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 video editing laptops have at least two of the three must-have features: performance, battery life, and a bright and vivid display. These are important for any of the best laptops, but even more so for visual creatives. These are also often some of the best laptops for college, especially for majors working in media.

The better your laptop's performance, the less time you'll have to wait for it to finish transcoding a video file or render a 3D animation. Video editing laptops without discrete graphics cards are usually cheaper than those with them, which means they rely on their processor to do all those things.

Having enough RAM is especially important in this case. 16GB sounds like it could be enough until you try pre-rendering footage in the background while you're editing and cause the whole program to freeze. (I learned this the hard way.)

Display color and accuracy are also important for video editing. This is why Laptop Mag measures the DCI-P3 gamut coverage of every laptop we test. DCI-P3 is the color space used in professional digital cinema, capturing about 25% more color variations than the standard SRGB. As a general guideline, the best laptops for video editing should cover at least 85% of the DCI-P3 color gamut.

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

Update log

Quick Menu

Best overall

If you're a professional video editor in need of a new laptop that can breeze through heavy video and 3D rendering workloads, we recommend the newest 16-inch Apple MacBook Pro with an M4 Pro processor.

Laptop Mag's managing editor, Sean Riley, describes it best in his review: "It's almost simultaneously the most powerful premium laptop we've reviewed while also offering the second-longest battery of any laptop we've tested." Our benchmark numbers mostly speak for themselves.

With 20 hours and 46 minutes of battery life, it lasts 7 hours longer than the average premium laptop and its main competitors, the Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 9 and Asus ProArt PX16 (2024), between 10 and 11 hours, respectively. It also outlasts the MacBook Pro M3 Max by nearly 3 hours.

It outshines them all in the Geekbench 6 multicore benchmark, scoring 22,822. That's 47% faster than the Yoga Pro (12,141), 32% faster than the ProArt PX16 (15,286), and over 100% more than the average premium laptop (10,492). Compared to the M3 Max (21,182), that's an 8% speed increase; remember that the 16-inch Max configurations start at $3,499.

If you happen to be upgrading from an M2 Max, you might need help picking your jaw up off the floor: the M4 Pro was 45% faster in Laptop Mag's tests by comparison. My fiancé recently traded in his M2 Max for an M4 Pro, and while he didn't convey his excitement in words he did make happy grunting noises.

Everything else about this MacBook Pro is just as good or better than previous generations. It's still expensive, but it's our best overall pick for a reason.

See our full Apple MacBook Pro 16 M4 Pro review.

Best budget

15-inch laptops are increasingly rare these days, but as Laptop Mag managing editor Sean Riley writes in his review, the new Apple MacBook Air 15 M4 "deserves to be in the conversation." He gave it 4.5 stars for a good reason! It offers many of the same benefits for video editors as the pricier Pro M4, and its performance and battery life are still unparalleled compared to many of its budget competitors.

Its CPU multicore performance is nearly 38% faster than the 15-inch Air M3, according to our testing. In our real-world video transcoding test, the Air M4 converted a 4K video to 1080p in just under 5 minutes — 2 minutes faster than the Air M3.

The Air M4's display isn't the most vibrant or color-accurate screen you can get, but it covers a larger portion of the DCI-P3 color gamut compared to last year's Air M3 (83.5% versus 77.8%). For video editors on a budget who want the largest laptop display possible, that's less of a compromise between the Air M4 and 14-inch M4 Pro — and you still get Apple's True Tone technology, which adjusts how colors are displayed depending on the lighting.

It's max brightness is 476 nits, just like last year's model, and it's battery still lasts 15 hours, too. The Air M4's other features have mostly stayed the same or improved, which is especially great considering Apple dropped the 15-inch Air M4's starting price by $100.

If you currently have an Air M2, you're in the best position to get the most out of your money by upgrading.

See our full Apple MacBook Air 15 M4 review.

Best touchscreen

For a touchscreen laptop, the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x has all the makings of a great video editing machine. Laptop Mag's reviewer, Stevie Bonifield, writes that it "balances price and performance with a stylish design and strong battery life," on top of a sharp OLED display that produces vivid colors and inky blacks.

This laptop's DCI-P3 color gamut coverage is one of the widest Laptop Mag has seen in the last year: 155%. The display also gets bright, hitting a max of 464 nits in SDR and 785 nits in HDR. 431 nits is also the average SDR brightness for a premium laptop, so the Yoga Slim 7x is right on the money here.

It's essential for any creativity laptop to have fast multicore performance, as many creativity programs make full use of all the CPU's cores simultaneously. The Yoga Slim 7x has speed in spades. With a Snapdragon X Elite processor, it cranked out a benchmark score of 13,750 in Geekbench 6, making it faster than many similar-priced laptops.

That doesn't directly translate to some real-world video workloads, however, the Yoga Slim 7x was still able to transcode a 4K video to 1080p in just over 5 minutes. That's still faster than what Laptop Mag has seen from some competing laptops with an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H.

The Yoga Slim 7x has two potential downsides as a video editing laptop: app compatibility and its reflective OLED display. You might need to max out the display brightness to get rid of any lighting glare (which, of course, will shorten the battery life; the brighter the display, the more power it needs).

Also, make sure your favorite editing app has a native ARM64 version since this laptop runs Windows on ARM. For most people, this shouldn't be an issue as popular programs like Premiere Pro, After Effects, Blender, and DaVinci Resolve are compatible. But it's always good to double-check!

See our full Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x review.

Best gaming

Strong all-round performance, a splashy OLED display, and keys that are responsive and satisfying to press can make most gaming laptops enticing options for video editors. The HP Omen Max 16 has a tantalizing combination of all three, and it handles heat way better than many of the best gaming laptops.

Most gaming laptops crank up the frame rates at the expense of pushing surface temps past our 95-degree comfort threshold, but the Omen Max 16 stays 10-20 degrees cooler by comparison whether its being used for gaming or streaming videos.

It's not the fastest gaming laptop by frame rates alone, but it generated almost or just as many frames as its competitors. As our tests showed, the Omen Max 16 handles games like Far Cry 6 and Shadow of the Tomb Raider better than some rival gaming laptops, but performed worse with games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Black Myth: Wukong.

That give-and-take performance showed up in our Handbrake test, too. This laptop took 2 minutes and 54 seconds to transcode a 4K video to 1080p, which is fast compared to a lot of other gaming laptops we've tested — but still about 20-35 seconds slower than its fiercest rivals.

But when it comes to many video editors' need for color, contrast, and clarity, we have yet to test another gaming laptop that can hold a diode to the Omen's OLED display.

Laptop Mag editor, Rami Tabari, said he couldn't remember the last time he's seen a display this "drop-dead gorgeous" after reviewing the Omen Max 16. It's a "fever dream of colors and infinite contrast," decimating its competition with a DCI-P3 color gamut coverage of 141.4%. Compared to the other laptops on this list, it only falls behind the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x — and that's not even a gaming laptop! Though with a max brightness of 363 nits, dimly lit scenes can be easily washed out by strong ambient lighting (a common issue for OLED displays).

See our full HP Omen Max 16 review.

Best Windows laptop

For the video editor loyal to Windows, "The Asus ProArt P16 is a stellar example of what a creator laptop should be: powerful, reliable, and stylish," as our reviewer Stevie Bonifield writes. You don't have to pay MacBook Pro prices to get superb performance in a thin and light chassis with a beautiful design that's just as easy on your eyes as it is on your wallet.

While I'd normally recommend a laptop with a wider color gamut for video editors, the ProArt P16 covers a high enough percentage of the DCI-P3 (85.5%). But if you're looking at this laptop for graphic design, that should be less of a concern since you're likely working with the AdobeRGB or sRGB color gamut.

Just as important as color accuracy is performance; this laptop's AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor, 32GB of RAM, and Nvidia RTX 4070 graphics card powers it to a Geekbench 6 multicore score of 15,286, way beyond the average premium laptop. Commonly used graphic design programs like Adobe Illustrator load in a snap, and the ProArt P16 has the right amount of RAM and CPU cores to prevent the system from getting too bogged down with all the processes Photoshop runs in the background.

That stellar performance played out in Laptop Mag's Handbrake benchmark, transcoding a 4K video to 1080p in 3 minutes and 15 seconds, much faster than the average premium laptop (7:58).

Its battery life is a letdown, though. Expect up to 9 hours and 32 minutes if you use this laptop for web browsing, with the display brightness set to 150 nits. If you're manipulating images with dozens of vector masks at full brightness (356 nits), the battery will drain much faster. Just something to be mindful of if your workspace doesn't have a nearby outlet.

See our full Asus ProArt P16 review.

Best workstation

For the video editor who is extra cautious about maintaining the integrity of their files' data, the Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 is aimed directly at that kind of professional use. "While it may not be the most powerful workstation we’ve ever seen here at Laptop Mag," our staff writer Madeline Ricchiuto writes, it has enough "performance to handle photo and video editing, 3D rendering, or heavy data analysis you’d want out of a workstation machine." It isn't impractically expensive, either (at least when it's on sale).

With a Geekbench 6 multicore benchmark average of 12,974, it's outpaced by the Apple MacBook Pro 16 M4 Pro — and even some less expensive competitors like the Asus ProArt P16 (15,286, or 16%).

However, it did transcode a 4K video 1080p in a swift 4 minutes and 21 seconds in our Handbrake benchmark test, faster than some of its competitors. Keep in mind this laptop is designed for stable and reliable workloads — slower performance is the norm when you compare this kind of workstation to any laptop with a discrete gaming graphics card, like the ProArt P16.

I don't know about you, but I'd be willing to sacrifice a little performance for this ThinkPad's battery life: an outstanding 17 hours and 23 minutes. That's as long or longer than some productivity laptops and definitely much longer than the average workstation's 5 or 6 hours!

We do wish this laptop had a better display for its price. The $4,584 configuration we reviewed is outfitted with only a 1920 X 1200 IPS panel, covering just 78.6% of the DCI-P3 color gamut. Its max brightness is 386 nits — bright enough for an IPS display to ward off glare, though not the brightest out of all the laptops on this list.

See our full Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 review.

Benchmark comparisons

Recently reviewed

Not every laptop can make the best video editing 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, or something else.

How to choose the best video editing laptop

The best video editing laptop for one person probably won't be the same as the next. Everyone has different budgets and different projects; editing short, ASMR videos in 1080p isn't the same as editing a full-length feature film in 4K. If you know what you want to do with a video editing laptop, that will help narrow down your choices.

Price

If you're a hobbyist, you can most likely get away with any laptop released in the last year or two for under $1,500. If you're a professional editor who needs a top-of-the-line laptop, it's even more important to have a budget in mind as these laptops can easily exceed $3,000. (We've seen them go as high as $8,000!)

Performance

In general, video editing leans heavily on the processor, so look for something with an Apple M3 Max or M4 (Pro or Max), AMD Ryzen AI 9, Intel Core Ultra, or Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite chip. If you need to step back a generation for the sake of affordability, that's fine too, though it may increase how long it takes to render or transcode your videos.

Graphics

If you need speed, look for a video editing laptop with a discrete graphics card (usually an Nvidia GeForce RTX 40-series, RTX A-series, or RTX Ada Generation). A lot of intensive video-editing tasks can be processed by the GPU instead of the CPU, which can save you a lot of time.

RAM and Storage

But whether a hobbyist or professional, do not skimp on RAM! 16GB is the absolute floor for hobbyists and 24GB for professionals, though we recommend at least 32GB for the latter.

You'll also want enough storage space for all your videos and editing programs, at least 1TB to 2TB. Not all of the best video editing laptops are configurable with more than 2TB of storage space, though, and if they are their price usually goes up drastically; an external SSD is a great, cost-saving option to get around that. (Or if you're feeling spicy, build your own cloud storage.)

FAQs

Q: Are gaming laptops good for video editing?

A: Yes! Any laptop with a discrete graphics card lets you take advantage of Hardware Acceleration, a common feature in popular image and video editing programs. Instead of relying on the CPU and RAM to do all the work, Hardware Acceleration uses the GPU to perform the same tasks much faster.

Gaming laptops' GPUs also work with Nvidia Studio Drivers, which provide more stability and reliability for content creation. Workstations usually come with Nvidia's RTX A-series or Ada Generation graphics cards, which are designed specfically for professional workstations and have better data integrity and stability. (They're more expensive, too!)

Q: Do I need a GPU for video editing?

A: Not necessarily! You can do encoding, transcoding, and other common video editing tasks with just the processor and its integrated graphics. Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite chips are particularly great at this; they're built on ARM architecture, like Apple's M-series, which generally process tasks more efficiently.

Most of today's integrated graphics (Intel Arc, AMD Radeon, and Apple's M-series) are powerful enough to cut down on the time it takes to run all sorts of video editing-related tasks — not as much as a discrete GPU, but usually a couple of minutes. MacBooks' integrated graphics are especially great for video editing, which is a big part of why there are two of 'em on our list.

Q: What GPU should I get?

A: It depends! If you want high frame rates and stunning graphics, then an RTX 5080 or RTX 5090 are your best bet. Those graphics cards make the most out of high refresh rates and OLED displays. If you are willing to compromise on one or the other, look for gaming laptops with an RTX 5070, or RTX 4090 or lower.

Nvidia's DLSS Multi Frame Generation is only supported on 50-series cards, but all other DLSS technologies are accessible on both the RTX 50-and 40-series.

Q: How much RAM do I need for video editing?

A: It depends! With a discrete GPU (which has its own on-board video RAM) and Hardware Acceleration, you can get away with at least 16GB if you're not working on anything resource-intensive. But if you edit videos for a living, we recommend a minimum of 24GB — though if you have the budget for 32GB or more, that would be ideal.

If the video editing laptop you have your eye on has unified memory (RAM that is built into the CPU itself), you probably want to configure it with at least 32GB of RAM. The RAM in these laptops is shared between the CPU and integrated graphics; if you don't have enough total RAM, then the integrated graphics might not have enough resources to render large video or 3D files.

Q: Does Windows have video editing software?

A: You can download Clipchamp from the Microsoft store for free. It's designed for basic video editing, so it lacks many features of 3rd-party, professional software like Adobe Premiere Pro or DaVinci Resolve.

Access to Clipchamp's more "advanced" features, like 4K resolution video exports and content backup costs $11.99 per month.

How we test video editing laptops

The best laptops for video editing are the ultimate high-performance laptops. We put each one 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, PugetBench for Adobe applications, 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 Sid 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 our battery test, we continuously web surfing over WiFi at 150 nits of brightness. For MacBooks and premium Windows 11 laptops, anything over 10 hours is a good result, whereas gaming laptops and workstations that can stay powered longer than 5 hours deserve praise.

Beyond the lab, our expert reviewers put laptops through their paces in real-world scenarios. By using the devices for their daily work, they gain a deep understanding of their performance and usability. This practical, hands-on approach, combined with lab testing, is how Laptop Mag delivers thorough and insightful reviews.

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 graphic design is similar to the best laptops for Photoshop, but the two most important are blazing performance and and a display that can produce a seemingly endless expanse of colors. These features are crucial when you are, say, designing marketing materials for Academy Award-nominated films like my fiancé used to do — sometimes as the awards aired on live TV.

If one of them won, he'd have to open the correct Photoshop file, edit and arrange the text, convert the file, and send it to the marketing firm so they could post it to social media before the award winner finished their 45-second speech. A slow processor would have been disastrous to that entire process.

But so would have a dull, lifeless display. The colors of those marketing materials often matched the overall color pallet used in the films themselves, so his job also relied on having a display with great color coverage and overall brightness.

Depending on where you spend the most time designing, a laptop with a shorter than average battery life might not be a dealbreaker; some of the best workstations and the best laptops for video editing also make fabulous graphic design machines. But unless you're desk-bound, ideally look for something that lasts at least 11 hours.

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

Update Log

6/10/25: Added Apple MacBook Air 15 M4 as best budget option, Asus ProArt PX13 as best 2-in-1; updated the following sections: recently reviewed, FAQs, intro, and how to choose a graphic design laptop.

The Quick List

Best overall

If you're a professional graphic designer who needs a new laptop that won't bottleneck the second you add one too many layers to your latest Photoshop project, we recommend the newest 16-inch Apple MacBook Pro with an M4 Pro processor.

Laptop Mag's managing editor, Sean Riley, describes it best in his review: "It's almost simultaneously the most powerful premium laptop we've reviewed while also offering the second-longest battery of any laptop we've tested." Our benchmark numbers mostly speak for themselves.

With 20 hours and 46 minutes of battery life, it lasts 7 hours longer than the average premium laptop. It also outshines them all in the Geekbench 6 multicore benchmark with a score of 22,822 — over a 100% speed increase compared to the average premium laptop (10,492).

I realize numbers alone might not be convincing enough, so I asked a professional graphic designer (my fiancé) with over a decade of experience creating company logos, website wireframes, and user interfaces for video games how he felt about his new MacBook Pro 16 M4 Pro. He didn't convey his excitement in words at first. He made happy grunting noises and told me it's the best laptop he's owned during his career. (If you are also upgrading from an M2 Max, you might need help picking your jaw up off the floor like he did.)

Everything else about this MacBook Pro is just as good or better than previous generations. It's still expensive, but it's our best overall pick for a reason.

See our full Apple MacBook Pro 16 M4 Pro review.

Best budget

15-inch laptops are increasingly rare these days, but as Laptop Mag managing editor Sean Riley writes in his review, the new Apple MacBook Air 15 M4 "deserves to be in the conversation." He gave it 4.5 stars for a good reason! It offers many of the same benefits for graphic designers as the pricier Pro M4, and its performance and battery life remain unparalleled among many of its budget competitors.

Its CPU multicore performance is nearly 38% faster than the 15-inch Air M3, according to our testing. In our real-world video transcoding test, the Air M4 converted a 4K video to 1080p in just under 5 minutes — 2 minutes faster than the Air M3.

The Air M4's display isn't the most vibrant or color-accurate screen you can get, but it covers a larger portion of the DCI-P3 color gamut compared to last year's Air M3 (83.5% versus 77.8%). For graphic designers on a budget who want the largest laptop display possible, that's less of a compromise between the Air M4 and 14-inch M4 Pro — and you still get Apple's True Tone technology, which adjusts how colors are displayed depending on the lighting.

Its max brightness is 476 nits, just like last year's model, and its battery still lasts 15 hours, too. The Air M4's other features have remained mostly the same or improved, which is especially notable considering Apple dropped the 15-inch Air M4's starting price by $100.

If you currently have an Air M2 or earlier, you're in the best position to get the most out of your money by upgrading.

See our full Apple MacBook Air 15 M4 review.

Best Windows

If you're more comfortable using Windows, the Asus ProArt P16 is a "stellar example of what a creator laptop should be: powerful, reliable, and stylish," as our reviewer, Stevie Bonifield, said. You don't have to pay MacBook Pro prices to get suburb performance in a thin and light chassis with a beautiful design that's just as easy on your eyes as it is on your wallet.

While I'd normally recommend a laptop with a wider color gamut for graphic designers, the ProArt P16 covers a high enough percentage of the DCI-P3 (85.5%). If you want this laptop for professional video editing that could be more of a concern, where the AdobeRGB color gamut is more useful for graphic designers.

Just as important as color accuracy is performance; this laptop's AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor, 32GB of RAM, and Nvidia RTX 4070 graphics card powers it to a Geekbench 6 multicore score of 15,286, way beyond the average premium laptop. Commonly used graphic design programs like Adobe Illustrator load in a snap, and the ProArt P16 has the right amount of RAM and CPU cores to prevent the system from getting too bogged down with all the processes Photoshop runs in the background.

That stellar performance played out in Laptop Mag's Handbrake benchmark, transcoding a 4K video to 1080p in 3 minutes and 15 seconds, much faster than the average premium laptop (7:58). (Yes, the ProArt P16 also makes a fantastic video editing laptop.)

Its battery life is a letdown, though. Expect up to 9 hours and 32 minutes if you use this laptop for web browsing, with the display brightness set to 150 nits. If you're manipulating images with dozens of vector masks at full brightness (356 nits), the battery will drain much faster. Just something to be mindful of if your workspace doesn't have a nearby outlet.

See our full Asus ProArt P16 review.

Best 2-in-1

If you start your design process with hand-drawn sketches on a tablet but are tired of importing them to a separate device, the Asus ProArt PX13 is "a top choice for creators looking for a compact laptop," as Laptop Mag contributing writer Stevie Bonifield, sums up nicely.

This laptop's 13.3-inch display offers almost the same amount of space as a standard-sized piece of paper, so it keeps a good balance between portability and having enough room to draw. It weighs 3 pounds, which is heavier than the average 100-page sketchbook, of course, but that's incredibly lightweight for a laptop — especially a 2-in-1.

If you draw directly inside a graphic design program, you won't have to worry about your lines lagging behind your stylus. The ProArt Px13 performed exceptionally well in our PugetBench Photoshop and HandBreak video transcoding tests, meeting or exceeding what its competitors are capable of achieving. Coupled with a discrete RTX 4050 graphics card and 32GB of RAM, you likely won't have to manually adjust the memory allocation to your graphic design program.

Graphic designers who work with the DCI-P3 color gamut might find the display's coverage on the low side with 80% of that color space in our testing. While this is below the recommended 85% minimum, it's important to note that OLED displays typically underperform on this test, so the true number is almost certainly above 85%.

What might be a concern for anyone considering this laptop is its battery life: 9 hours and 49 minutes. That's not terrible for a creator laptop, but it's less than the 11-hour minimum we recommend.

See our full Asus ProArt PX13 review.

Best gaming

If your graphic design work takes you into the realm of video game UI (like my fiancé's did for a period of time), you most likely will need a gaming laptop — one with "powerful performance, smooth graphics," and a "stunning display," as our staff writer, Madeline Ricchiuto said in her review of the Legion Pro 7i Gen 9.

Those are its stand-out features, especially at a price compared to some competing gaming laptops that are less powerful. For under $2,500 (on sale), you get an Intel Core i9-14900HX processor and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 GPU with 12GB of VRAM. Combined with 32GB of system memory, this laptop spiked into the high-90s and low-100s in our gaming benchmarks.

Its display is also suitable for UI design work, averaging 108.7% of the DCI-P3 color gamut — way beyond what most graphic designers probably would need. It also gets super bright, averaging 456 max nits in Laptop Mag's testing. It does only have a 1600p native resolution, but that may or may not be a deal breaker based on the kind of work you primarily do on your laptop.

Just keep in mind that if you go with this laptop, it's chunky, 1.01 inches thick, and weighs 5.7 pounds — definitely a desktop replacement. You can technically carry it around if you want to, but after a week (at most) of doing that, I can imagine the process becoming a hassle.

See our full Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Gen 9 review.

Benchmark comparisons

Recently reviewed

Not every laptop can make our best laptops for graphic design 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, or something else.

How to choose a laptop for graphic design

CPU: The faster your processor, the faster certain features will work in programs like Illustrator and Photoshop. (Not to mention opening the program itself!) Look for a laptop with either an Intel Core Ultra 200 series, AMD Ryzen AI 300 series, or Apple M4 CPU if you want your workflow to move as efficiently as possible.

GPU: If you work primarily work with static graphics, you might be able to do your work just fine on a laptop with integrated graphics. But if you work with motion graphics or UI, you might use a lot of intricate filters, 3D effects, generative AI, or similar resource-heavy tools.

For those of you in the latter camp, we recommend a laptop with either an RTX 40- or 50-series discrete graphics card — especially if you want to take advantage of any hardware acceleration features that your graphic design program offers.

RAM: If you're looking at a laptop with a discrete GPU, it should also have a bare minimum of 16GB. Though in our experience, 32GB (or more) is the ideal for professionals. It ensures the program won't lag if certain features like drawing and editing in real-time or animated zoom are active.

Storage: Our recommended minimum is 512GB, though if you regularly work with massive vector or other types of files, definitely go for at least 1TB.

Display: Most laptops span 95% or higher of the sRGB or AdobeRGB color gamut, but if DCI-P3 is more important to you, look for a display with at least 85% coverage. Color accuracy is also important; a laptop with a display Delta E (dE) level of 2 or less produces the most true-to-life colors.

Portability: Not all great graphic design laptops are thin and light. If you're constantly working between your home, the office, planes, or trains, look for a laptop that weighs 3 pounds or less and is around half an inch in height. Those will be less of a hassle to put in and remove from your bag several times a day.

FAQs

Q: Are gaming laptops good for graphic design?

A: Yes! Any laptop with a discrete graphics card lets you take advantage of Hardware Acceleration, a common feature in popular image and video editing programs. Instead of relying on the CPU and RAM to do all the work, Hardware Acceleration uses the GPU to perform the same tasks much faster.

Gaming laptops' GPUs also work with Nvidia Studio Drivers, which provide more stability and reliability for content creation. Workstations usually come with Nvidia's RTX A-series or Ada Generation graphics cards, which are designed specfically for professional workstations and have better data integrity and stability. (They're more expensive, too!)

Q: What GPU should I get for graphic design?

A: It depends! If you want high frame rates and stunning graphics, then an RTX 5080 or RTX 5090 are your best bet. Those graphics cards make the most out of high refresh rates and OLED displays. If you are willing to compromise on one or the other, look for gaming laptops with an RTX 5070, or RTX 4090 or lower.

Nvidia's DLSS Multi Frame Generation is only supported on 50-series cards, but all other DLSS technologies are accessible on both the RTX 50-and 40-series.

Q: Do I need a discrete GPU for graphic design?

A. Not necessarily! In general, graphic design leans heavily on the processor, so regardless if you get a MacBook, Windows, or Windows on ARM laptop, you'll be in fine shape.

MacBooks have been the de-facto graphic design machine for a long time. (My fiancé, who is a professional graphic designer, won't use any thing else.) But Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite chips can process the same, common design tasks just as efficiently.

Q: How much RAM do I need for graphic design?

A: It depends! With a discrete GPU (which has its own on-board video RAM) and Hardware Acceleration, you can get away with at least 16GB if you're not working on anything resource-intensive. But if you're a professional graphic designer, we recommend a minimum of 24GB — though if you have the budget for 32GB or more, that would be ideal.

If the graphic design laptop you have your eye on has unified memory (RAM that is built into the CPU itself), you probably want to configure it with at least 32GB of RAM. The RAM in these laptops is shared between the CPU and integrated graphics; if you don't have enough total RAM, then the integrated graphics might not have enough resources to load or convert large design files.

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

A: Most laptops that are good for graphic design 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 graphic design?

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 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 graphic design 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 every aspect of the laptop, but to find the best laptops for graphic design, we pay extra close attention to performance, graphics, and the display.

Performance testing includes Geekbench 6, which evaluates the laptop’s ability to handle a variety of different tasks and continue running smoothly. For laptops with discrete graphics cards, we use the 3DMark Fire Strike benchmark, and for integrated graphics we use 3DMark Night Raid.

To determine real-world performance, we convert a 4K video to 1080p resolution and duplicate a 25GB file. For gaming performance on integrated graphics, we use Cid Meier's Civilization V: Gathering Storm benchmark at 1080p resolution and Medium graphics.

For discrete graphics, we run benchmarks in Red Dead Redemption 2, Assassin's Creed Mirage, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Borderlands 3, Far Cry 6 (and more) in full-screen mode with vertical sync disabled at 1080p and the laptop's native resolution.

We use a Klein K10 colorimeter in our display testing to measure overall brightness, as determine the DCI-P3 and AdobeRGB color gamut color accuracy.

For our battery test, we continuously web surfing over WiFi at 150 nits of brightness. For MacBooks and premium 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.

We also run heat tests by playing a 15-minute full-screen video (or playing a video game) and measuring temperatures in different areas of the laptop.

We complement these tests with extensive hands-on testing from our reviewers, who critique everything from the laptop's materials to the feel of its touchpad.

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.

Nothing is more cutting-edge in 2025 than the best AI PCs from Qualcomm, Intel, AMD, and Apple. Picking a new laptop is already tough, let alone when you want the latest and greatest technology, so I'm here to help you navigate these stormy seas.

I'll be your AI laptop deep-dive instructor as we find the best AI PC for you. As Laptop Mag's resident hardware enthusiast, I've lived and breathed AI PCs for over a year. I've spent hours going over AI PC performance and efficiency benchmarks, and I've reviewed over 30 AI PCs personally, while the Laptop team has reviewed over 100 laptops in this emergent category in our never-ending quest to find the best laptops.

We've seen all of this generation's AI processors from Qualcomm, Intel, AMD, and Apple, so this list presents the best of the best when it comes to AI-powered laptops with options to suit any need. Even if AI isn't part of your daily life today, it would be a mistake to ignore it as you buy a new laptop in 2025 as AI is more prevalent than ever.

If you want to jump straight to our top choices, our pick for the best AI PC overall is the Asus Zenbook S 14 UX5406, which pairs a stunning OLED display with outstanding performance and efficiency thanks to the Intel Core Ultra Series 200V chipset inside. If battery life is your priority, the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 is your pick, with over 21 hours on our test. And for Apple enthusiasts, the MacBook Air 13 (M4, 2025) is the way to go for the best combination of value, performance, and longevity.

That's just entering into the shallows of our top picks; here's my promised deep dive into the best AI PCs in 2025.

The Quick List

Here's a quick rundown of our top picks for the best AI PC laptops. You can also follow the links to the full review to learn more about any of the computers on this list.

The best AI PCs in 2025

Best Overall

The Asus Zenbook S 14 (UX5406) rocketed to the top to become our favorite AI PC laptop. This laptop is one of the first to feature an Intel Core Ultra 200V series processor and at just $1,499, you get a fantastic balance of performance, full-day battery life, a stunning 14-inch OLED display, plus enhanced storage and memory. So you can keep open your 57 'emotional support' Chrome tabs while still streaming music and running ChatGPT or Stable Diffusion.

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

The Asus Zenbook S 14 lasted 13 hours and 51 minutes on our battery life test, so you should have no trouble leaving your charge cable at home while you head to work or to class. The Zenbook also features a scratch-resistant Ceraluminum ultralight chassis and Asus' quality customer support so you don't need to worry about any tech-related meltdowns.

The Zenbook S 14's 3K (2,880 x 1,800) OLED display is vividly colorful, capturing 82% of the DCI-P3 color gamut. at 342 nits of brightness, it can contend with most screen glare.

If you need to save money, Some of the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Copilot+ PCs are a bit cheaper. The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x is one of our favorites of the Copilot+ lineup and starts at just $1,199, while the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7th Edition starts at just $999 and features the same Copilot+ AI features as the Yoga Slim 7x. If you prefer an AI PC with a larger screen, the Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Ultra has a stunning 16-inch AMOLED display. The Galaxy Book 4 Ultra also offers excellent battery life and the powerhouse combo of an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H processor and Nvidia RTX 4070 GPU.

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

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Best battery life

One of the most highly anticipated features of the Copilot+ AI PC platform was the extended battery life offered by AI optimization combined with Qualcomm's ARM-based Snapdragon X Elite chip, and the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 has more than delivered on that promise.

In our review, Stevie Bonifield writes, "Battery life is one area where the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 really shines. It lasted 21 hours and 3 minutes in our battery test, longer than any of its rivals — longer than any laptop we’ve ever tested."

The ThinkPad T14s lasted an astounding 21 hours and 3 minutes on our battery test, outperforming even the MacBook Pro 16 (M4 Pro, 2024), which lasted 20:46. It also stole the battery life crown from the Dell XPS 13 (9345), which had just claimed the title of laptop with the best battery life in July 2024.

But the ThinkPad T14s offers more than just incredible battery life, as it combines power efficiency with strong CPU performance thanks to its Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite (XIE-78-100) chipset and surprisingly light 2.72-pound chassis.

In fact, the ThinkPad T14s has more powerful multi-core performance than some of our favorite laptops, like the MacBook Air 13 M3 and Asus Zenbook 14 OLED (Q425M). On the Geekbench 6 CPU benchmark, the ThinkPad scored an average of 14,486 compared to the MacBook Air's 12,807 or the Zenbook 14's 12,358. The T14s also has better battery life than both, making it the best choice for power and longevity.

So what are the downsides? The ThinkPad T14s suffers from a tired design, sub-par graphics rendering, and an inaccurately calibrated display, which hold it back from taking the top spot in this category. But if you don't plan to use your AI PC for a lot of photo or video work, the ThinkPad T14s more than makes up for its shortcomings in terms of battery life and performance. In fact, with this ThinkPad, you can even dare to leave your charger at home.

See our full Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 review.

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Best budget

AI PCs offer good power efficiency, strong performance, and lightweight designs, even on budget-friendly systems. The Acer Aspire 14 AI benefits from an Intel Core Ultra 5 226V processor with powerful Intel Arc 130V graphics and a 40 TOPS Intel AI Boost NPU all integrated into the chipset. It also features 16GB of unified memory on-package, a 2TB SSD, and a 14-inch 1920 x 1200 display. Plus, it lasted over 14 hours on the Laptop Mag web surfing battery test and weighs just 3.2 pounds. And you get all that for just $699.

Claire Tabari writes in our review of the Acer Aspire 14 AI, "The Acer Aspire 14 AI shines as a budget laptop, hitting an affordable price point for solid Lunar Lake processing speeds, excellent battery life, a satisfying keyboard, and a sturdy chassis."

Our testing revealed that the Aspire 14 AI "delivered a Geekbench 6 score of 10,043, which is fantastic for a budget laptop." The Aspire 14 also features a swift 1TB SSD, with a transfer rate of 1,746 megabytes per second.

While the Acer Aspire 14 AI's 14 hour and 15 minute battery life average is far from the most impressive on this list, it easily competes with our top AI PC pick overall, the Asus Zenbook S 14 (13:51), however, it is almost an hour behind our top Apple pick, the MacBook Air 13 M3 (15:13).

The Acer Aspire 14 AI does have a powerful second-gen Intel AI Boost NPU which offers 40 TOPS of performance. This means it is part of Microsoft's Copilot+ program and gets access to advanced AI features like Live Captions and studio camera effects.

See our full Acer Aspire 14 AI review.

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Best for business

Not everyone wants a 2-in-1 laptop, but the convertible form of the MSI Summit 13 AI+ Evo makes it a handy, versatile tool. The Summit also features a Microsoft discrete trusted platform module (TPM) 2.0 and Microsoft Pluton security. So its versatile and secure.

Madeline Ricchiuto writes in our review of the MSI Summit 13 AI+ Evo, "There are plenty of reasons to recommend the Summit 13 AI+ Evo. It offers almost 17 hours of battery life, dependable performance, a bright display, a satisfying keyboard, sturdy hinges, and it comes with 2TB of storage space and a stylus for just $1,599."

MSI has also put the Summit's durability to the test through the MIL-STD-810H durability testing. The Summit 13 AI+ Evo can survive high altitudes, extreme temperatures, and exposure to dust and humidity. Making it the perfect companion for your pitch meeting in the middle of the Sahara Desert.

Like the other Copilot+ laptops, the MSI Summit 13 has full-day battery life, solid performance, and a bright, vibrant display. Even if security is not your top priority, you're still getting a solid laptop that lasted 16 hours and 52 minutes on our battery test. On our other lab benchmark tests, the Summit was competitive with the likes of the Asus ExpertBook P5 and HP EliteBook Ultra G1q, with a Geekbench 6 score of 10,895 compared to the ExperBook's 11,259 and the EliteBook's 12,717.

While you could use one of the other Copilot+ or AI PC laptops, like the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x or Dell XPS 13 (9350), as a business laptop, MSI offers additional security and durability features alongside a stellar all-around laptop experience.

With a starting price of just $1,499, most other business laptops can't compete.

See our full MSI Summit 13 AI+ Evo review.

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Best for AMD fans

This AI powerhouse isn't part of the Copilot+ PC program, but with an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor, it more than meets the requirements for NPU performance with 50 TOPS of AI processing power. So, if you want a top-of-the-line AI PC and Qualcomm's ARM chip won't work for you, the Asus Zenbook S16 is your best pick.

Rami Tabari writes in our review, "The Asus Zenbook S16 UM5606 has the makings of a great laptop, from its incredible performance and graphics to its long battery life and stellar design."

Of course, the Zenbook does have a few drawbacks, like an unsatisfying keyboard and slower SSD, but it makes up for those shortcomings by surviving an impressive 11 hours and 35 minutes on our battery test. And it starts at just $1,399.

The Zenbook S16 scored above most of its competition on Geekbench 6, with a multicore average of 13,282. That outpaces even the MacBook Air 15 M3's 12,052 average and the Intel Core Ultra-powered Asus Zenbook 14 OLED (Q425M), which scored an average of 12,717.

So, if you need a powerful AI PC that runs Windows 11 without needing software emulation, the Zenbook S16 is the most affordable, powerful option.

See our full Asus Zenbook S16 review.

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Best for Apple enthusiasts

We rarely give out 5-star ratings here at Laptop Mag, and the Apple MacBook Air 13 M4 is one of the chosen few. Starting at just $999, with education pricing dropping it to $899, the new 13-inch Air is a laptop we can recommend for just about any purpose. It's affordable, especially by Apple standards, and it features an excellent keyboard, fantastic performance, and outstanding endurance, which makes it a great laptop for just about anyone's needs.

In our review, Sean Riley writes, "The MacBook Air 13-inch M4 feels like the return of the original M1 Air. It's an undeniable value that will give you years of excellent performance, even if you pick up the base model."

With macOS 18, the M4 chips have access to Apple Intelligence, making the MacBook Air 13 M4 one of the most affordable AI PCs on the market, with features similar to those found in Microsoft's Copilot+ PC system, like image and text generation, email summaries, and in-call recording and summaries.

Outside of the fancy new AI features coming to Macs this fall, the MacBook Air M4 boasts the same kind of all-day battery life as the other AI PCs on this list, lasting 15 hours and 42 minutes in our battery life test.

The MacBook Air is more than competitive with other AI PCs when it comes to performance, scoring a Geekbench 6 multicore average of 14,849 which outperforms the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x (13,750) and Asus Zenbook 14 OLED (12,908).

Of course, you could choose the MacBook Pro 14 M4 instead. Thanks to its fan-cooled design and larger battery, it has better performance and longer battery life, but it has a much higher starting price: $1,599.

So, if you want to stick with macOS and get the best Apple Intelligence features at an affordable price, the MacBook Air M4 is the way to go.

See our full Apple MacBook Air 13 M4 review.

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Benchmark Comparisons

AI Benchmarks

We run all of our AI PCs through a series of AI-focused benchmarks, including the Geekbench ML and Geekbench AI test suites. However, because of how fast AI and machine learning is evolving, these benchmarks are often difficult to compare between versions.

Geekbench ML does not test the NPU at all, while Geekbench AI will test the NPU using the best AI inference software for that chipset, so it can be difficult to compare NPU results between chipmakers.

Though AI PCs are all identifiable by their integrated NPUs, AI workloads run off all three hardware accelerators, so we try to benchmark the CPU, GPU, and NPU in AI tests rather than just focus on the NPU alone.

But if you're curious as to how our best AI PCs stack up in the AI benchmarking stakes, here's a comprehensive chart of our testing data.

Recent reviews

We review dozens of 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, which for this page could simply mean they aren't classified as "AI PCs."

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How to choose the best AI PC

There are several factors you should consider before buying an AI PC.

The benefits of AI laptops are multifaceted, but portability and battery life are some of the more tangible benefits of buying a laptop with a neural processing unit NPU. Courtesy of AI optimization, these laptops are more efficient than their non-AI counterparts, which helps shave off some weight with thinner, smaller batteries that can still last all day on a charge. Most AI PCs we've seen have lasted for more than 10 hours on our battery test, and many of the AI laptops we've reviewed and recommend go well beyond that, some even eclipsing 20 hours of battery life.

On-device AI is another key benefit of the AI PC platform, though we are still in the early days of generative AI, so those features will be upgraded and added as Microsoft, Apple, Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm flesh out their AI platforms. But at a minimum, all of the AI PCs have a dedicated NPU and can tackle on-device AI tasks like AI image and AI text generation. While some have more powerful NPUs than others, all of these AI PCs can run your favorite large language model.

Regarding minimum specs, we recommend a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus, AMD Ryzen 8000 series, Intel Core Ultra 100 series, or Apple M2. You'll also want to go for at least 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD minimum for extra memory and storage for your AI tasks.

Other deciding factors that can make your AI PC life even more successful are the same as most other laptops, including a comfortable keyboard, a sensitive touchpad, and a bright, vivid display. So you can enjoy your laptop for more than just its generative AI capabilities.

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FAQs

What makes a laptop an AI PC?

While there are many definitions for what counts as an AI PC, the one commonality between all laptops and desktops marked as "AI PCs" is the presence of a neural processing unit (NPU) machine learning core.

AI workloads will often use the CPU, GPU, and NPU of a machine, with certain tasks favoring one hardware accelerator over another. But to get the most use out of on-device AI, you'll want a computer with a strong chipset that has CPU, GPU, and NPU cores.

What does an AI PC do?

AI PCs are specialized laptops built to run AI workloads. They also offer great battery life and general performance. All laptops will be AI PCs at some point in the future, but for now, they're a bit more of a niche category. Essentially, any computer with an NPU machine learning processor is an AI PC.

You can use an AI PC to run on-device AI models like GPT-4 or Stable Diffusion. AI PCs can generate AI text and AI images and provide live AI translations or better video filters for your next Zoom meeting. One of the key differentiators is that these tasks are handled, at least in large part, by the NPU, which helps free up the CPU and GPU for other tasks.

You can also use an AI laptop for typical computing tasks like browsing the web, playing games, editing photos and videos, or productivity tasks if this is a work laptop. They're a versatile category of powerful, efficient laptops that fill various needs.

What specs do I need for a good AI PC?

While you can run generative AI programs like GPT-4, Stable Diffusion, or Dall-E on older processors, you'll want to opt for a newer, high-end CPU, GPU, and NPU combination if you plan to do a lot of on-device AI.

Different AI programs run through different hardware accelerators, so you'll want to have all-around powerful hardware.

An AMD Ryzen AI 300 processor gets you the most powerful NPU and a solid CPU and integrated GPU. Qualcomm Snapdragon X Series processors offer the best combination of powerful NPU and CPU performance with top-end battery life. The Intel Core Ultra 200V "Lunar Lake" series gives you a strong NPU with solid CPU and GPU performance for additional AI support and great battery life. The Apple MacBook Air M3 gives you access to the Apple Intelligence AI software suite, alongside Apple's fantastic build quality, performance, and battery life at an affordable price. The M4 is better optimized for AI workloads and will be the superior choice once the M4 chipset hits the MacBook Air line.

If you're using mostly cloud-based AI software, you can use a processor with a less powerful NPU because the cloud server will run the AI model for most of your AI usage. However, in that case, you'll still want a laptop with a decent processor and at least 16GB of RAM to get a timely response.

Do I need a Copilot+ PC to have a good AI PC?

While having a powerful NPU rated to at least 40 TOPS (trillions of operations per second) can make certain AI programs run more smoothly, the requirement for at least 40 TOPS of NPU performance was based on Microsoft Recall. That particular segment of Microsoft's Copilot+ AI suite hasn't fully launched yet, but it is available in Preview Mode for Windows Insiders.

AI PCs can do more than just Microsoft Copilot+. Many other AI workloads, including webcam background blur, AI audio effects, and generative AI can be handled by smaller NPUs or can be run through the CPU or GPU instead of the NPU. So you can still get a quality AI PC experience with a lower-spec NPU than you'll find on Copilot+ PCs.

But if you want an NPU that can last for the next few generations of AI and you want access to every AI feature, you'll want to opt for a Copilot+ PC.

Should you get a discrete GPU for your AI PC?

Depending on the AI you intend to use, you may want a more powerful GPU. However, the integrated graphics tiles on the Ryzen AI 300 series and Intel Core Ultra 200 series are powerful enough for some light gaming and get solid GPU-based AI performance.

Of course, if you're going to be getting into heavy on-device AI that requires high graphics demands, getting a laptop with an Nvidia RTX 40-series or RTX 50-series GPU wouldn't be a bad idea.

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How we test AI PCs

We put each laptop we review through extensive benchmark testing using synthetic and real-world tests before it goes to our reviewers. Our reviewers 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 the sRGB 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. A Geekbench 6 multicore score of 10,000 or higher is needed for AI workloads. While AI PC laptops don't need to be great at gaming, a higher score on 3DMark benchmarks can indicate good image generation capabilities.

With AI PC laptops, we also use machine learning benchmark tests like Geekbench ML, Geekbench AI, UL Procyon Computer Vision, and UL Procyon Image Generation. These tests use real AI workloads and models to test a laptop's AI performance capabilities. Most of these tests can target CPU and GPU performance on AI workloads, but as NPUs are the defining factor of AI PCs, we tend to focus on NPU performance for these benchmarks.

To determine real-world performance, we task the laptop with compressing a 4K video to 1080p resolution and duplicating a 25 GB multimedia file. Our real-world graphics test is the Sid Meier's Civilization VI: Gathering Storm benchmark with medium settings at 1080p and native resolution. On gaming laptops, we run additional benchmarks, including Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Cyberpunk 2077, and Assassin's Creed: Mirage.

We also test the laptop's cooling capabilities by playing a 15-minute 4K video and measuring temperatures in different areas of the laptop, such as the keyboard, touchpad, and underside, to determine whether it is too hot to be safely used on your lap or if it should be relegated to a desktop.

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 10 or Windows 11 laptops, a runtime of over 9 hours is considered a good result, whereas gaming laptops and workstations that can stay powered longer than 5 hours deserve praise. We expect over 10 hours of battery life with AI PCs, though many AI PC laptops get around 14 hours of battery life.

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.

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Why Trust Laptop Mag

Laptop Mag reviews over a hundred 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. 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.

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.

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The best business laptops in 2025 will help you get more done faster, whether you work from home, an office, or are often on the road. Modern business laptops can deliver powerfully productive performance in thin-and-light chassis.

I've reviewed laptops for over seven years now, so consider me and the rest of the Laptop Mag staff your outsourced team of dedicated laptop experts. We review and test over 100 laptops annually to help you find the best laptops in a wide variety of categories.

What's different about finding the best business laptops? You can't shortchange security and durability: The best business laptops typically come with fingerprint sensors, IR cameras, and security chips, and many have military-grade durability.

These are key components that differentiate business laptops from typical consumer laptops. We rigorously test the best business laptops from every major manufacturer to judge their blend of portability, performance, battery life, and more.

The Asus ExpertBook P5 (P5405) is our current pick for the best business laptop. It ticks all of the boxes above and offers a bright 144Hz display, solid performance, over 14 hours of battery life, and an excellent 3-year warranty. If you need maximum battery life, the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 is the answer, lasting over 21 hours in our testing. If your work supports macOS, the 13-inch MacBook Air M4 is an intriguing option with solid performance and over 15 hours of battery life in a durable build.

That's just a small sampling, here are my 6 top picks for the best business laptops in 2025.

The Quick List

The best business laptops in 2025

Best Business Laptop Overall

The Asus ExpertBook P5 (P5405) is the best business laptop we've reviewed in 2024, thanks to its unique 144Hz display, long-lasting battery life, included 3-year warranty, and affordable price. It edged just beyond 14 hours in our Laptop Mag Battery test, which should cover even your busiest day at work. This impressive resume earned its placement at the top of the business laptop charts.

Sean Riley reviewed this laptop for us, and he said, "Overall, the ExpertBook P5 is one of the most compelling thin-and-light business laptops that I've reviewed..." After writing and editing hundreds of reviews on Laptop Mag over the last 5 years, some great business laptops have crossed his desk, so that's not to be taken lightly.

With 32GB of RAM and the Intel Core Ultra 258V chipset, performance is good enough for motivated multitaskers. It scored 11,259 on the Geekbench 6 test, which comes in just behind some of its competitors, the HP EliteBook Ultra (Snapdragon X-Elite, 12,717), MacBook Air 13 M3 (Apple M3, 12,087), and HP Elite x360 1040 G11 (Intel Core Ultra 7 165H, 12,857). However, the 32GB of RAM and the outstanding SSD speed of the ExpertBook help to make up the minimal performance gap.

If you run your own business or are in a small business, you'll particularly appreciate the outstanding 3-year warranty and 1-year Accidental Damage Protection plan that comes standard with the ExpertBook P5. It's not that these options aren't available for other laptops, but they are typically upgrades from a 1-year warranty, which is all the more astounding at the sub-$1,300 price point for the ExpertBook. The combination of features and warranty could easily land you above $2,000, which is why our reviewer said, "The pricing on the ExpertBook P5 almost feels like a tax loophole..."

Lest you think Asus skimped to hit this price point, it still features enterprise-grade security from its discrete Trusted Platform Module (TPM) and secure login via its IR camera or fingerprint reader.

A business laptop that is feature-rich and affordable is a rarity, and that's why it earns my pick as the best business laptop in 2025.

See our full Asus ExpertBook P5 (P5405) review.

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Best Budget Business Laptop

The Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 5 delivers fantastic value for a budget-conscious business. I'll get the caveat out of the way right at the top, the battery life is its weakness at 7 hours and 48 minutes in our testing. So regular travelers will need to look elsewhere, but if you are at a desk or typically have access to an outlet this is a worthwhile tradeoff for the rest of what you get.

Our reviewer was particularly impressed by this laptop's laundry list of security features: "the ThinkPad E14 comes with features like a discrete trusted platform module (TPM) 2.0, an optional FHD hybrid IR camera required for Windows Hello, and Smart Power On." In many industries, this level of security is a must, so it's great to see it on a budget business laptop.

The ThinkPad E14 beat out the mainstream laptop average in both our Geekbench 6 testing (8,000 vs. 7,812) and our SSD transfer test (1,257MBps vs. 924.18MBps), a notable feat for a business laptop typically found for around $750. It nearly matched our previous overall pick, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11's Geekbench score, while outscoring the vastly more expensive HP Dragonfly Pro on the SSD transfer test.

As you would expect from Lenovo, the keyboard is a super responsive chiclet style that should allow you to type quickly and comfortably all day. Lenovo also boasts MIL-STD 810H certification on this affordable laptop, so don't worry that you're getting a cheap build due to the low cost.

While you can find a laptop for under $500, most business users will be better served by stretching that budget to reach the ThinkPad E14 Gen 5.

See our full Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 5 review.

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Best Long-Lasting Business Laptop

The Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 is part of a second wave of Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite-powered laptops this year, and they continue to amaze. This laptop delivers the same incredible performance we saw in the first round of these new ARM-based Windows laptops this summer, but it sets a new high mark for battery life at 21 hours and 3 minutes in our testing.

Microsoft's Copilot+ PC messaging dominated some conversations around the Snapdragon X Elite's initial launch earlier this year, but the combination of performance and battery life remains astounding.

If you are unconvinced by AI right now, that's fine; the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 is a fantastic business laptop, even if you never use a single AI feature. At the start of this year, a business laptop with 12 hours of battery life was doing quite well; now, we're regularly seeing results in the 14-18-hour range. But as our reviewer, Stevie Bonifield, said of its over 21 hours, "The ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 has enough battery life to easily get you through a full day of work, maybe even two."

What's more, it doesn't cost you anything in terms of performance, with the T14s scoring 14,486 in the Geekbench 6 overall performance test. That's almost 4,000 higher than the category average of 10,785. That's enough to outpace a high-performance laptop like Apple's MacBook Pro 14 M3 (11,968). It even did a solid job in the HandBrake video conversion test at 5 minutes and 34 seconds, beating the category average by 40 seconds if you need to do occasional video work.

The ThinkPad T14s display is a slightly mixed bag. Its stellar brightness of 451.8 nits is enough to remain usable in anything but direct sunlight, while its DCI-P3 color gamut of 70.7% is a bit disappointing. If you are doing creative work, that is a dealbreaker, but for typical productivity work, it won't matter.

Lenovo's ThinkShield and hardware security, like the fingerprint reader and IR camera for facial recognition sign-on, all add to the package for the ThinkPad T14s. You also have MIL-STD-810H durability certification to give you and your company peace of mind that the laptop will hold up to commuting, traveling, or just being hauled around your home or office.

As long as you aren't using proprietary software that may not support the ARM-based Qualcomm chip inside the ThinkPad T14s and you aren't reliant on a vivid display, the ThinkPad T14s belongs on the shortlist for your next business laptop. If those are applicable to you, consider something like the HP Spectre x360 14 instead, which is a bit more expensive, but offers a more standard Intel processor and a more creator-focused feature set.

Read our full Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 review.

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Best Work-from-home Laptop

The MacBook Air M4 is a rare 5-star laptop; it's our current choice for the best laptop overall. However, when considering it for work, it takes a backseat to some of the more purpose-built business laptops. That's why it makes an excellent choice for a work-from-home laptop; as long as your business supports macOS, it's the ideal laptop for business and personal use.

In my review, I wrote, "It's an undeniable value that will give you years of excellent performance, even if you pick up the base model." I stand by that statement months later. We've seen strong competition over the last year, but the Air remains tough to beat for overall productivity performance.

The MacBook Air 13 M4 is more than a match for the latest Intel Core Ultra Series 2 processors, with only the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite chips outperforming it in some tasks. While Qualcomm and Intel are finally putting up a fight in the battery life department, the Air M4 delivers almost 16 hours in our testing, so it's not something that you'll have to worry about.

Taking a closer look at performance, the Air 13 M4 easily outpaced strong competitors like the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x on Geekbench 6 (14,849 vs. 13,750) for multi-core performance while simultaneously offering over 4 hours of additional battery life. If you want more battery life than the Air M4, you'll need to look at the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6, which delivered over 21 hours in our testing.

One of the only knocks against the MacBook Air is that it only offers a pair of Thunderbolt 4/USB 4 ports along with the MagSafe charging port. If an HDMI or USB Type-A port is critical to your setup, you will need to pick up a USB-C hub or a docking station. If it's just the HMDI port or an SD card slot, you could also opt for the MacBook Pro 14 (M4, 2024), which adds both, along with a third Thunderbolt 4 port (sadly, still no USB-A).

See our full Apple MacBook 13-inch M4 review.

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Best for Travel

The MSI Summit 13 AI+ Evo 2-in-1 is a small and stylish laptop, perfect if you are a frequent business traveler or have a long commute with your laptop daily; its 2.9-pound weight and almost 17-hour battery life may make it sparkle like a diamond in your eyes.

Our reviewer, Madeline Ricchiuto, says, "There are plenty of reasons to recommend the Summit 13 AI+ Evo. It offers almost 17-hours of battery life, dependable performance, a bright display, a satisfying keyboard, sturdy hinges, and it comes with 2TB of storage space and a stylus for just $1,599." That's high praise for a thin-and-light business laptop. Thankfully, it also boasts MIL-STD 810H certification for durability, meaning that if it encounters bumps, drops, cold, heat, and dust as it travels with you, it will continue to power up every time you need it.

The 13.3-inch display has a 16:10 aspect ratio, giving you 120 extra vertical pixels to work with compared to a typical 16:9 display, so you'll get a few extra rows of that spreadsheet or another paragraph of that report you're working on. The display is reasonably bright at 366 nits, which should be enough for most lighting conditions.

It won't replace your gaming laptop or video editing laptop, but performance is sufficient for productivity apps, web browsing, and most typical business applications with a score of 10,895 on the Geekbench 6 overall performance test. That only beats our budget pick, the Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 5 (8,000), but isn't far behind our top choice or the M3 MacBook Air. There's a performance trade-off for portability and battery life, but it's not a massive sacrifice.

Travelers will appreciate the port offerings on the Summit 13 AI+ Evo as a thin-and-light laptop often means scant connectivity options. The TravelMate gives you a full HDMI port, two Thunderbolt 4 ports, a USB Type-A port, and a 3.5mm headphone/mic jack.

Finally, the Summit 13 features a bouncy and responsive Chiclet-style keyboard and a 4.7 x 2.3-inch trackpad. Again, this is a smaller laptop, so if you have large hands, it may feel cramped. You may at least want to consider picking up the best wireless mouse to free up a little space on the deck.

It won't be the perfect match for everyone, but if you are looking for the best business laptop for travel, the MSI Summit 13 AI+ Evo 2-in-1 is the right choice in 2025.

See our full MSI Summit 13 AI+ Evo A2VM review.

Best for graphic design

The Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 isn't the most powerful workstation in the world, but that's part of what makes it the best workstation for business users. Its Intel Core Ultra 7 165H and Nvidia RTX 1000 Ada Generation GPU offer solid workstation performance while retaining a reasonably portable form factor and excellent battery life.

Madeline Ricchiuto writes in our review, "While it may not be the most powerful workstation we’ve ever seen here at Laptop Mag, the Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 has enough power and performance to handle photo and video editing, 3D rendering, or heavy data analysis you’d want out of a workstation machine."

It's a workstation, so performance can't be ignored. In our lab tests, the ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 has a Geekbench 6 multicore average of 12,974, a file transfer rate of 2,071 MBps, and it compressed a 4K video to a 1080p 30fps format in just 4 minutes and 22 seconds. Those metrics won't beat workstation powerhouses like the HP ZBook Studio 16 G10 or Apple MacBook Pro 16 (M4 Pro, 2024), but it is well beyond the performance of the typical business laptop.

The ThinkPad's display reproduces 78.6% of the DCI-P3 color gamut with a Delta-E color accuracy of 0.29. It would be great to see the DCI-P3 somewhat higher, but the color accuracy is excellent and the more crucial metric for design work. The average brightness of 386 nits is enough to perform well in most lighting conditions.

I mentioned the excellent battery life, but to put a number to it, the ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 lasted 17 hours and 23 minutes on the Laptop Mag web surfing battery test. That's in the conversation with the laptops with the best battery life overall, let alone a workstation.

Now, if you see the retail price of $3,369, you may get scared off, but don't worry, it's virtually always heavily discounted to below $2,000. If you are a business user with high-performance needs, this is the workstation to buy.

See our full Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 review.

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Benchmark comparisons

Recently Reviewed Laptops

Not every laptop can make the best business laptop 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 or simply because it isn't a business laptop.

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How To Choose a Business Laptop

Here are some things to keep in mind when choosing the right model of business laptop for you or your company.

• Do you need Intel vPro or AMD Pro? Many business laptops are available with CPUs that have Intel vPro technology, which lets a support person log in remotely, even if the computer can't boot. However, unless you have a large IT department and a huge fleet of laptops that you need the ability to service remotely, you probably won't use this feature.
• How fast do you need it to be? While the kind of blistering performance you need in a gaming laptop isn't necessary, business users don't want to be bogged down while multitasking. RAM is one concern here, opting for at least 16GB and 32GB isn't ridiculous if you are a power user who likes to keep numerous apps and browser tabs open. For your CPU, most will be fine with an Intel Core Ultra 5 or AMD Ryzen or higher. On the MacBook side, stick to the M3 or higher in 2025.
• Long battery life: Nobody wants to run out of juice in the middle of a long workday or a cross-country flight. Unless you're getting a giant workstation or a budget laptop, look for a laptop that gets at least 11 hours on a charge.
• The right ports: Nobody likes to carry a bag full of dongles. Consider which kinds of connections you or your employees will need the most. If you connect to a wired network a lot, make sure the laptop has an Ethernet port. If photography is a key part of the job, choose a laptop with a memory card reader. No matter what your needs are, a Thunderbolt 4 port is a huge advantage because it will allow you to connect to high-speed peripherals, universal chargers, and powerful laptop docking stations.
• A great keyboard: It almost goes without saying that every laptop should have a good keyboard. However, with business systems, a comfortable typing experience is even more important. Look for snappy feedback, deep travel and absolutely no flex.

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FAQs

• Q: What makes a good business laptop vs. a home laptop?
  A: While there is substantial overlap in the qualities that we look for in the best business laptops as opposed to simply the best laptops, security is one of the biggest features that separates them. We want a fast, reliable, and secure login method, whether it's a fingerprint reader or an IR camera, for Windows Hello support.
  
  Durability is another critical feature for a business laptop; your job may depend on your ability to bring this laptop everywhere with you, and not having it break down at an inopportune moment is mission-critical.
  
• Q: Why are business laptops so expensive?
  A: Some of this comes down to the two features referenced in the answer right above this one: security and durability. Business laptops often feature additional security features at a chip level that aren't included in consumer laptops, which drives up the costs and, in turn, the price. A more durable laptop means more robust components, and the added cost of those pricier parts is passed on to the business laptop buyer.
  
  Another factor to keep in mind is that while retail price listings for business laptops can often sound outlandish, this isn't typically the price you should expect to pay for them. Whether a business gets a discount for purchasing these laptops in bulk or you just have to wait for a discount, you should almost never be paying the original stated MSRP for a business laptop.

How We Test Business Laptops

Every business laptop that comes into our labs is put through extensive benchmark testing — both synthetic and real-world — before they are handed off to our reviewers. We evaluate each aspect of the laptop, including its performance, battery life, display, speakers, and heat management.

Those first two garner particularly high scrutiny for business laptops. Depending on your work, you may need a more vibrant or bright display, but everyone needs solid performance from their laptop to perform at their peak for work. Battery life isn't crucial to every worker, but it's vital for frequent travelers or if you have a long commute and depend on getting work done while making your way to and from the office.

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 to convert a 4K video to 1080p resolution and to duplicate a 25GB multimedia file.

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 10 hours is considered a good result, but the latest generation of chips is driving that up, with the longest-lasting laptops now pushing to 16 hours and beyond.

For our display testing, we use a Klein K10 colorimeter to detect the brightness and DCI-P3 color gamut of the laptop's display. Unless you work with graphic design, photos, or video or just use your work laptop to watch content in your downtime, the color gamut likely isn't a big concern for you. Brightness, however, can be crucial if you work in less-than-optimal lighting conditions to ensure you can see your screen.

If you are a regular commuter or traveler, you should also pay careful attention to our heat tests. We play a 15-minute full-screen video and measure temperatures in different areas of the laptop. If you ever truly use your laptop in your lap, you don't want to see it get above our 95-degree comfort threshold in this test.

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.

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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.

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Great news students and teachers! If you've been researching the best Apple back-to-school deals in 2025, the Apple Education Store special offers are now live through September 30.

Whether you are in the market for a new MacBook, iPad, or iMac, you can select a free pair of AirPods or select accessories with the MacBook or iPad. If you just need the MacBook or iPad, you can find a deeper discount amoung our best MacBook deals or best iPad deals, but the free AirPods or accessory changes that math during the back-to-school season.

Prices start from $899 for the MacBook Air M4 — the best-value MacBook you can get and a rare 5-star Editor's Choice laptop. Eligible free items are:

• AirPods 4 with ANC
• AirPods Pro 2
• Magic Mouse
• Magic Trackpad
• Magic Keyboard with Touch ID.

Apple offers a similar back-to-school deal on the iPad Air and iPad Pro, but free options only include the Apple Pencil Pro or AirPods 4. The following AirPods and accessories are available at a discount of $119-$129, so you just pay the listed shown here:

• AirPods 4 with ANC ($50)
• AirPods Pro 2 ($120)
• Magic Keyboard for iPad Air 11-inch ($130)
• Magic Keyboard for iPad Air 13-inch ($180)
• Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro 11-inch ($160)
• Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro 13-inch ($210)

Of course other retailers also have great Apple deals for back-to-school season, so if you're looking for the best Apple back-to-school deals, there are plenty of ways to save.

Browse our favorite Apple back-to-school deals below.

Apple back-to-school deals — Quick links

• Apple Edu Store: up to $100 off MacBooks, iPads, + free AirPods or accessory
• Amazon: up to $400 off MacBook, iPad, AirPods, Apple Watch, more
• B&H: up to $300 off MacBook Air, up to $400 off MacBook Pro
• Best Buy: up to $200 off MacBook Air, up to $700 off MacBook Pro
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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.

Outwardly, little has changed, but internally the new M4 chip has the Air once again outpacing most of its Windows on ARM rivals with Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite chips, while still delivering over 15 hours of battery life. You also can't see the upgraded Center Stage webcam, but the difference will jump off the screen at you the first time you use it.

Some minor complaints remain, like its limited ports and wishing Apple would make the move to a 120Hz refresh rate or even new display tech, but the $100 price drop helps cover over issues that most Air buyers would likely never worry about.

Read on for a closer look at what makes the MacBook Air 13-inch M4 stand out from the crowd to earn a spot among our best laptops.

Apple MacBook Air 13-inch M4: Specs and benchmarks

Apple MacBook Air 13-inch M4: Price and configurations

The price is arguably the biggest upgrade for the MacBook Air 13-inch M4 with all configurations dropping by $100 compared to their predecessors. This is notable not only because we are seeing prices climb on many other consumer electronics in 2025, but also because of the upgrade to 16GB of RAM on the base MacBook Air that Apple announced in October 2024, which remains in place for the new M4 models.

The base configuration of the MacBook Air 13-inch M4 returns to $999 after Apple moved to $1,099 for the base price of the Air with 2022's MacBook Air 13-inch M2. The base model includes 16GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, and an Apple M4 with a 10-core CPU and 8-core GPU.

While the base price is outstanding, upgrades remain as expensive as ever. You’ll want to choose your additions carefully or risk spoiling the great value offered. My review unit is a configuration I would recommend for most people, for $1,199 your storage is doubled to 512GB, and you get the slightly enhanced M4 configuration with a 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU.

Extra storage is almost always welcome, as a full hard drive will slow your laptop down in the future. However, there are more immediate reasons to make this choice that I’ll address in the performance and heat section. If you’re a power user on the edge of opting for a MacBook Pro, you may also want to consider paying the $200 to upgrade to 24GB of RAM.

It’s worth noting that if you are a student, the parent of a student, a faculty member, or staff at any school, or a homeschool teacher, you are eligible to shop through Apple’s Education Store, which will take another $100 off the price of any configuration.

The MacBook Air 13-inch M4 still falls into the premium laptop category, but it is one of the most affordable options. Apple is no longer keeping the old MacBook Air around as a cheaper option, so outside of sales on the older models (while there is still stock), if you need something cheaper, you may want to consider one of the best Chromebooks.

Apple MacBook Air 13-inch M4: Design

Perhaps unsurprisingly given the price drop we just covered, the MacBook Air 13-inch M4 design remains completely unchanged from last year, save for replacing the "Space Gray" colorway with "Sky Blue."

I recently reviewed the Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge, which comes in what Samsung calls “Sapphire Blue,” and I feel similarly gaslit by Apple’s “Sky Blue.” Both laptops look silver unless you place them next to a silver laptop. “Hint of Blue” or “Is that Blue?” would be more accurate names. Please Apple, let the iMac team share the love with one of its actually fun pastel hues.

Prosaic Pantone protests aside, the overall design of the MacBook Air remains excellent. I love intriguing new laptop designs like Lenovo’s ThinkBook Plus Gen 6 with its rollable display, but a traditional clamshell laptop design done well is still a perfect fit for many people.

The bezels around the display aren’t the smallest that I’ve ever seen, but they aren’t distractingly large either.

At 2.7 pounds and 12 x 8.46 x 0.44 inches, the MacBook Air remains one of the thinnest and lightest laptops around, even beating the best Ultrabooks. Here’s how it holds up to its closest rivals:

• Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x: 2.8 pounds, 12.8 x 8.8 x 0.51 inches
• MacBook Air 13-inch M3: 2.7 pounds, 12 x 8.46 x 0.44 inches
• Asus Zenbook 14 OLED (Q425): 3 pounds, 12.3 x 8.7 x 0.6 inches

Apple MacBook Air 13-inch M4: Ports

The MacBook Air 13 M4’s port selection remains as light as the laptop itself. I remain pleased that Apple brought back MagSafe to keep its two Thunderbolt 4/USB 4 ports free, but competitors do manage to squeeze more into similarly sized laptops.

• 2 x Thunderbolt 4/USB 4 Type-C
• 1 x MagSafe 3
• 1 x headphone mic/jack

It would obviously compromise the current internal design of the laptop, but it’s also regrettable only the headphone jack is on the right side, the MagSafe 3 and Thunderbolt 4/USB 4 ports are all stacked up on the left side, which makes things a little crowded if you do need to make use of all the ports.

If you need more ports than the MacBook Air 13-inch M4 offers, we’ve tested and reviewed the best MacBook docking stations and best USB Type-C hubs to identify the perfect port partner for your Apple laptop.

Apple MacBook Air 13-inch M4: Battery life

Battery life stopped being a concern for the MacBook Air when Apple Silicon arrived in 2020. This remains true with the MacBook Air 13-inch M4, eclipsing the 15-hour mark like its predecessor. You will see less than that if you push the laptop at full brightness, but I'm still giving that the "all-day battery life" stamp of approval.

While the competition is stronger than ever for the laptops with the best battery life, the Air is still holding up exceptionally well, particularly when considering performance, which I’ll address later.

On the Laptop Mag battery test, which involves navigating a set group of websites with video and static images while the display is set at 150 nits of brightness, the MacBook Air 13 M4 lasted an average of 15 hours and 30 minutes. Here’s how that stacks up against the battery life of the Air M4’s rivals.

Apple MacBook Air 13-inch M4: Display

The MacBook Air 13-inch M4 features a 13.6-inch 2560 x 1664 Liquid Retina LCD. It’s not the most feature-packed panel, but with the Air returning to a sub-$1,000 starting price I’m willing to accept it.

I watched the trailer for The Surfer on YouTube in enhanced 1080p for my real-world testing, and the wild and highly stylized look of the Nick Cage vehicle did not disappoint on the Air’s display. While the Air doesn’t have the most colorful panel I’ve seen on a laptop, it’s sharp and very color-accurate, which made it an effective canvas for the heavily filtered look of the tense thriller.

Brightness is stellar, with the Air M4 averaging 463 nits in our testing. In practical terms, you’ll be fine in anything other than direct sunlight, so you have nothing to fear from that table next to the window in your local coffee shop.

Apple MacBook Air 13-inch M4: Keyboard and touchpad

While Lenovo isn’t in danger of losing its crown as high ruler of the laptop keyboard kingdom, the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro lines have established outstanding consistency since the dark days of the butterfly keyboard that Apple left behind in 2020.

While the key travel is still relatively shallow at 1mm, the keys spring back quickly, allowing me to type at a fast pace without sacrificing accuracy. In the 10fastfingers.com typing test, I hit 92 words per minute with 99% accuracy, beating my average of 88 words per minute with 99% accuracy.

I find the keyboard comfortable to type on all day, but if you are more sensitive to key travel, you may want to either check out our best laptops for writers or pair the MacBook Air M4 with one of the best keyboards.

The touchpad measures 5 x 3.1 inches, which is large without dominating the deck of the laptop. Apple certainly started the massive touchpad trend, but it’s far from the biggest around anymore.

I think Apple found the right place to stop, there’s plenty of room to navigate and use multi-finger gestures, but I’m not left wondering where to rest my hands when typing. Ultimately, I will typically opt for one of the best wireless mice over using a built-in touchpad, but Apple’s is certainly one of the best.

Apple MacBook Air 13-inch M4: Audio

Apple’s most portable laptop still features a quad-speaker system with support for Spatial Audio. While bass remains elusive, it’s an impressive feat of engineering that allows a laptop this thin-and-light to easily fill my office with clear sound and even create a surround sound effect.

Listening to one of my typical workday playlists, Relaxing Film Scores, “Chaos Is a Ladder” from season 3 of Game of Thrones proved a suitable test for the laptop's speakers as the song starts with a swirling resonance that moved around the room and then builds to a powerful crescendo that overtook my office entirely.

The built-in speakers in the MacBook Air 13-inch M4 are better than they have any right to be, but they still can’t beat the best wireless headphones or best computer speakers if you are looking for the best possible audio experience.

Apple MacBook Air 13-inch M4: Performance and heat

The MacBook Air 13-inch M4 is powered by a 10-core Apple M4 CPU, which represents a fairly significant performance boost over the M3, helping the Air once again challenge some of the strong Qualcomm Snapdragon Elite laptops that arrived in mid-2024.

The most notable jump among our benchmarks was the HandBrake video transcoding test, where the Air M4 shaved a full two minutes off the time it took to convert a 4k video to 1080p, dropping from 7:40 to 5:40. While the Air isn’t going to supplant the MacBook Pro on our best video editing laptops page, it’s certainly capable if the need arises.

I mentioned in the price and configuration section that there was another reason to upgrade from the 256GB to 512GB SSD, and that is the speed of those respective drives. In our testing, the 512GB SSD has an 80% faster write speed than the 256GB SSD. Now if you are doing basic productivity work that isn’t something you’ll likely notice, but if you are doing video or photo work where you are manipulating and moving large files, it will make a perceptible difference.

When it comes to general tasks, like loading up far more Chrome tabs and windows than is wise, the Air M4 is also game and was able to handle three windows with roughly six tabs each, including three running 1080p YouTube videos. The Apple M4 will be game for as much of this kind of workload as you can throw at it, but if you are like me and have questionable windows management habits, you may want to pay to upgrade the RAM to 24 or even 32GB.

Despite this powerful performance, the Air M4 manages to keep its cool, with the hottest point on the laptop only reaching 85.2 degrees Fahrenheit in our testing. That’s well below our 95-degree comfort threshold, making it a laptop-friendly laptop.

Apple MacBook Air 13-inch M4: Gaming and graphics

Is gaming improving on Apple laptops? Absolutely. Apple’s integrated graphics performance is getting better and the company is working to bring more titles natively to macOS. With that said, if gaming is a primary interest on your laptop, you will still want to choose one of the best gaming laptops or best cheap gaming laptops over any MacBook, let alone the MacBook Air 13 M4.

Of the four gaming benchmarks we ran on the MacBook Air M4, only two achieved our 30 frames per second playability standard. Those were the Sid Meier’s Civilization VI: Gathering Storm benchmark and Shadow of the Tomb Raider; those games are over 6 years old, if your plans include modern AAA titles, look elsewhere.

Apple MacBook Air 13-inch M4: AI features

There are several Apple Intelligence features available on the MacBook Air 13-inch M4, but as with most of the best AI PCs, we are still in the early days of AI with the features always improving. The Air M4 is certainly well-equipped from a hardware standpoint to deliver on the promise of Apple Intelligence.

Writing Tools are one of the more universally applicable Apple Intelligence features available currently, offering editorial advice on your writing throughout macOS and summarizing long text passages and notifications.

Several image-based AI features allow you to generate images like Genmoji and Image Playground or craft memory movies from your photos and videos. Finally, Siri gains some expanded features with AI including integration with ChatGPT.

Apple MacBook Air 13-inch M4: Webcam

The MacBook Air 13-inch M4 benefits from an upgrade to a 12MP Center Stage camera, and it is equally as impressive as the one found in the MacBook Pro 14-inch M4. The camera produces a sharp image that tolerates shifting lighting conditions better than some of the best webcams.

Even deliberately tiling it to catch the glare from the overhead lighting in my office, the camera adjusted effectively to avoid blowing out the image, a common failing of built-in webcams. Apple also added Desk View, allowing you to show your desktop and your face on camera simultaneously. This is a niche feature, but it works well for those that need it.

I hope to see other laptop manufacturers rise to the challenge now that Apple has brought a high-quality webcam to its entire laptop lineup, we still see far too many weak webcams in 2025, considering the prevalence of video calling for work and personal use.

Apple MacBook Air 13-inch M4: Software and warranty

The MacBook Air 13 M4 comes with macOS Sequoia 15.3, which means the typical assortment of Apple apps installed by default. However, Apple is good about avoiding bloatware, so you shouldn’t have anything too pressing to remove. Particularly if you have other devices in the Apple ecosystem, there are benefits to using Apple’s native apps like Notes, so consider giving them a try if you haven’t previously.

The MacBook Air 13-inch M4 ships with a typical one-year limited warranty, but it can be extended with AppleCare+ for $7.99 a month or $79.99 a year on the MacBook Air 13-inch. AppleCare+ gives you access to technical support and reduced repair costs, including a $99 fee to repair screen or external enclosure damage or $299 for other accidental damage.

Bottom line

Apple hit the sweet spot with this laptop, delivering an affordable option that should check all the boxes for a swath of users.

The MacBook Air 13-inch M4 feels like the return of the original M1 Air. It's an undeniable value that will give you years of excellent performance, even if you pick up the base model. My limited complaints are also similar to those of the M1 Air, there are features that the vast majority of people will never miss.

If you need one of the best 2-in-1 laptops, best Windows laptops, or best gaming laptops, then this isn't the laptop for you, but the MacBook Air 13-inch M4 is one of the best laptops and best MacBooks for most people.

The Apple MacBook Air 15-inch M4 lands an interesting position in Apple's lineup, one that could be overlooked in favor of the cheaper 13-inch MacBook Air M4 or the more powerful 14-inch MacBook Pro M4. But, like its siblings, it deserves to be in the conversation for the best laptops overall.

Its increasingly rare 15-inch size may be partly to blame, as most laptop manufacturers have settled around 14-inch and 16-inch sizes for mainstream laptops. However, that rarified size might make it the right fit for you.

Beyond a new M4 chipset, the 15-inch MacBook Air gets a Center Stage webcam, a fresh Sky Blue colorway, and perhaps most importantly a $100 price drop for 2025.

It's not a massive transformation, but those changes add up. Let's take a closer look at how the 15-inch MacBook Air M4 held up to our rigorous testing and review process.

Apple MacBook Air 15-inch M4: Specs and benchmarks

Apple MacBook Air 15-inch M4: Price and configurations

Like its smaller sibling, the MacBook Air 15-inch M4 gets a $100 price drop across the board from last year’s M3 pricing. Considering we’re expecting the exact opposite from most consumer tech in 2025, this is certainly a welcome surprise from Apple, particularly considering the base model still starts with 16GB of RAM — double what the 15-inch M3 offered when it launched in March 2024.

The base configuration of the MacBook Air 15-inch M4 is now $1,199 and includes 16GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, and an Apple M4 processor with a 10-core CPU and 10-core GPU. If you're looking to get the best band for your buck, the key is trying to stay as close to this base configuration as possible.

Apple hasn’t lowered the prices on any of the MacBook Air's upgrades, so just a few tweaks to this configuration will have you waving goodbye to that startlingly affordable opening price.

My review unit is valued at $1,399 and doubles the base model storage to 512GB, but otherwise matches it exactly. This is a smart choice if you plan on keeping your laptop for at least five years, as it will help keep things running smoothly as your files pile up.

If you consider yourself a power user, you may also want to consider paying an additional $200 to upgrade to 24GB of RAM. You'll get a smoother computing experience under heavy load, but you’ll now face a $1,599 price tag, the same starting price for the 14-inch MacBook Pro M4. If you're unsure which of these devices suits you best, consider perusing our MacBook Air vs. MacBook Pro buying guide for a helping hand.

If you are a student, the parent of a student, a faculty member, or staff at any school (including homeschool teachers), you are eligible to shop through Apple’s Education Store, which will take another $100 off the price of any configuration.

Apple MacBook Air 15-inch M4: Design

The MacBook Air 15-inch M4 didn’t get any major design changes this year, but I’ll take it in exchange for that price drop. Apple is likely a generation or two away from another design shakeup for the Air. But, for now, this is a comfortable classic.

One potentially notable change is that “Sky Blue” replaces “Space Gray” as a color option. That said, I would challenge you to identify it as blue without a Silver or Starlight MacBook next to it to differentiate. I’d love to see at least one bold color option for the Air in the future, but, for the time being, a slight shift in hue is all we get.

Inside, things remain similarly unchanged. The MacBook Air's bezels are small enough on the display that they don’t call attention to themselves, and the build quality of the laptop remains impeccable.

As mentioned, the MacBook Air 15-inch M4 is in somewhat rarified air these days as a 15-inch laptop. Most laptop manufacturers have abandoned this size, so we’re comparing it to some of the best 14-inch laptops, but if you want something even larger, some of the best 16-inch laptops are still quite thin-and-light.

At 3.3 pounds and 12.4 x 8.7 x 0.44 inches, the MacBook Air 15-inch is slightly heavier than its 14-inch rivals here but manages to maintain a very similar footprint, so you should have no problem fitting it in any of the best laptop bags. Here’s how the competition measures up.

• Asus Zenbook S 14 (UX5406): 2.6 pounds, 12.22 x 8.45 x 0.51 inches
• MacBook Air 15-inch M3: 3.3 pounds, 12 x 8.46 x 0.44 inches
• Lenovo Yoga 9i (Gen 9): 2.9 pounds, 12.4 x 8.7 x 0.6 inches

Apple MacBook Air 15-inch M4: Ports

The MacBook Air 15 M4’s port selection mirrors the minimal collection found on the 13-inch Air:

• 2 x Thunderbolt 4/USB 4 Type-C
• 1 x MagSafe 3
• 1 x headphone mic/jack

I’m more disappointed in the 15-inch model's port selection than its 13-inch sibling, as there is unquestionably space on the larger chassis to accommodate additional I/O. Even as little as a third Thunderbolt 4/USB 4 Type-C port on the right-hand side of the laptop would make for a welcome addition.

With that said, the MagSafe 3 connection alleviates some of the pain as the two Type-C Thunderbolt ports aren’t tied up with charging. If you opt for the dual charger, you’ll also have a second USB-C port available on the charger itself to charge another device rather than connecting to the laptop as an accessory.

For users with more robust port needs, we’ve tested and reviewed the best MacBook docking stations and best USB Type-C hubs to identify the perfect port partner for your Apple laptop.

Apple MacBook Air 15-inch M4: Battery life

You haven’t had to worry about battery life on a MacBook Air since the transition to Apple Silicon in 2020, and that isn’t changing this year. However, as you’ll see in our benchmark testing at the bottom of this section, there's also no notable uptick in battery life to anticipate either. Fortunately, that’s not much of a complaint given that the MacBook Air's uptime was already clocking in at above 15 hours.

After almost four years of dominance, MacBooks finally face serious competition in power efficiency with Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite laptops all claiming spots among our laptops with the best battery life throughout 2024. In 2025, Apple still offers the most consistently solid blend of performance to battery life, but it’s no longer a runaway victory.

On the Laptop Mag battery test, which involves navigating a set group of websites with video and static images while the display is set at 150 nits of brightness, the MacBook Air 15 M4 lasted an average of 15 hours and 14 minutes. Here’s how that stacks up against the battery life of the Air M4’s rivals.

Apple MacBook Air 15-inch M4: Display

The MacBook Air 15-inch M4 features a 15.3-inch 2880 x 1864 Liquid Retina LCD display. Many of the best Windows laptops in this price range offer either OLED or 120Hz refresh rate displays, but Apple has kept high-end display features as a MacBook Pro exclusive.

I watched the trailer for The Fantastic Four: First Steps on YouTube in 2160p for my real-world testing, and the '60s action looked sharp, although not as vibrant as I've seen on some of the OLED laptops I have tested previously. However, that's only really noticeable when viewing them side-by-side, which presumably isn't something you would be doing — in a vacuum, the colors are accurate and look good.

Brightness is stellar with the Air M4 averaging 463 nits in our testing. In practical terms, this means you’ll be fine in anything other than direct sunlight, so you have nothing to fear from that table next to the window in your local coffee shop.

Apple MacBook Air 15-inch M4: Keyboard and touchpad

The notorious butterfly keyboard MacBooks were one of the key factors that had me switch to Windows in 2019, but, thankfully, Apple returned to a scissor switch in 2020 and has offered consistently excellent keyboards ever since.

Apple’s still guilty of not offering generous key travel, it's roughly 1mm on the 15-inch Air M4, but the responsiveness of the keys renders this a non-issue for me. In the 10fastfingers.com typing test, I hit 94 words per minute with 99% accuracy, outpacing my average of 88 words per minute with 99% accuracy.

I spent dozens of hours typing on this keyboard over the last few days and my fingers never felt fatigued. If key travel is a larger concern for you then our best laptops for writers guide includes some laptops with up to 1.5mm of key travel, or if you are regularly using your MacBook Air at home or the office, you could pair it with one of the best keyboards.

The touchpad measures 5.8 x 3.6 inches, which takes up a considerable amount of the laptop deck, but I didn’t find that it interfered with my hand placement while typing. Apple’s touchpads remain the gold standard, allowing for easy navigation and reliable multi-touch gestures.

I’m often working at my desk where I will always use one of the best wireless mice, but Apple’s touchpad doesn’t slow me down when I’m working away from home.

Apple MacBook Air 15-inch M4: Audio

Both Air M4 models feature a quad-speaker system with support for Spatial Audio. Apple hasn’t unlocked the magic of delivering rumbling bass in this small chassis, but it's loud, clear, and does a remarkable job of creating a surround sound effect.

Relaxing Film Scores is one of my typical workday audio companions, “Time” by Hans Zimmer on the Inception soundtrack stuck out to me as I was running the 15-inch Air M4 through its paces. Subtly building from just a lone piano and strings to a thunderous collection of instruments echoing in my office, the Air did the song justice.

The MacBook Air 15-inch M4 speakers are certainly equal to the task if you need some ambient music or to watch a video with a friend, but if you’re in public and can’t blast your audio, the best wireless headphones will save you from silence.

Apple MacBook Air 15-inch M4: Performance and heat

The MacBook Air 15-inch M4 is powered by a 10-core Apple M4 CPU, which represents a fairly significant performance boost over the M3, helping the Air once again challenge some of the strong Qualcomm Snapdragon Elite laptops that arrived in mid-2024.

The most notable jump among our benchmarks was the HandBrake video transcoding test, where the Air M4 shaved a full two minutes off the time it took to convert a 4k video to 1080p, dropping from 7:40 to 5:40. While the Air isn’t going to supplant the MacBook Pro on our best video editing laptops page, it’s certainly capable if the need arises.

For more general tasks, like loading up far more Chrome tabs and windows than is wise, the Air M4 is also game and easily handled three windows with roughly six tabs each, including three running 1080p YouTube videos. The Apple M4 is a match for as much of this kind of workload as you can throw at it, but if you are like me and have questionable window management habits, you may want to pay to upgrade the RAM to 24 or even 32GB.

Despite this powerful performance, the Air M4 keeps its cool, with the hottest point on the laptop only reaching 85.2 degrees Fahrenheit in our testing. That’s well below our 95-degree comfort threshold, making it a laptop-friendly laptop.

Apple MacBook Air 15-inch M4: Gaming and graphics

The MacBook Air is not a gaming laptop, but that doesn't mean you can't game on it. In fact, there are plenty of games that play perfectly fine on the Air, but if gaming is a primary interest for you, one of the best gaming laptops or best cheap gaming laptops will likely serve you far better.

We ran four gaming benchmarks on the MacBook Air M4, and only two were above our 30 frames-per-second playability standard. Those were the Sid Meier’s Civilization VI: Gathering Storm benchmark and Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Keep in mind, those games are over 6 years old, if your plans include modern AAA titles, look elsewhere.

Apple MacBook Air 15-inch M4: AI features

There are several Apple Intelligence features available on the MacBook Air 15-inch M4, but as with most of the best AI PCs, we are still in the early days of AI with the features always improving. The Air M4 is certainly well-equipped from a hardware standpoint to deliver on the promise of Apple Intelligence.

Writing Tools are one of the more universally applicable Apple Intelligence features available currently, offering editorial advice on your writing throughout macOS in addition to summarizing long text passages and notifications.

Several image-based AI features allow you to either generate images like Genmoji and Image Playground or craft memory movies from your own photos and videos. Finally, Siri has gained some expanded features with AI, including integration with ChatGPT.

Apple MacBook Air 15-inch M4: Webcam

The MacBook Air 15-inch M4 benefits from an upgrade to a 12MP Center Stage camera, and it is equally as impressive as the one found in the MacBook Pro 14-inch M4. The camera produces a sharp image that tolerates shifting lighting conditions better than some of the best webcams.

Even deliberately tiling it to catch the glare from the overhead lighting in my office, the camera adjusted effectively to avoid blowing out the image, a common failing of built-in webcams. Apple also added Desk View, which allows you to show your desktop and your face on camera simultaneously. This is a niche feature, but it works well for those that need it.

I hope to see other laptop manufacturers rise to the challenge now that Apple has brought a high-quality webcam to its entire laptop lineup, we still see far too many weak webcams in 2025, considering the prevalence of video calling for work and personal use.

Apple MacBook Air 15-inch M4: Software and warranty

The MacBook Air 15 M4 comes with macOS Sequoia 15.3, which means the typical assortment of Apple apps installed by default. However, Apple is good about avoiding bloatware, so you shouldn’t have anything pressing to remove. Particularly if you have other devices in the Apple ecosystem, there are benefits to using Apple’s native apps like Notes, so consider giving them a try if you haven’t previously.

The MacBook Air 15-inch M4 ships with a typical one-year limited warranty, but it can be extended with AppleCare+ for $6.99 a month or $69.99 a year on the MacBook Air 13-inch. AppleCare+ gives you access to technical support along with reduced costs for repairs, including a $99 fee to repair screen or external enclosure damage or $299 for other accidental damage.

Bottom line

The MacBook Air 15-inch M4 is a fairly unique laptop, delivering a larger screen in what is basically a 14-inch chassis, but it has far more than that to offer.

The M4 chip brings the Air back among the top-performing mainstream premium laptops while offering over 15 hours of battery life. The bright display makes it ideal for frequent travelers or anyone who is often working in less-than-ideal lighting conditions. That combination along with its reasonable pricing makes this one of the best student laptops.

While I would like to see Apple upgrade the display on the MacBook Air, that's more of a wish than a serious complaint as it is a good LCD panel. The limited ports are my biggest frustration with the 15-inch Air, and I'd concede it isn't a concern that will bother many users.

The MacBook Air 15-inch M4 is an excellent laptop that will find its way to several of our buying guides in the coming weeks, but if you're unsure if it's the right choice for you, consider checking our best laptops page for our current top recommendations across numerous categories.

Apple had a busy February with the release of its new, lower-priced phone, the iPhone 16e. It also announced plans to add Apple Intelligence to its Vision Pro.

March looks to be another busy month as Apple gets ready for its big annual event, the Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC), which takes place in June.

To start the busy month, Apple could reportedly announce the existence of the M4 MacBook Air as soon as this week, according to Bloomberg Sunday.

Apple didn't immediately respond to a request for confirmation of the report.

What do we know about the MacBook Air M4?

There are naturally a couple of big questions people have about the next MacBook Air.

First of all, what is the price of the M4 MacBook Air? When it launched in March last year, the MacBook Air 13-inch (M3) started off with a price of $1,099 for the base model with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, with the price going up depending on how much more RAM or storage a customer wants. Since its launch, the M3 MacBook Air has been sold brand-new for $999 or less.

The big question on pricing, however, is whether President Donald Trump's 25% tariff on all steel and aluminum imports will have an impact on the pricing. There are also threats from the president of 25% tariffs on semiconductors, which could affect Apple, whose processors are made by Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturer Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC). Other computer manufacturers are scrambling to deal with these tariffs, but some are expected to transfer the costs to customers, which translates to higher prices for computers, laptops, and tablets.

Apple, however, could be able to sidestep the tariffs. TSMC is reportedly producing Apple's A16 chips in Arizona, which might be just enough to get around any proposed tariffs. The semiconductor company also has an eye on buying manufacturing plants currently owned by Intel.

There's also the recent news that Apple is planning a big investment in domestic production. The iPhone maker announced last week it planned to invest $500 billion in the U.S. over the course of the next four years. This would include expanding its team and facilities in Michigan, Texas, California, Arizona, Nevada, Iowa, Oregon, North Carolina, and Washington. The company says it would also make a new factory in Texas and invest more in AI and silicon engineering. President Trump has taken credit for the deal, and it could be a sign that Apple may not have to deal with tariffs while competitors will, but that has yet to be determined.

The second big question about the M4 MacBook Air would be understanding how the new processor could improve on the laptop. If recent leaks are to be believed, while the MacBook Air is known for being lightweight, the M4 version is also shaping up to be a powerful machine.

Benchmarks numbers for the M4 MacBook Air showed up online back in February, and while the results have yet to be confirmed by Apple, it does show that the M4 on the MacBook Air is significantly more powerful than the MacBook Air M3. The Geekbench Metal benchmark showed the MacBook Air M4 had a score slightly higher than the MacBook Pro 14 M4, although the MacBook Pro 16 M4 was still far ahead.

The leaked benchmarks also revealed that, if true, the MacBook Air M4 will have an option that comes with 24GB of RAM, with the base model expected to come with 16GB of RAM.

What else is Apple coming up with?

Apple still has some more hardware reveals up its sleeves.

Coming after the release of the MacBook Air M4 is the next iPad Air. When it'll be announced is unknown, but it's likely to be announced soon after the reveal of the new MacBook and launch before the WWDC.

Another possible release before the start of WWDC is the next MacBook Pro. That news will likely come at the same time as news of the next Apple Silicon chip, the M5. Apple has yet to confirm the existence of its next processor, but the chip is reportedly already in production. The company will also reportedly focus on the next iPad Pro to promote the M5 chip.

Apple is in the midst of announcing new devices and updates.

Last week, the company unveiled its budget phone with the iPhone 16e although it has a higher price tag than previous SE versions, but comes with more features than the low-cost phones have in the past. That new phone will hit stores on Friday, Feb. 28.

Then on Friday, Apple revealed the next big update to the Vision Pro OS will add Apple Intelligence and give the VR headset an iPhone app providing some much-needed new features to attract more attention for the pricey VR headset.

Apple will continue with its announcements in March as the company will reportedly release its M4 MacBook Air, as reported by Bloomberg Sunday. The Mac maker is currently getting teams ready for the release of the 13- and 15-inch MacBook Air using the latest Apple Silicon while older models are being phased out.

Apple didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on the news of the MacBook Air M4.

A powerful chip in a lighter case.

Benchmarks for the MacBook Air M4 showed up online, and if these numbers prove to be true, it could mean these new MacBooks could offer impressive performance at a budget price while remaining lighter than the MacBook Pro.

A Geekbench Metal benchmark for the upcoming MacBook came back with a score of 54,806. That puts it way ahead of the MacBook Air 13 (M3, 2024) and its 41,045 score and slightly ahead of the MacBook Pro 14 (M4, 2024) with its score of 57,479. The MacBook Pro 16 (M4 Pro, 2024) was still far ahead of the pack with a score of 112,261.

The MacBook Air M4 tested in benchmarks was noted to have 24GB of RAM. This would make the tested unit an upgrade over the base model that should come with 16GB of RAM.

Both of the MacBook Pro M4 laptops came out in May 2024, while the MacBook Air M3 was released in March 2024, aligning with Apple's release timing of the earlier MacBook Airs.

Apple still has a potential announcement or two before it has its Worldwide Developer Conference in June. There is still an expectation of a new iPad Air release during the spring, but Apple could also reveal its M5 chip before the company's big event.

I’ve always wanted a more portable device than a laptop to quickly write on whenever I want. However, I didn’t like the small screen of earlier iPad and iPad Air models, and the iPad Pro was too expensive. So, when Apple launched the 13-inch M2 iPad Air, I was overjoyed and immediately bought one. I also got the Magic Keyboard to turn it into a convenient typing machine.

However, after more than six months of ownership, I finally admit that replacing my MacBook Air with the iPad Air wasn’t a great decision. Although it has a few advantages, I wish I didn’t give up my laptop in favor of this tablet as my “just-in-case” device.

It’s heavier than my old M1 MacBook Air

The number one thing I had in mind when I bought my iPad Air was that it would be lighter than a laptop. While that is technically true, I did not realize that the Magic Keyboard is heavier than the tablet and would more than double the weight in my bag. I measured the weight of my 13-inch M2 iPad Air at home, which clocked in at 667 grams or about 1.5 pounds; this is about half the weight of the M1 MacBook Air, which measures 1,282 grams or over 2.8 pounds.

But when I checked the Magic Keyboard on my weighing scale, I was horrified that it came in at 695 grams or over 1.5 pounds. This is 28 grams (or nearly an ounce) heavier than the tablet itself, meaning the combined weight of both items equals 1,362 grams or about 3 pounds — this is some 80 grams or about 2.8 ounces heavier than my old laptop (which my wife now uses). It’s literally a pain in the neck to lug around in my shoulder bag.

This also makes it 134 grams or 4.8 ounces lighter than my 15-inch M2 MacBook Air, my main travel laptop. Despite the additional weight, my 15-inch M2 MacBook Air can do many other things that the iPad can’t. The only thing that stops me from substituting my MacBook Air for the iPad Air as my everyday carry is that it does not fit in my bag.

The 13-inch screen is still too small

I’ve always been a fan of large screens, as working on a small display puts me under eye strain and limits the number of things I can view simultaneously. I immediately grabbed the 13-inch M2 iPad Air when it became available. Before this, I used the 9.7-inch iPad 6th-generation, so the larger display of my new iPad was a total paradigm-shifter.

However, after several months of use, I found that even this larger display wasn’t enough for me. I usually work with two or more windows, so I frequently split the screen into several parts. When I have two apps open on the iPad Air, the text often becomes too small to read comfortably. I would increase the font or zoom size on the app, but it then limits my ability to scan the page.

This also affects the web pages I visit, with the small screen often cropping information that I need. So, instead of seeing everything at a glance, I have to swipe on the page to find what I need. The only advantage of my 13-inch M2 iPad Air over the newer MacBook Air models is that it doesn’t have a notch, allowing me to maximize my desktop real estate.

iPadOS is holding it back

Apple has equipped its iPad models, especially the Pro and Air, with formidable hardware. My iPad Air uses the Apple M2 chip and has 8 GB of RAM and 128 GB of storage. That means it has the exact specifications as my 15-inch M2 MacBook Air, except for the SSD (my laptop has 256 GB), so I see no reason why the tablet cannot run macOS Sequoia.

However, Cupertino saw fit in putting a handicap on the tablet by putting iPadOS on it. This operating system has several limitations that prevent users from taking advantage of the Apple silicon found in the tablet. My biggest complaint is how Apple limits you to the App Store to install apps and programs on your tablet, especially now that an Apple silicon chip powers it.

I also have a pet peeve with the iPad’s round cursor when I use the trackpad on the Magic Keyboard (or any other mouse). It’s less accurate than the pointer you’d find on laptops, even though an iPad with a Magic Keyboard is essentially one. I feel that Apple is purposefully nerfing the iPad line so that it doesn’t cannibalize the sale of MacBooks.

I paid more to get less

My biggest regret with the iPad Air is that I paid more for fewer features and functionality. I spent $799 to buy the tablet and $349 to get the Magic Keyboard. This sums up to $1,148, whereas a 13-inch M2 MacBook Air now has a minimum of 16 GB of memory and 256 GB of storage, which only sells for $999. The newer 13-inch M3 MacBook Air with 512 GB of storage is a tad more expensive at $1,299.99, but you also get four times the space for your data.

With Apple rumored to launch the M4 MacBook Air soon, you should consider holding off buying the iPad Air with a Magic Keyboard (or any external keyboard), particularly if it drops the price of the M2 MacBook Air even further. Even if it releases a new M3 iPad Air, I still cannot justify that asking price for a tablet that’s been saddled with the iPadOS. The only time I’d thoroughly recommend it is when Apple finally decides to give iPad users the option to get macOS on their iPads.

I should’ve skipped the Magic Keyboard and opted for a cheaper alternative, like the Logitech Combo Touch. That would’ve saved me over a hundred dollars, making me feel better about my purchase. The only thing my iPad Air can do that my MacBook can never achieve is to serve as a wireless secondary monitor for the latter. However, aside from that and its touch screen, the 13-inch M2 iPad Air with the Magic Keyboard is a poor replacement for the MacBook Air.

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There's good news and bad news for MacBook Air fans.

The good news is, the M4 MacBook Air could launch soon. The bad news is, that Apple may be shaking up the MacBook Air lineup by retiring an unexpected model.

The M4 MacBook Air could launch soon... but there's a trade-off

Apple has several products in the pipeline for 2025, but we're expecting the M4 MacBook Air to be among the first new devices launched this year, possibly as early as March.

In that launch Apple might make a surprising lineup tweak. According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, Apple could be retiring the M3 MacBook Air and keeping the M2 MacBook Air as the budget alternative to the new M4 Air.

That's a surprising departure from Apple's normal rotation. When the M3 MacBook Air launched last year, Apple retired the M1 Air. Keeping the oldest MacBook Air in the lineup instead of retiring it (and retiring the M3 in its place) is unusual, especially if the M2 model doesn't get another price cut.

Gurman theorized that Apple could be using this tactic to avoid manufacturing challenges the M3 chip has faced. That might not be the only reason for keeping the M2 MacBook Air around, though.

The M2 chip is a much more significant step down from the M4 chip than the M3 chip is. So, Apple may be hoping to nudge more customers to buy the newer, more expensive MacBook Air rather than go with the previous year's model to save some money.

While we won't know for sure whether or not Apple is going to retire the M3 MacBook Air before the M2 Air, there are hints that this could be the direction Apple is heading. For instance, in late 2024, Apple upgraded the base RAM in all of its MacBooks, including the M2 MacBook Air, which could be a signal that Apple plans on keeping the M2 Air around a bit longer.

The question is, should anyone even bother buying a new M2 MacBook Air in 2025?

Will the M2 MacBook Air still be worth it in 2025?

If Apple does decide to keep the M2 MacBook Air around instead of the M3 Air when it launches the M4 MacBook Air, I'd advise caution before buying an M2 model. The M2 MacBook Air is a few years old at this point and you can get a newer laptop with better specs for a similar price.

Right now, the M2 Air starts at $999. That's a hefty price tag for a laptop from 2022, especially considering that the base configuration includes a measly 256GB of storage. You shouldn't settle for less than 512GB of storage, period. Apple would have to give the M2 MacBook Air a serious price cut to make it a reasonable buy in 2025.

It's also important to keep in mind that just because Apple isn't selling a certain MacBook model anymore, that doesn't mean you won't be able to find it elsewhere.

Major retailers like Best Buy and Amazon will likely continue to carry the M3 MacBook Air for a while even after it's no longer available directly from Apple. Plus, those retailers are also more likely to offer the best deals on MacBooks, so you could potentially get an M3 MacBook Air for less than Apple is selling the M2 MacBook Air for.

Of course, this MacBook Air roadmap isn't set in stone yet. We'll have to wait and see what Apple ultimately decides to do, but we'll also be keeping a close eye on M4 MacBook Air rumors and news until then, so stay tuned for more updates.

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With 2025 already gathering pace, it's time to turn our attention away from last year's hottest tech and look forward to a coming year of innovation.

While 2024 had plenty to showcase for Apple, including the excellent performance and efficiency of the M4 chip powering iPad Pro and MacBook Pro devices, this year promises to take things up a notch once again, delivering a swathe of upgrades throughout the Apple catalog and introduce the new M5 chip to select hardware.

So, what can we expect to see from Apple in the coming year? Let's find out.

Apple's product roadmap for 2025: The year ahead for MacBook, iPhone, iPad, and more

Between Apple's more "fixed" annual events, historically repeated release windows, and unofficial claims from reputable sources, we can paint a pretty detailed image of what's to come for the Cupertino-based company in 2025.

Of course, there's no guarantee that everything listed here will be released according to our estimates. Last year's iPad mini 7 was a prime example of how even the most in-the-know sources can be left guessing when it comes to the arrival of a new product.

However, as of the time of writing, these are our more informed predictions regarding Apple's itinerary of releases, starting in spring, 2025.

March - May, 2025

Putting aside last year's showcase of the Vision Pro in February, Apple typically waits a few calendar months before dropping any major reveals. If the company follows suit in 2025, then we can probably expect the majority of its next products to arrive in the spring.

• iPhone SE 4: One of the more anticipated iPhone releases in years comes by way of Apple's budget offering, the iPhone SE 4 — or, as rumors suggest, the newly named iPhone 16E.
  
  The new iPhone SE is expected to receive a full redesign, bringing it more in line with the look of post-iPhone 14 handsets, while adopting an OLED display with Face ID, the iPhone 15's Action Button, and an Apple Intelligence-ready processor (likely an A17 Pro or A18 Bionic chip paired with 8GB of RAM).
  
• MacBook Air M4: According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Air models featuring the M4 chip will launch early this year, closing the gap in performance between its MacBook Pro models, which are also set for a silicon refresh later this year.
  
• iPad 11: Similarly, Gurman reports that the 11th generation of iPad will also be released in the spring, offering several design changes and an Apple Intelligence-compatible chip, potentially the A17 Pro.
  
• iPad Air M4: Similar to its laptop counterpart, the iPad Air is also claimed to be due for an M4 upgrade, bringing more Pro-level performance to the ultra-thin slate in the near future.

June, 2025

Since 2007, Apple's annual WWDC (Worldwide Developer Conference) has historically fallen in the month of June, giving us a pretty solid expectation of when we'll get our first look at the latest milestone operating system updates for MacBook, iPhone, iPad, and more.

• macOS 16
• iOS 19
• iPadOS 19
• watchOS 12
• visionOS 3
• tvOS 19

September, 2025

Apple's star-studded line-up of mobile tech typically takes center stage in September, meaning it's here we can expect to see the unveiling of the 11th-Gen Apple Watch (including the third-generation Ultra and SE models), new third-generation AirPods Pro, and the iPhone 17 family of smartphones — including the rumored new "Air" model, alongside familiar Pro and Pro Max options.

• iPhone 17: This year's iPhone 17 line-up will reportedly ditch the "Plus" model for a thinner and lighter "Air" alternative featuring a new single-lens 48-megapixel rear camera — a bold design change that according to The Information will extend to the iPhone 17 Pro models also, switching things up to a horizontal camera array and potentially stepping away from the titanium chassis of the iPhone 15 Pro and 16 Pro.
  
• Apple Watch 11: The Apple Watch Series 11 is expected to include new blood pressure monitoring and blood-glucose tracking features, along with the potential adoption of Apple Intelligence. The next generation of Apple Watch will likely be powered by the S12 chipset, potentially offering better efficiency and a longer-lasting battery life.
  
• Apple Watch Ultra 3: The much anticipated Apple Watch Ultra 3 is rumored to include satellite connectivity and 5G access, but won't be adopting the micro-LED display tech after Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reported that the company will be sidelining this adoption for the "foreseeable future."
  
• Apple Watch SE 3: The third-generation Apple Watch SE was expected to arrive sometime in 2024. However, clearly, we've been left wanting.
  
  Apple's smartwatch is expected to pull back on price by offering a plastic chassis and an S9 chip, and it is rumored that it will feature a "new look" redesign by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. While we could see this device appear far earlier in the year, it may make the most sense for it to launch alongside other Apple Watch models in September.
  
• AirPods Pro 3: The third generation of Apple's AirPods Pro are reported to receive a new design (including its charging case) in 2025 alongside an improved H3 chip affording better noise-cancellation and potentially more health-based features.

Beyond hardware releases, September is also the month that Apple's new operating systems leave beta testing and receive public releases. We'd expect further Apple Intelligence integration across the board here, along with the usual supply of handy, platform-specific features.

• macOS 16, iOS 19, iPadOS 19, and more to release

October - November, 2025

• MacBook Pro M5: Apple's crowning achievement in hardware could come by way of a new M5-powered 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro released later this year. Currently tipped for an October 2025 release, the M5 MacBook Pro would pave the way for Pro, Max, and Ultra models to follow.
  
• iPad Pro M5: With the iPad Air expected to receive an M4 upgrade earlier this year, it stands to reason that the Pro model of iPad may face a similar boost in performance, also adopting Apple's latest M5 chip late into 2025. Last year's iPad Pro was the first device to feature the company's M4 chip, and Apple may choose to award its high-performance slate with a similar refresh once again.
  
• HomePod mini: There are several rumors suggesting that work is well underway at Apple in the development of a new smart home hub with a display. However, the jury is still out on whether we can expect this product to arrive in 2025. In the meantime, Apple is expected to refresh the HomePod mini with a faster chip, improved WiFi and Bluetooth, and more colorways.

Outlook

Taking into account everything we've heard or know so far, 2025 is set to be a pretty stacked card for Apple. All of these anticipated announcements have the potential to satisfy a great many macOS, iOS, and even iPadOS users.

That's without mentioning some of the more exciting rumors surrounding a new Apple Vision Pro headset, a foldable iPhone, and a super-sized 17-inch to 20-inch foldable iPad — all rumored wildcards that may or may not feature in some way this year.

More from Laptop Mag

• MacBook Air vs. MacBook Pro: Which Mac should you buy in 2025?
• MacBook Air M4 vs. MacBook Air M3: Should you wait for the M4 Air?
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As the Holiday season comes into full force, you may be tempted to pick up one of Apple's latest MacBooks.

However, before you lock yourself into a new purchase, take heed: yesterday's macOS Sequoia 15.2 update didn't just bring new Apple Intelligence features to Macs (such as Image Playground, ChatGPT integration into Siri, and Writing Tools), it also accidentally revealed what Apple has in store for the MacBook Air in early 2025.

Next on the Apple itinerary: The M4 MacBook Air

A long-standing rumor has suggested that 2024 and 2025 will see Apple bring the M4 chip to its entire Mac catalog. Leveling the playing field and giving some of its most dated products a long-awaited refresh. So far, we've seen that play out on several fronts, though Apple still relies on the M2 chip to power its latest iPad Air.

According to references found within the Sequoia 15.2 update and reported on by MacRumors, it seems like the MacBook Air is next to receive the M4 treatment.

Software files for "Mac16,12" and "Mac16,13" reference "MacBook Air (13-inch, M4, 2025)" and "MacBook Air (15-inch, M4, 2025)" models respectively, with their inclusion pointing to a release not too far off in the future.

We don't yet know the exact release date for the M4 MacBook Air, but given previous June 2022 (M2) and March 2024 (M3) dates, a spring 2025 release is not out of the question.

Should you buy a MacBook in 2024?

With new models of MacBook Air on the horizon, should you still buy a MacBook this Holiday season? Well, that all depends on which MacBook it is you intend to buy.

If lightweight portability and on-the-go performance are what you're looking for, then it might make sense to hold off for a few months and grab yourself the latest MacBook Air, powered by Apple's impressive M4 chip.

Still, the M3 MacBook Airs are no slouch either, both the 13-inch and 15-inch models gained an impressive four-and-a-half-star review from Laptop Mag earlier in the year.

However, if you need a machine to trump heavy workloads and maximize your productivity, then the M4 MacBook Pro is already here and ready to dazzle across the Holidays.

This year's MacBook Pro models were granted similarly impressive review scores by Laptop Mag, with the 16-inch MacBook Pro M4 receiving the same four-and-a-half-star rating during our review, with its smaller counterpart, the 14-inch MacBook Pro M4, being awarded a perfect five-star review.

So, brace yourselves (and your wallets) for an impressive refresh for the MacBook Air in 2025, and plan your purchases wisely.

For more information on which Mac you should aim for in 2024, check out our guide: MacBook Air vs. MacBook Pro: Which Mac should you buy in 2024?

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I love MacBooks, but there's no doubt that they can be pretty pricey. If you're on a tight budget, you might think a Mac is out of reach.

Not for Black Friday! I've been tracking MacBook Black Friday deals all week and one has stood out. Walmart is offering an unbelievable discount that brings the M1 MacBook Air down to just $599, making it the cheapest new MacBook you can buy right now.

See also: 45 best Black Friday laptop deals and sales of 2024

Of course, this model is a few years old and has the base specs including an M1 chip, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage. That won't be enough storage or RAM for many people, but that doesn't mean this laptop might not be a good buy for others. The M1 chip is still plenty powerful enough for everyday tasks like studying or web browsing and this model will still get updates for at least a few more years, possibly longer.

At this price, the M1 MacBook Air could be a good pick for users on a tight, sub-$700 budget who need a basic, reliable laptop.

That said, if you need a laptop for anything beyond the most basic tasks, you should pay a little more and go for an M2 or M3 MacBook Air instead. These newer MacBooks have significantly more power and a newer design. Plus, they'll get software updates longer.

You don't have to break the bank to get a newer MacBook, either. There are some great deals on M2 and M3 MacBooks under $1,000 going on for Black Friday, all of which you can check out on our live MacBooks Black Friday hub.

Back-to-school deals for teachers are in abundance right now as educators prepare for the new semester. Teachers use mobile tech for everything from creating lesson plans to giving lectures for online courses. Finding everything on your teacher's wish list on a budget doesn't have to be overwhelming.  

Retailers are making it easy to find the right tech to fit your needs and your budget. Back-to-school discounts and sitewide sales are at every corner this week as students prepare for college. 

Just like students and parents, teachers are also eligible for direct manufacturer education discounts on laptops, tablets, and PC accessories. 

If you want to beat the back-to-school rush, it's not too early to save. Here are the best back-to-school deals teachers can take advantage of now. 

Back-to-school deals for teachers 

Laptops

Tablets

PC accessories

Teacher discounts

Swooping in ahead of Amazon's Prime Day 2024 deals, Best Buy is offering a huge discount on the highly-rated MacBook Air M2 now available for only $799. That's a $200 saving on this MacBook Air's typical $999 asking price, presenting the base case yet to invest in the laptop we called a "Portable powerhouse" in our review.

That's high praise, but more than deserved. Apple's MacBook Air M2 might not be the most up to date model of this lightweight laptop, but the power of the M2 Apple Silicon chip housed within is still more than capable of plowing through your everyday tasks.

If you're looking for one of the best laptops for college, you've found it. The MacBook Air's ultra-portable weight and 13.6-inch display form a compact computer that's ideal for everything from writing papers to enjoying casual games after classes.

Better still, the MacBook Air M2's incredible 14-hour battery life offers you incredible peace of mind about getting through your day without scrambling for an outlet and a charger.

Act fast! Take advantage of this excellent offer while it last and score yourself one of Apple's best MacBook offerings to date for less.

Today's best MacBook M2 deal

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Right in time for graduation, Apple's MacBook Air M2 is back at its lowest price ever. For a limited time, you can grab the MacBook Air M2 for only $829 on Amazon—regularly $1,099. That's $270 in savings!

Although Apple's MacBook Air M3 is the more powerful (and more expensive) successor to the M2, the MacBook Air M2 is still plenty powerful for most people, especially college students who need a laptop for writing papers, browsing the web for research, streaming media, and playing casual games in their downtime. 

Our MacBook Air M2 review praised the laptop for its bright display, good performance, comfortable Magic Keyboard, and impressive 14-hour battery life — a fantastic perk for on-the-go college students. Ultimately, it earned 4.5 out of 5 stars and our esteemed Editor's Choice Award, landing the budget spot on our best MacBooks for college students list.

Now is the perfect time to buy a discounted MacBook Air M2 for yourself or someone special for Father's Day, an upcoming graduation, or as an early back-to-school gift. With most MacBook deals, stock disappears quickly, so don't wait too long if you're interested in this MacBook Air M2 deal.

Today's best MacBook M2 deal