Best laptop 2024: 10 best laptops tested and rated

You've come to the right place to find the best laptops in 2024. At Laptop Mag, our experts review over a hundred laptops each year to give you the most informed recommendations. And these days, the market is more complex than ever before.

Following the explosion of generative AI, including chatbots like ChatGPT, AI PCs are sweeping the industry along with new chips geared toward AI like Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite, Intel's Lunar Lake, Apple's M4, and AMD's Ryzen AI 300-series. AI may soon supercharge your computing experience, but today, Laptop hasn't found many game-changing AI features, even with Microsoft's Copilot+ PC push. But  we are seeing groundbreaking improvements in performance and efficiency thanks to these new chips.

The Laptop Mag testing team runs a series of rigorous tests on every laptop: Geekbench (synthetic CPU test), Handbrake (video encoding CPU test), 3DMark (graphics tests), display tests (brightness, color gamut), battery tests (custom battery rundown), and more. Laptops are then turned over to our reviewers to use in real-world situations. Our two-pronged review strategy gives a complete picture of each laptop and allows us to compare them thoroughly.

This page is constantly updated based on our latest reviews to reflect Laptop Mag's current picks for the best laptops in 2024. 

Curated by

Curated by

Sean Riley

Sean Riley has covered a wide variety of tech during his 14 years as a journalist and over four years reviewing laptops at Laptop Mag. As the managing editor, he has a role in every laptop review published on Laptop Mag, so you can trust his guidance in finding the best laptop for you.

The best laptop for most people:

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Weighing a mere 2.7 pounds, Apple’s smallest laptop features the M3 chip, which delivers a power and efficiency boost over its predecessor. This makes it my pick as the best laptop for most people. 

The MacBook Air's 13.6-inch display is one of the brightest laptops around, and True Tone ensures excellent color accuracy, but its vibrancy falls short of some of the OLED competition. Rumors of Apple moving to OLED in the future abound, but not yet.

Like the M2 Air, the MacBook Air M3 is one of the thinnest laptops at only 0.4 inches. However, unlike many ultraportable laptops, it can keep up with an impressive workload thanks to the M3 chip. Whether it was our benchmarks or real-world usage, the Air M3 was up for any task. 

Looking at the benchmarks, the MacBook Air M3 scored 12,087 on Geekbench 6.2, well above the category average. Our Handbrake video transcoding test took 7 minutes and 54 seconds to transcode a 4K video to 1080p. Again, this beats the average, but it's worth noting that some of its Intel Core Ultra-powered competition is passing the MacBook here. Apple also addressed the slightly slower SSD read/write performance of the Air M2, jumping from 2,800.1/2,210.6MBps on the M2 to 3,030.7/3,058.8MBps with the M3. 

All that performance prowess doesn't hurt its battery life, either. If finding an outlet can be a challenge during your day, never fear. The Air M3 powered through over 15 hours of battery life testing in our lab.

If that’s not enough, you also get a 1080p webcam with Apple's latest software tricks helping to boost the hardware to higher heights. So what are the downsides? If you have a lot of peripherals, the pair of Thunderbolt/USB-C ports may be challenging, but at least you have MagSafe 3 to keep both ports free while charging. Starting at $1,099, the 13-inch MacBook Air M3 isn't cheap but remains a solid value. You may want to pay the extra $200 for 16GB of RAM, though multitaskers will appreciate the extra performance headroom.

If you want to save money, the 13-inch MacBook Air M2 sticks around at a new $999 starting price, and I expect to see it regularly discounted to $899 or less, so look at the best MacBook deals before picking one up.

Need more screen real estate? Look no further than the 15-inch MacBook Air M3. It mirrors all of the strengths of its smaller sibling but with a larger 15.3-inch display. 

See our full 13-inch MacBook Air M3 review
See our full 15-inch MacBook Air M3 review
See our full 13-inch MacBook Air M2 review
More like this: Best Macbook 2024

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Best laptop on a budget

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Acer's Swift Go 14 is the easy choice for the best budget laptop. Starting at $749, the Go 14 isn't the cheapest laptop, but its value is incredible. We reviewed the slightly upgraded $999 configuration, but the main trade-off is moving from an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H to a Core Ultra 5 125H. The performance difference will be negligible if you stick to productivity work, browsing, and other general computing. 

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

The display lands just below the mainstream average for color at 79.1 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut (85.2 percent is average), but it beats the category average in brightness at 374 nits (354 is average). Again, factoring in the price, these are strong results. You could also opt for the 2.8K display configuration if you value a sharper image.

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

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

However, these are minor concerns for most users, so if you are looking for the best laptop value, look no further than the Acer Swift Go 14.

See our full Acer Swift 14 Go (Intel Core Ultra) review
More like this: Best budget laptops 2024

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Best laptop for students

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Best ultraportable Windows laptop:

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The LG Gram SuperSlim puts every other so-called ultrabook on notice with its 15.6-inch display, 0.49-inch thickness, and unbelievable 2.18-pound weight. When you pick this thing up, it is mind-bending that there is a real functioning laptop inside. 

Even more amazingly, it isn't a weak laptop that can't do more than browse the web and generate documents. The Intel Core i7-1360p processor, 32GB of RAM, 512GB of RAM, and an Intel Iris Xe GPU give you enough oomph to outperform the competition. Let's not forget that it also features a 15.6-inch OLED display while being lighter than many 13-14-inch ultrabooks.

The Gram SuperSlim proved its mettle in our benchmarks, delivering a Geekbench 5 score that cleared the mainstream premium laptop average and even the M2 MacBook Air! The SSD is no slouch either, providing a file transfer rate of 1,692.4MBps, well above the premium average of 1,362.7MBps.

Thin, light, and powerful? You're probably expecting to hear that it has terrible battery life. Think again! Apparently, LG also shoved a large battery in the pocket dimension inside the Gram SuperSlim, which lasted 11 hours and 38 minutes on our battery test.

So what's the downside? There's one magic trick that LG can't manage: creating extra depth for the keyboard, which our reviewer found a little shallow for their liking. It's not a dealbreaker, but it's worth considering if you are churning out thousands of words a day on the Gram SuperSlim.

That shallow keyboard is a small price to pay for the rest of what you get, though. That is why the LG Gram SuperSlim earned 4.5 stars and an Editor's Choice award. If you need an ultraportable ultrabook, look no further.

See our full LG Gram SuperSlim (2023) review
More like this: Best ultrabooks 2024

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Best high performance laptop:

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When it comes to raw performance, nothing can hold up to the MacBook Pro 16 M3 Max. This laptop is a dream for creative professionals or amateurs with an expansive budget. But it shouldn't be limited to that capacity; you can harness its otherworldly performance for productivity work or any computing task. 

Armed with up to a 16-core M3 Max CPU and 40-core GPU, this is the pinnacle of MacBook performance and crushes even Windows workstations. Our review configuration of the MacBook Pro 16 M3 Max featured 48GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD, but you can max those out at up to 128GB of RAM and an 8TB SSD. In the Geekbench 6 test, the MacBook Pro 16 M3 max hit 20,863; to put that in perspective, the premium laptop average is only 9,078. We haven't seen another laptop break 16,000.

Looking at real-world tasks, the MacBook Pro 16 M3 Max exerts similar dominance. Our Handbrake test has the laptop transcode a 4K video to 1080p, the MacBook Pro finished in 2 minutes and 36 seconds. The premium laptop average is 7 minutes and 16 seconds. Even our favorite Windows creator laptop, the Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 9, couldn't keep up, taking 3 minutes and 53 seconds to complete the same task. If you do creative work and time matters, the MacBook Pro 16 M3 Max is your choice.

With that kind of performance, the expectation is that the battery life will come crashing down. Not so for the MacBook Pro 16 M3 Max. It's one of the longest-lasting laptops we've ever tested, managing to hold on for 18 hours and 5 minutes in our Laptop Mag battery test. The average premium laptop taps out at 11 hours and 17 minutes, while the aforementioned Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 9 could only make it 9 hours and 51 minutes.

So what are the downsides of the MacBook Pro 16 M3 Max? Price and macOS are the biggest hurdles. The M3 Max configurations start at $3,499; it's expensive but not really out of line when you consider the performance and battery life is something you just won't find anywhere else. macOS is a great operating system, but if you have Windows-only apps that you need to use or you're business doesn't support macOS it could be a problem. Finally, while gaming support is better than it's been in the past, it's still nowhere near as good as on Windows. If none of these are dealbreakers for you, the MacBook Pro 16 M3 Max is the clear-cut performance champ.

See our full MacBook Pro 16 M3 Max review
More like this: Best Apple laptops 2024

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The best gaming laptop overall:

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When it’s time to game, and I mean really game — like obliterate everything in the level with wild abandon — look no further than the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18. This behemoth with an 18-inch, 2560 x 1600 display with 240Hz refresh rate is the way to go for buttery smooth rendering, which in those crucial moments can mean the difference between getting the kill shot or receiving it.

But the destruction you’ll unleash comes from the 13th Gen Intel Core i9-13900HX and the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 GPU with 16GB of VRAM. Both chips are the latest and greatest and very overclockable so you can squeeze every inch of power out of them. And while we’re here, I can’t overlook the pair of 1TB SSDs in RAID 0 configuration. This treacherous triad destroyed just about every benchmark we threw at it on both the overall and gaming performance. 

Where the Strix Scar 18 hit a bit of a hiccup is the File transfer test and battery life. But about 4.5 hours is still pretty good for a laptop packing this much power. Outside of this, my only complaint about this system is the 720p webcam, sure I can use an external webcam $4,000, I expect 1080p –– hell 4K. But overall, this is the gaming laptop to beat.

Read our full Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 review
More like this: Best gaming laptops 2024

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Best 2-in-1 laptop:

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

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

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

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

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Best Chromebook overall:

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This sub-$500 has a lot going for it, including nearly 13 hours of battery life. Plus, according to our reviewer, it's the most attractive Chromebook they've ever reviewed. That's high praise considering less premium laptops tend to look like unassuming gray or black slabs. 

But let's leave the Spin 714's dark-gray finish with the gold accents for a minute and take a look beneath the chassis. With its Intel Core i5-1335U CPU, don't expect the system to do any heavy data crunching or run AutoCAD, but it can do productivity tasks, web work, or stream as much video as you like. On the Geekbench 6 test, it defeated the HP Dragonfly Pro Chromebook which costs $300 more — 6,335 vs. 4,263. 

The tables were turned on the JetStream 2.0 benchmark, which tests how quickly large web pages load. The Chromebook Spin 714 achieved a score of 250.2, which beats the Chromebook average (240), but not the HP Dragonfly Pro Chromebook (256.7). 

The Spin 714 also scored a win on our battery test lasting for 12 hours and 43 minutes, eclipsing the Dragonfly's time of 9:17. From a price-to-battery life standpoint, that's the best result we've ever seen.

As long as you don't need any Windows or macOS software, the Acer Chromebook Spin 714 is an outstanding and affordable option.

See our full Acer Chromebook Spin 714 review 
More like this: Best Chromebook 2024

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Best battery life:

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

The battery life is the undeniable star of this show, coming in at 19 hours and 1 minute and an even more astounding 20 hours and 51 minutes after we installed the BIOS 1.7.0 update. The average premium laptop makes it to 11 hours and 13 minutes in this test. If you are a student or a frequent traveler who needs to stay powered up on the go, the Dell XPS 13 9345 is unmatched. The MacBook Air line is the only thing in its price range that comes close to it with 15 hours and 13 minutes.

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

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

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

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The best business laptop:

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The HP EliteBook Ultra is one of the first business laptops to arrive as part of the Copilot+ PC program, and it blew us away with its battery life and performance when it hit our testing lab this summer.

Our reviewer said that, "With the EliteBook Ultra, HP has made a fantastic case for why Windows on ARM systems are ideal for business professionals. Between the quality performance, impressive battery life, and vibrant display, the EliteBook can be kept up in most professional settings." 

The battery life was the biggest attention grabber, lasting for 16 hours and 1 minute in our Laptop Mag battery test, ensuring that you should never be left hunting for an outlet when you need to get work done. Often long battery life means an underpowered laptop, but not so for the EliteBook Ultra. It scored 12,717 in the Geekbench 6 overall performance test, surpassing even the much-vaunted MacBook Pro 14 M3 (11,968).

The 14-inch 2.2K IPS matte anti-glare display isn't the brightest at 321 nits, but that anti-glare coating helps it hold up effectively in brighter environments. DCI-P3 color gamut is solid for the business category at 84.7%, so it'll make whatever content you have on page shine. 

The EliteBook Ultra, like other laptops with the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite chipset, has relatively weak graphics performance. This shouldn't be a concern for typical productivity work like documents, spreadsheets, presentations, or web-based activities, but if you have some creative tasks as part of your work you may want to look elsewhere. The only other concern is that not all software runs natively on ARM, this is less of a problem with the improved emulation in Windows, but if you rely on any proprietary software it's worth looking into it before committing to the EliteBook Ultra.

Business users will appreciate the multiple secure login options with a fingerprint reader and Windows Hello login support from using the 5MP IR webcam. HP also offers the built-in antivirus software and threat detection with Wolf Pro Security.

If you commute or travel regularly for business the 2.9-pound weight will be welcome and thanks to its smaller dimensions (12.3 x 8.8 x 0.44 inches) it will fit in basically any laptop bag or backpack. The HP EliteBook Ultra is an outstanding pick for business users in 2024.

Read our full HP EliteBook Ultra review
More like this: Best business laptops 2024

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Recently Reviewed

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

HP Elite x360 1040 G11 | Intel Core Ultra 7 165H | Intel Arc Graphics | 16GB RAM| 512GB SSD

Score: ★★★★

Pros: Svelte design; superb keyboard and touchpad experience; strong performance; 3-year warranty with 3 years of security features.

Cons: It has the business laptop tax; display comes with too many caveats; middling battery life.

See our full HP Elite x360 1040 G11 review.

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Dell XPS 13 (9350) | Intel Core Ultra 7 258V | Intel Arc 140V | 32GB RAM | 512GB SSD

Score: ★★★★

Pros: Solid performance; impressive battery life; vivid tandem OLED display option; impactful speakers; respectable graphics.

Cons: Display could be brighter on both models; poor color on non-OLED display; cramped keyboard; only two USB-C ports.

See our full Dell XPS 13 (9350) review.

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Asus ProArt P16 | AMD Ryzen 9 HX 370 | Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 | 32GB RAM | 2TB SSD

Score: ★★★★½

Pros: Stellar graphics performance; top-firing speakers; great touchpad and keyboard; competitive AI performance.

Cons: Display could be brighter; below-average battery life.

See our full Asus ProArt P16 review.

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Asus TUF Gaming A14 | AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS | Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 | 16GB RAM | 1TB SSD

Score: ★★★★½

Pros: Industry-leading battery life; solid gaming performance; exceptionally light; sturdy and durable.

Cons: Sluggish trackpad.

See our full Asus TUF Gaming A14 review.

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Acer Swift X 14 | Intel Core Ultra 7 155H | Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 | 32GB RAM | 1TB SSD

Score: ★★★★½

Pros: Swift, reliable performance; powerful RTX 4070 graphics for gaming and content creation; crisp, satisfying keyboard; light and thin chassis for a laptop with a discrete GPU; decent battery life.

Cons: Display doesn't meet 100% DCI-P3 claim; display could be brighter.

See our full Acer Swift X 14 review.

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Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Ultra | Intel Core Ultra 9 185H | Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 | 32GB RAM | 1TB SSD

Score: ★★★★

Pros: Gorgeous 120Hz AMOLED display; powerful CPU/GPU Combo; excellent battery life; relatively thin and light; robust Samsung ecosystem

Cons: Performance doesn't quite match top competitors; retail pricing high for max configuration; webcam could be better in low-light

See our full Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Ultra review.

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Lenovo Legion 7i Gen 9 | Intel Core i9-14900HX | Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 | 32GB RAM | 1TB SSD

Score: ★★★★

Pros: Vibrant display; bouncy keyboard and silky touchpad; powerful performance and graphics; cool thermals

Cons: Scratches will strip the paint; mediocre audio; short battery life

See our full Lenovo Legion 7i Gen 9 review.

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HP ZBook Studio 16 G10 | Intel Core i9-13900H | Nvidia RTX 4000 Ada Generation GPU | 64GB RAM | 2TB SSD

Score: ★★★★

Pros: Powerful, well-optimized performance; Stunningly vivid display; Incredibly light and thin; Loud onboard speaker system

Cons: Prohibitively expensive; No HDMI port

See our full HP ZBook Studio 16 G10 review.

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Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x | Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite | Qualcomm Adreno | 16GB RAM | 512GB SSD

Score: ★★★★

Pros: Impressive battery life; Fantastic keyboard; Sharp OLED display; Strong multi-core performance

Cons: Mediocre gaming performance; No USB Type-A ports; Reflective display

See our full Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x review.

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Acer Nitro 17| AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS | Nvidia RTX 4060 | 16GB RAM | 1TB SSD

Score: ★★★★

Pros: Huge display; great audio quality; smooth gaming performance; budget-friendly price

Cons: Bulky; plastic chassis; no right-hand control key; grainy webcam

See our full Acer Nitro 17 review.

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Acer Predator Helios Neo 16| Intel Core i9-14900HX | Nvidia RTX 4060 | 16GB RAM | 1TB SSD

Score: ★★★★

Pros: Leading productivity power; solid RTX 4060 fps; bright and colorful panel; sturdy chassis; tons of ports

Cons: Piercing speakers; sluggish trackpad; dreadful battery life

See our full Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 review.

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Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 9 | Intel Core Ultra 9 185H | Nvidia RTX 4050 | 32GB RAM | 1TB SSD

Score: ★★★★½

Pros: Beautiful display; bouncy keyboard; strong overall performance; discrete graphics; decent battery life

Cons: No RTX 4060 with Intel Core Ultra 7 configuration; touchpad too resistant; awful audio

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

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MSI Vector 16 HX A14VHG | Intel i9-14900HX | Nvidia RTX 4080 | 32GB RAM | 1TB SSD

Score: ★★★★½

Pros: Superb processing power; high RTX 4080 fps; beautiful display; decent battery life; solid audio

Cons: Flimsy trackpad; loud fans; SSD could be faster

See our full MSI Vector 16 HX A14VHG review.

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How We Test Laptops

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

To make our best laptops of 2024 list, the system needs to score at least 4 out of 5 stars on our reviews and deliver on the things shoppers care about most. Our evaluations focus on design and comfort, display quality, the keyboard and touchpad, performance, battery life, and value.

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

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

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

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

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How to Find the Right Laptop

When shopping for a laptop, there's a lot to consider. To help you choose a system, we've included our up-to-date list of favorite notebooks above, along with five points to remember.

Budget: What you get for the money.

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

Screen Size: 12 to 14 inches for Portability

Knowing a laptop's screen size tells you a lot about its portability overall. If you want to carry it regularly, go for one with a 12, 13, or 14-inch display. If it won't leave your desk too often, a 15- or 16-inch model gives you more screen real estate while remaining portable. Some gaming rigs, media machines, and workstations even have 17- or 18-inch screens, but consider how often you'll want to tote around these often 7+ pound laptops.

2-in-1 or Clamshell?

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

Battery Life: 9+ Hours for Portability

Battery life matters unless you only plan to use your laptop on your desk. Even within the home or office, having plenty of juice enables you to work or play more freely, whether going to the couch or the conference table. We recommend getting a laptop that lasts at least 9 hours on the Laptop Mag Battery Test. If you are a frequent traveler or a student regularly working away from an outlet, look for over 10 hours; there are plenty of options. The longest-lasting laptops endure for over 13 hours.

Specs: 1080p / Core i5 / 8GB Are Minimums

You can spend a lot of time delving into specs, but here are the key components to consider. Do not buy anything with less than an Intel Core i5 CPU, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD, and a 1080p screen. This is enough for many users, but dropping below these specs will at a minimum shorten the usable life of your laptop and will lead to a disappointing overall experience.

• Screen Resolution: Don't settle for anything less than a 1920 x 1080 (aka 1080p or full HD) resolution. If you're a content creator, you'll want to look into at least a 2K resolution panel or even a 4k laptop. Gamers should pay attention to the refresh and response rate. We recommend 144Hz and 3-millisecond, respectively.
• CPU: An Intel Core i5 or Core Ultra 5 provides good mainstream performance. Some budget systems will come with Core i3, which is good enough for basic tasks, but avoid it for a . Get a Core i7 or a quad-core processor (serial number ends in HQ or HK) for gaming or high-end productivity tasks such as video editing and 3D modeling. AMD is enjoying a renaissance with its Ryzen line of processors. Ryzen 7 is the middle-of-the-road chip that will bring mainstream performance, while Ryzen 5 and 9 cover your entry-level and power user needs. And, of course, we can't forget Apple, with its M-series chips based on ARM architecture, which has taken the industry by storm.
• RAM: 8GB is enough for most users, but if it's within your budget, spring for 16GB as it will ensure better performance over your laptop's life. Professional power users, content creators, and gamers will look for 32GB and beyond, but that is overkill for most people. While we would not recommend 4GB systems in general, if it is a secondary laptop that will see use predominantly for light web browsing and steaming, it will suffice.
• Storage: 256 GB of internal storage is probably enough unless you're a gamer, content creator, or power user. On budget laptops, look out for eMMC memory; while still flash memory, it is much slower than an SSD.
• Graphics Chip: Gamers and creative professionals should get one of the latest Nvidia GeForce RTX 40 series or AMD Radeon 7000 series GPUs. Everyone else will be happy with the CPU's built-in integrated graphics, which have improved considerably in recent years.

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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 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. 

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