When I think of the best Dell laptops (and Dell in general), two memories come to mind: the "Dude, you're getting a Dell" commercial from the early 2000s, and my dad's first and only laptop — a 2012 Dell Inspiron.

My nostalgic feelings aside, Dell is a brand that sticks in many people's minds, particularly the iconic XPS series. The company has had a solid reputation since its first laptop was released in 1989, and you'll typically find a Dell among Laptop Mag's lists of best laptops, best budget laptops, best gaming laptops, and laptops with the best battery life. We've reviewed several of Dell's newest releases and expect to review more as 2025 marches on.

An important note: if you're considering buying a new 2025 Dell, I highly recommend reading my handy guide on how to find the right Dell laptop to understand the new product names. Dell laptops now have a naming convention closer to how Apple differentiates its MacBooks (XPS, Inspiron, Precision, and Latitude are no more, unfortunately), but my current recommendations still have those familiar, now-former names. It may also be a good time to find discounts on the old models among the best laptop deals.

Whether you've never owned a Dell or you've used Dell laptops for years and are ready to upgrade, this page is regularly updated with our latest reviews to reflect Laptop Mag’s top picks for 2025.

Update Log

5/30/25: Updated introduction, "recently reviewed," and FAQ sections.

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Best for most people

The Snapdragon-configured Dell Inspiron 14 Plus has many major qualities and features a modern laptop should have: incredible multitasking performance, seemingly endless battery life, a bright display — all packed into a reasonably light and thin chassis. It's a super-likable laptop.

The Inspiron's entry-level Snapdragon X Plus X1P-64-100 processor stands toe to toe (more like shin to knee, really) with higher-end chips from Intel and Apple of its generation. With a Geekbench 6 multicore benchmark score of 13,281, (22% faster than the average premium laptop score of 10,435) it did "well juggling a couple dozen Google Chrome tabs and a handful of YouTube videos," as Rami Tabari, Laptop Mag's editor, said in he review. He also recommends this laptop for remote workers.

It's also 9% faster than the MacBook Air M3 (12,087) and 5% faster than the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H (12,729) inside our pick for best budget Dell budget laptop — also an Inspiron 14 Plus!

The SSD is zippy, too. It can transfer a 25GB multimedia file at 1,510 megabytes per second, about 14% faster than the average laptop in its class (1,311 MBps.) It's 11% faster than the Asus Zenbook S14 (1,236 MBps) and 7% faster compared to one of its Snapdragon competitors, the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x (1,416 MBps).

Battery life and heat management are equally impressive. In our battery rundown test, it lasted a substantial 18 hours and 20 minutes — well beyond the average 13 hours and 23 minutes. I'd be comfortable putting this laptop on my bare skin, too, as it doesn't exceed 88 degrees on the underside.

PlusItsIt's display doesn't produce miracles, though. Covering just 69.1% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, everything on the screen looks drained of color. Some of this laptop's rivals, like the Zenbook 14 and MacBook Air M3, fare much better, 79.8% and 77.8%, respectively — and they're still below the 84.7% average. However, the Inspiron 14 Plus' display can get really bright, up to 470 nits.

See our full Dell Inspiron 14 Plus (7441) review.

Best budget

Even among laptops with Intel's new Lunar Lake chips, its last-gen chips are still nothing to brush off. This Dell Inspiron 14 Plus is a textbook example of why. It has just as much performance (especially for multitasking) and outstanding battery life, but its graphic capabilities are also far more powerful.

It scored 12,729 in the Geekbench 6 multicore benchmark, 9% faster than the average premium laptop (10,435). "The laptop easily kept up with my daily workload and task switching between email, text editing, and Photoshop," Laptop Mag's staff writer, Madeline Ricchiuto, wrote in her review. It's also 6% faster than the MacBook Pro M3 (11,968) and 3% faster than our favorite 2-in-1 laptop, the HP Spectre x360 14 (12,358), with the same chip.

When it comes to its graphics capabilities, this laptop also outshines its rivals, particularly the Snapdragon's Qualcomm Adreno iGPU. On Medium settings at 1080p, its Intel Arc integrated graphics averaged 34 frames per second in the Sid Meier’s Civilization VI: Gathering Storm benchmark. Our playability threshold is 30 fps, so it passed that — but the Snapdragon Inspiron 14 Plus mustered only 21 fps.

That difference is starker in 3DMark’s Fire Strike synthetic graphics benchmark: the Intel Inspiron scored 8082, where the Snapdragon Inspiron scored 5965 — a 27% difference.

This laptop doesn't get as much battery life compared to the Snapdragon Inspiron 14 Plus, but it still gets 15 hour and 6 minutes, a couple hours more than the average premium laptop. It does outlast both the Spectre (11:01) and the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED (15:52), and sneaks past the 15-inch MacBook Air M3 by 3 minutes, too.

Like the Snapdragon model, this laptop's display is dull, covering only 68.4% of the DCI-P3 color gamut. It doesn't get nearly as bright, either, topping out at 367 nits. However, that's on par or better than some of its other rivals, like the Spectre x360 14 (367 nits) and the Zenbook 14 OLED (339 nits).

The Inspiron 14 Plus' heat management isn't great, either, most likely because Intel mobile processors tend to run the hottest out of any Windows laptop chip — its surface warmed up to 108 degrees, well past our comfort threshold.

See our full Dell Inspiron 14 Plus (7440) review.

Best gaming

Budget gaming laptops have been steadily disappearing from the laptop market over the last few years — so when one that packs a ton of performance and costs less than $1,000 falls into our hands, it's a great day at Laptop Mag. Like our editor, Rami Tabari, said in his review: "For its current price of $949, the Dell G16 (7630) is an absolute stunner."

Graphically intensive games like Cyberpunk 2077 achieved 33 frames per second at 1080p on Ultra settings, slightly higher than the Asus TUF Gaming A14 (30 fps) and Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 (32 fps) with the same RTX 4060 graphics card. In Assassin’s Creed Mirage (Ultra, 1080p), the G16 did exceptionally well (88 fps), and remained on par with the A14 and Neo 16.

One feature that surprised us is the quality of its display. Its 2560 x 1600, 240Hz screen is a common feature in gaming laptops — but not the quality of the IPS panel itself. It covers a massive 114% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, soaring past the average budget gaming laptop (79.1%). Even the TUF Gaming A14 (81%) and Predator Helios Neo 16 (92%) fall far behind it.

Unfortunately, its display doesn't get all that bright. At a max 310 nits, its close to the overall average (317), but is much dimmer than the A14 (411 nits) and Neo 16 (370 nits).

But there is one more thing that the G16 has that its closest rivals don't: a Cherry MX tactile mechanical keyboard. Revered for their longevity, travel distance and actuation point, sound, and feel, these switches are more commonly found in desktop gaming keyboards —and there are gaming laptops twice the price of the G16 that don't have them!

Its battery life is decent, too. At 5 hours and 4 minutes, it outlasts the average budget gaming laptop and the Predator Helios Neo 16 by an hour It's no TUF Gaming A14 (10:04), but that laptop's battery life is an exception to the rule.

In that light, the gripes we have with this laptop seem relatively minor compared to the higher-end features it offers. If you already have a gaming headset you can easily avoid the speakers harsh, hallow sounds. And if you already have a gaming mouse, you'll never need to touch the tiny trackpad.

See our full Dell G16 (7630) review.

Best display

The Dell XPS 13 — a long-time Laptop Mag favorite. We've reviewed many configurations over the years, and each stood out for various reasons. Though I'd describe its new, minimalist design with a "touch bar" and "invisible" trackpad among reviewers as a love/hate relationship, we adore the OLED display on this iteration. There are plenty of other great things about the Dell XPS 13. From "solid performance and respectable integrated graphics to impressive battery life and impactful speakers," our staff writer, Madeline Ricchiuto, talks about this in her review.

We wouldn't recommend it for having the best display if it didn't stun us with a kaleidoscope of colors. The panel covers 144.60% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, way beyond this laptop's base, IPS panel (69.9%). Some of its closest competitors, like the 13-inch MacBook Air M3 (77.8%) and Asus Zenbook S 14 (82.0%), aren't on the same wavelength, either.

Though it was not the dimmest OLED display we've tested, we wish it was a bit brighter; an average peak brightness of 377 nits is enough to cut through most lighting glare, though not all of it. It's still brighter than its IPS counterpart (357 nits) and the Zenbook S 14 (342 nits), but the MacBook Air is the brightest out of all of them (476 nits).

Its chassis is as thin and light as ever, with the OLED model at 0.6 inches thick and weighing the same 2.6 pounds as the non-OLED. It's not as slim as the MacBook Air M3 (0.44 inches) or Asus Zenbook S 14 (0.47 ~ 0.51 inches), but it weighs the same amount.

One major sacrifice that comes with the XPS 13 OLED: its tandem display sucks up a lot of power, leaving the laptop with 8 hours and 40 minutes of battery life. That's 5 hours less than the average premium laptop (13:23), and way, way less than the non-OLED's outstanding 18 hours and 43 minutes.

At least you won't have to worry about this laptop's performance. In the Geekbench 6 single-core benchmark, it held its own (2,772) against the Snapdragon Dell XPS 13 (2,797) and Asus Zenbook S 14 (2,751). Paired with Intel's current-gen Arc integrated graphics, this laptop can function as a decent gaming laptop if you casually play games that don't push the graphics too hard.

In the Sid Mieier’s Civilization VI: Gathering Storm (1080p, Medium) benchmark, it averaged 53 fps — behind what the Asus Zenbook S 16 with an AMD Ryzen AI 9 chip can do (63 fps) but beyond the Snapdragon XPS 13 (22 fps), which didn't meet our minimum 30 fps playability threshold.

See our full Dell XPS 13 OLED (9350) review.

Best battery life

Having endured years of bartering with college classmates and random coffee shop patrons for a seat next to a wall outlet, long battery life is one of my must-have features in a laptop. It could have a horrible display but over 15 hours of battery life, and I'll still look at it like, "Yeah, but that battery life!" That's the Dell XPS 13 (9345) in a nutshell.

It had phenomenal battery life before we updated the BIOS during our testing, increasing it from 19 hours and 1 minute to 20 hours and 51 minutes. That's way beyond the average premium laptop average (13:23) and the MacBook Air M3 (15:13), Asus Zenbook S14 (13:51), and HP Spectre x360 14 (11:01) with an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H chip.

That also puts this laptop in the same league as the MacBook Pro 16 M4 Pro (20:46) and Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 (21:02) — and none of them are direct competitors!

As a heavy multitasker, performance also matters a lot to me. I need my laptop to handle dozens of open browser tabs while Slack and Discord run in the foreground and Spotify loops through my favorite songs. This laptop's Snapdragon X Elite X1E-80-100 processor has some of the best multicore processing power to handle all that.

In the Geekbench 6 overall performance benchmark it scored 14,635, making it 29% faster than the average premium laptop (10,492). It's also 8% faster than the MacBook Air M3 (12,087), 14% faster than the Zenbook S14 (11,157), and 6% faster than the Spectre x360 14 (12,358).

Remember what I said about a horrible display? This XPS 13s' is a let-down. It covers just 66.9% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, which is 20% lower than the average premium laptop (86.8%) — and duller than its MacBook Air M3 (77.8%), Zenbook S14 (82.0%), and Spectre x360 (85.8%) rivals.

When our editor, Rami Tabari, watched the Borderlands trailer during his testing process, he noticed the "entire horizon beyond the crew was washed out due to the terrible contrast" and "deep orange-colored canyons were reduced to a pale yellow devoid of life."

But at least the display is bright! Its max 456 nits comes close to the average premium laptop (467 nits), and it's just a tad dimmer than the MacBook Air M3 (476 nits). It literally outshines both the Zenbook S 14 (342 nits) and Spectre x360 (366 nits), too.

See our full Dell XPS 13 (9345) review.

Benchmark comparisons

Recently reviewed

Not every laptop can make the best Dell laptops page. (We wouldn't be doing you that much good if that were the case!) We review new laptops every week and over 100 laptops yearly, so here's a look at our most recently reviewed laptops that didn't make this page either due to a fault, battery life, performance, price, or something else.

How to find the right Dell laptop

In January of 2025, Dell announced name changes impacting its entire lineup. We've already reviewed several models with the new names (with more to come), so we put together a table to help anyone shopping for a new Dell laptop understand how the old model names translate to the new ones.

It's important to note that while the names are changing, the basic product lines remain the same, and in most cases, the designs are unchanged for 2025.

The most affordable Dell laptops were the Inspiron and Inspiron Plus lines, starting for well under $1,000. In 2025, those will just be known as Dell and Dell Plus. If you are looking for an affordable laptop that can handle basic web browsing, productivity tasks, and entertainment, these laptops are typically a perfect fit.

The premium consumer laptop line was XPS, and it is now Dell Premium. These laptops go head-to-head with the best MacBooks and fall into similar pricing, starting just below $1,000 and ranging above $3,000 for the top configurations. These laptops are for people who want a more premium fit and finish to the laptop or those with more robust needs, whether that's more performance for massive multitasking or tasks like photo editing or video editing.

Those are Dell's consumer laptops. Now, we move into the business and workstation-class laptops, where things get a little more complicated with multiple tiers, but you also can see the benefit of Dell's new naming.

Dell's business laptops were known as Latitude. Starting at just above $500 and ranging up to around $2,500 for the top configurations, these catered to businesses of almost any size. Going forward, these are the Dell Pro models with three tiers: Dell Pro, Dell Pro Plus, and Dell Pro Premium. Performance and quality improve as you move up the line, so finding the best business laptop for you is just a matter of your budget.

Finally, we have the Dell Precision lineup, which are Dell's workstations, now known as Dell Pro Max. Again, there are three tiers to this lineup: Dell Pro Max, Dell Pro Max Plus, and Dell Pro Max Premium. Now, the names start to feel a little long, but it remains very simple to understand. You can spend as little as around $1,300 for the Dell Pro Max, and it scales up to $4,000 for a high-end Dell Pro Max Premium. The best workstations are designed for people with intensive performance needs, such as rendering 3D graphics, simulations, 4K or 8K video, etc.

FAQs

Q: Are Dell laptops good for gaming?

A: While Alienware is the dedicated gaming laptop brand that is a part of Dell, some Dell laptops cater to gamers. The Dell G16 (7630) is one of our selections for the best gaming laptops and the best cheap gaming laptops. If you are wondering if a specific Dell laptop is good for gaming, check out our review. We have a dedicated section on gaming in every review we publish.

Q: Do Dell laptops come with Microsoft Office?

A: No. You may receive a trial of Microsoft Office software through Microsoft 365, but the software is not free with a new Dell laptop.

Q: Are Dell laptops good for students?

A: It depends! Some Dell laptops are certainly candidates to be the best student laptops; it just depends on your course of study and budget. Most bachelor of arts students would likely be happy with an Inspiron or Inspiron Plus (Dell, Dell Plus) laptop. Students with more intensive needs, such as those in engineering, programming, or even film, should consider the XPS (Dell Premium) or even the Precision (Dell Pro Max).

Q: Where are Dell laptops are manufactured?

A: Dell manufactures its laptops in various cities across Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific region. Its US-based facility is located in Austin, Texas, where the company was originally founded in 1984.

Its Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Chengdu (China) and Limerick, Ireland facilities are arguably the company's most important hubs for manufacturing and distributing laptops and other computing devices outside of the United States.

How we test laptops

We put each laptop through extensive benchmark testing — both synthetic and real-world — before they end up in the hands of our reviewers. We evaluate each aspect of the laptop, including its performance, battery life, display, speakers, and heat management.

In our benchmark testing, we use a Klein K10 colorimeter to detect the brightness and DCI-P3 color gamut of the laptop's display. For performance testing, we run the laptop through a gauntlet of benchmarks, including Geekbench 6 and 3DMark professional graphics tests.

To determine real-world performance, we convert a 4K video to 1080p resolution and duplicate a 25GB file. Our real-world graphics test is Cid Meier's Civilization V: Gathering Storm benchmark at 1080p resolution and Medium graphics. We also run heat tests by playing a 15-minute full-screen video and measuring temperatures in different areas of the laptop. For gaming laptops, we test Red Dead Redemption 2, Assassin's Creed Mirage, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Borderlands 3, Far Cry 6, and others.

For our battery test, we continuously web surfing over WiFi at 150 nits of brightness. For Windows 11 laptops, a runtime of over 10 hours is considered a good result, whereas gaming laptops and workstations that can stay powered longer than 5 hours deserve praise.

Following these tests, the laptop is given to our expert reviewers for extensive hands-on testing. Our reviewers will spend days using the laptop as part of their typical workflow to get a sense of the real-world performance and live with the laptop to come away with a thorough understanding of the hardware and software experience. This blended lab testing and hands-on approach allows us to offer you a clear and comprehensive view of every laptop that comes through Laptop Mag.

See this page on How We Test Laptops for more details on our benchmarking procedures.

Why trust Laptop Mag

Laptop Mag reviews over a hundred different laptops every year, from paperweight ultralights to everyday workhorses to lumbering gaming notebooks that scorch the frame rates of even the hottest AAA games. We're not just experts in the laptop field, as we go one step further by meticulously testing smartphones, tablets, headphones, PC accessories, software, and even the latest in gaming.

We are 100% independent and have decades of experience to help you buy with confidence. In fact, Laptop Mag has been testing and reviewing products for three decades, and we continue to deliver trustworthy reviews you can rely on.

Our experienced team of writers and editors scour the available information about the laptop and put it through its paces to determine which is best for you. But before they start, the testing team subjects each system to a rigorous regimen of synthetic and real-world tests to see how a system handles the type of work and games you’re most likely to throw at it.

Our editorial trustworthiness is enforced by one of the world's largest technology publishers, Future Publishing. As a company, we have unrivaled experience across every tech sector — and we're the group's specialist for all things mobile tech.

A lot of what makes the best laptops for Adobe Photoshop also makes the best laptops for video editing: a well-balanced combination of performance, battery life, and a bright and vivid display. Whether you're just learning the ins and outs of editing photos or can wield the lasso tool like a scalpel in the hand of a surgeon, there's no shortage of great options, whatever your skill level.

Laptops with Nvidia's RTX 50-series GPUs are now available for creators with demanding Photoshop needs, as well as all Intel's Core Ultra 200-series and AMD's Max Pro series of processors. Professional editors can benefit from the added performance of a discrete graphics card by enabling Photoshop's hardware acceleration features, which helps power through demanding tasks faster.

A high-resolution OLED display is also something to consider. You'll not only get to enjoy the rich hues and deep contrasts OLEDs are famous for, but some of them also have wide color gamut coverage — wide enough to find colors in between colors.

For beginners or anyone looking to save money, any laptop with last-gen hardware will still provide more than performance to move Photoshop edits along quickly. Even ones without a discrete graphics card. Check out our best laptop deals for the best discounts at various price points.

This page is regularly updated with our latest reviews to reflect Laptop Mag’s top picks for 2025.

Update Log

6/6/25: Updated intro, benchmark comparisons, recently reviewed, and FAQs; added the HP ZBook Ultra 14 G1a as the best workstation and the Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition as the best 2-in-1.

The Quick List

Best Overall

There's little not to love about the Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 9. It features a gorgeous display, powerful processor, solid discrete graphics, and enough memory and storage for creators of all skill levels. It even comes with decent battery life and a comfortable, bouncy keyboard.

Rami Tabari said in our review, "I love a display with a little kick. The Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i’s 16-inch, 3200 x 2000, 165Hz panel is gorgeous. It’s reasonably bright and offers a vivid wave of color."

The Yoga Pro 9i covers 105.7% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, which is well above the premium laptop average (91.2%). Its display is far better than similar laptops like the HP Spectre x360 16 (87.1%), Dell XPS 14 OLED (79.9%), and Apple MacBook Air (77.8%).

The Yoga Pro's powerful combination of an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H processor and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 graphics card provide enough power for even the most demanding projects. The Yoga Pro 9i also lasted a respectable 9 hours and 51 minutes on the Laptop Mag battery test, which is far more than many similarly packaged laptops.

The Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 9 base model costs just $1,482 for an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. The fully specced $2,043 version provides an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H processor with an RTX 4060 GPU and a 16-inch, 3.2K, Mini-LED display. Our preferred middle-of-the-road spec costs just $1,784.

See our full Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 9 review.

Best under $1,000

The Asus Zenbook 14 OLED (Q425) is a laptop that can do just about anything. It continuously amazes us how budget-friendly this absolute powerhouse is. With its power performance, solid graphics, and almost 16 hours of battery life, we have good reason to love the Zenbook 14 OLED as much as we do.

In my review, I note that "the display panel on the Zenbook 14 OLED (Q425M) looks incredible. The new trailer for Chris Pine's The Poolman showed crisp, vibrant colors, particularly in the scenes shot outdoors in LA during what appears to be a Lunar New Year celebration."

Starting at just $799, this laptop has a powerful Intel Core Ultra 5 135H processor with 8GB of DDR5 memory, 512GB of SSD storage, and a 14-inch FHD OLED panel. But if you can flex your budget just a bit more to the higher-end spec, at just $1,049, you get an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor with 16GB of DDR5 memory and 1TB of SSD storage.

The Zenbook 14 OLED's display could be brighter and more vibrant, but with a DCI-P3 rating of 79.8%, it is comparable to most other laptops in its category, such as the Apple MacBook Air 13 M3 (77.8%) and the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED UX3405M (81.7%).

But the Zenbook 14 OLED is more than its display panel. Surviving a shocking 15 hours and 52 minutes on the Laptop Mag battery test, it is one of the longest-lasting Intel laptops we've seen this year. Considering how budget-friendly this laptop is and how well it handles Photoshop, you can't go wrong with it.

See our full Asus Zenbook 14 OLED (Q425M) review.

Best under $1,500

The Acer Swift X 14 is a powerful, budget-friendly option for Photoshop users who need more 3D rendering capacity. The base model starts at just $1,099. The mid-range model combines a powerful Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor with a workhorse Nvidia RTX 4050 GPU, plus 16 GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. It retails for just $1,299. This mid-range model offers similar performance at a lower cost without sacrificing the display.

In my review, I observe that "the glossy CineCrystal OLED display on the Acer Swift X 14 looks fantastic to the human eye. The colors are bright and vivid, though the display panel does suffer from glare, especially with overhead office lighting."

However, if you'd like more memory, storage, and a more powerful GPU, our preferred Swift X 14 configuration is available for just $1,699. It includes an Nvidia RTX 4070, 32GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage.

Acer rates the CineCrystal display on the Swift X 14 to 100% coverage on the DCI-P3 format. Our lab display test measures OLED panels a bit differently, so our testing indicated that the Swift X 14 covered 79.6% of the DCI-P3 color gamut. The Apple MacBook Pro 16 M4 Pro (81.4%) and HP Spectre x360 14 (85.8%) outperformed the Swift X 14 in our lab testing, but the Swift X 14's display looked incredible to the eye. In addition, the Swift X 14 offers a powerful Nvidia RTX 4050 to 4070 GPU, making it a better fit for more in-depth Photoshop work.

Based on the Laptop Mag battery test, the Swift X 14 with an RTX 4070 GPU can last for 7 hours and 33 minutes while surfing the web at 150 nits of brightness. While that isn't the best battery life for a laptop on this list, it's not bad for a laptop packing a discrete GPU and OLED display panel.

See our full Acer Swift X 14 review.

Best 2-in-1

Like some of the other Laptop Mag writers, I'm picky when it comes to convertible laptops — so it's a great day when a highly-rated review of one comes across my desk, and I get to give it a buying guide superlative. The Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition is without a doubt a laptop that deserves to be on this list.

This laptop's headlining feature is the display, a 14-inch OLED that's "far superior and even more colorful than most premium laptops overall," as Laptop Mag reviews editor Rami Tabari notes in his review. Covering 149.2% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, it produces vivid and richly saturated, drool-worthy colors. The display averages a maximum of 421 nits of brightness, higher than you'd see on many competing OLED laptops —all major reasons why this Yoga 9i 2-in-1 is also our current pick for the best touchscreen laptop with an OLED display.

When it comes to performance, this laptop takes a leisurely approach to finishing demanding tasks. Compared to the other laptops on this list, it was the slowest to convert a 4K video file to 1080p. Photoshop users may experience some lag when batch-processing dozens of images with numerous layers or working with filters and brush tools.

But if you're not a graphic designer or photographer who uses a lot of advanced features in Photoshop, the Yoga 9i 2-in-1 has a lot of other things going for it: a stellar and responsive keyboard; speakers that can actually handle a baseline; nearly 13 hours of battery life; and it weighs just under 3 pounds. (Other 2-in-1s are much more brick-like.) Also, I would feel comfortable putting it on my bare lap. At its hottest point, this laptop didn't reach 88.3 degrees, well below our 95-degree comfort threshold.

See our full Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition review.

Best MacBook

For Apple users and design enthusiasts, the 2024 MacBook Pro 16-inch with M4 Pro CPU reigns supreme for photo editing. While pricey (starting at $2,499), it offers powerful performance and a seamless experience within the Apple ecosystem. Opting for a 1TB SSD and 32GB RAM configuration delivers ample storage and smooth Photoshop performance, making it a compelling choice for creative professionals though upgrading the memory and storage capacity can get pricey.

Reviewer Sean Riley observes, "The 16-inch MacBook Pro M4 Pro is more laptop than most people need, but that likely won't stop you from wanting one, and after a week with it, I can't blame you."

With any configuration of the M4 chip, you’ll get a brilliant 14-core Apple M4 Pro CPU, a 20-core Apple GPU with a 16-core Neural Engine, and a gorgeous 16.2-inch 3456 x 2234 Liquid Retina XDR display. Our lab benchmarking rated the 16-inch Liquid Retina panel as covering 81.4% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, which is high for laptops on this list. The MacBook Pro also scored well on the brightness test, with an average of 565 nits, much brighter than the category average of 391.

The 16-inch MacBook Pro (2024) is a smart choice for Photoshop because of its beautiful, bright display and powerfully smooth internal specs. However, there’s another crucial spec to consider: battery life. MacBooks are known for having excellent battery life, which is a fantastic feature for those wanting to use Photoshop on the go. The 16-inch MacBook Pro lasted an amazing 20 hours and 46 minutes on the Laptop Mag battery test, significantly longer than its workstation laptop competitors.

See our full Apple MacBook Pro 16 M4 Pro review.

Best Workstation

At CES 2025, we were so blown away by the HP ZBook Ultra 14 G1a that we gave it our best laptop award — and after reviewing it, we're still blown away by it. At 0.71-inches thick and weighing 3.4 pounds, it could easily be mistaken for a productivity laptop. However, with the driving force of an AMD Ryzen AI Max+ Pro 395 chip, it's anything but.

The great news for Windows users is that it comes "very close to eclipsing the MacBook Pro" in terms of portability and raw CPU power, as Laptop Mag staff writer Madeline Ricchiuto candidly mentions in her review. In some of our real-world testing, it's evenly matched; the ZBook converted a 4K video to 1080p 4 seconds faster than the MacBook Pro 16 M4 Pro in our Handbrake transcoding test.

It's OLED display comes in an extremely close second to the Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition, covering 139% of the DCI-P3 color gamut. (Many OLED laptop displays don't break 100%!) Its max brightness in on par with other competitors, maxing out at an average 368 nits — but if you're searching for the perfect shade of Pantone-like purple, this could be the workstation you've been looking for.

Being as powerful as they are, Windows workstations usually come with a battery life caveat, and with a run time of 6 hours and 46 minutes, this ZBook is no exception. To be fair, that's typical for a workstation, but it's a key area where this laptop doesn't eclipse the MacBook Pro, as well as other creator-focused laptops like the Asus ProArt PX13.

Ultimately, the ZBook's price tag is where most potential buyers could draw the line. The model we reviewed costs an enormous $4,049, but the base configuration starts at a substantial $2,599. If you're not loyal to a specific operating system, that amount of money can get you a MacBook Pro M4 Pro with better battery life — but it's hard to ignore that the HP ZBook Ultra 14 G1a is a marvelous laptop for any creative work.

See our full HP ZBook Ultra 14 G1a review.

Benchmark Comparisons

Recent reviews

We review more than 100 laptops annually, and while some simply don't have what it takes to make our buying guides, others are still strong options that came up short for one reason or another. Here are some of our most recently reviewed laptops that didn't make the cut for "Best laptops for Photoshop" but could still be solid machines for your photo editing needs.

How to choose a laptop for Photoshop

CPU: You want a high-performance processor like an Intel Core Ultra 7 or 9, an AMD Ryzen 7 or 9, or an Apple M4 chipset to handle complex filters, large photo files, and multiple project layers.

GPU: For heavy-duty tasks like intricate filters, 3D effects, or AI generation, you may want to consider a laptop with a discrete graphics card like an Nvidia RTX or AMD Radeon RX card.

RAM: You need at least 16GB of memory, but depending on your budget, Photoshop users will certainly benefit from 32 or 64GB of RAM. I'd stress the latter in particular isn't something you need to consider unless money is no object or you are doing this professionally and every second counts.

Storage: 512 GB is the minimum I'd consider if I'm doing a lot of photo work, though splurging for 1TB or more is a good idea. Unlike the CPU, GPU, and RAM, you can always turn to external storage, so if your budget requires you to save somewhere, this is the place to do it. However, I'd still stress that you want 512GB at a minimum to handle at least one project at a time without turning to an external drive.

Display: You want to be picky about the display since photo editing is a visual medium. You'll want a crisp, high-resolution panel in the QHD to 4K range with accurate color reproduction. For the best combination of brightness and vibrancy, we recommend opting for an IPS, OLED, or Apple Liquid Retina XDR display to ensure a high level of color fidelity.

If you're looking to set up a full photo studio workstation and didn't select a laptop with the best display, you could also upgrade with one of our picks for the best monitors or best portable monitors for on-the-go editing.

FAQs

Q: What minimum specs do I need for Photoshop?

A: Lower than you might think! As of October 2024, the minimum system requirements for Adobe Photoshop running on Windows 11 are: an Intel or AMD processor with AVX2 and SSE 4.2 or higher support, or a WinARM processor; 8GB of RAM; 256GB total SSD storage space; and a graphics card that's newer than 7 years with at least 1.5GB of video RAM, and supports DirectX 12; and a 1080p monitor.

All that applies if you have a Mac, except the graphics card, but you'll want to make sure you have macOS v12 or higher.

If you a faster laptop to run Photoshop, we recommend at least: an Intel 13th-gen Core i7 processor or newer, an AMD Ryzen 7 7000 series or newer, or Apple Silicon M2 or newer; at least 16GB of RAM; 512GB or more of total SSD storage space (PCIe Gen 4 or newer); an Nvidia RTX 2050 or newer graphics card with at least 4GB of VRAM; and a 1080p display or higher.

Mac users should be running macOS Sonoma or newer.

Q: Is a laptop that's good for Photoshop also good for video editing?

A: Most laptops that are good for Photoshop will also work for video editing, but you'll also want to be aware of the audio quality of a laptop when choosing a video editing machine. So not all the laptops on this list will be ideal for editing video or audio files.

Video editing can often demand more RAM and GPU resources than photo editing, so you may want to opt for a laptop with a discrete GPU if video editing is going to be a large part of your workflow.

Q: Why don't we recommend a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite laptop for Photoshop?

A: On the hardware-side, a Snapdragon X Elite laptop is an excellent machine for running editing programs like Photoshop — but few native Windows on Arm versions of Adobe programs exist overall.

Currently, only Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom can run natively on Snapdragon X Elite laptops. This might not be an issue if you only use Photoshop, but if you also use Adobe Premiere Pro, InDesign, or Illustrator, those can only run via emulation.

It's a similar concept to running a virtual version of Windows 95 on a Windows 11 PC, but the computer will use more resources running both the emulator and program at the same time, which could slow down various editing tasks. If you don't have enough available RAM or video RAM, the entire program could crash.

How We Test Laptops for Photoshop

Every laptop we test undergoes countless lab tests before a review goes live. We look at how a laptop performs in terms of CPU and GPU-intensive tasks, battery life, speakers, heat management, and display. While each laptop on this list has gone through every test we could run on it; there are a few specific test results we paid close attention to when choosing the best laptops for Photoshop.

When you work with Photoshop, it’s important that the colors you’re working with will translate to other screens when your file is shared. To detect a laptop’s display brightness and DCI-P3 color gamut, we use a Klein K-10A colorimeter, Klein ChromaSurf, and DisplayCal to calculate a laptop's average brightness and color gamut volume. We also pay attention to each laptop’s Delta-E score, showing how accurate a display’s colors are.

Additionally, performance is important in a laptop running Adobe Photoshop. The Geekbench CPU benchmark tests a laptop’s overall performance. To test a laptop’s GPU, the 3DMark benchmarks determine how well a laptop can run graphic-intensive applications. Discrete graphics are ideal when selecting a laptop for Photoshop, but not essential, so you might forgo a discrete GPU for a more budget-friendly laptop.

Why Trust Laptop Mag

Laptop Mag reviews over a hundred different laptops every year, from paperweight ultralights to everyday workhorses to lumbering gaming notebooks that scorch the frame rates of even the hottest AAA games. We're not just experts in the laptop field, as we go one step further by meticulously testing smartphones, tablets, headphones, PC accessories, software, and even the latest in gaming.

We are 100% independent and have decades of experience to help you buy with confidence. In fact, Laptop Mag has been testing and reviewing products for three decades, and we continue to deliver trustworthy reviews you can rely on.

Our experienced team of writers and editors scour the available information about the laptop and put it through its paces to determine which is best for you. But before they start, the testing team subjects each system to a rigorous regimen of synthetic and real-world tests to see how a system handles the type of work and games you’re most likely to throw at it.

Our editorial trustworthiness is enforced by one of the world's largest technology publishers, Future Publishing. As a company, we have unrivaled experience across every tech sector — and we're the group's specialist for all things mobile tech.

Forget the myth that stellar laptops require exorbitant prices. I can find a fantastic laptop under $1,000 that doesn't sacrifice performance, battery life, or durability. In fact, some of these laptops also rank among the best laptops we’ve tested overall.

With modern processors, many of which are AI-powered, these sub-$1,000 laptops are well-rounded machines that offer great performance, solid battery life, and durable build quality. You don't have to sacrifice screen brightness or performance for battery life.

That said, there are multiple ways to narrow down your search and find the best laptop under $1,000 for your specific needs.

If you’re looking for the most affordable option and primarily use the web, consider one of the best Chromebooks or the best laptops under $500. If you want the best performance possible for gaming on your laptop, you may need to accept a lower-quality display. Alternatively, consider upping your budget slightly and take a look at the best gaming laptops under $1,500.

Whether you’re searching for a budget-friendly laptop that’ll last all day without charging, seamlessly handle your tendency to leave multiple tabs open, or help you unwind with AAA games in the evening, we’ve got you covered.

After thousands of hours testing and reviewing laptops this year, here are the best laptops under $1,000 in 2025.

Update log

6/16/2025: Moved the Acer Swift Go 14 from Best Overall to Best Windows; added the Apple MacBook Air 13-inch M4 as the Best Overall pick; added the Acer Nitro 17 as the Best Gaming pick; added the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus as the Best Chromebook pick; removed the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED (Q425M) as the Best Student pick

The Quick List

The best laptops under $1,000 you can buy today

After rigorous testing, we've compiled a list of the best laptops under $1,000. Our mini-reviews are linked to more extensive reviews, but you should get all of the information you need right here.

Best overall

Apple’s MacBook Air 13-inch M4 is more powerful and long-lasting than its predecessor, and yet it’s $100 cheaper. The latest M4-powered MacBook Air starts at just $999, and for that incredible price, you get a thin, lightweight laptop with fantastic performance, a gorgeous display, and over 15 hours of battery life.

Sean Riley writes, “Apple's MacBook Air 13-inch M4 is not a perfect laptop, but at its new starting price of $999, it is the perfect laptop for many people.”

Despite its affordable starting price (which often dips below $900 during sales), the MacBook Air 13 M4 is no slacker when it comes to performance. This laptop delivered a Geekbench 6 score of 14,849, which is a higher score than many of its more expensive competitors churned out. If your productive work days are full of so many Chrome tabs you lose count, this laptop can handle it with no issues and still manage to keep things cool.

What makes the MacBook Air M4 one of the best laptops in general, not just one of the best laptops under $1,000, is that it doesn’t ignore the finer details. Yes, this laptop offers incredible performance and battery life wrapped up in an easily portable chassis, but it also features an unmatched webcam, a bright, sharp display, decent speakers, and a lovely keyboard.

Touching on the display a bit more, it’s impressive to see a display on a sub-$1,000 laptop as premium as this one. This laptop features a 13.6-inch, 2560 x 1664 Liquid Retina LCD display that averaged 463 nits brightness in testing. It also covered 79.3% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, on par with other laptops in its category.

For all these reasons and then some, we’d recommend the MacBook Air 13 M4 to anyone sticking to a strict budget of $1,000 or less. The only downside worth mentioning is the laptop’s limited ports, but that can easily be fixed by adding one of the best USB-C hubs to your setup.

See our full Apple MacBook Air 13-inch M4 review.

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Best Windows

Acer's Swift Go 14 ushers in a new era with impressive AI capabilities. Gone are the days of lackluster integrated graphics — the Swift Go's Arc GPU tackles most tasks effortlessly while its NPU optimizes performance for a seamless user experience.

The GPU and NPU power results in smooth 4K video editing, even unplugged, making it a compelling alternative to the pricier MacBook Air M2. Even in our lab, the Acer Swift Go 14 achieved a multi-core average of 11,815 on the Geekbench 5.5 overall performance test. That put the Macbook Air M2 and Macbook Pro 13 M2 to shame, with the M2's score being 8,919.

The Swift Go 14 improved over last year’s entry, netting an additional 2 hours of battery life for 9 hours and 50 minutes. It’s not the best, but it lasts a whole work or school day. Its 14-inch, WUXGA (1920 x 1200) resolution touch display is no joke. It covered 79.1 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut and averaged 374 nits of brightness. That’s vibrant as hell for a laptop at this price.

You may or may not know this, but laptop webcams suck. Not this one, though. The Swift Go 14’s QHD (2560 x 1440) webcam is excellent. You get improved image quality thanks to the high resolution and Acer’s included AI tools.

All that is packed into a sturdy aluminum build, which weighs 2.9 pounds and measures 12.32 x 8.58 x 0.68 inches. Budget laptops can get a little chunky, so it’s refreshing to see a machine that looks good and is highly portable.

With its powerful performance, ample storage, affordability, and top-notch webcam, the Swift Go 14 emerges as a serious contender for budget-conscious students, creators, and professionals on the move.

See our full Acer Swift Go 14 review.

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Best Gaming Laptop

The Acer Nitro 17 is a wildly impressive gaming laptop at its price. With smooth gaming performance powered by a Nvidia RTX 4060 GPU, excellent overall performance thanks to an AMD Ryzen 7 CPU, a large and good-looking display, great audio quality, and a comfortable, RGB backlit keyboard, you’d expect this portable gaming machine to be much more expensive.

Stevie Bonifield writes, “for those who only want a desktop or a laptop for gaming, the Nitro 17 is a fantastic option and it may even be a worthy replacement for older or underpowered desktop gaming PCs.” This hefty gaming laptop may not necessarily have the most powerful specs and it may not be able to run your favorite AAA games at max settings, but for the price, the Nitro 17 can’t be beat.

Looking at overall performance first, the Nitro 17 earned a Geekbench 6 multi-core score of 12,358 and managed to transfer 25GB of files at 1,844 Mbps. When tackling daily tasks like web browsing and word processing, the laptop breezed through. At its hottest point under pressure, the max temperature reached on the laptop was only 91.5 degrees, below our comfort threshold of 95 degrees.

On the 3DMark FireStrike benchmark, the Acer Nitro 17 notched a score of 24,422. Then, in our Borderlands 3 benchmark at 1080p, the laptop averaged 84 frames per second. When playing less graphically intensive games, like Starfield and Roboquest, the Nitro 17 sailed on smoothly with no lag, glitches, or freezing.

With such excellent performance, the Nitro 17 does falter in the battery life category. On our web-surfing battery life test, this laptop only lasted 7 hours and 22 minutes, which is pretty decent for a gaming laptop, but not on par with non-gaming Windows laptops. Plus, its internals make the overall rig quite heavy at 6.8 pounds.

If you plan to have the Nitro 17 plugged in at all times in a fairly permanent spot in your home, then you won’t even have to worry about its poor battery life and hefty form factor.

See our full Acer Nitro 17 review.

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Best Chromebook

You can find cheaper Chromebooks out there, but you won’t find any that are quite as great a value as the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus. Many Chromebooks offer dull displays, middling performance, and poor battery life, but the Galaxy Chromebook Plus is a breath of fresh air, with a stellar, large display, impressive tab-hoarding capabilities, and a battery that lasted over 11 hours.

Perhaps the Galaxy Chromebook Plus’ most impressive feature is its display, which isn’t surprising seeing as it’s made by Samsung. James Pero says this laptop’s 15.6-inch, 1920 x 1080 AMOLED display is “fairly dynamic and plenty bright, especially if you're using it for what most people might use a Chromebook for — general web browsing and YouTube viewing or maybe the occasional movie.” It’s also worth noting this laptop covers a whopping 108.5% of the DCI-P3 color gamut.

Moving on to performance, the Galaxy Chromebook Plus earned a multi-core score of 6,016 on the Geekbench 6 benchmark, which is about half of what we typically see from a non-Chromebook laptop. With about a dozen tabs open, including YouTube, this laptop performed well, with no lag and fast page-loading times.

This laptop also has a surprisingly wide array of ports for how thin and lightweight it is. On the left side, there are two USB-C ports and an HDMI port. On the right, you’ll find a USB-A port, a microSD card slot, and an audio jack.

Despite this laptop’s larger-than-average, AMOLED display and great performance results, it lasted quite a while on our web-surfing battery life test. It’s not uncommon to see Chromebooks die before hitting the 10-hour mark, but the Galaxy Chromebook Plus lasted 11 hours and 12 minutes.

See our full Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus review.

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Best business

With people returning to the office and traveling for work, the Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 5 is perfectly positioned to take center stage in this new hybrid work landscape.

This portable workhorse is an ideal travel companion thanks to its MIL-STD 810H certification, which proved that it can withstand the average drops and tumbles on top of extreme temperatures, dust, shocks, and more. Its IR camera, webcam shutter, and fingerprint sensor make it less susceptible to security breaches.

On the performance side, the ThinkPad E14 is packing an Intel Core i7-1355U processor, which scored 8,000 on the Geekbench 6 overall performance test, beating the average laptop in its category at the time of the review. Its 512GB SSD is also quite speedy, clocking in at 1,258 megabytes per second.

I love it when a display brightens my day — the ThinkPad’s 14-inch, WUXGA (1920 x 1200) resolution touch display averaged 366 nits of brightness. However, there are a few clouds in the forecast, as the panel covered a measly 46.3 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut. That means the display is half as colorful as the average laptop in its category.

If you’re familiar with the ThinkPad brand, you’d know how famously comfortable its keyboards are. The ThinkPad E14 is no different, boasting a super responsive keyboard with excellent bounce. The spacing between the keys is great, and the pointing stick users will be satisfied knowing this machine has the nub.

However, a big drawback for business users is its battery life. The ThinkPad E14 lasted only 7 hours and 48 minutes on a single charge. That almost completes a workday but won’t get you over the finish line. As long as you’re okay with reaching for a charger at the end of the day, the Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 5 is a great business laptop.

See our full Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 5 review.

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How to choose the best laptops under $1,000

There's a lot to consider when shopping for one of the best laptops under $1,000. Here's a good breakdown of how to find the best laptop for you.

What's your budget?

Sure, you can find some diamond-in-the-rough Windows laptops and Chromebooks among the best laptops under $500, but you may have to deal with a low-performing CPU or a poor multitasker. If you're a light laptop user, those will be OK, but if you need something more powerful, aim higher — the base model for some of the best mainstream laptops start between $800-$1,000, so you'll make some trade-offs, but there are outstanding options for most people in this range.

Do you want a 2-in-1 or a clamshell?

If you enjoy the awesomeness of converting your laptop into a tablet, the best 2-in-1 laptops are a good choice. Just keep in mind that a traditional laptop usually has a lower price and stronger-performing features.

How much battery life do you need?

If you're on the go, you'll need to snag a laptop that lasts more than 11 hours. But if you're a homebody or tied to your desk all day, perhaps you can sacrifice some battery life and save money. Check out our laptops with the best battery life list if this is your top priority.

What specs do you need?

If you want decent performance, aim for a Core Ultra 5, AMD Ryzen 5, Apple M4, or Qualcomm Snapdragon Elite CPU. For memory and storage, aim for 16GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. As far as display, don't get anything less than a 1080p screen—your eyes will thank you later.

Gamers and content creators will likely want a laptop with discrete graphics, but you'll likely be looking for a previous-generation GPU to stay under $1,000; otherwise, consider increasing your budget and look to our best gaming laptops under $1,500.

How we test the best laptops under $1,000

We put each laptop through extensive benchmark testing—both synthetic and real-world—before we send it to our reviewers. We evaluate each aspect of the laptop, including its performance, battery life, display, speakers, and heat management.

In our benchmark testing, we use a Klein K10 colorimeter to detect the laptop's display's brightness and DCI-P3 color gamut. For performance testing, we run the laptop through a gauntlet of benchmarks, including Geekbench 5 and 6 and 3DMark professional graphics tests.

To determine real-world performance, we task the laptop with converting a 4K video to 1080p resolution and duplicate a 4.97GB multimedia file. Our real-world graphics test is Sid Meier's Civilization 6 Gathering Storm benchmark with medium settings at 1080p resolution.

We also run heat tests by playing a 15-minute full-screen video and measuring temperatures in different areas of the laptop. Last but not least, our battery test consists of continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of brightness. For MacBooks and premium Windows 11 laptops, a runtime of over nine hours is considered a good result, whereas gaming laptops and workstations that can stay powered for more than five hours deserve praise.

We complement our lab tests with a full week of hands-on use, giving our reviewers time to evaluate how each laptop performs in real-world scenarios. Over that week, they critique everything from the durability of the materials to the responsiveness of the keyboard and touchpad.

See this page on How We Test Laptops for more details on our benchmarking procedures.

Why Trust Laptop Mag

Laptop Mag reviews over one hundred different laptops every year, from paperweight ultralights to everyday workhorses to lumbering gaming notebooks that scorch the frame rates of even the hottest AAA games. We're not just experts in the laptop field, as we go one step further by meticulously testing smartphones, tablets, headphones, PC accessories, software, and even the latest in gaming.

We are 100 percent independent and have decades of experience to help you buy with confidence. In fact, Laptop Mag has been testing and reviewing products for three decades and continues to deliver trustworthy reviews you can rely on.

Our experienced team of writers and editors scour the available information about the laptop and put it through its paces to determine which is best for you. But before they start, the testing team subjects each system to a rigorous regimen of synthetic and real-world tests to see how a system handles the type of work and games you’re most likely to throw at it.

One of the world's largest technology publishers, Future Publishing, enforces our editorial trustworthiness. As a company, we have unrivaled experience across every tech sector — and we're the group's specialist for all things mobile tech.

The best 2-in-1 laptops in 2025 offer a versatile experience: They can flip between a traditional laptop layout, a tablet, and anything in between using a 360-degree hinge. For those who constantly change their environments, this form factor is perfect.

After over five years of reviewing laptops, I've tested my fair share of 2-in-1 laptops, so I know what boxes a laptop needs to tick to earn a spot as one of the best. Plus, I have a personal love for convertible laptops. My first work laptop was the convertible Lenovo Flex 5, and the Lenovo Yoga 9i has been my daily driver for the last three years.

If you've decided a 2-in-1 laptop is the best option for you, you're likely looking for a laptop that can move with you throughout the day. Use it in traditional laptop mode to get your work done, flip it into tablet mode for drawing or graphic design tasks, and tent mode is perfect to end the night watching your favorite TV show or movie.

Every convertible laptop I've picked for this list is well-constructed, with sturdy hinges that'll stand up to daily rotation. Beyond great build quality, the best 2-in-1 laptops feature a battery that'll last all day, solid multi-tasking performance, and a gorgeous display. These 2-in-1 laptops are among the best laptops, period.

No matter what you're searching for in a 2-in-1 laptop, we have an option that'll fit the bill.

Update log

5/22/2025: Swapped the Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition in for the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i as the best graphic design option and updated benchmark comparisons.

The Quick List

The best 2-in-1 laptops in 2025

Through extensive hands-on testing and a series of thorough benchmarks, we decided that the products below are indeed the best 2-in-1 laptops of 2025.

Best 2-in-1 overall

The Asus Vivobook 16 Flip is a “compelling combination” of specs and features, according to Laptop Mag’s Madeline Ricchiuto, making it our favorite 2-in-1 laptop to recommend for most people.

Inside, you’ll find an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V processor leading the pack, accompanied by 32GB of RAM, 1TB of SSD storage, and integrated Intel Arc 140V graphics. For supporting multiple RAM-hungry browser tabs and even Photoshop and low-intensity games, this configuration is more than equipped.

For concrete proof of this convertible laptop’s performance abilities, let’s take a look at a few benchmarks. In our testing, the Vivobook 16 Flip delivered a great Geekbench 6 multi-core score of 10,987, completed the Handbrake conversion test in 7 minutes and 41 seconds, and maxed out at 85.8 degrees Fahrenheit, well below our comfort threshold of 95 degrees.

Despite impressive performance, this laptop promises healthy battery life. In our battery test, which involves continuous web surfing at 150 nits brightness, the Vivobook 16 Flip lasted a whopping 13 hours and 47 minutes, winning out easily over our previous overall pick: the HP Spectre x360 16 (11.07). That’s more than enough for a full work day, followed by a few hours of streaming or internet shopping.

And of course, for a 2-in-1 laptop, a stunning display is paramount — and this laptop doesn’t disappoint. The Vivobook 16 Flip sports a 16-inch, 2880 x 1800, OLED display with a smooth 120Hz refresh rate. Whether you’re drawing, watching a TV show, or organizing your calendar, this laptop’s display will deliver vibrant colors and rich contrast.

As a bonus, you can even get some solid gaming performance out of this laptop. In our review, it handled Baldur’s Gate III at Medium, 1080p settings incredibly well, with stable frame rates and lush visuals. It’s not going to earn a spot as one of the best gaming laptops any time soon, but it’s an impressive feat for a convertible laptop.

See our full Asus Vivobook 16 Flip (TP3607) review.

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Best budget

The Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook Plus is a 2-in-1 Chromebook that'll save you a little more than a shiny penny and still provide a solid overall experience. It's packed with an Intel Core i3-1315U processor, 8GB of RAM, 128GB of eMMC storage, and a 14-inch, 1920 x 1080 touchscreen display.

Mark Anthony Ramirez said, "The Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i takes full advantage of Google's AI-infused Chrome OS and delivers potent performance that will impress you," in our review of the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook Plus.

For its performance, we tested it against the Geekbench 6 overall performance test where the IdeaPad Flex 5i scored 5,384, sliding past the 5,259 Chromebook average at the time. That's decent enough to get you through most less-taxing tasks. And thanks to the Chromebook's relatively light operating system, it won't suffer the same slowdowns as a Windows laptop.

The IdeaPad Flex 5i is also quite portable, measuring 12.4 x 9.0 x 0.8 inches and weighing 3.57 pounds. It lands somewhere between the Acer Chromebook Spin 714 (3.02 pounds) and the Acer Chromebook Plus 515 (3.7 pounds). It also looks nice, featuring an aluminum storm grey colored lid — that's not common for a cheap laptop.

Adding to that portability is its battery life. It lasted 9 hours and 43 minutes on the Laptop Mag battery test, which consists of continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits. It's a bit shorter than the Chromebook average at the time (9:50). However, you'll get more than a workday or school day's worth of life out of this laptop. Close to 10 hours is still solid, especially for a laptop this affothat is rdable.

Unfortunately, you'll need to sacrifice the display. The Flex 5i's 14-inch, 1080p display covered a dismal 46.5% of the DCI-P3 color gamut and produced only 306 nits of brightness. This isn't too far from what we expect from a laptop at this price point. Still, both scores landed well below the Chromebook average at the time.

Despite that, the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook Plus is an excellent 2-in-1 laptop if you are on a budget.

See our full Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook Plus review.

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Best for graphic design

With its gorgeous OLED display, good performance, and a plethora of other premium features, the Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition is one of the best laptops for graphic design you’ll find with a nifty convertible form factor. Though it's not a cheap 2-in-1 rig at $1,749 full price, you get a lot of value in exchange.

In our review of the Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition, Rami Tabari notes, “Between its battery life and punchy keyboard, and its OLED display and strong speakers, this thing is sure to be one of the best laptops I review this year.”

This laptop’s best-selling feature is, without question, its 14-inch, 2880 x 1800-pixel OLED display with a smooth 120Hz refresh rate. We were “drooling over the colors” in testing, which makes total sense, seeing as the laptop covered an impressive 149.2% of the DCI-P3 color gamut. Then, the display also clocked 421 nits brightness, plenty for working indoors or in direct sunlight.

On top of its enticing display, the Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition also packs one of Lenovo’s famously clicky, satisfying keyboards, a well-balanced soundbar that lives between the laptop’s hinges and produces stellar audio, and an all-aluminum chassis that’s cool to the touch and rounds out the premium experience.

The only feature that falters slightly is performance, notching a Geekbench 6 score of just 11,059. For everyday tasks, this is perfectly fine. However, if you plan on tackling more intense projects, like video editing, it may struggle to keep up with you. The Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition also lacks an HDMI port and more than one USB-A port, but this is easily remedied by adding one of the best USB-C hubs to your setup.

In exchange for average performance, this laptop is able to achieve a full workday of battery life and then some. In the Laptop Mag battery life test, which involves continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits brightness, this laptop held on for 12 hours and 47 minutes. It’s not going to beat the laptops with the best battery life, but it’s impressive nonetheless, considering the laptop’s power-hungry OLED display and its thin-and-light chassis.

See our full Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition review.

Best foldable

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold model we reviewed is built with an Intel Core i7-1260U, 32GB of RAM, 1TB of SSD storage, and a 16.3-inch OLED display at 2560 x 2024-pixel resolution. Of course, the main selling point of this device is that it's foldable. If you're unsure what that means, it essentially has the ability to act as a laptop with a keyboard magnetically attached to the deck, and if you remove the keyboard, you can extend it out into a single, full-sized tablet.

Madeline Ricchiuto said, "As a business machine, the ThinkPad X1 Fold 16 is perhaps positioned better than its competitors because its flexibility matches the current hybrid work environment better than a standard laptop might," in our review of the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold.

This means most people aren't going to need this laptop, but for those that do, our reviewer claimed that it's arguably the best foldable laptop available right now. It's shockingly thin and light, coming in at just 2.9 pounds in tablet mode and 4.3-pounds with the keyboard and stand attached.

Its design allows for a compelling all-in-one use case. You can turn the laptop into a makeshift monitor and then detach the keyboard to emulate a quick desktop setup in no time at all. Considering it's only 4.3 pounds, it can easily fit most bags and is perfect for on-the-go workers who prefer larger space for their projects.

It's important to keep in mind, however, that its Intel Core i7-1260U is a couple of generations old now, so don't expect the latest and greatest processing speeds. On the Geekbench 6 overall performance test, its multi-core score of 7,953 is decent but notably slower than other laptops on this list, like the Yoga 9i's 9,954.

Its battery life also leaves a bit to be desired, coming in at 8 hours and 44 minutes in laptop mode and 7 hours and 22 minutes in tablet mode. Regardless, it has more than enough success in its execution to make for a great foldable.

See our full Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold 16 Gen 1 review.

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Best for travel

What makes a laptop great for travel is its physical portability. The LG Gram Pro 16 2-in-1 (16T90SP) is the lightest 2-in-1 16-inch laptop ever. The Gram Pro 16 comes in at 14.1 x 10 x 0.51 inches and 3.08 pounds, which is tiny compared with the HP Spectre x360 16 (2024) (4.3 pounds, 14.1 x 9.7 x 0.8 inches) and the Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 9 (4.7 pounds, 14.3 x 10 x 0.7 inches).

Sean Riley said, "It can rattle around in your laptop bag on a trip or commute and come out unscathed," in our review of the LG Gram Pro 16 2-in-1.

Adding to its portability is its battery life. The Gram Pro lasted 10 hours and 41 minutes on the Laptop Mag battery test, which involves continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits. That puts it in a tightly competitive spot with the HP Spectre (10:45), and it crushes the Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i (9:51). So not only is the Gram slim and light, but it'll also survive longer than your average workday.

The Gram Pro is built with an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor, 32GB of RAM, and 1TB of SSD storage. On the Geekbench 6.3 overall performance test, the LG Gram Pro soared over the category average, which was a couple of thousand points lower at the time. It also hovered around the HP Spectre (12,370) and Yoga Pro 9i (12,141).

Its 16-inch, 2880 x 1800 Touch OLED display is absolutely stunning to behold, managing an 133.5% coverage of the DCI-P3 color gamut and a brightness of 392 nits. Its combination of brightness, color, and high resolution should be fantastic for artists who need to go in-depth with accuracy.

The keyboard is pleasantly bouncy despite its low key travel. The touchpad is also quite responsive. Unfortunately, the touchpad is quite mushy, so if you choose the Gram Pro 16, you might want to check out the best wireless mouse page.

Ports are also very important on a laptop for travel. The last thing you want is to be carrying a dongle or worse yet, forgetting to pack it, so make sure these ports suit your needs. The LG Gram Pro comes with two USB Type-C ports, an HDMI 2.1 port, two USB Type-A ports, and a headphone jack. Unfortunately, if you need an SD or microSD card slot, you'll need a USB Type-C hub.

See our LG Gram Pro 16 2-in-1 (16T90SP) review.

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Best business

The MSI Summit 13 AI+ Evo A2VM is among the first batch of laptops that have earned our prestigious Editor's Choice badge in 2025, and it has shot its way up to the top as one of the best business laptops we've tested.

The MSI Summit 13 AI+ Evo is built with an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V processor, Intel Arc 140V integrated graphics, 32GB of RAM, 2TB of SSD storage, and a 60Hz, 1,920 x 1,200-pixel resolution IPS touchscreen. Even while its display may seem underpowered on paper, it boasts solid color depth and decent brightness.

The MSI Summit scored 10,895 on the Geekbench 6 overall performance test, which is pretty solid, but you can definitely find better performance in competitors like the Asus Zenbook S 16 (13,282) or HP EliteBook Ultra G1q (12,717)

Its display performed solidly in our color tests, reproducing 85% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, which is about better than what we'd expect out of a business laptop. The MSI Summit was similarly decent in our brightness tests, as it managed an average of 366 nits, which is fine enough for most. We do think it might be a bit too dim for usage while outdoors, especially if it's a sunny day, but it will be more than enough for a majority of indoor settings.

Unfortunately, we were pretty let down by its speaker system, as it's underwhelming in both volume and quality, delivering audio that delivers an uneven sound.

The best part of the MSI Summit is its staggering battery life, lasting 16 hours and 52 minutes in Laptop Mag's test which involves continuous web browsing over wifi at 150 nits of brightness. We typically recommend laptops with more than 10 hours of battery life, and this absolutely crushes that metric.

You won't regret your purchase of the MSI Summit 13 AI+ Evo if you're a business user. With its incredible battery life, solid performance, sturdy hinges, and satisfying keyboard, this is a great laptop.

See our full MSI Summit 13 AI+ Evo review.

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Benchmark comparisons

Recently reviewed 2-in-1 laptops

Not every laptop we review can make it onto our best 2-in-1 laptop buying guide, but just because they came up short of the guide doesn't mean they aren't worth checking out. Here's a look at some of our recent reviews that may still be a fit for you despite not making our buying guide, either for a minor fault or simply because it isn't a convertible laptop.

How to find the best 2-in-1 laptops

Finding the perfect 2-in-1 for you differs from a traditional laptop. After all, these are meant to be portable and must fulfill their name appropriately.

Display: You need something bright and sharp

While 2-in-1s aren't exclusively reserved for artists and designers, it's often used by them to make a quick and easy transformation from a traditional laptop to a tablet for illustrating. As a result, you absolutely need a display that can accommodate your creative endeavors, and if it's too dim to be taken on-the-go or too lackluster to accurately present color, you will absolutely be disappointed.

OLED is a great start if you're in need of a quality 2-in-1, but IPS displays can also feature excellent color in some cases. 80% coverage of the DCI-P3 color gamut should be your minimum if you're an artist, but if you can get closer to 100% or even go beyond, the better off you'll be.

We also recommend higher resolutions to let you get into the nitty gritty when illustrating, as it will present crisper detail for artists and designers. 2K should be your floor, but the higher, the better.

Design: Sturdy portability is a necessity

2-in-1 laptops are inherently all about flexibility, as their hinges support up to 360-degree angles. You don't want hinges that creak and a lid that feels like it'll snap off every time you lift it. Sturdiness is a necessity, and we've found that the best 2-in-1 laptops can support themselves in any position and require conscious force to move about. An aluminum chassis is a great start, but you'll want to read our reviews and see which ones feel the best in practice.

And since 2-in-1 laptops are frequently moved around quite a bit, we recommend something light. Anything around 4 pounds and under is recommended, but some can be a little heavier, depending on the size.

Battery life: Long-lasting is vital for being on-the-go

Battery life is another key component of any good 2-in-1 laptop. If you plan to take the notebook to class, work, or spend a whole day illustrating in a park, don't count on there being an outlet! Consider a laptop with at least 11-12 hours of battery life, which should be enough to get you through most of the day without worry. In any case, the longer, the better.

FAQs

What does "2-in-1 laptop" mean?

It can mean different things for different laptops, but the core design philosophy implies that the product can transform from a laptop into a tablet. They're also all touchscreen laptops (because it would defeat the purpose otherwise).

Now, that can take many forms. The most common one is a traditional laptop with a 360-degree hinge. But there are also detachable laptops, which feature a removable keyboard. There are dual-display laptops, which feature a discrete Bluetooth keyboard. Then there are foldable laptops, which feature a display that can fold in two and also may feature a discrete keyboard.

Do all 2-in-1 laptops fold the same?

No, and this is actually super important to research. Some 2-in-1 laptops are well-crafted with sturdy hinges and magnetic folds that snap in place when put in tablet mode. However, I've also reviewed laptops with sloppy hinges and no magnetic backing. It's important to take a look at the Design sections in Laptop Mag's reviews.

Additionally, there are foldable and detachable laptops. The former features a screen that folds in half, and the latter features a traditional tablet design with a detachable keyboard. Again, read that Design section to ensure you're getting what you need.

Do 2-in-1 laptops break easily?

Ideally, 2-in-1 laptops should not break easily. 2-in-1 laptops often feature the strongest hinges in comparison to traditional laptops, as they're designed to support their own weight when configured in various positions.

Whether you're in tablet mode or tabletop mode, it should be able to hold its own weight. If we review 2-in-1 with weak hinges, it's unlikely that we'd recommend it to begin with, as sturdy hinges is a necessary baseline requirement for a solid 2-in-1 laptop.

Are 2-in-1 laptops good for drawing?

It depends. 2-in-1 laptops are used for business, or casual use, and then some with a very specific focus on catering to artists.

Some are designed for illustrating, but you want to ensure that's one of its intended use cases. You'll also want to make sure it's compatible with a pen.

Are 2-in-1 laptops good for gaming?

No, 2-in-1 laptops are not generally good for gaming. The crossover between gaming laptops and 2-in-1 laptops is pretty much non-existent, but 2-in-1 laptops with discrete GPUs do exist, like the Asus ROG Flow X16. However, these are pretty rare.

Integrated graphics have gotten significantly better over the years. If you're using a laptop with a modern Lunar or Arrow Lake processor or even one of AMD's latest AI chips, you'll likely get some decent performance for casual gaming, but don't expect too much. The gaming-focused Asus ROG Flow Z13 (2025) is one of the only examples of a gaming 2-in-1 laptop with integrated graphics that we recommend.

Is a convertible laptop the same as a 2-in-1 laptop?

Generally speaking, the terms "convertible" and "2-in-1" are used interchangeably to describe a device that can be used as a traditional laptop and folded into a tablet.

However, more specifically, a convertible laptop typically involves a built-in keyboard. According to IT company CDW, the term "hybrid laptop" describes a laptop with a keyboard that can be removed, like the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold.

That said, any laptop with a 360-degree hinge that can fully fold backwards is typically lumped into the same broad category, whether it's technically a convertible or hybrid laptop.

How we test the best 2-in-1 laptops

We put 2-in-1 laptops through extensive benchmark testing — both synthetic and real-world — before they end up in the hands of our reviewers. We evaluate each aspect of the laptop, including its performance, battery life, display, speakers and heat management.

In our benchmark testing, we use a Klein K10 colorimeter to detect the brightness and sRGB color gamut of the laptop's display. For performance testing, we run the laptop through a gauntlet of benchmarks, including Geekbench 5.4 and 6.3 and 3DMark professional graphics tests.

To determine real-world performance, we task the laptop to convert a 4K video to 1080p resolution and to duplicate a 4.97GB multimedia file. Our real-world graphics test is the Sid Meier's Civilization VI: Gathering Storm benchmark with high settings at 1080p resolution. Gaming laptops go through an entire library of games at high settings to see how their discrete GPUs keep up.

We also run heat tests by playing a 15-minute full-screen video and measuring temperatures in different areas of the laptop. Last but not least, our battery test consists of continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of brightness. For MacBooks and premium Windows 11 laptops, a runtime of over 9 hours is considered a good result, whereas gaming laptops and workstations that can stay powered for longer than 5 hours deserve praise.

These tests are complemented with extensive hands-on testing from our reviewers who critique everything from the laptop's materials to the feel of its touchpad. For 2-in-1 laptops in particular, it needs a strong hinge and practical design to support its own weight. It's important that every part of the design feels sturdy so that no matter what position a user bends the hinge, it won't collapse.

Why Trust Laptop Mag

Laptop Mag reviews over one hundred different laptops every year, from paperweight ultralights to everyday workhorses to lumbering gaming notebooks that scorch the frame rates of even the hottest AAA games. We're not just experts in the laptop field, as we go one step further by meticulously testing smartphones, tablets, headphones, PC accessories, software, and even the latest in gaming.

We are 100% independent and have decades of experience to help you buy with confidence. In fact, Laptop Mag has been testing and reviewing products for three decades, and we continue to deliver trustworthy reviews you can rely on.

Our experienced team of writers and editors scour the available information about the laptop and put it through its paces to determine which is best for you. But before they start, the testing team subjects each system to a rigorous regimen of synthetic and real-world tests to see how a system handles the type of work and games you’re most likely to throw at it.

Our editorial trustworthiness is enforced by one of the world's largest technology publishers, Future Publishing. As a company, we have unrivaled experience across every tech sector — and we're the group's specialist for all things mobile tech.

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Dell may no longer call its flagship consumer laptop line the XPS, but we know an XPS when we see one.

From today, the Dell 14 Premium and Dell 16 Premium laptops are available to purchase — and we have high hopes for them, especially after generally enjoying the XPS 14 and XPS 13 last year, despite the disappointment of the Dell 14 Plus and Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1.

While there's plenty new to mention about these new laptops, I'm actually glad to see the old XPS chassis return for another generation, even if it's a little divisive for some. Though the XPS name has been retired, it's good to see that Dell hasn't sunset the things that made it so special. Let's take a closer look at what's in store.

Dell Premium: Specs

Dell Premium: Features

Much like last year's Dell XPS models, the new Dell Premium lineup features a minimalist chassis with an ultra-slick keyboard deck, complete with an invisible touchpad and disappearing function row.

The Dell 14 Premium and Dell 16 Premium also feature top-firing speakers, optional OLED display panels rated to 100% DCI-P3 coverage, and Intel's powerful Core Ultra 200H series processors.

Unfortunately, due to the smaller NPU on Intel's Core Ultra 200H series, the Dell Premium laptops don't meet the minimum requirements for the Microsoft Copilot+ program. But if you ask me, you're not missing much.

The Dell 16 Premium also comes with the option for a discrete Nvidia GPU, from the RTX 5050 to the RTX 5070, so you can get the right amount of graphics power for your needs, whether you want to do some casual gaming or heavy video editing.

Dell also makes strong claims about the Dell Premium's battery life, with the Dell 14 Premium reportedly delivering up to 20 hours of video streaming, while the Dell 16 Premium gets up to 27 hours of streaming battery life.

Of course, that's with the LCD panel option, rather than the OLED.

What's next

The Dell 14 Premium is available now in the US and Canada, with a starting price of $1,649.

The Dell 16 Premium with an Nvidia RTX 5060 GPU is available now in the US and Canada, with a starting price of $2,699.

The Dell 16 Premium models with Intel Arc graphics, Nvidia RTX 5050, and Nvidia RTX 5070 will be available soon.

Pricing is not yet available for these models, but we would expect the Dell 16 Premium with integrated Intel Arc graphics to be closer in price to the Dell 14 Premium, while the RTX 5050 and RTX 5070 models will be closer to the 5060's $2,699 starting price.

While these new Dell Premium laptops are no longer called the Dell XPS, they maintain the XPS' level of high-end components with powerful Intel Core Ultra processors, OLED displays, and optional discrete graphics on the flagship Dell 16 Premium.

And hey, they've even got the XPS chassis, complete with an invisible touchpad and function row keys that are an accessibility nightmare.

More from Laptop Mag

• Cheap laptops aren't always a great value — here are 3 budget laptops I love
• Moore's law isn't dead — it's just buried under six feet of silicon spin
• Microsoft just threw Windows 10 users a free lifeline — but it could test your loyalty

Investing in a Windows laptop is much more than finding a suitable MacBook alternative. Today's Windows laptops offer impressive versatility to break free from Apple's sleek but admittedly cookie-cutter mold.

Variety is the spice of life when it comes to Windows machines, and thanks to their access to the latest and greatest processors from Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm, you'll be able to cater your computing to suit anything from peak productivity to powerful polygon-pushing performance in games — especially when paired with Nvidia's newly announced RTX 50-series of discrete GPUs.

Our roundup of Windows laptops breezes past the requirements for Microsoft's Windows 11, giving you no cause for concern over Windows 10's October 14, 2025, end-of-support date.

Better still, the best Windows laptops will also include some of the best AI PCs and powerful machines that boast NPUs (Neural Processing Units) for further performance and efficiency gains.

These laptops deliver the kind of battery life magic that once seemed exclusive to Apple's M-series MacBooks. Still, they also unlock the full potential of the Windows platform through impressive Copilot+ PC exclusive features and tools for smarter multitasking and AI-assisted creation.

If you want multitasking muscle, AI-backed assistance, or beyond console-grade gaming graphics, it's a Windows laptop you're looking for.

Best overall Windows laptop: Asus Zenbook S 14 (UX5406)

The Asus Zenbook S 14 (UX5406) is currently our pick for the best AI PC laptop, but it deserves more praise than that. It features the new Intel Core Ultra 200V series processor and even at its full price of $1,499, you are getting a compelling balance of performance, almost 14-hours of battery life, a stunning 14-inch OLED display, plus 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. Run whatever AI, productivity, or creative software you want and the Zenbook S14 should remain a multi-tasking machine on the go.

In our review, staff writer Madeline Ricchiuto writes, "From its stunning design to its vivid OLED display panel, there’s plenty to appreciate about the Asus Zenbook S 14."

In our Laptop Mag battery test the Asus Zenbook S 14 lasted 13 hours and 51 minutes, which should let you leave the charger at home even for your worst day of work, school, or play. Speaking of on the go advantages, the Zenbook's scratch-resistant Ceraluminum ultralight chassis should keep it looking brand new even if you tote it everywhere with you.

If you care about your laptops visuals, the Zenbook S 14's 3K (2,880 x 1,800) OLED display will leave you very happy. It is vividly colorful, capturing 82% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, which is an excellent result for the typically low-scoring OLED, and at 342 nits of brightness, it will hold up well in brightly lit environments.

Unlike many ultraportables, the Zenbook S 14 doesn't skimp on the port selection with a pair of Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports, a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port, an HDMI 2.1 port, and a 3.5mm headphone/mic jack. That should cover most people's needs and it throws down the gauntlet for ultrabooks that went USB-C/Thunderbolt-only.

If you have greater performance needs, then something like the MacBook Air 13 M3 may be the answer at a similar size and weight, or if you are looking for a business-focused ultraportable, the Asus ExpertBook P5 is a strong choice. However, for a solid blend of performance, battery life, and price in a compact package the Zenbook S 14 is a standout choice.

See our full Asus Zenbook S 14 (UX5406) review.

More like this: Best ultrabooks in 2024

Best affordable Windows laptop: Acer Swift Go 14

Acer's Swift Go 14 is the obvious choice for the best budget laptop right now. At a mere $749, it isn't the cheapest laptop, but none can match it in terms of value for money.

While Laptop Mag reviewed the slightly upgraded $999 configuration, the main trade-off is moving from an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H to a Core Ultra 5 125H. If you stick to productivity work, browsing, and other general computing, you won't likely notice.

The Go 14 weighs in at just 2.9 pounds. The metallic all-aluminum chassis gives off a faint sparkle that looks and feels far more premium than its price. Popping it open, the contrasting black chiclet-style backlit keyboard looks and feels excellent. Acer also gives you ports aplenty on this portable laptop with two Thunderbolt 4 ports, two USB Type-A ports, an HDMI port, a microSD card slot, a 3.5mm audio jack, and a Kensington lock slot.

The display's color gamut is just below the mainstream average at 79.1 percent of the DCI-P3 (85.2 percent is average), but it beats the category average in brightness at 374 nits (354 is average). If you value a sharper image, you could also opt for the 2.8K display configuration.

Performance with our review model was everything we've come to expect from the latest Intel Core Ultra. Our Geekbench 6.2 overall performance test scored 12,434, overtaking more expensive options like the MacBook Air M3 (12,087). It also scorched the competition for our Handbrake video encoding test at 5 minutes and 18 seconds, almost four full minutes under the category average (9:07), again besting the MacBook Air M3 (7:54).

So what are the drawbacks? The battery life isn't bad, at 9 hours and 50 minutes in our testing, but it is well below top options like the MacBook Air M3 (15:21) or the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED (15:52). If you frequently travel or otherwise have difficulty plugging in, this could affect your decision. The built-in speakers are also less than stellar, so plan on some wireless headphones or earbuds.

However, these are minor concerns for most users, so if you are looking for the best laptop value, consider the Acer Swift Go 14.

See our full Acer Swift 14 Go (Intel Core Ultra) review
More like this: Best budget laptops 2025

Best Windows laptop for students: Asus Zenbook 14 OLED

Asus has been on a roll with the Zenbook 14 OLED line for a few years, so it is no longer a surprise that this early 2024 Zenbook takes yet another significant leap forward.

This is in no small part due to the new Intel Core Ultra chipset inside, which puts the Zenbook 14 OLED on par with any productivity and light content creation laptops on the market. It also absolutely blew the roof off our battery life test, with 15 hours and 52 minutes in our test. That's the longest a traditional Windows laptop has lasted in recent memory.

Divining into some of the specifics on performance, it overtook the 13-inch MacBook Air M3 in multi-core Geekbench 6.2 (12,707 vs. 12,087). That wasn't its only win against the much-vaunted MacBook. The Zenbook also beat it in our Handbrake 1.6 test by converting a 4K video to 1080p in 6:36, over a minute faster than the Air M3's 7:54.

The OLED display looks excellent in person, but the benchmarking put it in the middle of the road when it comes to the DCI-P3 color gamut at 79.8 percent, that's below the mainstream average of 85.2 percent and just slightly ahead of the MacBook Air M3 (77.8 percent). It is extremely color accurate with a Delta-E of 0.21, relevant for content creators. Display brightness is a weak point against its competition at 339 nits, which is not a terrible result, but it's something we want to see Asus address for the next model.

The Zenbook weighs 3 pounds, not exactly an ultralight, but not something that will weigh you down too much when you're going from class to class or while commuting. Overall, the Zenbook 14 OLED ticks just about every box we like to see for a student laptop while going above and beyond with its performance and battery life. This laptop should comfortably last through four years of college or for a high school student preparing to head to college in the next year or two.

See our full Asus Zenbook 14 OLED (Q425M) review
More like this: Best laptops for college 2024

The best Windows gaming laptop: Lenovo Legion Pro 7i (Gen 9)

The Lenovo Legion Pro 7i (Gen 9) kicks the old challengers to the curb with its powerful Intel Core i9-14900HX processor and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 GPU with 12GB of VRAM. While performance is a big factor for a great gaming laptop, it isn't the only factor, the bright and vivid display, loud audio, and responsive keyboard make for an unbeatable combo. Did I mention you can often find it for less than $2,500 directly from Lenovo.

In our review, staff writer Madeline Ricchiuto said, "The Lenovo Legion Pro 7i is a gamer’s gaming laptop," which nicely sums up this outstanding, but not overpriced choice for gamers.

Let's dig into the details and our extensive testing of this laptop a bit. The Lenovo Legion Pro 7i averaged 105 frames per second on the Far Cry 6 (Ultra, 1080p) benchmark, which was enough to inch past the MSI Vector 16 HX (98 fps) and its previous gen (97 fps) but blew past the Alienware X16 R2 (88 fps). The Red Dead Redemption 2 (Medium, 1080p) benchmark kept things closer, with the Pro 7i at 96 fps, the Vector 16 at 104 fps, the X16 R2 at 90 fps, and the Pro 7i Gen 8 at 69 fps.

Don't ignore the display when buying a gaming laptop, it's almost as much of the experience as the performance. Lenovo certainly heeded our guidance there with the glorious 16-inch, 2560 x 1600, 240Hz panel delivering an amazing 108.7% of the DCI-P3 color gamut and 456 nits of brightness. This is as immersive as it gets without putting on a VR headset.

If you are regularly gaming on the go then a good keyboard is crucial as well, and the widely spaced keys combined with a crisp and springy actuation force will allow you to avoid packing a cumbersome gaming keyboard.

While the best gaming headset is still worth purchasing for online gaming, if you are strictly worried about audio output, the Legion Pro 7i offers the Harman Super Linear Speaker System. Packed with two woofers, two tweeters, and a smart amp, it's a strong standalone acoustic experience.

At nearly 6 pounds, the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Gen 9 is a little heavier than we'd like, and the 4 hours and 29 minutes of battery life aren't going to win any awards either, but if you want maximum performance, you'll need to keep it plugged in anyway.

But overall, the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i is the champ.

Read our full Lenovo Legion Pro 7i (Gen 9) review.
More like this: Best gaming laptops

Best Windows 2-in-1 laptop: The best Windows gaming laptop

The Intel Core Ultra version of the HP Spectre x360 14 takes everything we've loved about this laptop line in recent years and turns it up a notch. In addition to the useful 2-in-1 form factor, it has a gorgeous 2.8K OLED touchscreen display for creating or viewing content.

The laptop weighs 3.2 pounds, which is pretty light for a 14-inch 2-in-1. However, thanks to Intel's power-sipping CPU, it still crushed our battery life test, with over 11 hours on a single charge! That's one of the best results we've ever seen from a 2-in-1. Despite its frugal battery usage, the Intel Core Ultra and Arc GPU blew our reviewer away, putting up better Geekbench and 3D Mark results than many heavier clamshell laptops.

So why isn't it perfect? While the display is bright and colorful, we've seen better benchmarks from competitors. However, the rest of the package makes it impossible to argue with the HP Spectre x360 14 as the best 2-in-1 around, which is why the notebook earned 4.5 stars and our coveted Editor’s Choice award.

See our full HP Spectre x360 14 (2024) review
More like this: Best 2-in-1 laptops 2024

Best Windows laptop battery life: Dell XPS 13 9345

The Dell XPS 13 9345 is the first generation of Copilot+ PCs powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite chipset. This gives you access to various AI-fueled Windows features that promise to enhance your laptop's work and play. Even if you aren't sold on the AI revolution just yet, this laptop offers a potent combination of features.

The battery life is the undeniable star of this show, coming in at 19 hours and 1 minute and an even more astounding 20 hours and 51 minutes after we installed the BIOS 1.7.0 update. The average premium laptop reached 11 hours and 13 minutes in this test. If you are a student or a frequent traveler who needs to stay powered up on the go, the Dell XPS 13 9345 is unmatched.

Lest you think that battery life comes from a power-sipping processor, the Snapdragon X Elite also delivers an incredible 14,635 multi-core score in the Geekbench 6.3 overall performance test. That obliterates the premium laptop average of 8,927 and its nearest competitors like the MacBook Air M3 (12,087) or Zenbook 14 (12,707).

It's not the perfect laptop, though. Two ports will leave some users searching for a docking station or USB-C hub. The display is rather dull, at just 66.9% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, and our reviewer found the keyboard cramped.

While the Dell XPS 13 9345 remains the longest-lasting laptop we recommend to most people, if you are in the market for a business laptop, the Lenovo ThinkPad T14S Gen 6 narrowly outlasted it at 21 hours and 3 minutes.

See our full Dell XPS 13 9345 (Snapdragon X Elite) review
More like this: Laptops with the best battery life in 2024

The best Windows business laptop: Asus ExpertBook P5 (P5405)

The Asus ExpertBook P5 is a near-perfect business laptop that covers the needs of 99% of business users at an affordable price. The feature list includes a fast and efficient new Intel Core Ultra 7 258V processor, over 14 hours of battery life, a 144Hz display, all the RAM a multi-tasker could need, and enough ports for you to skip the USB-C hub or docking station.

In our review of the ExpertBook P5 (P5405), our managing editor, Sean Riley, said: "The 144Hz refresh rate is the most eye-catching spec...if you spend all day on your laptop, it is easier on your eyes as it reduces the almost imperceptible flicker of your laptop display." Combine this with the 465 nits of brightness, and you have one of the most formidable business laptop displays around.

The new Intel processor and ample RAM make the Asus ExpertBook P5 a productivity workhorse if you use a typical combination of office apps and browser-based tasks. Suppose you need more robust performance for photo or video work, 3D rendering, on-device LLMs, or similar tasks. In that case, you may consider an affordable workstation like the Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 or one of the best laptops for Photoshop.

To put the ExpertBook P5's performance in perspective, it scored 11,259 in our lab's Geekbench 6 overall performance test. That's roughly 9% higher than the average premium laptop's score of 10,308 but 7-12% behind some of its competitors like the Asus Zenbook S 14, MacBook Air M3, and HP EliteBook Ultra. That's close enough that performance alone shouldn't tip you to them over the ExpertBook P5.

Another highlight of the ExpertBook P5 is the webcam. If you are regularly on video calls, you'll appreciate its color accuracy and sharp focus. No more toting around one of the best webcams in your bag.

The ExpertBook P5 also has excellent thermal management, so it won't scorch you if you need to work from your laptop or on a plane. After playing back a video for 15 minutes, the hottest temperature recorded on it was 95.4 degrees Fahrenheit. By comparison, the HP Elite x360 1040 G11 reached 103.1 degrees on the underside. The Zenbook S 14 and Zenbook S 16 reached 97.7 and 105.5, respectively, and the Dell XPS 13 reached an alarming 120.

See our full Asus ExpertBook P5 review.

Recently reviewed laptops

We review new laptops every week, but we don't make the best laptop selections lightly, so there aren't weekly changes to our picks. Here's a look at our recently reviewed laptops that didn't make the cut for this page, some were still excellent, while others missed the mark completely.

How we test laptops

Over a year, we review over 100 laptops, covering every price point and use case. Whether you’re looking for a productivity workhorse, a badass gaming system, or a multimedia machine to kick back and watch a movie or two, we can help you find your ideal match.

To make our best laptops of 2025v list, the system needs to score at least 4 out of 5 stars on our reviews and deliver on the things shoppers care about most. Our evaluations focus on design and comfort, display quality, keyboard and touchpad, performance, battery life, and value.

Our expert reviewers also test each product to see how it looks, feels, and performs in everyday situations. Because we see so many different notebooks, we can compare each to its direct competitors and give you an idea of how it compares to the average laptop in its price band.

When we bring a laptop into our laboratory, we aim to see how it would work if you brought it into your home or office. While we use industry-standard benchmarks such as Geekbench and 3DMark, we focus heavily on real-world tests that we have developed in-house.

To test endurance, the Laptop Mag Battery test surfs the web at 150 nits of brightness until the system runs out of juice. We use a giant spreadsheet macro that matches 65,000 names with their addresses to judge pure processing power, the Handbrake video transcoder converts a 4K video to 1080p, and the Geekbench 6 synthetic test. We measure graphics prowess with both 3DMark Ice Storm / Fire Strike and a series of games, including Assassin's Creed: Mirage, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and Red Dead Redemption 2, just to name a few.

We use a colorimeter to measure screen brightness and color gamut, while other instruments help us determine a laptop's key travel and ambient heat. For more details on our benchmarking procedures, see this page on how we test laptops.

Why trust Laptop Mag

Laptop Mag reviews over a hundred laptops annually, from paperweight ultralights to everyday workhorses to lumbering gaming notebooks that scorch the frame rates of even the hottest AAA games. We're not just experts in the laptop field; we go one step further by meticulously testing smartphones, tablets, headphones, PC accessories, software, and even the latest gaming technology.

We are 100% independent and have decades of experience to help you buy with confidence. Laptop Mag has been testing and reviewing products for three decades and continues to deliver trustworthy reviews you can rely on.

Our experienced team of writers and editors scour all information about the laptop and put it through its paces to determine which is best for you. But before they start, the testing team subjects each system to a rigorous regimen of synthetic and real-world tests to see how a system handles the type of work and games you’re most likely to throw at it.

Future Publishing, one of the world's largest technology publishers, enforces our editorial trustworthiness. As a company, we have unrivaled experience across every tech sector — and we're the group's specialist for all things mobile tech.

It's a rare opportunity to get almost perfectly identical laptops with different processors, so when we got the Dell XPS 13 (9350) with Intel's new Core Ultra 7 258V "Lunar Lake" processor, we just had to pit it against the XPS 13 (9345) with Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite XIE-80-100 chipset. It's the closest to a complete silicon head-to-head we can get with a face-off since the XPS 13 chassis and FHD display are the same across both units.

While this face-off won't end the whole Intel vs. Qualcomm debate, it does offer something close to an apples-to-apples comparison of the benefits and drawbacks of both systems. And that's the kind of granular processor comparison that I live for.

Let's get into it, shall we?

Dell XPS 13 (9350) vs Dell XPS 13 (9345): Price and configurations

The Dell XPS 13 (9350) has one configuration available right now. The base configuration costs $1,399 and features an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V processor with integrated Intel Arc graphics, an Intel AI Boost NPU, 16GB of RAM, 512GB of SSD storage, a 13.4-inch non-touch FHD (1920 x 1200) display, and Windows 11 Home. You can also custom-order an XPS 13 (9350) with up to 2TB of SSD storage, a 13.4-inch 3K (2880 x 1800) OLED display, and Windows 11 Pro for a maximum price of $2,059.

Dell will also be offering 32GB configuration models of the XPS 13 (9350) starting on October 15. For $1,599, you can upgrade to an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V processor, 32GB of RAM, 512GB of SSD storage, a 13.4-inch non-touch FHD display, and Windows 11 Home. For $1,899, you can upgrade that version to a 13.4-inch 3K (2,880 x 1,800) Tandem OLED display. Additional storage and memory options with the 32GB models will be available, but pricing is not confirmed.

The Dell XPS 13 (9345) offers four configuration options. The starting configuration costs $1,199 for a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite XIE-80-100 processor with integrated Qualcomm Adreno graphics, a Qualcomm Hexagon NPU, 16GB of RAM, 512GB of SSD storage, a 13.4-inch non-touch FHD (1920 x 1200) display, and Windows 11 Home. Upgrading to 3 GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD costs $1,499. Upgrading to a 13.4-inch 3K (2880 x 1800) OLED display and Windows 11 Pro costs $1,859. Alternatively, you can order a custom XPS 13 configuration with up to 64GB of RAM, 2TB of SSD storage, a 13.4-inch 3K OLED display, and Windows 11 Pro for a maximum cost of $2,459.

While the Qualcomm XPS 13 (9345) currently has more configuration options, the XPS 13 (9350) with Intel Lunar Lake will soon have more. It is the first laptop to implement a tandem OLED display. However, the Qualcomm version has a lower starting price, so this category feels like a draw.

Winner: Draw

Dell XPS 13 (9350) vs Dell XPS 13 (9345): Design

The chassis on both XPS 13 units is identical. While I'm not the biggest fan of Dell's most recent XPS design with the InfinityEdge bezels, tightly packed keyboard, invisible touchpad, and lack of discrete function-row keys, I will admit the sci-fi touches have a certain charm.

Since the Intel-based XPS 13 (9350) and Qualcomm-powered XPS 13 (9345) have identical designs, this one is a clear draw.

Winner: Draw

Dell XPS 13 (9350) vs Dell XPS 13 (9345): Display

We do have information on the tandem-OLED model of the Intel XPS 13 (9350), while we don't have information on the OLED model of the Qualcomm XPS 13 (9345), so for the sake of determining this category's winner, I will focus on the FHD panel options.

That said, the XPS 13 (9350) tandem OLED covers an astounding 144.6% of the DCI-P3 color gamut and hits a peak brightness of 377 nits with an HDR max brightness of 513 nits on a 10% HDR pattern. That's a pretty impressive display and the option you'd want to opt for if you need a bright, vibrant display panel.

However, even with the FHD displays, the Intel XPS 13 (9350) has an advantage. The Intel XPS 13 covers 69.9% of the DCI-P3 color gamut compared to the Qualcomm Snapdragon XPS 13 (9345)'s 66.9% coverage. It's not a huge difference, but it is just a bit more vibrant. The Snapdragon XPS 13 only has the lead on peak brightness, hitting 455 nits compared to the Intel XPS 13's 357 nit maximum.

That said, when it comes to the FHD display models, 69.9% gamut volume coverage isn't that much better than 66.9% gamut volume coverage. Both are washed-out, and while the Snapdragon XPS 13 (9345) has a brighter display, the XPS 13 (9350) with a tandem OLED display panel has a clear advantage on both vibrancy and brightness.

But in an FHD-to-FHD display comparison, there is no real winner. There are just disappointingly bad LCD panels on both sides.

Winner: Draw

Dell XPS 13 (9350) vs Dell XPS 13 (9345): Performance

Both XPS 13s held up well in our hands-on performance testing, tackling daily workloads like 20+ Chrome tabs, running multiple programs simultaneously, and streaming audio. However, they do have a pretty significant difference in performance benchmarks.

On the Geekbench 6 cross-platform CPU benchmark, the Intel XPS 13 (9350) averaged a single-core score of 2,660 and a multicore score of 10,846. The Snapdragon XPS 13 (9345) averaged a single-core score of 2,797 and a multicore score of 14,635. So, in pure CPU performance, the Snapdragon XIE-80-100 had a clear edge over the Core Ultra 7 258V.

On our Handbrake video encoding test, the Intel XPS 13 (9350) took 8 minutes and 17 seconds to compress the 4K version of "Tears of Steel" into a 1080p 30fps format, while the Qualcomm XPS 13 (9345) took just 4:41.

On the Laptop Mag file transfer test, the Intel XPS 13 (9350) took 17.5 seconds to copy a 25GB multi-media file for a transfer rate of 1,534 MBps. The Qualcomm XPS 13 was a bit slower, completing the copy in 20 seconds for a transfer rate of 1,342 MBps.

Intel Lunar Lake does have a multicore performance hit in favor of increased power efficiency, which means the Snapdragon X Elite XPS 13 (9345) has a clear performance advantage here. 

Most users will not notice the difference between a Geekbench 6 multicore score of 10,846 and a Geekbench multicore score of 14,635. However, the gap between the Intel XPS 13's multicore performance and the Qualcomm XPS 13's multicore performance is significant enough to give Qualcomm the win.

Winner: XPS 13 (9345) Qualcomm

Dell XPS 13 (9350) vs Dell XPS 13 (9345): AI Performance

While we have AI Performance benchmarks, AI performance can be challenging to judge. Both laptops feature a dedicated NPU with at least 40 TOPS (trillions of operations per second), but there's a negligible difference between Intel's 48 TOPS AI Boost NPU and Qualcomm's 45 TOPS Hexagon NPU.

Additionally, only a handful of AI workloads target just the NPU, so plenty of on-device AI tasks will still use the CPU and GPU to assist. This is why Intel's "120 TOPS" metric for the Lunar Lake chipset makes sense, as the silicon hits 120 TOPS across the CPU, NPU, and integrated GPU.

On the Geekbench AI CPU Full Precision benchmark, the Intel XPS 13 (9350) performed just a bit better than the Qualcomm model, with a score of 2,292, compared to the XPS 13 (9345)'s 2,069 scores.

On the Geekbench AI NPU Single Precision benchmark, the Intel XPS 13 (9350) performed well above the Snapdragon model, scoring 18,387. The Qualcomm XPS 13 (9345) averaged a score of 2,173.

However, different AI workloads use different precision models: Single Precision, Half-Precision, and Quantized. Intel still has a slight lead over Qualcomm on the Quantized NPU performance, with an average score of 25,562 compared to the Snapdragon X Elite XPS 13's 22,182 score.

While the XPS 13 (9345) with Qualcomm Snapdragon currently has exclusive access to Microsoft's Copilot+ AI suite, the Intel-based XPS 13 (9350) will soon be part of the Copilot+ ecosystem, so that's not a compelling reason to opt for the Snapdragon XPS over the Intel version.

Winner: XPS 13 (9350) Intel

Dell XPS 13 (9350) vs Dell XPS 13 (9345): Gaming and graphics

None of the three XPS 13 laptops we got into the office are gaming machines. They have integrated graphics cards and could handle some light gaming at 1080p and Medium settings, but they won't replace a dedicated gaming machine by any metric.

On the 3DMark Time Spy Direct X 12 gaming benchmark, the Intel XPS 13 (9350) FHD model averaged a 4,016 score while the Qualcomm XPS 13 (9345) FHD averaged a score of just 1,925.

On the Sid Meier's Civilization VI: Gathering Storm graphics benchmark at 1080p resolution and Medium settings, the XPS 13 (9350) FHD model averaged a frame rate of 51fsp, while the XPS 13 (345) averaged just 22fps.

We did test the XPS 13 (9350) on the Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark at 1080p and Medium settings and got a frame-rate average of 21fps. We did not run the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite-powered XPS 13 on the Tomb Raider benchmark considering its low frame rate on the Civ VI benchmark.

While none of the three XPS laptops can replace a gaming laptop, if you want to do some light, casual gaming on your thin and light ultrabook, the Intel Lunar Lake model XPS 13 (9350) has a clear advantage over the Qualcomm processor.

Winner: XPS 13 (9350) Intel

Dell XPS 13 (9350) vs Dell XPS 13 (9345): Battery life

Both FHD Dell XPS 13 models will last a full work day, if not longer, in general use. So we're going to rely on the benchmarks for this one.

On the Laptop Mag battery test, we set a laptop to just 150-nits of brightness and connect the laptop to a Raspberry Pi server that surfs through 20 simulated static, dynamic, and video web pages until the laptop powers down. The Intel-based XPS 13 (9350) FHD model lasted 18 hours and 34 minutes on the Laptop Mag battery test, while the Qualcomm-based XPS 13 (9345) FHD model lasted 19 hours and 1 minute on that same test.

The XPS 13 (9350) tandem OLED model made it for just 8:40 on the Laptop Mag test, as a 3K OLED is always going to eat up a decent amount of battery life.

As the benchmark tests are identical between all three XPS 13 models we tested, the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite XPS 13 (9345) is the clear winner. Intel puts up a solid fight with the FHD XPS 13 (9350), but the Qualcomm version offers 25 extra minutes of battery life.

Winner: XPS 13 (9345) Qualcomm

Bottom line

This one is a draw by the numbers, and to be fair, the benefits of Intel vs Qualcomm depend on the individual and what they need.

If you want the best battery life and performance, the XPS 13 (9345) with Snapdragon X Elite has an edge on both metrics.

But if you want the best gaming and AI performance, the XPS 13 (9350) with Intel Core Ultra 200V makes the most sense.

That said, you're getting a solid laptop either way. Personally, my deciding factor would come down to which platform has the application support I need. While Qualcomm has done a lot of work getting most of the standard apps running natively on ARM, there are still programs that require a Windows x86 processor. Gaming is one clear sector where the Intel x86 processor has a clear victory. Not only does the Intel Arc iGPU outperform the Qualcomm Adreno iGPU, but most games and design programs like Adobe InDesign and Premiere Pro require emulation to run on ARM processors. And that will always lead to a major performance hit.

But if you want a laptop for some light Adobe Photoshop work, a browser-based game or two, web surfing, email management, and video calls: either XPS 13 laptop is a solid choice.

Winner: Draw

If you've been searching for a college laptop capable of all your school-related tasks and a bit of casual gaming in your downtime, this is the laptop deal you've been waiting for. You can snag the Dell XPS 15 for just $1,099 at Dell.

This mid-range laptop is equipped with Intel's 13th-generation Core i7-13620H processor, Intel Arc A370M GPU with 4GB of VRAM, 16GB of RAM, and 1TB of SSD storage—the perfect storm of specs to speedily finish up your homework and relax with your favorite game or TV show at the end of the day.

With the Dell XPS 15's 15.6-inch FHD+ (1920 x 1200), 500-nit display, everything will be crisp and bright on screen. However, it only has a 60Hz refresh rate, so don't expect premium gaming experiences from this laptop.

If you're after a gaming laptop in particular, check out our best gaming laptop deals. Or, peruse our best laptop deals under $500 if you're trying to save some money and only need a laptop that can tackle basic tasks.

Best Dell XPS 15 deal

In the past, buying one of the best 17-inch laptops meant a big, bulky monstrosity, but slimmer bezels, new materials, and more efficient cooling systems helped these once-mammoth laptops slim down.

Content creators, in particular, will appreciate the expansive canvas provided by a 17-inch display. Whether editing photos and videos or designing graphics, the extra screen real estate can make a big difference. However, a 17-inch display is a significant advantage, even if you multitask, work with spreadsheets, or immerse yourself in streaming entertainment.

No matter your priorities — power, weight, or budget — there's a 17-inch laptop that perfectly suits your needs.

Here are our current picks for the best 17-inch laptops.

The Quick List

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Best overall 17-inch laptop

The LG Gram 17 is a featherweight laptop that punches like a heavyweight. This powerful laptop is geared toward creative professionals like photo editors, graphic designers, and illustrators. The Intel Core i7-1360P processor won't keep up with the latest Intel 14th gen CPUs, but it was ahead of the class last year with its Geekbench 5.5 score of 9,945, handily beating out the then premium laptop average of 7,048. The SSD was a speedster then, and now, its 1,669.29MBps transfer rate is blowing away even the current premium laptop average of 1,181MBps.

If the battery life and productivity performance didn't have you looking around the outside of the laptop and figuring out how LG fit everything in there, wait until you find out there's also an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 graphics card. It's not going to replace your gaming laptop, but for casual gamers or content creators using apps that leverage a dedicated GPU, this is an incredible option for frequent travelers. Be sure to check for that feature if it's important to you; there are numerous configurations with just Intel Iris Xe graphics. This option will be acceptable for productivity and other fundamental computing tasks, but those gaming and content-creation apps will take a hit.

The display will be the other most significant selling point for content creators considering the LG Gram 17. It covers 115 percent of the DCI-P3 color space and delivers an impressive 438 nits of brightness. Both marks exceed the premium averages of 90 percent and 384 nits, respectively. Even a gaming laptop like the Acer Nitro 17 can't match these scores, coming in at 84.3% and 348 nits in the two tests. The LG Gram 17's scores translate to vibrant and realistic colors, crucial factors for creative work.

Additionally, unlike the MacBook Pro, the LG Gram 17 features a wider variety of ports, eliminating the need for dongles and making it more convenient for connecting to various peripherals. Overall, the LG Gram 17 impresses with good battery life, capable graphics performance, and high-quality audio, making it a serious contender against established players like Apple and Lenovo.

See our full LG Gram 17 2023 review

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Best budget 17-inch laptop

You won't find a cheaper 17-inch laptop than the Acer Chromebook 317. Available for under $500, this is a large screen living on a small budget. Now beyond its size, the 17.3-inch FHD (1920 x 1080) display won't blow you away, but it is a massive viewport into Chrome or whatever Google Workspace-powered productivity task you may have slotted in for today.

You need to set your expectations properly for this laptop; it is not a secret performance beast; it has an Intel Pentium Silver processor, which will allow you to browse the web and watch streaming videos. If possible look for the model with 8GB of RAM, but it scored below the Chromebook averages for Geekbench and JetStream 2.0, which test overall performance and web browsing performance, so again stick to this laptop for single tasks. The 64GB of eMMC storage means that you'll need to stick mostly to cloud storage, but it's a Chromebook, so you were hopefully already planning on that.

That seemed like a lot of negatives. What else is there to love about the Chromebook 317? The build quality is outstanding, the keyboard is massive with a full number pad, and the chiclet keys are surprisingly comfortable and responsive. You won't find these features on another laptop in this price range.

The 9 hours and 30 minutes of battery life it achieved in our battery test won't win awards, but it's more than enough for a typical day's usage and just shy of the average Chromebook battery life of 9 hours and 50 minutes.

The Acer Chromebook 317 is intriguing as the world's first, and only, 17-inch Chromebook. While it isn't the best 17-inch laptop for everyone, it is a fine choice for users with minimal needs outside of a big screen.

See our full Acer Chromebook 317 review

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Best 17-inch laptop for gaming

"Affordable" and "17-inch gaming laptop" aren't terms that typically go together, but the Asus Strix G17 is available for under $1,500. This laptop won't disappoint productivity hounds and gamers looking for a powerful 17-inch laptop at a reasonable price.

Asus opts for AMD's Ryzen 9 7845HX CPU paired with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPU. This blend of AMD and Nvidia repeatedly hit it out of the park regarding affordable gaming laptops, so it's no shock to see it doing well here again. On our Geekbench 6.0 test it crushed the category average of 7,185 with a score of 13,430. That was also enough to beat the MSI Katana 15 (Intel Core i7-13620H, 12,562) and Lenovo Legion 5 Pro (AMD Ryzen 7 7745HX, 13,063).

Considering it's an RTX 4060 it fared reasonably well against RTX 4070 competitors. In the Assasin's Creed Valhalla test at 1080p with maximum graphics settings it gave a steady 103 frames per second. That was just behind the MSI Katana 15 (RTX 4070, 106 fps), Origin EON16-S (RTX 4070, 106 fps), and the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro (RTX 4070, 113 fps).

Our review configuration featured 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. It maxes out at 32GB of RAM, but don't buy the 8GB model, which is woefully insufficient for a gaming laptop. Adding up all these specs equates to smooth gameplay and the ability to handle demanding tasks, all on a gorgeous 17.3-inch QHD (2560 x 1440) display with a buttery-smooth 240Hz refresh rate.

Are you looking for a large screen without breaking the bank? The Asus Strix G17 is a great choice. This budget-friendly option delivers more than enough performance for everyday tasks. Its AMD processor and Nvidia graphics card make it a capable gaming or content-creation laptop. It offers a well-rounded package with good productivity power, high frame rates in games, and impressive speakers.

See our full Asus ROG Strix G17 review

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How to choose a 17-inch laptop

Step 1 is to make sure it has a 17-inch display, beyond that the features we look for to choose the best 17-inch laptop are the same qualifications we would look for in any laptop. It's also worth noting that 17-inch laptops are a bit of an endangered species, which is why you'll only find three entries on this list currently. We are seeing more laptop makers turn to 18-inch or 16-inch displays for their larger screen offerings.

Screen Resolution: Don't settle for anything less than a 1920 x 1080 (aka 1080p or full HD) resolution, particularly on a 17-inch laptop. You may want a QHD (2560 x 1440), 2K (2048 x 1080) resolution panel, or even a 4k laptop if you're a content creator. Gamers should pay attention to the refresh and response rate. We recommend at least 144Hz and 3-millisecond, respectively.

CPU: An Intel Core i5 or Core Ultra 5 provides good mainstream performance. Some budget systems will come with Core i3, which is good enough for basic tasks, but avoid it for a . Get a Core i7 or a quad-core processor (serial number ends in HQ or HK) for gaming or high-end productivity tasks such as video editing and 3D modeling. AMD is enjoying a renaissance with its Ryzen line of processors. Ryzen 7 is the middle-of-the-road chip that will bring mainstream performance, while Ryzen 5 and 9 cover your entry-level and power user needs.

RAM: 8GB is the minimum we want to see in a laptop in 2024, but if it's within your budget, spring for 16GB, as it will ensure better performance over your laptop's life. Professional power users, content creators, and gamers will look for 32GB and beyond, but that is overkill for most people. While we would not recommend 4GB systems in general, if it is a secondary laptop that will see use predominantly for light web browsing and steaming, it will suffice.

Storage: 256 GB of internal storage is probably enough unless you're a gamer, content creator, or power user. On budget laptops, look out for eMMC memory; while still flash memory, it is much slower than an SSD.

Graphics Chip: Gamers and creative professionals should get either one of the latest Nvidia GeForce RTX 30 or 40 series GPUs or an AMD Radeon 7000 series GPU. Everyone else will be happy with the CPU's built-in integrated graphics, which have improved considerably in recent years.

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How We Test 17-inch Laptops

Over the course of a year, we review over 100 laptops, covering every price point and use case. Whether you’re looking for a productivity workhorse, a badass gaming system, or a multimedia machine to kick back and watch a movie or two, we can help you find your ideal match.

To make our best 17-inch laptops list, the system needs to score at least 4 out of 5 stars on our reviews and deliver on the things shoppers care about most. Our evaluations focus on design, comfort, display quality, keyboard and touchpad, performance, battery life, and value.

Our expert reviewers also test each product to see how it looks, feels, and performs in everyday situations. Because we see so many different notebooks, we can compare each to its direct competitors and give you an idea of how it compares to the average laptop in its price band.

When we bring a laptop into our laboratory, we aim to see how it would work if you brought it into your home or office. While we use industry-standard benchmarks such as Geekbench and 3DMark, we focus heavily on real-world tests that we have developed in-house.

To test endurance, the Laptop Mag Battery test surfs the web at 150 nits of brightness until the system runs out of juice. We use a giant spreadsheet macro that matches 65,000 names with their addresses to judge pure processing power, a video transcoder that converts a 4K video to 1080p, and the Geekbench 5 synthetic test. We measure graphics prowess with both 3DMark Ice Storm / Fire Strike and a series of games, including Assassin's Creed: Mirage, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and Red Dead Redemption 2, just to name a few.

We use a colorimeter to measure screen brightness and color gamut, while other instruments help us determine a laptop's key travel and ambient heat. For more details on our benchmarking procedures, see this page on how we test laptops.

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Why Trust Laptop Mag

Laptop Mag reviews over one hundred different laptops yearly, from paperweight ultralights to everyday workhorses to lumbering gaming notebooks that scorch the frame rates of even the hottest AAA games. We're not just experts in the laptop field, as we go one step further by meticulously testing smartphones, tablets, headphones, PC accessories, software, and even the latest in gaming.

We are 100 percent independent and have decades of experience to help you buy with confidence. In fact, Laptop Mag has been testing and reviewing products for three decades and continues to deliver trustworthy reviews you can rely on.

Our experienced team of writers and editors scour the available information about the laptop and put it through its paces to determine which is best for you. But before they start, the testing team subjects each system to a rigorous regimen of synthetic and real-world tests to see how a system handles the type of work and games you’re most likely to throw at it.

One of the world's largest technology publishers, Future Publishing, enforces our editorial trustworthiness. As a company, we have unrivaled experience across every tech sector — and we're the group's specialist for all things mobile tech.

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Black Friday 2023 has arrived and while deals abound in just about every category from laptops to phones, it's also inarguably one of the best times of year to pick up the Dell XPS 15 — one of the best all-around laptops.

Right now, you can get the Dell XPS 15 w/ RTX 4050 for $1,649 at Dell. In our recent Dell XPS 15 9530 review (different configuration), we gave it a solid 4 out of 5-star rating and our Editor's Choice Award. That's our current favorite Dell XPS 15, all thanks to its great performance, slick design, and bumpin' audio. $500 off one of the best laptops is nothing to scoff at.

If I was in the market for a premium all-rounder laptop, this is the one I'd get.

Best Black Friday Dell XPS 15 deal

Update 11/27/23: Dell's Cyber Monday sale rolls on and one of our favorite deals is this discounted Dell XPS 13 for just $599. If you are in the market for a premium Windows laptop without spending over $1,000, this is one of the best Cyber Monday laptop deals available today.

Cyber Monday is TODAY, Nov. 27, 2023, and with the end of the dealsapalooza in sight, people are snapping up the best discounts on top products from laptops to phones. While there are an abundance of laptops on sale, finding a premium laptop for under $1,000 is a more challenging task.

So when we spotted this Cyber Monday deal on the Dell XPS 13 we perked up immediately. You can get the Dell XPS 13 for just $599 at Dell. This isn't the first time the laptop has been on sale at this price, but it's likely to go away after Cyber Monday, so strike while you can.

This is one of the best Cyber Monday laptop deals you can buy now.

Best Cyber Monday Dell XPS 13 deal

Black Friday deals are in full swing early at Dell with epic discounts on some of our top-rated laptops. As part of the sale, the Dell XPS 15 RTX 4050 Laptop is reduced to $1,699. Typically, $2,149, that's $450 off and the lowest price ever for this specific configuration. 

In terms of early Black Friday laptop deals, it's one of the best you can get now. 

Today's best Dell XPS 15 Black Friday deal

The laptop in this deal has a 15.6-inch FHD+ (1920 x 1200) 500-nit display, 13th Gen Intel Core i9-13900H 14-core CPU, 32GB of RAM, RTX 4060 GPU (8GB of dedicated memory), 1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD.  

Port-wise, it equips you with two Thunderbolt 4 ports, a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port, full-sized SD card reader, and a headset jack. It also ships with a dongle adapter, something you don't often get with laptops. Apple, we're looking at you. 

In our recent Dell XPS 15 9530 review, we gave it a solid 4 out of 5-star rating and our Editor's Choice Award. We loved its slick, elegant design alongside its great overall and gaming performance. We were also impressed by its vivid display and excellent audio. 

In a nutshell, the Dell XPS 15 is ideal for remote workers, college students and creators who want a powerful productivity laptop. If this sounds like you, the Dell XPS 15 is a worthy daily driver. 

For more of today's best deals on laptops and more, visit our Black Friday 2023 hub. 

Black Friday may be weeks away but Dell's Black Friday sale starts now. As part of the sale, the price of our favorite ultra portable is reduced to just under $600. No need to wait to get the Dell XPS 13 for just $599. Usually $799, that's $200 off and the lowest price we could find for this laptop. 

This is one of the best Black Friday laptop deals you can buy early.

Today's best Dell XPS 13 deal

Update Nov. 3 at 4:45 p.m. ET: The MacBook Air M2 is on sale for $899 ($200 off) at B&H in a limited time flash deal. 

Black Friday arrives early with this hefty discount on our recommended best overall laptop to buy. For a limited time, our beloved MacBook Air M2 is on sale for $899 at B&H. Typically $1,099, that's $200 in savings and the lowest outright discount we've seen for this Apple laptop. Earlier this year, it briefly fell to $849 at Best Buy for My Best Buy Plus and Total members only.

This is one of the best early Black Friday MacBook deals we've seen so far. 

Today's best 13-inch MacBook M2 deal

The 13-inch laptop is a wonder of modern design.

It's often so light you'll barely notice it in your bag while still delivering plenty of performance. Students breeze through campus with these lightweight wonders, while pros tuck them into briefcases for on-the-go productivity (or just conquering emails from the couch). You'll love the convenience and portability they bring, making them the perfect companion for busy, on-the-move individuals.

But just because they're small doesn't mean you should underestimate their bite. These aren't the underpowered thin and light laptops of yesteryear; 13-inch laptops are available to handle almost any workload. They make for the best travel-friendly laptops available, with a sturdy chassis, enchanting display, and long battery life. So ditch the bulk and embrace the possibilities — 13-inch laptops are where extreme portability meets powerhouse.

If you want the thinnest and lightest laptop possible while still offering enough power to handle most tasks easily, a 13-inch laptop is the answer.

If you need a laptop today, these are the best 13-inch laptops based on our extensive testing and reviews.

The Quick List

Best 13-inch laptops in 2024

Best 13-inch overall laptop

Apple's MacBook Air M3 is staggering, asserting itself as one of the best overall laptops. If you need a 13-inch, most people would not go wrong with it, as its excellent performance and miraculously long battery life are impossible to deny.

The MacBook Air M3 towers above the premium laptop's average performance with its Geekbench 6 overall multi-core score of 12,087. Its SSD speeds are also hyper-fast, hitting an average of 3,031 megabytes per second in our file transfer test. Plain and simple, there are very few scenarios in which you can go wrong with the MacBook Air M3.

On the Laptop Mag battery test, which involves continuous web surfing over wifi at 150 nits, The MacBook Air M3 lasted 15 hours and 13 minutes. No, you didn't misread that. Its battery life goes above and beyond reason, and it is one of the longest-lasting laptops you can buy today.

It's also impressive that this is a whole hour longer in longevity when compared to the M2 MacBook, meaning there's no better time to invest in the latest model. MacBooks are also famous for their great-feeling keyboards, and if you want a springy and quiet one to keep your fingers happy while typing the day away, look no further.

Otherwise, its 13.6-inch, 2560 x 1664 Liquid Retina display is crisp enough to perform in-depth work. Its 77.8 percent coverage of the DCI-P3 color gamut is solid, but what sets it apart is an average brightness of 476 nits. The brightness is enough to handle even the sunniest days, as there's nothing worse than intense glare, making it impossible to see what's happening on-screen.

See our full MacBook Air M3 review.

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Best 13-inch business laptop

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3 is the perfect business laptop for those who need a quality ultraportable. Its total weight of 2.2 pounds is as light as a feather, and if you need something truly capable with solid performance and a bright display, look no further.

Our configuration costs $1,599, and Lenovo built it with an Intel Core i7-1360P processor, 16GB of RAM, 512GB of SSD storage space, and a 13.3-inch 2K IPS touchscreen. While it's important to remember that it's using a last-generation processor, its Geekbench 5.5 multi-core performance of 9,268 is good enough to handle a heavy workload.

We were pretty disappointed by its longevity, though. In the Laptop Mag battery test, which involves continuous web surfing over wifi at 150 nits, its subpar 8 hours and 28 minutes of battery life is enough to sustain an entire workday. Still, depending on how demanding your workflow is, you might need an outlet nearby. This is also worse than the original's 12 hours of battery life and is significantly below the 9-hour and 45-minute ultraportable average.

The laptop can also get bright enough to survive blinding sunlight, with an average brightness of 483 nits. That's even higher than the MacBook Air M3, which hits 476 nits. However, its color depth leaves much to be desired, coming in at a 70.9 percent coverage of the DCI-P3 color gamut.

We also wish it had more ports, but considering it's a thin and lightweight laptop, it's typical for these products to have a small selection. At the very least, its two Thunderbolt 4 ports will allow for the best laptop docking stations to be attached. You also get an audio jack, so there's that.

See our full Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3 review

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Best 13-inch 2-in-1 Laptop

Counting the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i as a 13-inch laptop might be cheating, as it features two 13.3-inch 2,800 x 1,800-pixel displays, but this adds to the diversity of its use cases. How does it work, you ask? Pop the lid open and use it as a standard laptop, but detach its Bluetooth keyboard and get to work when you want to use two screens at once. You can even use an included external mouse and Lenovo Digital Pen.

It is absolutely worth considering its price, though, as you'll be paying $1,999 for this beast. Beyond just its incredible foundation, its 13th Gen Intel Core i7-1355U is solid, with a Geekbench 5.5 score of 7,765. While this is slightly below our 7,767 premium laptop average, it's not drastic enough of a drop for us to avoid recommending the product.

The dual OLED displays are also a glorious sight, covering 136.5 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut on the top display and 136.7 percent on the bottom display. This isn't a surprise, as they're identical panels, and it pulls ahead of competitors like the MacBook Air M3 (77.8 percent) without issue.

It also sports battery life within our recommended range, lasting 9 hours and 18 minutes on the Laptop Mag battery test, which involves continuous web surfing over wifi at 150 nits. While that's not quite as impressive as the MacBook Air M3's 15 hours, it's still great for a 2-in-1 laptop.

The brightness could be better, though. It is 335 nits on the top display and 344 nits on the bottom display, which is lower than the 392 nits average for this category.

See our full Lenovo Yoga Book 9i review.

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How to choose the best 13-inch laptop

Do your intensive daily workloads require more RAM than the average Joe? Are you a video editor who needs extra storage? Are you a gamer who wants a powerful GPU? Sorting through the best laptops to fit your lifestyle is a tricky business.

Budget: What you get for your money

You can find decent Windows laptops and high-quality Chromebooks for under $500. However, better mainstream laptops usually cost more than $700 and premium Ultrabooks can run over $1,000. The best gaming laptops can cost $2.000 and up, but you can play the latest titles at decent frame rates on gaming laptops under $1,000.

Design: 2-in-1 or clamshell?

More and more of today's laptops are 2-in-1s with screens that either bend back 360 degrees or detach so you can use them as tablets. If you like the idea of using your laptop in slate mode for drawing, media consumption, or just standing up, a 2-in-1 could be for you. However, you can often get better features or a lower price by going with a traditional clamshell-style laptop.

Battery Life: 9+ hours for portability

Battery life matters unless you plan to use your laptop only on your desk. Even in the home or office, having plenty of juice enables you to work on the couch or at the conference table without being chained to the nearest outlet. We recommend getting a laptop that lasted over 9 hours on the Laptop Mag Battery Test for the best portability. The longest-lasting laptops endure anywhere between 10 and 15 hours.

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How we test the best 13-inch laptops

Over the course of a year, we review over 150 laptops covering every price point and use case. Whether you’re looking for a productivity workhorse, a badass gaming system, or a multimedia machine to kick back and watch a movie or two, we can help you find your ideal match.

In order to make our list, the system needs to score at least 4 out of 5 stars on our reviews and deliver on the things shoppers care about most. In our evaluations, we focus on design and comfort, display quality, the keyboard and touchpad, performance, battery life, and especially value.

Our expert reviewers also use each product to see how it looks, feels, and performs in everyday situations. Because we see so many different notebooks, we can compare each to its direct competitors and give you an idea of how it stacks up to the average laptop in its price band.

When we bring a laptop into our laboratory, our goal is to see how it would work if you brought it into your home or office. While we use a number of industry standard benchmarks such as Geekbench and 3DMark, we focus heavily on real-world tests that we have developed in-house.

To test endurance, the Laptop Mag Battery test surfs the web at 150 nits of brightness until the system runs out of juice. To judge pure processing power, we use a giant spreadsheet macro that matches 65,000 names with their addresses, a video transcoder that converts a 4K video to 1080p, and the Geekbench 5 synthetic test. We measure graphics prowess with both 3DMark Ice Storm / Fire Strike and a series of games including Assassin's Creed: Valhalla, Metro: Exodus, Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption just to name a few.

We use a colorimeter to measure screen brightness and color gamut while other instruments help us determine a laptop's key travel and ambient heat. See this page on how we test laptops for more details on our benchmarking procedures.

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Why Trust Laptop Mag

Laptop Mag reviews over one hundred different laptops every year, from paperweight ultralights to everyday workhorses to lumbering gaming notebooks that scorch the frame rates of even the hottest AAA games. We're not just experts in the laptop field, as we go one step further by meticulously testing smartphones, tablets, headphones, PC accessories, software, and even the latest in gaming.

We are 100 percent independent and have decades of experience to help you buy with confidence. In fact, Laptop Mag has been testing and reviewing products for three decades and continues to deliver trustworthy reviews you can rely on.

Our experienced team of writers and editors scour the available information about the laptop and put it through its paces to determine which is best for you. But before they start, the testing team subjects each system to a rigorous regimen of synthetic and real-world tests to see how a system handles the type of work and games you’re most likely to throw at it.

One of the world's largest technology publishers, Future Publishing, enforces our editorial trustworthiness. As a company, we have unrivaled experience across every tech sector — and we're the group's specialist for all things mobile tech.

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The best Dell XPS 15 Prime Day deal is not where you think it is. Dell's direct deals typically undercut Amazon and this October Prime Day is no different.

Right now, you can get the Dell XPS 15 with RTX 4060 GPI for $1,199 during Dell's Cyber Savings Event. That's $500 off and the lowest price we've seen for this Dell laptop which typically fetches a cool $1,499. 

This is one of the best Prime Day laptop deals happening right now.

Today's best Dell XPS 15 Prime Day deal

The laptop in this deal has a 15.6-inch FHD+ (1920 x 1200) 500-nit display, 13th Gen Intel Core i9-13900H 14-core CPU, 32GB of RAM, RTX 4060 GPU (8GB of dedicated memory), 1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD.  

Port-wise, it equips you with two Thunderbolt 4 ports, a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port, full-sized SD card reader, and a headset jack. It also ships with a dongle adapter, something you don't often get with laptops. Apple, we're looking at you. 

In our recent Dell XPS 15 9530 review, we gave it a solid 4 out of 5-star rating and our Editor's Choice Award. We loved its slick, elegant design alongside its great overall and gaming performance. We were also impressed by its vivid display and excellent audio. 

In a nutshell, the Dell XPS 15 is ideal for remote workers, college students and creators who want a powerful productivity laptop. If this sounds like you, the Dell XPS 15 is a worthy daily driver. 

For more of today's best deals on laptops and more, visit our Prime Day 2023 hub. 

Apple's 13-inch MacBook Air M2 is the best overall laptop to buy for good reason. It's ultra-portable, crazy fast, and lasts long between charges. Right now, the MacBook Air M2 is on sale for $899 at Best Buy. No membership required. It normally costs $1,099, so that's $200 and its lowest price ever. 

This is one of the best MacBook deals we've seen outside of Black Friday. 

Today's best 13-inch MacBook M2 deal

Apple's 2023 MacBook Air M2 has an upgraded look and enhanced performance over the M1 MacBook Air. If power, portability and endurance are important to you, the MacBook Air M2 ticks all the right boxes. The MacBook in this deal features a 13.6-inch (2560 x 1664) Liquid Retina display, Apple M2 8-core processor, 8-Core GPU, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB SSD.

In our MacBook Air M2 review, we gave it a high rating of 4.5 out of 5-stars and backed it with our Editor's Choice Award. In real-world tests, we were floored by the MacBook Air M2's elegant redesign, fantastic performance and bright, colorful screen. As for battery-life, it endured 14 hours in our Laptop Mag Battery test which is pretty impressive. 

With a weight of 2.7 pounds and 0.4 inches thin, the MacBook Air M2 slips easily into a laptop backpack, messenger bag or medium sized purse. It’s lighter and thinner than the Dell XPS 13 (2.8 pounds, 0.6 inches) and HP Spectre x360 13 (2.8 pounds, 0.7 inches). It's slightly heavier yet thinner than the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 7 Carbon (2.4 pounds, 0.6 inches).

Port-wise, the M2 MacBook Air supplies you with a pair of Thunderbolt 4 ports, headset jack and a MagSafe charging port. For more connectivity options, consider a USB-C hub like the 5-in-1 Anker 332.

Now $200 off, the MacBook M2 is a solid investment if you want the best everyday laptop for school, work and everything else. 

There’s no such thing as a secret in the tech world, and today we can spill Microsoft’s in glorious HD. Days before its official unveiling, we’ve just gotten our first look at the Surface Laptop Studio 2 and Surface Laptop Go 3 through official Microsoft renders that have sprung up online.

The renders and accompanying technical specs, obtained by German site WinFuture, were sourced from retailers and give us a clear look at what to expect when Microsoft takes to the stage later this month. Let’s dive into what we know so far. 

Microsoft Special Launch Event

Microsoft’s official plan is to give the Surface Laptop Go 3 and Surface Laptop Studio a premiere later this month during a “Special launch event” on Thursday, Sept. 21, 2023. It’s unknown whether the Microsoft Surface Go 4 will make an appearance, though the Surface Go 3 was released at a similar point last year so there is potential for it to join the announcement.

Another staple of the show will be Windows Copilot — Microsoft’s latest AI-infused golden child set to become a mainstay of Windows 11 and beyond. We may also become privy to some new information about Microsoft 365 Copilot, which offers similar AI assistance to users of the online Office suite.

However, let’s take a closer look at the hardware we expect to see during the event.

Surface Laptop Studio 2 

Microsoft’s Surface Laptop Studio is a unique 2-in-1 styled machine that’s excellent for content creation and light gaming. It’s convertible form factor is also incredibly useful for digital artists and designers.

The new Surface Laptop Studio 2 appears set to feature Intel’s 13th Gen Raptor Lake CPUs, namely the Core i7-13700H and Core i7-13800H. That’s a solid performance backbone, and it's capitalized on by up to 64GB of LPDDR5X RAM, and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 graphics with 8GB of VRAM.

Check out the official renders of the device below, along with a quick summary of all the technical specifications we know so far:

Surface Laptop Studio 2 specifications: 

Surface Laptop Go 3 

Microsoft’s Surface Laptop is a mainstream thin-and-light clamshell that’s found a home for many as an education companion or work laptop that’s lightweight and compact — and potentially the brand’s closest answer to a MacBook Air or Dell’s XPS 13.

The new Surface Laptop Go 3 makes use of Intel’s 12th Gen Alder Lake Core i5-1235U processor featuring eight 4.4Ghz cores for solid performance on the go. The laptop will also feature Intel Xe graphics, upwards of 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of SSD storage.

Check out the official renders of the device below, along with a quick summary of all the technical specifications we know so far:

Surface Laptop Go 3 specifications: 

Outlook

As the information on both the Surface Laptop Studio 2 and Surface Laptop Go 3 comes from a European retailer, we don’t yet have concrete numbers on how much each device will cost at launch.

However, the cheapest configuration will reportedly go on sale in mainland Europe starting at €2,249 — roughly $2,396. Specific details on that configuration aren’t yet available, though, according to the WinFuture report, this model opts for an integrated Intel Xe GPU over the discrete Nvidia option.

Similarly, the Surface Laptop Go 3 will hit store shelves starting at €899, approximately $958. This model includes Intel Xe graphics, 8GB of LPDDR5 RAM, and 256GB of SSD storage.

Both the Surface Laptop Studio 2 and Surface Laptop Go 3 are expected to be available from the beginning of Oct. 2023.

Dell Outlet overstock deals continue this week with extra savings on refurbished laptops. Through Sept. 18 shop refurbished Alienware laptops from $1,099, Dell Inspiron laptops from $289 and 13-and 15-inch Dell XPS machines from $749. Plus, save up to 50% on Dell Latitude business laptops and Precision workstations. 

And what's more, Dell lets you stack your savings and take an extra 10% off Alienware laptops via coupon, "764545Ali",  XPS laptops via coupon, "764440XPS", and Inspiron laptops with code, "764340Ins". Plus save on refurbished Dell Latitude business laptops and Precision workstations via coupons, "764050Lat" and "764140Pre", respectively. 

Shop the entire Dell Outlet and laptop deals from the sale below. 

Dell Outlet overstock laptop sale

The MacBook Pro 14 with M2 Pro just dropped $300 in a surprise limited time flash deal. If you act fast, you can snag this best in class laptop for a rock-bottom price. 

Today only, you can get the 14-inch MacBook Pro with M2 Pro for $1,699 at B&H. It typically costs $1,999, so you're saving $300 with this deal. This marks a new all-time low price for this particular MacBook Pro making it one of the best MacBook deals of 2023.

Today's best MacBook Pro deal

Apple's 2023 MacBook Pro is its best pro-grade MacBook release to date. This particular model on sale has a 14.2-inch (3024 x 1964) Liquid Retina XDR display, M2 Pro 10-core CPU, 16-core GPU, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB SSD.

In our MacBook Pro with M2 Pro chip review, we were floored by its impressive performance, 14+ hour battery life, and generous amount of ports. We also praise its vibrant, crisp display and outstanding speakers. We give the MacBook Pro with M2 Pro Chip an overall rating of 4.5 out of 5-stars and our esteemed Editor's Choice award.

In Geekbench 5.4 overall performance tests, the 2023 MacBook with M2 Pro scored a high with 14,965. This beats the premium laptop average of 6,173 and scrapes competitors like the Asus ZenBook 14X (12th Gen Intel Core i9-12900H CPU, 11,142), Dell XPS 13 Plus (Intel Core i7-1280P CPU, 10,621) and the Acer Swift 5 (Core i7-1260P CPU, 9,859). 

Weighing in at 3.5 pounds, and  0.6-inches thin, the MacBook Pro M2 Pro is heavyweight, yet fairly portable. It's slightly heavier but just as thin as the Asus ZenBook 14X OLED Space Edition (3.1 pounds, 0.6 inches), Dell XPS 13 Plus (2.7 pounds, 0.6 inches) and Acer Swift 5 (2.7 pounds, 0.6 inches). Connectivity-wise, the 2023 MacBook Pro 14 is outfitted with 3 x Thunderbolt 4 ports, an HDMI port, headphone jack, and SDXC card reader. 

B&H's MacBook Pro with M2 Pro deal ends Sept. 8, so act fast!

OK, Lenovo. Let me get down on my knees and prostate you in praise because you made one hell of a laptop with the Slim Pro 9i. This bad boy packs a scrumptious mini-LED screen, which may sound like marketing mumbo jumbo to you, dear reader, but just wait ‘til you see the benchmark figures this screen tech delivers in the “display” section.

Plus, I’m a keyboard snob, so I will stick my nose up at one that fails to meet my standard — and there have been too many this year that failed my inspection. However, the keyboard on the Slim Pro 9i is snappy, flinging your fingers from one symbol to the next, giving you the dexterity of a piano player.

And let’s not forget that this 14.5-inch notebook packs an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 GPU, making this Lenovo laptop an ideal pick for on-the-go photo and video editors, as well as casual content creators. Plus, the discrete graphics mean you can work during the day and game to your heart’s desire at night. 

However, the Slim Pro 9i has some stiff competition in rivals like the XPS 15, and looking at our test results that pit the Lenovo notebook with the Dell laptop, all I can say is that I hope that the Slim Pro 9i is comfortable with settling with the silver medal when it comes to performance and graphics.

Still, the Slim Pro 9i can still carve itself a spot on our best laptops page. Read on to find out why.

Lenovo Slim Pro 9i (14.5-inch) price and configurations

My Lenovo Slim Pro 9i review unit costs $1,869.99 via Best Buy. (You can get it at Lenovo, too, but as of this writing, it’s pricier at $1,900.) It comes with the following specs: 

• Intel Core i7-13705H CPU
• 32GB of RAM
• 1TB of SSD storage
• Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 GPU
• 14.5-inch, 3070 x 1920-pixel, 165Hz, mini-LED display
• Windows 11 Home

If a $2,150 price tag doesn’t faze you (I see you big spender), you can upgrade your specs to an Intel Core i9-13905H CPU, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPU, and a 16-inch, 3,200 x 1,800-pixel, 165hz, mini-LED display with the same memory and storage space. You can get this configuration at Best Buy, too. (We happened to review this laptop, too: Lenovo Slim Pro 9i 16-inch) 

Lenovo Slim Pro 9i (14.5-inch) design

The Lenovo Slim Pro 9i, at its core, is not a boring laptop, but its design is a total snoozefest and completely uninspired. It has a “Storm Gray” chassis — you’re yawning already, aren’t you? — and it has the pizazz of a Wall Street financier with a stiff upper lip. 

The upper-left side of the lid has a silver Lenovo stamp while the lip has a gleaming, argent, popsicle-shaped design with the words “5MP, f/2.0, Quad Mic Array.” Fascinating stuff, eh?

Open the lid, and you’ll find relatively slim bezels on all four sides, save for the protruding lip that houses a 5-megapixel webcam.

The keyboard isn’t remotely exciting either, but that’s a good thing, right? Keyboards should be boring and have everything placed in their traditional positions — and that’s the case here with the Lenovo Slim Pro 9i.The only thing that threw me off is that I initially expected the power button to be on the deck, but it sits subtly on the right side of the laptop, near the dual USB Type-A ports.

The underside features three feet: an elongated one and two short ones. A large vent runs the length of the Slim Pro 9i’s hinge.

The Slim Pro 9i is packed with hefty components, including discrete graphics, so I wouldn’t say it’s thin-and-light. It has dimensions of 12.9 x 9.7 x 0.9 inches and a weight of 3.7 pounds. In this review, we’ll be facing off the Slim Pro 9i with the Dell XPS 15 (4.2 pounds, 13.6 x 9.1 x 0.7 inches) and the Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra (4 pounds, 14 x 9.9 x 0.7 inches), which are certainly heavier than the Lenovo notebook. I’ll also be throwing in a third rival, the LG Gram 17 (3.2 pounds, 14.9 x 10.2 x 0.7 inches), which is lighter than the Slim Pro 9i.

Lenovo Slim Pro 9i (14.5-inch) ports

The Lenovo Slim Pro 9i has a sweet mix of legacy and modern ports.

On the left side, you’ll find an HDMI port, a USB-C 3.2 Gen 1 port, a Thunderbolt 4 port, and an SD card reader. On the right side, you’ll find two USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports, a headset jack, and an e-shutter switch.

I don’t see how it wouldn’t, but if the Slim Pro 9i’s varied port selection doesn’t suit your needs, check out our best USB Type-C hubs and best laptop docking stations pages.

Lenovo Slim Pro 9i (14.5-inch) display

Lenovo boasts that the Slim Pro 9i has a miniLED touchscreen display (you can also find this on the high-end iPad Pro). This relatively new technology uses tinier light-emitting diodes compared to traditional LEDs. Consequently, these displays have more dimming zones, which leads to better contrast, richer blacks and higher brightness.

And boy is this laptop bright! No, it’s not the brightest laptop we’ve tested, but it’s up there. According to our display testing, the Slim Pro 9i climbed to a whopping 710 nits, crushing the average laptop (422 nits), the Dell XPS 15 (371 nits), the LG Gram 17 (438 nits), and the Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra (378 nits).

Sorry, I got so excited about the Slim Pro 9i’s ultra-bright miniLED display that I forgot to mention the display specs. It’s got a 14.5-inch, 3K, 165Hz, 0.2ms response-time display with a 115% DCI-P3 color gamut that is great, but unfortunately, there’s some stiff competition out there. This beats the average premium laptop (97%) and the Galaxy Book 3 Ultra (87%), but it got outpaced by the Gram 17 by a hair (115.4%). The XPS 15, on the other hand, outcolored the Slim Pro 9i by a landslide (138%).

The only disappointment I have with the Slim Pro 9i is that Lenovo claims that it has a Delta-E score of less than one, but according to our testing, it has a color accuracy of 0.26. If it’s any solace to Lenovo, its competitors aren’t any better. The XPS 15 (0.24) and Gram 17 (0.26) have similar scores, but the Galaxy Book Ultra excelled in this area with an attractive score of 0.15 (closer to zero is better).

To see how well these numbers align with my personal experience, I watched The Hunger Games 5 trailer on YouTube, and I was blown away by a weather-worn, two-story edifice with regal Roman columns that loomed over a verdant campus. As a young tribute curtsied in one scene, the picture was sharp, I could spot the tiny rhinestones on her dress’ puffy sleeves. The scarlet red uniforms of the cast are striking, emanating a crimson hue that it is so vivid, it’s almost blinding.

I also love that I had the opportunity to take this laptop outside and not have to worry about a dim display. If you’re an on-the-go pro  who loves working outdoors, this is the laptop to get.

As mentioned, this is a touchscreen display, which quickly responded to my scrolling and zoom-in gestures as I sped read long-form articles on some of my favorite journalism outlets.

Lenovo Slim Pro 9i (14.5-inch) keyboard and touchpad

Snappy! That’s how I’d describe the Slim Pro 9i. Just as you press down on a letter, the shield-shaped keys on this keyboard snap right back, flinging you from one letter to the next. This island-style keyboard is flanked by two speakers.

On the 10FastFingers.com typing test, I reached 87 words per minute, which hovers around my 87 to 89 wpm average. 

Under the spacebar sits a surprisingly large, 5.5 x 3.3-inch touchpad. It has the perfect balance of friction and resistance, and smoothness and ease of use. I performed Windows 11 gestures such as three-finger swiping, two-finger scrolling, and pinch-to-zoom without any issues.

Lenovo Slim Pro 9i (14.5-inch) audio

The Lenovo Slim Pro 9i has a quad-speaker system on board (two woofers and two tweeters) — these speakers sound good AF. The four speakers all work together to construct a well-rounded, full, balanced, and rich sound. 

I fired up the “Top Songs - USA” playlist on Spotify, which launched SZA’s “Kill Bill.” The dreamy, atmospheric R&B song seemed to tickle my ears and spine as the tetrad of speakers delivered lush, textured layers of synths, drums, and guitars. This floaty song sounded intoxicating on the Slim Pro 9i. 

Just when I thought the speakers couldn’t sound any better, I pulled up the Dolby Access app and played around with the five presets: Dynamic, Game, Movie, Music, and Voice. With the Dynamic profile turned on, SZA sounded even more divine.

One thing I don’t like about the speakers, however, is that they’re too quiet. For some of my favorite YouTube videos, even at max volume, the audio failed to fill my medium-sized testing room.

Lenovo Slim Pro 9i (14.5-inch) performance

The Slim Pro 9i comes with an Intel Core i7-13750H CPU and 32GB of RAM, and I decided to see whether these stacked internals would fold under pressure with my memory-heavy workload. I fired up Google Chrome and attempted to clog the system with 50 tabs, two were playing YouTube videos simultaneously. In the background was the Adobe Premiere Elements app and I began working on a few casual video edits. The Slim Pro 9i continued to chug on like a savage.

Now let’s see whether the numbers align with my anecdotal experience. On the Geekbench 5.5 overall performance test, the Slim Pro 9i, delivering a multi-core score of 12,382, almost crushed the Intel Core i7-13700H CPU inside the XPS 15 (12,478), but it just couldn’t eclipse the Dell laptop. On the plus side, it beat the Gram 17’s Intel Core i7-1360P CPU (9,945), the Galaxy Book 3 Ultra’s Intel Core i7-13700H processor (12,212), and the average premium laptop (7,693).

On the file-transfer test, the Slim Pro 9i’s 1TB SSD took just 14 seconds to duplicate 25GB of multimedia files for a file transfer rate of 1,965.94 megabytes per second. This outpaces the Gram 17’s 1TB SSD (1,393.24 MBps) and the average premium laptop (1,323 MBps), but not the 1TB SSDs inside the XPS 15 (2,061 MBps) nor the Galaxy Book 3 Ultra (2,076 MBps).

The Lenovo Slim Pro 9i kicked some serious butt on the Handbrake video-editing test. After transcoding a video from 4K to 1080p, it took 7 minutes and 10 seconds to complete the task. This is faster than the average premium laptop (10:29), the XPS 15 (8:58), the Gram 17 (12:02) and the Galaxy Book 3 Ultra (9:03).

Lenovo Slim Pro 9i (14.5-inch) graphics

The Lenovo Slim Pro 9i is packed with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 GPU — just like Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra. The Dell XPS 15 and LG Gram 17 also have discrete graphics, but they sport 4070 and 3050 graphics, respectively. The Slim Pro 9i targets content creators, but thanks to its graphics card, you can Photoshop by day and game at night.

On the Sid Meier’s Civilization VI: Gathering Storm (1080p) benchmark, the Slim Pro 9i climbed to 121 frames per second, smoking the average premium laptop (54 fps), the XPS 15 (115 fps), the Gram 17 (50 fps), and the Galaxy Book 3 Ultra (95 fps).

We also ran the 3DMark Time Spy test, which tests for DirectX 12 performance prowess, and the Slim Pro 9i delivered a decent score of 6,608, which overshadows the average premium laptop (3,531), the Gram 17 (2,987), and the Galaxy Book 3 Ultra (6,208), but not the the Dell XPS 15 (7,016)

Lenovo Slim Pro 9i (14.5-inch) battery life

The Slim Pro 9i taps out way too early when it comes to battery life.

On the Laptop Mag battery test, which involves continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits, the Slim Pro 9i lasted 7 hours and 10 minutes on a charge. This is worse than the average premium laptop (10:29), the Dell XPS 15 (8:58), the LG Gram 17 (12:02), and the Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra (9:03).

Lenovo Slim Pro 9i (14.5-inch) webcam

The Lenovo Slim Pro 9i has a 5-megapixel camera, which is better than the sea of 720p and 1080p webcams that currently dominate the market, but truth be told, I wasn’t particularly blown away by this shooter.

On one hand, I love how much background it captures — it’s got a pretty wide angle. However, there is a little bit more noise than I expected. It’s also not very sharp and crisp, but perhaps that may be a good thing. It failed to pick up some of my acne scars, and I’m not complaining.

Want something better for your videoconferencing needs? Check out our external webcam page.

Lenovo Slim Pro 9i (14.5-inch) heat

We tested the Lenovo Slim Pro 9i’s thermals after playing a 15-minute, 1080p video, and while the touchpad (80 degrees Fahrenheit) and the keyboard center (88 degrees) hovered below our 95-degree threshold, the underside matched it.

The hottest area on the Slim Pro 9i was somewhere on the underside’s rear center, right in front of the vent, climbing to 99 degrees.

Lenovo Slim Pro 9i (14.5-inch) software and warranty

It’s a breath of fresh air to not see silly bloatware apps pre-installed in this machine (e.g., Hearts Deluxe, Spider Solitaire Collection, Candy Crush Saga, etc.). You’ll find your standard fare of Windows 11 apps, though, including Calculator, Mail and Calendar, Microsoft 365, OneNote, and more.

The most useful app may be the Lenovo Vantage app, which gives you easy-to-access details about your laptop. Plus, it gives your information about your warranty, battery health and temperature, and system update availability. Plus, you can manage your fan speeds by toggling between several different modes.

The Slim Pro 9i ships with a one-year warranty. See how the brand fared in our Tech support showdown and Best and worst brands special reports. 

Bottom line

Who is the Lenovo Slim Pro 9i for? On-the-go content creators and professional artists who are sick and tired of dim displays. Thanks to the mini-LED display, this Slim Pro 9i climbs over 700 nits of brightness where other laptops are stuck between the 300 and 400 range. The screen is also colorful and total eye candy for all your entertainment needs.

And no, 7-hour battery life isn’t very attractive (the Galaxy Book 3 Ultra delivers 9 hours despite its power-guzzling internals), but the Slim Pro 9i has a clicky, comfortable keyboard and a divine sounding, quad-speaker system that sends chills down your spine.

It also has ultra-fast video transcoding and high-performing graphics, beating the mighty Dell XPS 15. Congratulations, Lenovo. The Slim Pro 9i has earned a spot on our best laptops page. 

The base model M2 Pro MacBook Pro is more than enough for most pro users, and you can pick one up for its lowest ever price after a huge $250 saving!

Make no mistake about it, this is one of the best MacBook deals we've seen all year. Typically, we see the price stoop as low as $1,799, but this is the second time Amazon has dropped an extra 50 bucks off the cost.

MacBook Pro 14 with M2 Pro deal 

Apple's 2023 MacBook Pro is its best pro-grade MacBook release to date. This particular model on sale has a 14.2-inch (3024 x 1964) Liquid Retina XDR display, M2 Pro 10-core CPU, 16-core GPU, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB SSD.

In our MacBook Pro with M2 Pro chip review, we were floored by its impressive performance, 14+ hour battery life, and generous amount of ports. We also praise its vibrant, crisp display and outstanding speakers. We give the MacBook Pro with M2 Pro Chip an overall rating of 4.5 out of 5-stars and our esteemed Editor's Choice award.

In Geekbench 5.4 overall performance tests, the 2023 MacBook with M2 Pro scored a high with 14,965. This beats the premium laptop average of 6,173 and scrapes competitors like the Asus ZenBook 14X (12th Gen Intel Core i9-12900H CPU, 11,142), Dell XPS 13 Plus (Intel Core i7-1280P CPU, 10,621) and the Acer Swift 5 (Core i7-1260P CPU, 9,859). 

Weighing in at 3.5 pounds, and  0.6-inches thin, the MacBook Pro M2 Pro is heavyweight, yet fairly portable. It's slightly heavier but just as thin as the Asus ZenBook 14X OLED Space Edition (3.1 pounds, 0.6 inches), Dell XPS 13 Plus (2.7 pounds, 0.6 inches) and Acer Swift 5 (2.7 pounds, 0.6 inches). Connectivity-wise, the 2023 MacBook Pro 14 is outfitted with 3 x Thunderbolt 4 ports, an HDMI port, headphone jack, and SDXC card reader. 

As with all Apple deals, this likely won't last too long so grab it while you still can. 

The Dell XPS 15 is one of the best laptops for college students, teachers, and anyone else looking for a capable PC. Right now, you can get the Dell XPS 15 for $1,199 at Best Buy with a My Best Buy Plus membership. It normally costs $1,499, so that's $300 in savings and the lowest price we've seen for this 13th Gen Intel configuration. It also undercuts Dell's current direct price for the same exact laptop by $100.

This is one of the best back to school laptop deals going on at Best Buy.

Given that the the annual cost of My Best Buy Plus is $49, it's worth signing up to get this exclusive discount. My Best Buy Plus members also get free 2-day shipping, early access to sales and extended 60-day return windows.

Dell's family of laptops includes some of the best MacBook alternatives and the XPS 15 is one of them. The laptop in this deal has a 15.6-inch FHD+ (1920 x 1200) 500 nit display,13th Gene Intel Core i7-13700H 14-core CPU, 16GB of RAM, and Intel Arc A370M graphics. For file storage, it equips you with an ample and speedy 512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD.

In our recent Dell XPS 15 9530 review, we gave it a solid 4 out of 5-star rating and our Editor's Choice Award. We loved its slick, elegant design alongside its great overall and gaming performance. We were also impressed by its vivid display and excellent audio. 

In real world tests, the Dell XPS 15's Intel Core i7-13700H chip handled multitasking like a champ. Not even 75 Google Chrome tabs, a mix of Google Docs, Sheets, and Presentations with several YouTube and Twitch channels running in the background could make it flinch. The laptop showed no signs of slowing down. 

Port-wise, the Dell XPS 15 supplies you with two Thunderbolt 4 ports, a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port, full-sized SD card reader and a headset jack. It also ships with a dongle adapter, something you don't often see with laptops. 

At 4.2 pounds and 0.7-inches thin, the Dell XPS 15 is on par with competitors like the Asus VivoBook Pro 16 (4.2 pounds, 0.8 inches) and Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra (4 pounds, 0.7 inches). It's noticeably lighter than the MacBook Pro 16 (4.8 pounds, 0.7 inches).

If you're in the market for a new daily driver, you can't go wrong with the Dell XPS 15.

The best back to school sales this weekend offer epic discounts on must-have tech for students and teachers. August is back to school and now is the time to shop back to school deals on laptops, Apple gear, tablets, phones, and more. 

Dell's back to school sale for example, offers sitewide savings on must-have tech for college students and educators. As part of the sale, you can pick up the best-selling Dell XPS 13 Laptop for $849. That's $100 off its former price of $949 and one of the best back to school laptop deals out there. 

We reviewed the 2-in-1 version Dell XPS 13 and liked its lightest design, bright sharp display and great graphics performance. The laptop in this deal packs a 13.4- inch FHD+ (1920 x 1200) 500 nit-display, Intel Core i5-1230U 10-core CPU, 16GB of RAM, Iris Xe graphics and 512GB NVMe SSD. 

One of the best overall laptops to buy, the Dell XPS 13 is a solid buy if you're looking for a capable machine. 

Shop the best back to school sales this weekend and 17+ recommended deals below.

Best back to school sales this weekend

• Amazon: save on back to school essentials from pre-K and up
• Best Buy: save up to $500 on select Windows laptops 
• Dell: save up to 50% on select laptops and PC accessories
• HP: Back to School Sale Sneak Peek — up to 67% off sitewide
• Newegg: save up to 60% on select laptops, monitors and more
• Microsoft: save up to $400 on select Surface devices
• Target: save on video games, headphones, tablets, laptops and more
• Walmart: save on laptops, tablets, monitors, headphones, TVs 

Best back to school deals this weekend

Looking for the best cheap laptop deals — all under $1,000 — for Prime Day 2023? You've come to the right place!

As your laptop expert, I'm here to tell you about all the best budget-friendly laptops you can get for prime day. I'm extremely picky and I'm very judicious about which laptops I recommend (and Laptop Mag reviewed them all), so here are the laptops under $1,000 that will keep buyer's remorse at bay:

• Asus Zenbook 14 Q409ZA - $750, $669 @ Amazon
• Lenovo ThinkPad Z16 - $1,800, $932 @ Amazon
• Acer Swift Go 14 - $849, $779 @ Amazon

1. Why I recommend the Asus Zenbook 14 Q409ZA as the best Prime Day laptop deal

This laptop has an MSRP of $750, but it's now $669 for Prime Day (whether you have Prime or not). I have repeatedly shouted from the mountains that the Asus Zenbook 14 is the best cheap laptop you can get for less than $1,000. Why? It's packed with the following:

• A touchpad that instantly launches the Calculator app and doubles as a digital numpad
• A striking, 2880 x 1800-pixel OLED display with a 90Hz refresh rate
• Nearly 11 hours of battery life, according to your in-house testing (a typical laptop only lasts 10 hours on a single charge)
• A satisfying mix of both modern and legacy ports
• A beautiful design inspired by Japanese kintsugi art style
• Lightweight and portable

Check out my full review of the Asus Zenbook 14.

2. Why I recommend the Lenovo ThinkPad Z16 as the best Prime Day laptop deal

As a laptop reviewer, I can't figure out why everyone is gushing about the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon nor the Dell XPS 15. They're good business laptops, but are they the best? Not at all.

The best business laptop is the Lenovo ThinkPad Z16. And it's only $932 for Prime Day (down from $1,800). Let me breakdown why I recommend it as the best Prime Day laptop deal:

• It delivers a whopping 15-hour battery runtime (the average laptop lasts 10 hours)
• It outpaced all competitors in processor performance, according to our in-house testing
• It beat all of its rivals in graphics performance, according to our in-house testing
• It has military-tested durability, which means you can get away with dropping it a couple of times

Read my full review of the Lenovo ThinkPad Z16.

3. Why I recommend the Acer Swift Go 14 as the best Prime Day laptop deal

When the Acer Swift Go 14 came through to Laptop Mag's lab, were were blown away by its amazing performance scores, incredible performance, and stunning display. It runs so well, we called it a "MacBook Air killer." And it's only $779 for Prime Day (down from $850).

Here's why the Swift Go 14 is the best cheap laptop you can get on Prime Day:

• One of the most vivid displays of all time
• A satisfying, tactile keyboard
• Performance scores that blows competitors out of the water
• An eye-catching, silver aluminum design
• A portable, slim design
• A nice variety of ports 

Check out our full review of the Acer Swift Go 14.

Amazon Prime Day 2023 is almost over, but there are still hundreds of deals available, including many that don't require shelling out hundreds of dollars.

We've gathered up 11 of our favorite Prime Day deals under $50 to try to help you score some of the last great savings without breaking the bank. One popular Prime Day deal laptop owners are snapping up is the BoYata Laptop Stand for just $25. This nifty accessory typically costs $45 so that's $20 off and brings the BoYata Laptop Stand to its lowest price yet. 

This top-rated multi-angle stand is stylish, durable, and practical. It has a ventilated design to prevent your laptop from overheating. It supports laptops up to 17 inches and is a must-have accessory for laptops like the MacBook Air and Pro, HP Envy 13, Dell XPS 15, and Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon, just to name a few. 

Another wildly popular  Prime Day deal is the Fire Stick TV 4K Max for just $24 (55% off). It plugs directly into your laptop via your TV's HDMI port. The included Alexa-enabled remote makes navigating your streaming services easy with voice commands or stick to the traditional intuitive buttons on board.

These are just a couple of the deals for you to snag in the waning hours of Prime Day, but here are 11 of the best Prime Day deals under $50.

Best Prime Day deals under $50