Best 16-inch laptops in 2024

Editor's Note (4/1/24): We are presently working on our review of the Dell XPS 16, which offers some impressive upgrades for 2024 including the new Intel Core Ultra chipset, so check back soon to see if it was enough for it to make our list of the best 16-inch laptops.

The best 16-inch laptops stitch together the portability of a 15-inch notebook with the extra real estate and scope of their 17-inch bigger brothers. Whether you're seeking a laptop for business, productivity, or gaming, we have something on this list for you.

But what makes a good 16-inch laptop? We leverage each price tag against individual performance metrics; the allure of its exterior; the quality of its make; and how well it compares to similar models.

We are always reviewing new laptops and updating our recommendations accordingly, but these are our current picks for the best 16-inch laptops.

The Quick List

Best overall

The Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 showcases the company's design at its best, showing users that Samsung finally understands how to deliver a phenomenal laptop without too many compromises.

The most exciting changes begin with a powerful 13th Gen Intel Core i7-1360P CPU and a 16-inch, 16:10 display, as its impressive performance metrics make for a faultless productivity experience. And of course, if you're someone who enjoys a big screen to get your work done on a thin-and-light frame, you won't come out disappointed.

However, the Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 is far from perfect. Out of everything Samsung has iterated upon when compared to last year's model, those improvements have come with an unfortunate risk to the laptop's battery life. Lasting only 7 hours and 46 minutes, it sinks far below survivability when compared to its competitors. And while the laptop boasts alluring color depth, we were rather unimpressed with its brightness score of 380 nits, which is more than 100 below what the MacBook Air M2 has going for it.

Regardless, the Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 is an absolute powerhouse. And best of all, its competitive price of $1,399 makes it a solid contender when compared to the best productivity laptops out there.

See our full Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 review.

Best premium laptop

You can't get more premium than Apple's Macbook Pro 16-inch laptop. The base model of this laptop is expensive, but the incredible battery life and impressive performance really make the high sticker price worth it. While the 14-inch Macbook Pro M3 Pro beat out this version for our best laptops list, the Macbook Pro 16-inch has the second longest lasting battery life Laptop Mag has seen in any modern laptop at 18 hours and 5 minutes. The only laptop with better battery life is the M2 Max edition of the Macbook Pro 16.

The big upgrade with the M3 Max edition of the Macbook Pro 16 is a 44% increase in performance and the best gaming experience you'll find on any Mac. The version we reviewed came in at $3,999 though the base model of the Macbook Pro 16 M3 Max is $3,499. If you don't need the overpowered M3 Max, you can get the 16 with an M3 Pro for a starting price of $2,499. So there are more economical options if you don't mind having a bit less power.

On our performance benchmarks, the M3 Max absolutely destroyed its competition with scores that put the M2 Max and M1 Max to shame and left Windows PCs in the dust.

We were, however, surprised to see that the display's color depth was a tad bit below our premium laptop average. We expect more from premium brands, but the Macbook Pro 16 does make up for that with a 560 nit brightness average.

See our full MacBook Pro 16 review.

Best gaming laptop

If you've ever wondered "what's the most powerful gaming laptop I can get my hands on," the Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 is a pretty good answer. Packing a Intel Core i9-13900H processor, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 GPU, 32GB of RAM, 2TB of SSD storage, and a 16-inch, QHD+, 240Hz, Mini LED display, this beast puts every other gaming laptop to shame. It's safe to say Asus has manufactured the embodiment of "premium gaming laptop."

With specs of this absurdity, you might not be surprised to learn that the Zephyrus M16 needs to be plugged in often. We do not have lab results, but our very own Jason England tested a session of Cyberpunk 2077 with high settings and only lasted 42 minutes. Through non-gaming tests, it couldn't survive more than a few hours, which isn't surprising considering this thing packs a 4090.

We're not joking when we say this thing is premium. You'll be paying a total of £4,099 if you want the model we tested. We shouldn't have to say that's absurdly expensive, so we're not going to pretend that this is a consumer-level gaming laptop by any means. This is for folks willing to spend lots of money, as it costs more than most gaming desktop PCs.

However the high-powered performance of the Zephyrus M16 makes it one of the best Asus laptops and the best gaming laptops of 2024 on the market.

See our full Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 review.

Best 2-in-1 laptop

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold Gen 1 is a flexible workstation that can change form factor to best suit your needs in a pinch. Between its Laptop, 1.5 Laptop, Desktop, and Tablet modes the ThinkPad X1 Fold 16 can keep up with even the most demanding of work days.

Weighing only 2.9 lbs without its keyboard and stand, the ThinkPad X1 Fold is easily portable. It has the performance power to keep up with most workplace demands, but its vivid OLED display is the real selling point. The ThinkPad X1 Fold 16 has an average brightness of 466 nits, a peak HDR brightness of 731 nits, and 93.1% DCI-P3 color gamut coverage. Its a better display than its competition and can easily flex between photo editing and spreadsheet management whenever you need.

The biggest drawbacks of the ThinkPad X1 Fold are its lack of easily accessible ports, outdated specs, and battery life that could be better. Lasting 8 hours and 51 minutes on the Laptop Mag battery test in laptop mode, the ThinkPad X1 Fold will struggle to keep up for a full work day when unplugged. But if you have an outlet near by, all you need is a good USB hub and this foldable laptop is a better 2-in-1 than most.

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

Best for content creators

The MSI Creator Z16P is another laptop, like the Asus ROG Zephyrus M16, with a focused consumer base. With specs as ludicrous as an Intel Core i9-12900H processor, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080Ti with 12GB VRAM, 64GB of RAM, 2TB of SSD storage and a 16-inch QHD (2560 x1600) 165Hz display, this beast is not for the faint of heart.

It's no surprise that specs of this potency comes with a steep cost. Yes, the model of the Creator Z16P we tested will cost you $4,299 and is one of the best workstations you can get your hands on. We also adored its simple but elegant all-aluminum Lunar Gray chassis.

It's not surprising that this display as mesmerizing as it is, with a phenomenal color depth that exceeds far beyond the average workstation (which better be the case considering its price), although it didn't look quite as poppy as competitors like the ZenBook Pro Duo.

Performance is the Creator Z16P's specialty, with a Geekbench 5.4 score that is not only more than double the workstation average, but also left its competitors so far in the dust that the laptop might as well have been in a different race. The same can be said for its performance in the Handbrake benchmark and file transfer tests, easily surpassing competition and smashing averages. 

It's safe to say that if you're concerned about speed, MSI has not disappointed with this workstation. This performance comes with a cost, however, as our biggest issue comes down to its 5-hour battery life. Still, it's one of the best MSI laptops on the market. 

See our full MSI Creator Z16P review.

Best Ultrabook

The MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo is one of the first AI PCs we got our hands on and we could not have been more impressed. This beast of a laptop combines Intel's Core Ultra 7 155H CPU, Intel integrated Arc graphics, and Intel's brand new NPU (neural processing unit) to give you revolutionary performance across the board.

While the Prestige 16 AI Evo is ostensibly a business laptop, it has the power to tackle almost any task you can throw its way. It has the performance to beat Apple's M2-powered Macbooks and even rival the baseline M3 Macs.

This laptop features a stunning 16-inch 4K OLED display, 32GB of RAM, and 1TB of SSD storage and retails only $1,399. So if you need to work with multiple spreadsheets at time, edit a video, or even generate an AI photo the MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo has you covered. And with a battery life of 13 hours and 22 minutes, the Prestige 16 will give you snappy untethered performance all day.

See our full MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo review.

Best budget 16-inch laptop

Super-fun and super-affordable, that's one way of describing HP's Victus 16. This entry-level gaming laptop houses some considerable power by way of a 13th Gen Intel Core i7 processor and Nvidia GeForce RTX 40-Series graphics, both of which combine to offer quality performance and impressive on-screen results.

Fans of lightning fast displays might feel a little undersold with this one, as the Victus 16 is locked to a 60Hz refresh rate. However, if you're not much of an ultra-competitive gamer, you'll still get to enjoy a pretty smooth frame rate with pictures that are both colorful and vivid – squeezing every inch of quality from the Victus' 16-inch panel.

See our full HP Victus 16 review.

How to choose the best 16-inch laptop for you

What makes a 16-inch laptop good is not much different than what makes any other laptop good. You need to question if the price being asked of you is worth what it can offer, and there are many factors that determine whether or not that is the case. Battery life, performance metrics, display color depth and brightness, thermal efficiency, aesthetic, sturdiness, and unique gimmicks all funnel into what makes a laptop worth the purchase.

Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 balances each of these elements solidly while packed in a decently priced product at $1,399, offering great performance metrics in an ultra-light weight frame with 2-in-1 functionality. If you're looking for a great 16-inch laptop without breaking the bank, this is an excellent pick.

But if "breaking the bank" is your motto for some reason, you can take a look at the MacBook Pro 16-inch (M2 Max). With nearly 19 hours of battery life, 96GB of RAM, 4TB of SSD storage, and performance metrics that will make you literally sob, you'd think this is the laptop of dreams. That is until you see its $5,299 price tag. If you're somehow still considering buying this thing, I commend your resolve.

The Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 and MSI Creator Z16P also fulfill the "break the bank" criteria, although the former is of the gaming laptop variety, while the latter is an intense workstation. Both feature incredible specs and can run guns at high framerates, but once again, this is costing you around $4,000-$5,000.

If you're in need of a less expensive gaming laptop, the Dell G16 is $1,399 and offers solid performance all around. You won't get anything as impressive at the more expensive alternatives, but at the very least, you can expect high framerates at moderate graphic settings on most titles.

Asus ROG Flow X16 is probably the coolest entry on this list, as it's a 16-inch gaming laptop with 2-in-1 functionality, which means you can pull it out on the go, connect a gamepad, prop the screen up and just play whatever you'd like on the spot. Yes, it's $2,699, which isn't cheap, but those who enjoy this novel idea will probably get a kick out of it.

The HP Envy 16 is similar to the Galaxy Book 3 Pro 360 in the sense that it is an all-around great pick, except it's on the more expensive end at $2,799. This is absolutely worth it if you can afford it though, as it's a miracle laptop that's pretty much good at everything from productivity performance to gaming to display color depth. You won't love the battery life, but it's not all that bad.

The HP Spectre x360 16 is another great 2-in-1 laptop with a stunning visual design and amazing internal specs, although we found it was a little bit heavy to make tablet mode comfortable. But with a stunning OLED display, long-lasting battery life, phenomenal speaker system and all-around solid performance, it's hard not to appreciate this thing.

How we test the best 16-inch laptops

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

In our benchmark testing, we use a Klein K10 colorimeter to detect the brightness and sRGB color gamut of the laptop's display. For performance testing, we run the laptop through a gauntlet of benchmarks, including Geekbench 4.3 and 5.0 and 3DMark professional graphics tests. 

To determine real-world performance, we task the laptop to convert a 4K video to 1080p resolution and to duplicate a 4.97GB multimedia file. Our real-world graphics test is the Dirt 3 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 10 laptops, a runtime of over 9 hours is considered a good result whereas gaming laptops and workstations that can stay powered for longer than 5 hours deserve praise. 

These tests are complemented with extensive hands-on testing from our reviewers who critique everything from the laptop's materials to the feel of its touchpad.

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% 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.