebench R23, PCMark 10, a variety of 3DMark benchmarks (whichever can run on the laptop), UL Procyon Photo and Video (where supported), and our own battery life test. If a laptop is intended for gaming, we'll also run benchmarks from Guardians of the Galaxy, The Rift Breaker (CPU and GPU) and Shadow of the Tomb Raider. For the hands-on, the reviewer uses it for their work during the review period, evaluating how well the design, features (such as the screen, camera and speakers) and manufacturer-supplied software operate as a cohesive whole. We also place importance on how well they work given their cost and where the manufacturer has potentially made upgrades or tradeoffs for its price. The list of benchmarking software and comparison criteria we use changes over time as the devices we test evolve. You can find a more detailed description of our test methodology on our How We Test Computers page. There are a ton of laptops on the market at any given moment, and almost all of those models are available in multiple configurations to match your performance and budget needs. If you're feeling overwhelmed with options when looking for a new laptop, it's understandable. To help simplify things for you, here are the main things you should consider when you start looking. The search for a new laptop for most people starts with price. If the statistics chipmaker Intel and PC manufacturers hurl at us are correct, you'll be holding onto your next laptop for at least three years. If you can afford to stretch your budget a little to get better specs, do it, which holds whether you're spending $500 or more than $1,000. In the past, you could get away with spending less upfront with an eye toward upgrading memory and storage in the future. Laptop makers are increasingly moving away from making components easily upgradable, so again, it's best to get as much laptop capability as you can afford from the start. Generally speaking, the more you spend, the better the laptop. That could mean better components for faster performance, a nicer display, sturdier build quality, a smaller or lighter design from higher-end materials or even a more comfortable keyboard. All of these things add to the cost of a laptop. I'd love to say $500 will get you a powerful gaming laptop, for example, but that's not the case. Right now, the sweet spot for a reliable laptop that can handle average work, home office or school tasks is between $700 and $800 and a reasonable model for creative work or gaming is upward of about $1,000. The key is to look for discounts on models in all price ranges so you can get more laptop capability for less. Choosing an operating system is part personal preference and part budget. For the most part, Microsoft Windows and Apple's MacOS do the same things (except for gaming, where Windows is the winner), but they do them differently. Unless there's an OS-specific application you need, go with the one you feel most comfortable using. If you're not sure which that is, head to an Apple store or a local electronics store and test them out. Or ask friends or family to let you test theirs for a bit. If you have an iPhone or iPad and like it, chances are you'll like MacOS too. When it comes to price and variety (and PC gaming), Windows laptops win. If you want MacOS, you're getting a MacBook. Apple's MacBooks regularly top our best lists, but the least expensive one is the M1 MacBook Air for $999. It is regularly discounted to $750 or $800, but if you want a cheaper MacBook, you'll have to consider older refurbished ones. Windows laptops can be found for as little as a couple of hundred dollars and come in all manner of sizes and designs. Granted, we'd be hard-pressed to find a $200 laptop we'd give a full-throated recommendation to, but if you need a laptop for online shopping, email and word processing, they exist. If you are on a tight budget, consider a Chromebook. ChromeOS is a different experience than Windows. Make sure the applications you need have a Chrome, Android or Linux app before making the leap. If you spend most of your time roaming the web, writing, streaming video or using cloud-gaming services, they're a good fit. Remember to consider whether having a lighter, thinner laptop or a touchscreen laptop with a good battery life will be important to you in the future. Laptop size is primarily determined by screen size, which factors into battery size, laptop thickness, weight and price. Keep in mind other physics-related characteristics, such as an ultrathin laptop isn't necessarily lighter than a thick one, you can't expect a wide array of connections on a small or ultrathin model and so on. When it comes to deciding on a screen, there are a myriad number of considerations: how much you need to display (which is surprisingly more about resolution than screen size), what types of content you'll be looking at and whether or not you'll be using it for gaming or creative work. You really want to optimize pixel density, which is the number of pixels per inch the screen can display. Although other factors contribute to sharpness, a higher pixel density usually means sharper rendering of text and interface elements. (You can easily calculate the pixel density of any screen at DPI Calculator if you don't feel like doing the math, and you can also find out what math you need to do there.) We recommend a dot pitch of at least 100 pixels per inch as a rule of thumb. Because of the way Windows and MacOS scale for the display, you're frequently better off with a higher resolution than you'd think. You can always make things bigger on a high-resolution screen, but you can never make them smaller -- to fit more content in the view -- on a low-resolution screen. This is why a 4K, 14-inch screen may sound like unnecessary overkill, but may not be if you need to view a wide spreadsheet, for example. If you need a laptop with relatively accurate color, that displays the most colors possible or that supports HDR, you can't simply trust the specs. This is because manufacturers usually fail to provide the necessary context to understand what the specs they quote mean. You can find a ton of detail about considerations for different types of screen uses in our monitor buying guides for general-purpose monitors, creators, gamers and HDR viewing. The processor, aka the CPU, is the brains of a laptop. Intel and AMD are the main CPU makers for Windows laptops, with Qualcomm as a new third option with its Arm-based Snapdragon X processors. Both Intel and AMD offer a staggering selection of mobile processors. Making things trickier, both manufacturers have chips designed for different laptop styles, like power-saving chips for ultraportables or faster processors for gaming laptops. Their naming conventions will let you know what type is used. You can head to Intel's or AMD's sites for explanations so you get the performance you want. Generally speaking, the faster the processor speed and the more cores it has, the better the performance will be. Apple makes its own chips for MacBooks, which makes things slightly more straightforward. Like Intel and AMD, you'll still want to pay attention to the naming conventions to know what kind of performance to expect. Apple uses its M-series chipsets in Macs. The entry-level MacBook Air uses an M1 chip with an eight-core CPU and seven-core GPU. The current models have M2-series silicon that starts with an eight-core CPU and 10-core GPU and goes up to the M2 Max with a 12-core CPU and a 38-core GPU. Again, generally speaking, the more cores it has, the better the performance. Battery life has less to do with the number of cores and more to do with CPU architecture, Arm versus x86. Apple's Arm-based MacBooks and the first Arm-based Copilot Plus PCs we've tested offer better battery life than laptops based on x86 processors from Intel and AMD. The graphics processor handles all the work of driving the screen and generating what gets displayed, as well as speeding up a lot of graphics-related (and increasingly, AI-related) operations. For Windows laptops, there are two types of GPUs: integrated or discrete. As the names imply, an iGPU is part of the CPU package, while a dGPU is a separate chip with dedicated memory (VRAM) that it communicates with directly, making it faster than sharing memory with the CPU. Because the iGPU splits space, memory and power with the CPU, it's constrained by the limits of those. It allows for smaller, lighter laptops, but doesn't perform nearly as well as a dGPU. There are some games and creative software that won't run unless they detect a dGPU or sufficient VRAM. Most productivity software, video streaming, web browsing and other nonspecialized apps will run fine on an iGPU. For more power-hungry graphics needs, like video editing, gaming and streaming, design and so on, you'll need a dGPU; there are only two real companies that make them, Nvidia and AMD, with Intel offering some based on the Xe-branded (or the older UHD Graphics branding) iGPU technology in its CPUs. For memory, we highly recommend 16GB of RAM (8GB absolute minimum). RAM is where the operating system stores all the data for currently running applications, and it can fill up fast. After that, it starts swapping between RAM and SSD, which is slower. A lot of sub-$500 laptops have 4GB or 8GB, which in conjunction with a slower disk can make for a frustratingly slow Windows laptop experience. Also, many laptops now have the memory soldered onto the motherboard. Most manufacturers disclose this, but if the RAM type is LPDDR, assume it's soldered and can't be upgraded. Some PC makers will solder memory on and also leave an empty internal slot for adding a stick of RAM. You may need to contact the laptop manufacturer or find the laptop's full specs online to confirm. Check the web for user experiences, because the slot may still be hard to get to, it may require nonstandard or hard-to-get memory or other pitfalls. You'll still find cheaper hard drives in budget laptops and larger hard drives in gaming laptops, but faster solid-state drives have all but replaced hard drives in laptops. They can make a big difference in performance. Not all SSDs are equally speedy, and cheaper laptops typically have slower drives. If the laptop only has 4GB or 8GB of RAM, it may end up swapping to that drive and the system may slow down quickly while you're working. Get what you can afford, and if you need to go with a smaller drive, you can always add an external drive or two down the road or use cloud storage to bolster a small internal drive. The one exception is gaming laptops: We don't recommend going with less than a 512GB SSD unless you really like uninstalling games every time you want to play a new game. Setting a budget is a good place to start when shopping for the best laptop for yourself. The good news is you can get a nice-looking, lightweight laptop with excellent battery life at prices under $500. If you're shopping for a laptop around $500 or less, check out our top picks here, as well as more specific buying advice for that price range. Higher-end components like Intel Core i-series and AMD Ryzen processors and premium design touches like thin-display bezels and aluminum or magnesium bodies have made their way to laptops priced between $500 and $1,000. You can also find touchscreens and two-in-one designs that can be used as a tablet or a laptop and a couple of other positions in between. In this price range, you'll also find faster memory and more SSD storage to improve performance. Above $1,000 is where you'll find premium laptops and two-in-ones. If you're looking for the fastest performance, the best battery life, the slimmest, lightest designs and top-notch display quality with adequate screen size, expect to spend at least $1,000. Deciding between MacOS and Windows laptops will come down to personal preference and budget for most people. Apple's base model laptop, the M1 MacBook Air, starts at $999. You can sometimes find it discounted or you can get educational pricing from Apple and other retailers. In general, it'll be at least $1,000 for a new MacBook, and the prices just go up from there. For the money, you're getting great hardware top to bottom, inside and out. Apple recently moved to using its own processors, which resulted in across-the-board performance improvements compared to older Intel-based models. The company's most powerful laptop, the 16-inch MacBook Pro, still hasn't been updated to Apple silicon. Again, that great hardware comes at a price. Also, you're limited to just Apple laptops. With Windows and Chromebooks (more on these below), you get an amazing variety of devices at a wide range of prices. Software between the two is plentiful, so unless you need to run something that's available only on one platform or the other, you should be fine to go with either. Gaming is an advantage for a Windows laptop. MacOS is also considered to be easier and safer to use than Windows, especially for people who want their computers to get out of the way so they can get things done. Over the years, Microsoft has done its best to follow suit and, with Windows 11 here, it's trying to remove any barriers. Also, while Macs might have a reputation for being safer, with the popularity of the iPhone and iPad helping to drive Mac sales, they've become bigger targets for malware. Yes, they are, but they're not for everyone. Google's Chrome OS has come a long way in the 10-plus years since they arrived and Chromebooks -- laptops that run on Chrome OS -- are great for people who do most of their work in a web browser or using mobile apps. They are secure, simple more often than not, a bargain. What they can't do is natively run Windows or Mac software. The pandemic changed how and where a lot of people work. The small, ultraportable laptops valued by people who regularly travel may have suddenly become woefully inadequate for working from home. Or maybe instead of needing long battery life, you'd rather have a bigger display with more graphics power for gaming. If you're going to be working on a laptop and don't need more mobility than moving it from room to room, consider a 15.6-inch laptop or larger. In general, a bigger screen makes life easier for work and is more enjoyable for entertainment, and it also is better if you're using it as an extended display with an external monitor. It typically means you're getting more ports, so connecting an external display or storage or a keyboard and mouse is easier without requiring a hub or dock. For travel, stay with 13- or 14-inch laptops or two-in-ones. They'll be the lightest and smallest while still delivering excellent battery life. What's nice is that PC-makers are moving away from 16:9 widescreens toward 16:10- or 3:2-ratio displays, which gives you more vertical screen space for work without significantly increasing the footprint. These models usually don't have discrete graphics or powerful processors, although that's not always the case. You can play games and create content on any laptop. What games you play and what content you create -- and the speed at which you do them -- varies greatly depending on the components inside the laptop. For casual browser-based games or using game-streaming services like Nvidia GeForce Now and Xbox Cloud Gaming, you don't need a powerful gaming laptop. Similarly, if you're trimming video clips, cropping photos or live-streaming video from your webcam, you can get by with a modestly priced laptop or Chromebook with integrated graphics. For anything more demanding, you'll need to invest more money in discrete graphics like Nvidia's RTX 30- or 40-series GPUs. Increased system memory of 16GB or more, having a speedy SSD of at least 512GB for storage and a faster processor such as an Intel Core i7 or AMD Ryzen 7 will all help you get things moving faster too. The other piece you'll want to consider is the display. For gaming, look for screens with a high refresh rate of 120Hz or faster so games look smoother while playing. For content creation, look for displays that cover at least 100% sRGB color space or, better yet, 100% DCI-P3.
