Shopping for a laptop can be daunting with so many options, form factors, and different hardware combinations or features. There are models designed for general productivity, media consumption, gaming, and demanding workloads like video editing and CAD. Additionally, most laptops have various display, CPU, GPU, memory, and storage configurations, making the choice even harder. To help narrow your options, we've compiled a list of the best models at various price points and for different cases, such as the best laptop for home use. When choosing our recommendations, we consider nearly every aspect of the laptop, including the build, portability, battery life, overall user experience, processing power, price, and availability.
We've tested over 135 laptops, and below, you'll find our recommendations for the best laptops you can buy. You can also see our picks for the best Chromebooks, the best travel laptops, and the best business laptops.
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The best laptop we've tested is the Apple MacBook Pro 14 (M3, 2023). This premium mobile workstation has a sturdy build, a compact design, and an incredible battery life. It provides an excellent user experience with its sharp 120Hz Mini LED display, spacious keyboard, and gigantic, easy-to-use touchpad. Equipped with Apple's new M3 Pro/Max SoCs, it can handle even the most demanding workloads, like 3D graphics and simulations. The display is suitable for color-critical work like photo and video editing, as it has a wide color gamut and superb factory calibration. The Apple MacBook Pro 16 (M3, 2023) is also a good choice if you need more screen space and don't mind paying more. It's the same device but with better-sounding speakers.
On the Windows side, we recommend the Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 (2024), also a premium workstation laptop that can handle intensive workloads. It has a large 16-inch display for multitasking, Lenovo's beloved keyboard and Trackpoint, a haptic touchpad, and an excellent 1440p webcam. While its Intel Meteor Lake processors won't give you as much CPU processing power as a maxed-out MacBook Pro, you can get more raw GPU performance if you go with one of the higher-end GPUs, like the NVIDIA RTX Ada Generation 3000 or RTX 4070. As for the RAM, you can only get up to 64GB (user-upgradeable to 96GB), whereas the MacBook Pro is configurable with up to 128GB. Unfortunately, it gets hotter and louder under load, and none of the available displays get as bright as the MacBook Pro's Mini LED panel.
If you only need a laptop for light productivity and media consumption, get the Apple MacBook Air 13 (2024). This 13.6-inch model is thin and lightweight, making it easy to carry around, and like most MacBooks, it feels incredibly well built, sporting a full-aluminum chassis. Working on this laptop feels amazing; it has a sharp, bright IPS display, a spacious keyboard, and a gigantic haptic touchpad. Apple's base M3 SoC can easily handle light productivity tasks and even some light video editing and 3D graphics. Plus, it's remarkably power efficient, resulting in 11 to 12 hours of battery life. Port selection is limited, as it only has two USB-C/Thunderbolt 3 ports, and while it can output to two external displays, which is an improvement over its M2 predecessor, it can only do so with the lid closed.
A Windows alternative to the MacBook Air is the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7th Edition 15 (2024), which is also an ultraportable. It has a brighter 120Hz touchscreen, a more comfortable keyboard, a wider port selection, and Wi-Fi 7 wireless connectivity. This 2024 model is quite different from its predecessors, as it now sports an ARM-based SoC. The Snapdragon X Elite chip is plenty fast for general productivity tasks like web browsing, spreadsheets, and presentations, and its incredible power efficiency results in an incredible 17-hour battery life in light uses. The downside is that we're still in the early days of Windows on ARM (at least in this iteration with Microsoft's new Prism emulation), meaning some apps might not run at all or perform poorly, so it's best to check that the apps you use work first. The 15-inch Surface Laptop is more expensive than the MacBook Air 13. If budget is a concern, check out the 13-inch Surface Laptop, which we haven't tested but expect to be very similar.
Our mid-range pick is the HP Pavilion Aero 13 (2024), also a 13-inch ultraportable. It's configurable with AMD's Zen 4 Ryzen CPUs, which are more than adequate to handle light, general productivity tasks and even some moderately demanding workloads like programming. Display options include an FHD+ and a QHD+ IPS panel; both look sharp and get bright enough to combat glare in well-lit settings. You get a 1440p webcam with facial recognition support for quick logins, as well as a wide port selection with four USBs and a true HDMI 2.1. Its battery life is great at around 10 hours of light use—you can charge the laptop via USB-C, so you won't have to deal with a proprietary charger.
Unfortunately, its build quality is a pretty significant step down from our picks above and the biggest compromise for this model's more budget-friendly price. Its aluminum and plastic chassis flexes noticeably, and the device as a whole feels hollow and somewhat cheap. Also, the finish scratches easily from everyday use. Another minor complaint is the touchpad; it's plastic and doesn't track continuous inputs all that well, like when dragging and dropping items across a long distance.
The best budget laptop we've tested is the ASUS Vivobook 16 M1605 (2023). This 16-inch ultraportable feels well-built for the price, and it isn't overly bulky for a 16-inch device, so it's still easy to carry around. You can configure it with an AMD Ryzen 5 or Ryzen 7 CPU, which are more than adequate to handle productivity tasks like text processing, web browsing, spreadsheets, and video playback. As for the RAM, it has 8GB soldered onto the motherboard and a SO-DIMM slot, so if you can't find a model with 16GB, you can always get an 8GB model and upgrade it yourself, which might be cheaper since RAM sticks are pretty affordable these days. Its battery life is okay at around eight hours of light use, so depending on your workload, you may have to plug it in for a quick charge.
This model delivers a pretty good user experience overall. It has a spacious full-size keyboard with a numpad, which is handy for those working with lots of numbers, as well as a large and responsive touchpad. You get Wi-Fi 6E wireless connectivity, a fingerprint sensor for quick logins, and a decent port selection with three USB-As, a USB-C, and an HDMI. Unfortunately, the USB-C doesn't support video output, so you'll have to rely on the HDMI to connect an external display. Our main gripe with this laptop is the display. Its 1080p resolution looks reasonably sharp at this screen size; however, it's quite dim, so visibility may be an issue in well-lit rooms. It also looks a bit washed out due to its narrow color gamut.
The Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3i Chromebook 14 (2023) is our best cheap laptop pick. This compact model is a great option if you only need a simple device for light productivity tasks like text processing, web browsing, and video playback. The Core i3 configuration (paired with an FHD display, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage) is regularly on sale through Lenovo for around $400 USD. The cheaper configurations with an Intel N100 or N200 CPU and/or 4GB of RAM are fine if you have an extremely light workload; just know that they'll get bogged down quickly when multitasking.
As for the display, avoid the 768p TN display and get a model with a 1080p, touch-sensitive IPS panel. Not only does it look sharper, but it also has better color reproduction. Unfortunately, the keyboard feels mushy, and the touchpad is small and sometimes unresponsive. Its 1080p webcam is excellent, though, which is surprising for a budget-friendly Chromebook. Its battery life is excellent; you can get around 13 hours from light use, and the laptop charges over USB-C, so there's no need to carry around a proprietary power adapter. Lastly, ensure you can do everything through a Chrome browser or Android app because Chrome OS is limited in the type of applications you can install.
If you like 2-in-1 tablet PCs with a detachable keyboard, check out the Microsoft Surface Pro 11th Edition (2024). This new model's external design doesn't stray far from its predecessors. It's still a premium-feeling tablet with a sturdy, built-in kickstand, a comfortable, Alcantara-covered type cover keyboard, and pen input support. The new Flex keyboard has a larger, easier-to-use haptic touchpad, and it's Bluetooth-enabled, so you can use the keyboard even when detached from the tablet, giving you more flexibility to position the device to your liking. You get Wi-Fi 7 wireless connectivity, an outstanding 1440p front-facing webcam, a 10MP back-facing camera, and Windows Hello facial recognition for quick logins. Unfortunately, like the last Surface Pro, its port selection is limited to two USB-Cs, and you must buy the keyboard and stylus separately.
Like the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7th Edition 15 (2024) mentioned above, this device has a Snapdragon SoC, so make sure the apps you use are compatible or can run well enough through Microsoft's Prism emulation to get your work done. Its battery life isn't quite as impressive as the Surface Laptop at 11 to 12 hours of light use, though it's still pretty respectable for a thin tablet PC. Regarding the display, it's important to note that the Snapdragon X Plus model comes with an IPS panel, while the X Elite model comes with an OLED panel. The OLED display will give you deeper blacks; however, it exhibits what's commonly known as the 'screen door effect,' meaning the digitizer is visible, creating a grid-like pattern that some may find distracting. If this bothers you, it's best to go with the X Plus model, though you'll have to sacrifice a bit on performance.
The Dell Alienware m18 R2 (2024) is the best gaming laptop we've tested. This 18-inch model provides a fantastic, immersive gaming experience. You can configure it with a 480Hz FHD+ or a 165Hz QHD+ IPS panel, so you can choose based on your budget and whether you want smoother motion and better responsiveness or a sharper image. You also have two keyboard options: one with scissor switches and the other with low-profile, clicky CherryMX mechanical switches. The laptop feels incredibly well-built, although it's bulky and heavy, so it isn't the best for on-the-go use.
As for the CPU and GPU configuration options, this laptop is available with high-performance 14th Gen Intel Core i7 and i9 CPUs and discrete NVIDIA GPUs, up to a GeForce RTX 4090 mobile. It can handle the newest AAA titles with ease; however, the laptop gets hot and loud under load. Memory and storage max out at 64GB and 8TB, respectively, and they're user-replaceable. If you play online games, you'll be happy to hear it has support for the newest Wi-Fi 7 standard and an Ethernet port. There are plenty of other ports for your peripherals, including two USB-As, three USB-Cs (two support Thunderbolt 4), an HDMI 2.1, a Mini DisplayPort, and an SD card reader.
Gaming laptops are usually expensive, with top-end models costing over two, three, or even four thousand dollars. However, if you're on a tighter budget, there are still some great options, like the ASUS TUF Gaming A16 Advantage Edition (2023). This all-AMD model delivers a smooth gaming experience at 1080p or 1440p in demanding AAA games. For around $1,000 USD, you can get a Ryzen 7 7735HS configuration with an AMD Radeon RX 7600S GPU, a 165Hz FHD+ display, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage. The IPS panel has a fast response time, resulting in a clear image with minimal ghosting in fast-moving scenes, and it supports variable refresh rate to reduce screen tearing. It doesn't get very bright, so it's best suited for a dark to moderately lit room.
The A16 feels very sturdy build-wise. It has a spacious—albeit slightly mushy—keyboard, Wi-Fi 6 wireless connectivity, and a wide port selection, including a true HDMI 2.1 and an Ethernet port. The SSD is fast, which helps shorten game loading times; however, 512GB isn't very much considering the size of modern games. Thankfully, it's user-replaceable, and there's even a second M.2 slot to add an additional drive. The memory is also upgradeable. Thermal throttling isn't a problem, but the laptop gets hot and loud. As for the battery, it lasts a little over an hour when gaming, which is pretty typical; what's unusual is that it lasts nearly 13 hours of light use, making this laptop great for general productivity tasks. Of course, that's as long as you don't mind lugging around a bulky 16-inch model that weighs nearly five pounds.
If you want a traditional clamshell form factor, the ASUS Zenbook 14 OLED (2024) is a good Windows alternative to the Apple MacBook Air 13 (2024). It has a 120Hz 2.8k OLED display and excellent build quality. That said, there are a few downsides: its battery life is shorter, and the CPU throttles significantly under load.
See our reviewThe Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714 (2024) is a good option if you want something cheaper than the HP Pavilion Aero 13 (2024). It feels sturdier than the HP build-wise, and it's a 2-in-1 convertible, so you can use it as a tablet. However, you must ensure that you can get all your work done through the Chrome browser or Android apps, since Chrome OS is more limited in the type of applications you can install.
See our reviewVerified that all picks are valid and available. No change in recommendations. Small text changes for clarity and conciseness.
Sep 25, 2024: Small text changes to add the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7th Edition 15 (2024) as an alternative to the Apple MacBook Air 13 (2024). Added the HP Spectre x360 14 (2024) as a Notable Mention. Removed the Framework Laptop 13 (2023) from the Notable Mentions because better options are available.
Aug 26, 2024: Replaced the Microsoft Surface Pro 8 (2021) with the Microsoft Surface Pro 11th Edition because the Pro 8 is discontinued and harder to find. Small text changes to add the Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 (2024) as an alternative to the Apple MacBook Pro 14 (M3, 2023). Added the Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714 (2024) as a Notable Mention.
Jul 31, 2024: Replaced the Lenovo Yoga 7i 16 (2023) with the HP Pavilion Aero 13 (2024) because the Lenovo is no longer available. Added the Lenovo Yoga 6 13 (2023) and the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 (2024) as Notable Mentions. Removed the Dell Inspiron 16 2-in-1 (2023) from the Notable Mentions because it's no longer available.
Jun 05, 2024: Due to availability, we've replaced the Dell XPS 15 (2023) with the Dell XPS 16 (2024). Replaced the LG gram 14 (2023) with the HP Spectre x360 14 (2024) as the HP has better hardware and features. Replaced the Dell Alienware m16 R1 with the Dell Alienware m18 R2 because the m16 R1 is discontinued and no longer available. We've also made minor text changes for clarity.
Our recommendations above are what we think are currently the best laptops to buy for most people. In addition to the test results, we factor in the price (a cheaper laptop wins over a pricier one if the difference isn't worth it), feedback from our visitors, and availability (no laptops that are difficult to find or almost out of stock everywhere).
If you prefer to make your own decision, here's the list of all of our laptop reviews, sorted by price from low to high. Most laptops are available in various configurations, and the table only shows the results of the model we tested, so it's best to see the full review for information about other variants.