Windows 11 version 24H2 has been no stranger to performance and compatibility issues on certain processors, like the Intel Smart Sound Technology driver flaw that caused blue screen errors for certain Intel 11th Gen processors.

Processor-specific mishaps aside, reports of weakened gaming performance caused worry among users, although this issue has reportedly now been resolved. And of course, there was the notorious problem with Ubisoft games like Star Wars Outlaws, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, and Assassin's Creed: Valhalla where they would become abruptly unresponsive, but, thankfully, this was also fixed.

Post-update issues are now so common with Windows 11, that we've basically come to terms with the fact that this is a way of life for Microsoft's operating system — understanding that most flaws are the natural result of complex interactions with the many facets of a PC, whether that's its hardware, applications, drivers, or BIOS. Still, that doesn't make them any less frustrating or easier to deal with.

Today, a new Windows 11 24H2 issue has reared its head, submitted by one tech-savvy Borncity reader, once again relating to Intel processors. Gamers and power users take note: this bug poses a direct risk to your computer's beloved performance and could hamper tasks and games significantly — especially on systems with an Intel Core Ultra 9 285K CPU.

Windows 11's latest 24H2 update could be impacting your performance

Early reports of the issue come from a Borncity reader named Rüdiger, who claims that an error at startup was the result of Intel's latest CPU or microcode update for Core Ultra 9 285K processors. The error reportedly prevented the PC from booting, although the user was about to work around this issue by applying the Intel Microcode update 0x116. However, a series of performance issues have followed.

According to Rüdiger, applications are being throttled when they're not in focus or minimized. This was tested through the use of a 7zip benchmark, with the user's system performance reduced to nearly half when the application was minimized. Apparently, this issue does not occur on other CPUs like the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X or Intel Core i9 12900K.

How to check if you're a victim to these performance issues

If you updated to the latest version of Windows 11 and have either Intel's Lunar or Arrow Lake CPUs, you could be affected by the above issue. While we only know it's happened on Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, all of the Ultra 200 series may also be susceptible.

If you're not encountering issues while booting up your PC, that's a fairly positive sign. However, if you have noticed any performance mishaps within background tasks, you may want to test against the performance throttling issue yourself. You can do this similarly to Rüdiger by either performing a similar 7zip benchmark or monitoring your performance for any unnatural spikes in the task manager window.

If you're facing similar issues with the latest Intel processors, it's recommended that you visit the Microsoft Feedback Hub to share any details on your current problems with the latest Windows 11 24H2 build.

As with any of Windows 11's hiccups, it's hard to say how rare this problem is and whether or not some unique combination of hardware is resulting in it exclusively plaguing this user, but if it is a widespread issue, having as many users as possible report it is the fastest way to ensure Microsoft will make fixing it a priority.

More from Laptop Mag

• Microsoft Copilot just helped me pirate Windows 11 — Here's proof
• Microsoft's recent tests could lure Google Workspace users back to Office apps
• Freshly uncovered Windows 11 app may ease the biggest headache of buying a new laptop

Differentiating between Intel's latest chips may get even more confusing soon. A reliable leaker known as Golden Pig Upgrade on Bilibili, a video-sharing platform based in Shanghai, shared what Intel plans to name its next-gen laptop chips (via NotebookCheck). And if this rumor rings true, even those familiar with Intel's chips might find this new nomenclature puzzling. 

According to Golden Pig Upgrade, Intel's upcoming 15th Gen Arrow Lake chips will launch with the Core Ultra 200 title, while chips with the non-Ultra Core 200 label will  technically be Raptor Lake chips. When one chip is significantly more powerful than the other, you'd think Intel would give them completely different naming conventions, but this wouldn't be the first time Intel confused buyers with chip names.

Intel's CPU-naming processes could use some work

Intel launched similarly confusing chips earlier this year that sounded like Meteor Lake CPUs — the Core 7 Processor 150U, Intel Core 5 Processor 120U, and Intel Core 3 processor 100U — but were actually refreshed 14th Gen Raptor Lake CPUs.

To avoid confusion, it would make sense for Intel to reserve the Core/Core Ultra naming convention for its latest chips, and come up with something different for redesigned older chips. But unless that magically happens prior to Intel's next chips launching, you'll need to look closely at which processor a laptop features if you plan to buy an Intel-based laptop in the next few years.

It's not clear how the upcoming 15th Gen Core 200H (Raptor Lake) chips will differ from its 14th Gen predecessors, but they certainly won't be as powerful as the rumored Arrow Lake chips. According to a rumor reported on by TechRadar, Arrow Lake processors could get a "25% to 35% performance boost over Meteor Lake" without hyper-threading or LP-E cores.

Intel's Arrow Lake and Lunar Lake chips were originally rumored to release in 2025, but Intel announced a late-2024 release window for these chips at CES 2024.

Today's best Surface Pro deals offer solid spring savings this month. Retailers are kicking off the new season with considerable discounts on Microsoft's Windows-charged productivity tablets. So if you're looking for a price break there are plenty of deals out there to be had. 

Surface Pro 2-in-1 tablets are powerful enough to replace your laptop. If you're on the hunt for a powerful tablet PC, the Surface Pro line has a device for you. Choose from the latest 13-inch Surface Pro 9, previous-gen 13-inch Surface Pro 8, 13-inch Surface Pro X or 12.3-inch Surface Pro 7+. Direct competitors to Apple's iPad Pro, Surface Pro tablet PCs range in price from $799 to $2,299. 

If you're in the market for any of Microsoft's premium productivity tablets, shop the best Surface Pro deals below.

Best Surface Pro deals — Quick links

• Microsoft Surface Pro 9: $1,549 $1,199 @ Amazon
• Microsoft Surface Pro 9 w/ Keyboard: 1,539 $1,099 @ Best Buy
• Microsoft Surface Pro 7+ w/ Keyboard: $999 $700 @ Best Buy
• Microsoft Surface Go 3: $549 $399 @ Best Buy

Microsoft's Surface Pro 9 has a starting price of $999 and is optimized for multi-tasking and productivity. It boasts an upgraded 12th Gen Intel processor (or Microsoft SQ 3 with 5G support) and packs a gorgeous 13-inch (2880 x 1920) PixelSense touch display with 120Hz refresh rate. 

By design, the Surface Pro 9 retains the premium-looking portable characteristics of its predecessor. Its high-grade aluminum casing keeps it lightweight and durable while the iconic built-in kickstand makes it easy to prop up on flat surfaces. 

For enhanced video conferencing, the Surface Pro 9 features an upgraded 10MP front-facing camera. Powered by Windows 11, the Surface Pro 9 is available in an array of beautiful colors including Platinum, Graphite, Sapphire, and Forest.

Starting at $1,099, the Surface Pro 8 is a solid choice if you're looking for the best 2-in-1 tablet PC. The base model features a 13-inch (2880 x 1920) touch screen, 2.4-GHz Intel Evo Core i5-1135G7 4-core CPU, 8GB of RAM and 128GB SSD. 

In our Microsoft Surface Pro 8 review, we found its gorgeous display and strong performance impressive. We also loved its dual Thunderbolt 4 port array and excellent webcam. 

During performance tests, the Surface Pro handled everything we threw at it without a hiccup. Even when tasked with 24 Chrome browser tabs, two of which streamed YouTube videos at 1080p while another pair ran Twitch streams — the Surface Pro 8 didn't even stutter. 

We gave the Microsoft Surface Pro 8 an overall rating of 4 of 5 stars. It's the Editor's Choice convertible tablet PC.  

Microsoft's Surface Pro X is a versatile Windows tablet PC. The optional keyboard (sold separately) makes it a capable 2-in-1 laptop. Starting at $1,299, the latest model Surface Pro X features a 13-inch (2880 x 1920) touchscreen, 3.1-GHz Microsoft SQ2 8-core CPU, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB SSD. This device offers a significant performance over the first Surface Pro X with Microsoft's 2-GHz SQ1 8-core chop. 

As we note in our Surface Pro X SQ2 review, it boasts a gorgeous 13-inch display, sleek, premium design, and good battery life. Design-wise, the Surface Pro X has slimmer bezels and rounded corners compared to the Surface Pro 7. It retains the convenient kickstand of its sibling on the back. 

The Surface Pro 7+ starts from $912 is one of the best 2-in-1s for business pros or anyone else who wants to get things done. The base model packs a 12.3-inch (2736 x 1824) display, 11th Gen Intel Core i3 CPU, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB SSD. And for video conferencing, its 5MP front-facing camera is one of the better webcams we've seen on a tablet or laptop.

In our Surface Pro 7 Plus review, we liked its bright, vivid display and fast CPU and graphics performance. We also appreciate its swappable SSD and fanless chassis. We gave the Surface Pro 7 Plus an overall rating of 4 out of 5 stars. 

In one test, our reviewer launched 20 Google Chrome tabs, a few Edge windows, a handful of 1080p YouTube videos, and a Champions League match on Paramount+. The Surface Pro 7 Plus didn't stutter or lag. Our test unit had an 11th Gen Core i5 CPU so we expect the tablet in this deal to deliver on par performance.

Microsoft unveiled the Surface Laptop Studio 2 and Surface Laptop Go 3 (sorry, the Go 4 doesn’t exist unless you’re a business entity) at the latest Surface Event and they’re already the most disappointing products of the year.

Doubly disappointing coming from the brand that makes Windows, but not unexpected. Windows is a nightmare, and so are Surface Laptops apparently. Yes, they’re pretty, but for how much? Catch me outside begging for change to afford something that won’t last more than a couple years.

You shouldn’t be jumping for these products, and let me tell you why.

Surface Laptop Go (away) 3

Let’s start with the Surface Laptop Go 3 — $799 for 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. Okay, a little much, but wait, we’re forgetting the 12th Gen Intel Core i5-1235U processor. Well, what’s wrong with that? Only that it’s a year behind, and will soon be two years out of date by the time Intel’s 14th Gen rolls out in January.

Yes, $800 is a lot of money for an out of date product. You know what’s just $869? The Asus Zenbook 14 OLED. That’s a 14-inch OLED laptop with 2.8K resolution (Surface is 1.5K), an AMD Ryzen 7 7730U CPU, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. And for just $70 more? How could that be? Easy — Microsoft is upcharging you.

You know who else upcharges its products? Apple. Do you know why it can get away with it? I’m not happy about it by any means, but the Cupertino crew has proprietary software and consistently powerful products. Microsoft has the software, but it’s not doing anything interesting with it. Tell me why I should buy a Surface if I’m not getting anything unique out of Windows?

Surface Laptop (get out of the) Studio 2

If I have to explain why the Surface Laptop Studio 2’s price is so offensive, you must be the Joker in “The Dark Knight,” setting a crime syndicate’s worth of money on fire on a daily basis. But let’s go over the starting specs real quick: 13th Gen Intel Core i7-13700H CPU (yes, Microsoft does know that 13th Gen exists), 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, Intel Iris Xe Graphics, and a 14.4-inch, 2.4K display. Not bad, right? Well, that’ll be $2,000, please.

I feel like I just died and went to a not very nice place. Oh look, we just reviewed the Asus Zenbook Pro 14 OLED for $2,099. It comes with an Intel Core i9-13900H CPU, 32GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 GPU with 8GB of VRAM, and a 2.8K (2800 x 1800) 14-inch OLED display. Wow, upgrades across the board for just $100 more? We must be living in fantasy land, that cannot be!

If you wanted to get a Surface Laptop Studio 2 that wasn’t completely useless, you’d have to pay $2,400 for the RTX 4050 model. But even if you go all in, you’d be paying $3,700 to get only an RTX 4060 GPU and remain uncomfortably at a Core i7 (sure, you get 64GB of RAM and a 2TB SSD, but those are superficial upgrades at this price point). While Microsoft remembered 13th Gen this time around, it forgot about Core i9.

Seriously, what is the point of Surface laptops charging so much for so little? There’s absolutely nothing unique on offer that another Windows laptop can’t completely and utterly destroy.

Surface needs to change

The only way that the Surface brand doesn’t die out entirely is if Microsoft changes course. It either needs to offer the best deals for its products, like how Amazon has cornered the market on cheap tablets. Either that, or it needs to offer something exclusive, like how Google has optimized Android best for its proprietary devices.

As far as I am concerned, Microsoft needs to either get serious about its Surface devices, or just give up and focus entirely on its software. I mean come on, these devices come with only a 30-day trial for Microsoft 365 Family and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. The easiest way to make these laptops worthwhile is to provide permanent licenses for its software on Surface. Wow, solved your problem, and you’ve easily become the best-selling laptop maker in the world. Too bad you won’t do that.

Sigh. I hoped for more out of Surface, but it’s just another drop in the sea of laptops.

Intel Innovation was two days of non-stop learning, processing, learning some more, and very little sleep. Patrick Gelsinger, easily moved from serious discussions about the Siliconomy, to explaining how AI helps his hearing aids adjust from one audio scenario to another seamlessly. 

He went from would-be soccer player, to humble grandfather, to inviting Acer CEO Jerry Kao on stage to announce the upcoming Intel Core Ultra ( AKA Meteor Lake) chipset. In a short time, we heard members of Intel's different project teams give briefings about everything from Generative AI to packing chips onto glass substrates. 

According to Intel, "This technique will allow for continued scaling of  transistors on a package to help meet the need for data-intensive, high-performance  workloads like AI and will keep Moore’s Law going well beyond 2030."

All of this should equate to, faster, more powerful chips, more open-source development opportunities, and suped-up, thinner, lightweight, laptops that sip power while delivering plugged-in performance. All while creating a more secure user experience. The age of AI PCs is here, and I am reporting live from San Jose, California. 

AI PC Intel Core Ultra

According to Gelsinger, AI is about to “fundamentally transform, reshape and restructure the PC experience and usher in the age of the AI PC. Code named Meteor Lake, the Intel Core processor will feature the tech giants' new NPU (neural processing unit) and integrated GPU based on the ARC architecture. Gelsinger confirmed Core Ultra also will launch on Dec. 14. 

Intel's Core Ultra represents the possible dawn of an evolution in mobile computing. Ultra will be the first consumer chiplet design enabled by Foveros packaging technology. According to Intel, and what I saw with my own eyes, Ultra should bring discrete-level graphics performance thanks to onboard Intel Arc graphics.

Gelsinger and Acer CEO Kao, demonstrated what an upcoming Acer Swift laptop is capable of thanks to the new Ultra's AI-infused chipset.  According to Kao. “We’ve been co-developing with Intel teams a suite of Acer AI applications  to take advantage of the Intel Core Ultra platform,” Kao said, “developing with the  OpenVINO toolkit and co-developed AI libraries to bring the hardware to life.” 

I will add that the Swift was sleek with no visibly additional bulk to accommodate the upcoming Core Ultra. After chatting with Tim Wilson, Vice President, Design Engineering Group, General Manager SOC Design at Intel, I was convinced that this is just the beginning of a possible PC revolution. I'm also convinced we have to shorten Tim's job title because it's a mouthful. 

From what I was able to glean from our chat, we should see excellent CPU performance that is enhanced by the NPU, which will improve battery life, thanks to AI. Performance per Watt is also expected to see a leap, add that to the integrated ARC GPU, and we may finally see a true challenger to the MacBook Air and Pro.  

Open development and Siliconomy 

The past two days I heard a lot about how Intel is focusing on a developer-first open ecosystem that will ensure that the opportunities that AI presents are reachable for all. This open ecosystem is meant to be the cornerstone of the Siliconomy that Gelsinger sees as a major part of the Global economy. 

In brief, the Siliconomy is based on the fact that everything, and everyone now interacts with computers and technology. Siliconomy is based not only on our passion and use of technology and computers but ensuring connectivity and infrastructure exist that extends globally, creating equal opportunity and sharing equity. With the help of AI, we should see the SIliconomy grow exponentially, as technology seamlessly integrates with humanity.

All of this begins with the launch of the Intel Core Ultra powered laptops this December 14th, and we're looking forward to diving deeper into all things Core Ultra, and Siliconomy as we approach full launch a month before CES 2024. 

My personal expectation is we will see 13th Gen performance levels, with maybe a small bump up thanks to AI, but more importantly, the hope is we will finally have an integrated ARC GPU that will allow for excellent battery life and performance that will handle anything a content creator can throw at it. If all goes according to Intel's plan, 2024 could be the year of the PC laptop. 

As we learn more, we will bring all the hottest rumors, and information to you as we approach December 14th. 

Microsoft just announced the Surface Laptop Studio 2, and the company made it clear there is one competitor in its sights: the 14-inch MacBook Pro.

With its choice of 13th Gen Intel Core i7 CPUs (paired with a VPU for AI acceleration), and a choice of integrated or dedicated graphics, this versatile touchscreen machine has more versatility for creators than Apple’s powerhouse.

But is that enough in the face of the fearsome Apple Silicon, its tight macOS integration, a suite of creative apps, and impressive stamina? Let’s find out.

Surface Laptop Studio 2 vs 14-inch MacBook Pro: Specs

Surface Laptop Studio 2 vs 14-inch MacBook Pro: Price

The 14-inch MacBook Pro starts at $1,999 and can go all the way up to a whopping $6,299. 

• Surface Laptop Studio 2 (base model): $1,999
• 14-inch MacBook Pro (M2 Pro base model): $1,999
• 14-inch MacBook Pro (M2 Max base model): $3,099

Given the starting price disparity with that M2 Max model, we’ll focus on that $2,000 machine in our comparison.

Surface Laptop Studio 2 vs 14-inch MacBook Pro: Design

• Both laptop designs remain identical to their previous generations
• MacBook Pro sports a flat, utilitarian aesthetic with no touch screen/hinge-based construction
• Surface Laptop Studio 2 brings more versatility with its display that can be laid practically flat like a portable easel

As much as we want Apple to push the boat out and be a little more ambitious with redesigns (or at least a new color), Apple’s streamlined minimalism is drop-dead gorgeous. It is a flat, utilitarian design that is built to give you confidence in its aluminum unibody.

Meanwhile, the Surface Laptop Studio 2 also doesn’t change a thing about the design compared to the previous model, and that’s a good thing. The Dynamic Woven Hinge lets you pull the bottom of that display towards you, which unlocks three modes: Laptop, Stage, and Studio.

It’s a premium construction with far more versatility in use cases than you find on the MacBook Pro, but I was hoping that the awkward slab stuck under the bottom for cooling would be gone.

In fact, it’s not even the additional mechanism of the Surface Laptop Studio 2’s display that adds the extra heft, though. Instead, it’s that vented underside. We weren’t expecting dramatic changes across both these machines in terms of the design or the display (more on that in a second), but the choice here comes down to what’s important for you.

If your workload is dependent on versatility of working styles, then you already know the answer is Surface Laptop Studio 2. However, the MacBook Pro is a true workhorse in its hardware look and feel too.

Surface Laptop Studio 2 vs 14-inch MacBook Pro: Display

• Surface Laptop Studio 2: 14.4-inch, 2400x1600-pixel resolution HDR Touchscreen PixelSense Flow Display with 120Hz refresh rate
• 14-inch MacBook Pro: 14.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR display, 3024x1964-pixel resolution with 120Hz refresh rate

Apple is cocky about its MacBook Pro display, but the company absolutely earns it with its gorgeous miniLED display — super sharp with a buttery smooth refresh rate, and stellar color reproduction. Plus, it gets real bright too with a 1,000 nits sustained brightness with XDR content. For SDR, you're looking at 500 nits.

The Surface Laptop Studio 2 matches this brightness with its 14.4-inch PixelSense Flow panel, which also supports Dolby Vision IQ visuals and DisplayHDR 400. It also sports 10-point capacitive touch and Surface Pen support for a far wider array of use cases beyond anything you could possibly do with the MacBook Pro.

Surface Laptop Studio 2 vs 14-inch MacBook Pro: Ports

• The Surface Laptop Studio 2 may benefit from the versatility of a USB-A port…
• …but it seems weird to say the MacBook Pro has a wider array for your creative needs!

Why is it weird? Well, it comes down to the typical assumption that Apple limits the amount of connectivity to its laptops. But the MacBook Pro is the exception to the rule with HDMI 2.1, an SD card slot, and three Thunderbolt 4 sockets.

As for the Surface Laptop Studio 2, there is no HDMI port, and in its place, you get USB-A. Elsewhere on the machine, there are two Thunderbolt 4 connectors, a microSD card reader, and that proprietary Surface Connector.

Surface Laptop Studio 2 vs 14-inch MacBook Pro: CPU and GPU

• The base model Surface Laptop Studio 2 gets a 13th Gen Intel Core i7 CPU with integrated Iris Xe graphics
• Pay more and you can get a dedicated Nvidia GPU
• As for the MacBook Pro, you get a choice of M2 Pro or M2 max

Apple’s custom silicon is capable of some great things in the M2 Pro and M2 Max – providing impressive performance under intense pressure, and power efficiency unlike any laptop in its class.

In fact, these laptops continue to rank highly in terms of Geekbench scores and video transcoding, which guarantees peak power when it comes to video rendering and complicated edits of high-capacity files.

On the other side of the ring, the Surface Laptop Studio 2 comes packed with either an Intel Core i7-13700H or 13800H CPU, alongside Intel’s new Gen 3 Movidius 3700VC VPU AI Accelerator to turbo boost Windows’ new Copilot-oriented OS. However, one downside is that the base model Studio 2 comes simply with Iris Xe integrated graphics.

There was a specific test on stage at the Surface event, where the Laptop Studio 2 rendered a large file faster than the MacBook Pro. But at the base model price, I’d be skeptical of seeing this as a possibility on Iris Xe integrated graphics. But that remains to be seen in our own testing of course.

Outlook

It was odd to see the Surface Laptop Studio 2 treated almost like an afterthought to Microsoft’s AI efforts because this is shaping up to be a pretty good laptop! But is it enough to compete with the MacBook Pro? That’s for us to find out when we get one in for review.

If Microsoft is coming for the king of prosumer laptops, it best not miss. It has the improved versatility of that gorgeous touchscreen on a hinge to enable far more forms of artistic expression.

But will its combination of 13th Gen Intel, RTX 40-series power, and an AI VPU match up to the pure horsepower of Apple’s pro laptop? I’m not so sure, but we’ll see.

After the Surface Go 3 inspired our reviewer to question whether Microsoft should continue the product line at all, the Surface Go 4 doesn't have a high bar to clear to win this one. 

If you were to judge it by looks alone you are going to be extremely concerned as not much has changed, but before you click away, the design and display weren't our problems with the previous model, it was the terrible performance and battery life, and Microsoft at least appears to have addressed those. The big wildcard with the Surface Go 4 is that it is officially the Surface Go 4 for Business and is being exclusively marketed to companies.

We'll update this face-off with our actual lab results once we get our hands on it, but for now here's a look at the Surface Go 4 vs. Surface Go 3 based on the specs, pricing, design and more.

Surface Go 4 vs. Surface Go 3: Value and configurations

The Surface Go 3 started at $400 and came with a low-end Intel Pentium Gold 4425Y processor, Intel UHD Graphics 615, 4GB of RAM and 64GB of eMMC storage. If you wanted a faster CPU, you had to shell out $230 more for the 8th Gen Intel Core m3-8100Y variant with 8GB of RAM and 128GB of SSD storage. The most expensive configuration ($729) featured the same specs, but comes with LTE support.

We are still waiting on the official pricing for the Surface Go 4 as Microsoft isn't marketing it to consumers, but safe bet it will bump up to at least $500. The Intel N200 CPU is the only options paired with 8GB of RAM and either 64, 128, or 256GB of storage.

Type Cover Keyboards, which help transform the Surface Go 3 and 3 tablets into laptops are $130.

Winner: Undecided. We need the official pricing on the Go 4, but given the outdated specs on the Go 3, unless Microsoft prices the Go 4 at over $600 it's going to be an easy win for the Go 4.

Surface Go 4 vs. Surface Go 3: Design  

If you were looking for a head-to-toe makeover on the Go 4, you're going to be disappointed, as good luck telling it apart from its predecessor. It features the same silver magnesium body with the same obsolete, thick bezels that wrap around the 10.5-inch display. Though I’d prefer thinner bezels, considering it is a tablet first there's at least some excuse for it here so you have room to hold it. On the top edge, you’ll find a volume rocker and a power button. The bottom features connecting pins for the optional Type Cover keyboard.

Both the Surface Go 3 and 4 have a built-in kickstand that offers a 165-degree range of motion, allowing the tablets to be propped up or converted into laptop mode with the Type Cover keyboard. A lustrous Microsoft logo can be found glimmering on the back of both tablets. They also have identical camera pairs: a 5-megapixel front-facing camera that supports 1080p video and a 8-megapixel, auto-focus, rear-facing camera.

The one big change for the Go 4 is that the display, battery, kickstand, and motherboard are all now replaceable making it a much more serviceable laptop, which makes perfect sense given its new all-business focus.

The Surface Go 3 and Go 4 are ideal for frequent travelers or those that need to haul the 2-in-1 around the office or worksite constantly at only 1.2 pounds and 9.6 x 6.9 x 0.3 inches.

Winner: Surface Go 4

 Surface Go 4 vs. Surface Go 3: Ports 

Once again, the Surface Go 3 and Surface Go 4 are identical in this round.

Both sport the same ports: a headphone jack, a USB-C input and a Surface Connector. You’ll also find a microSD card slot under the kickstand. LTE models have a nano-SIM tray located on the left side (under the kickstand).

Winner: Draw

Surface Go 4 vs. Surface Go 3: Display 

As mentioned, the Surface Go 4 and 3 have the same 10.5-inch, PixelSense, Corning Gorilla Glass 3 display with 1920 x 1080-pixel resolution. Both serve up a screen-to-body ratio of 76.5%.

We'll find out in our testing whether the Go 4 display actually has an edge on the Go 3, but I wouldn't count on any massive differences.

Winner: Draw

Surface Go 4 vs. 3: Keyboard and stylus 

If there’s one aspect of the Surface Go line that Microsoft gets right, it’s the optional Type Cover Keyboard that transforms the Windows tablet into a mobile, lightweight laptop. It’s a shame that Microsoft doesn’t ship the Go 4 and Go 3 with the detachable keyboard. A Type Cover-less Surface Go experience doesn’t sound very fun —  the on-screen keyboard isn’t efficient (especially for high-productivity workflows).

Spanning less than 10 inches from key to key, the first thought that comes to mind is, “Will I feel comfortable typing on the Type Cover keyboard?” On one hand, the keys are surprisingly clicky and provide satisfactory tactile feedback. The 3.8 x 2.2-inch, smooth glass touchpad is small, but adequate and responsive to Windows gestures, including pinch-to-zoom and two-finger scrolling. 

On the other hand, the Type Cover’s inability to remain fixed while you’re typing on it is a common complaint. The keyboard also feels cramped and is unsuitable for large-handed users. On the plus side, if you’re a frequent traveler, the miniature keyboard forces you to “stay in your lane,” so you won’t irk nearby passengers by accidentally elbowing them.

You can also add an optional stylus to the Surface Go 3 and 4 experience, but it’s not a must-have unless you have an affinity for sketching or taking notes. The Surface Pen has 4,096 pressure points. It also has a tail eraser, a customizable button and supports tilt for shading.

Winner: Draw

Surface Go 4 vs. Surface Go 3: Performance 

This is where we expect to see the biggest difference between these two, but we'll need to wait for our lab test results to see how significant of a jump it is. While it's disappointing that Microsoft didn't give it 13th-gen chips, it's still a two-generation jump from the 10th-gen in the Go 3 to the 12th-gen in the Go 4.

There's no question that the Go 4 will win, just a question of by how much.

Winner: Surface Go 4 

Surface Go 4 vs.  Surface Go 3: Battery life 

Microsoft boasted that the Surface Go 3 would offer “all day battery life” and up to 11 hours of “typical device usage.” Our results could not have disagreed more with the Surface Go 3 tapping out after 6 hours and 50 minutes on our test that involves continuously surfing the web over Wi-Fi at 150 nits.

Microsoft's claimed "typical device usage" battery life for the Go 4 is 12.5 hours, so we're at least hoping to see something closer to that, as the Go 2 was a battery sipper delivering 11 hours and 39 minutes in our test. The more efficient 12th Gen Intel chip should help there, but again we'll wait for the test results to tell the final tale of the tape.

Winner: Draw

Overall winner

The Surface Go 4 for Business clearly comes out on top even before we have the final pricing and some of the lab tests, but the shift to a business focus from its mainstream appeal with the last model makes things a little messier.

Given that we have never recommended the Go 3, the real question for potential Surface Go 4 shoppers is whether the slight updates have made it competitive with other affordable business 2-in-1 laptops.

Based on what we've seen so far I'm doubtful that Microsoft has done enough to keep it relevant beyond the most diehard of Surface fans. Maybe the lab results and review will surprise us, but if you are in the market for a new business laptop right now I would recommend perusing our best business laptops and making a selection from there rather than rolling the dice on the Surface Go 4. 

Plenty of Windows laptops landed a spot on our latest list of the best laptops you can buy right now—but not for their battery life. Within the past three years, no Windows laptop has come close to matching the battery life of a MacBook. Intel’s new 14th Gen Meteor Lake chips may finally fix this and give Windows laptops the battery boost they desperately need. 

Launching on December 14, these 14th Gen chips will be optimized for low power. Put simply, this means Windows laptops with Intel’s newest chip will experience a longer battery life despite receiving overall performance upgrades. Here’s how Intel plans to achieve this with Meteor Lake chips. 

Intel’s Meteor Lake chip features low-power E-cores

Intel’s 12th Gen CPUs, also referred to as Alder Lake CPUs, were the first to use a microarchitecture scheme that combined performance cores (P-cores) and efficiency cores (E-cores) for a well-balanced experience. The smaller E-cores were used for background tasks or other less performance-intensive tasks.

The 13th Gen (Raptor Lake) chips improved upon this hybrid design by adding more E-cores and upgrading the existing P-cores and E-cores. Now, Intel is adding a third type of processor core into the mix: a low-power E-Core. Of course, the company is upgrading the P-Cores and E-Cores as well, but the low-power E-Cores are the most exciting element in these 14th Gen chips because they require very little from your battery.

According to PCWorld, at the Intel Innovation conference, the company played back a 4K video using only the low-power E-cores. If the low-power E-cores can handle that, they can handle all of your basic daily tasks, which means the total battery life of next year’s laptops should increase significantly. 

Another feature that started with Intel’s 12th Gen hybrid chips was the built-in Thread Director, which basically acted as an usher for your computer tasks by first identifying the task and then routing it to the correct cores. With 13th Gen chips, the Thread Director was more focused on performance, pushing all tasks first to any free performance core (P-core). Only when all your P-cores were in use would the Thread Director start utilizing your efficiency cores (E-Cores). 

With Intel’s new 14th Gen chips, the focus has completely flipped. Initiated tasks, or threads, will first be routed to the low-power E-cores, then to the E-cores, and then to the P-cores. Supposedly, this will even be the path for “performance” tasks, but if it’s a demanding enough task, it should have no issue rising up the ranks to utilize the chip’s P-cores.

If Intel’s Meteor Lake chips function as the company claims they will, we’ll hopefully see more recent Windows laptops on our list of laptops with the best battery life. Otherwise, more longtime Windows fans could be pushed to MacBooks. 

The Asus Zenbook Pro 14 OLED is a lightweight content-creating beast in an ultraportable form factor that will make it popular with on-the-go creators. Unassuming in appearance with svelte dimensions that combine the potency of an Intel Core i9-13900H CPU and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 GPU, a gorgeous 2.8K OLED Pantone-certified touch display is tossed in for good measure.

Very few ultraportable content creation laptops pack the kind of power the Zenbook Pro 14 does at this price point. I edited several 6K videos without any hiccups, and I experienced solid Windows laptop battery life while going about my day pushing documents. Obviously aimed directly at the MacBook Pro 14, this ZenBook Pro 14 is a serious contender for our best laptops for video editing and should make the fruit monikered tech titan from Cupertino nervous. Let’s dive a little deeper into this sly content creator from Asus.

Asus Zenbook Pro 14 OLED  pricing and configurations

Our Zenbook Pro 14 OLED model costs $2,099.99 and comes with an Intel Core i9-13900H CPU, 32GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD SSD, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 GPU with 8GB of VRAM, and a 2.8K (2800 x 1800) 14-inch OLED touch display, with a 16:10 aspect ratio, running at 120Hz of refresh rate.

A base model Zenbook Pro 14 OLED, is available at Amazon for $1,799.99. This model has the same Core i9-13900H processor, RTX 4070 GPU with 8GB of VRAM, 16GB of RAM, and 1TB of SSD storage.

Asus Zenbook Pro 14 OLED design

The tech black all-metal Zenbook Pro 14 OLED has this reserved outer appearance that's utilitarian and unassuming, perfectly hiding the raging internals craving to be tested. In the hand, the Zenbook feels like a slim cold slab of finely chiseled slate. A refined Asus logo in black chrome on the lid teases that something special lies hidden beneath. Also, knowing that the ZenBook Pro 14 is MIL-SPEC 810 certified is comforting, as it can handle some drops, bumps, and bruises.

When opening the lid, your eyes are introduced to the super bouncy Chiclet-style keyboard with white font letters and symbols. Centered beneath is the touchpad with an inset programmable wheel that lights up when you tap and slide your finger toward the center of the touchpad. It’s a very attractive feature, and the touch wheel works very well when editing audio.

Above the deck, the ample 14-inch, 2.8K (2800 x 1800) touch display with a 16:10 aspect ratio sits within nearly nonexistent bezels. Gazing up a bit, we find the FHD (1920 x 1080) webcam centered in the thickest part of the bezel.  

The overall styling for a high-powered laptop is understated, and you would never know you were about to create your magnum opus on it. Flip the unit over and we find the Harmon Kardon speaker vents on the bottom of either side of the chassis, followed by an area of cooling vents.

The Asus Zenbook Pro 14 measures 12.67 x 8.79 x 0.70 inches and weighs 3.5 pounds. This Zenbook Pro 14 feels tiny, and I slid it into my backpack next to my MacBook Pro 16 without giving it much thought or adding much noticeable weight. 

The Lenovo Slim Pro 9i weighs 4.9 pounds (14.3 x 9.6 x 0.75 inches), followed by the MSI Stealth 14 Studio (12.4 x 9.69 x .75 inches) at 3.75 pounds. Our final group member is the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED UM3402Y (AMD), which measures 12.35 x 8.69 x 0.67 and weighs 3.06 pounds. Who doesn’t love a little sibling rivalry?

Asus Zenbook Pro 14 OLED ports

On the left, we find the 3.5mm combo audio jack, one USB Type-A port, an HDMI port, and an AC power port.

We find an SD card reader and 2 Thunderbolt 4 ports on the right side.

Asus Zenbook Pro 14 OLED display

The 16-inch, Pantone-certified OLED display boasts a 2.8K (2800 x 1800) resolution and a 16:10 aspect ratio with a 120Hz refresh rate. Whether you care about Pantone certification or not,  you will notice it immediately as it is an incredibly saturated display. 

The Pantone certification gave me confidence while color grading footage in DaVinci Resolve, and knowing that it's rated for color accuracy is incredibly important to content creators.

While Watching “Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse,” the computer-animated world was brilliantly saturated, with immersive imagery as it popped off the Pro 14’s display. The ZenBook Pro 14’s OLED display produces excellent black and contrast, and the black web lines of Peter Parker’s red spider suit were crisp and popped. Everything is lushly reproduced in the scene where Miles gets bitten, with excellent detail and inspiring color.

During our testing, the Pro 14 reproduced 78.2% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, which is below the mainstream average of 91.2%, which was surprising. Meanwhile, the Stealth 14 Studio led our group with 114.4%, followed by the Slim Pro 9i which tallied 111.2% with the Zenbook 14 OLED shutting the door averaging 79.1%.

Our Zenbook Pro produced 346.6 nits of brightness, just a hair below the mainstream laptop average of 357 nits. The Lenovo Slim Pro 9i had a blinding 637 nits of brightness, producing brightness to spare, followed by the Stealth’s 370 nits, and the Zenbook 14, which averaged 346 nits. 

Asus Zenbook Pro 14 OLED keyboard and touchpad

The Zenbook Pro 14’s backlit keyboard is well appointed, with excellent travel between keys, allowing my massive hands to type comfortably.  During the 10FastFingers.com typing test, I typed 89 words per minute with 87% accuracy.

Usually, I am in the 85 to 90 words per minute range with 85% accuracy, so I surpassed my averages and enjoyed the bouncy, responsive keys.

The 5.3 x 3.4-inch touchpad is responsive and accurate when navigating websites or documents. It nicely performed all Windows 11 gestures, such as two-finger swipes and three-finger taps. The bottom corners give firm and clicky feedback when using right or left clicks.

Asus Zenbook Pro 14 OLED audio

The audio experience on the Zenbook Pro 14 features Harmon Kardon tuned speakers, which performed very well during my time with it. The speaker system created precise tonal separation, allowing for the easy detection of high, mid, and low tones. The speakers are not overly thumpy, but the bass has depth and is loud enough for me to enjoy music in my studio apartment, which is about the size of a college dorm room. 

I fired up The Bass Police's “Shake That,” and the Pro 14’s speakers remained clear without distortion, even with the too-heavy bassline pushing its drivers. It held up well, delivering very discerning, clear audio with depth. In honor of Hip-Hop’s 50th birthday, I listened to the classic “I’m Bad” by LL Cool J. The Harmon Kardon speakers did a good job of delivering all the flashback-inducing bass, and Uncle L’s lyrics were reproduced crisply. 

While watching the news on the Spectrum TV app, the reporter's voices were clear and clean as I learned about the day's weather and political craziness happening worldwide. The ANC of the built-in mic array worked very well without being choppy during video conference calls. I held a brief chat via Google Meet with my daughter to hear about her evening before she went to bed, and she reported I sounded clear, with minimal background noise leaking through. 

Asus Zenbook Pro 14 OLED graphics

The Asus Zenbook Pro 14 OLED has an Nvidia RTX GeForce 4070 GPU with 8GB of VRAM. The 4070 efficiently handled editing 6 and 4K videos in DaVinci Resolve, as I spent a grueling workday producing videos without worry as the Zenbook performed smoothly. 

On the 3DMark Fire Strike benchmark, the Pro 14 scored 19,010, which crushes the average mainstream laptop (6,856). However, the MSI Stealth (Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060) crushed this benchmark with a score of 22,675, followed by the Lenovo (Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050) 20,193, with our sibling Zenbook 14 OLED (integrated AMD Radeon graphics)) closing things out at 3,657, way below the benchmark average. 

During the TimeSpy benchmark, our Zenbook destroyed the mainstream average score of 3,229, tallying 8,651. The MSI Stealth 14 Studio led our group scoring 9,906, followed by the Lenovo Slim Pro 9i at 9,000, with the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED closing this benchmark with 1,481.

The Zenbook blew away the 45 frames per second mainstream gaming laptop average during our Sid Meier's Civilization VI: Gathering Storm (1080p) benchmark, averaging 115.33 frames per second. The Lenovo Slim Pro 9i blew this benchmark away, averaging 124 fps, with the Zenbook non-Pro 14, averaging 28 frames per second. Our Stealth 14 was not tested using this benchmark; however, on GTA V in 1080p, it averaged 83 frames per second. It’s safe to assume it would score extremely well during the Sid Meier benchmark.

Asus Zenbook Pro 14 OLED performance

With an Intel Core i9-13900H CPU, 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD, the Pro 14 delivered a solid performance throughout my time. I never experienced any lag while using different applications.  

When I got the Zenbook Pro 14 in hand, I plugged it in, powered it up, and immediately opened up 60 tabs in Google Chrome. Several were playing YouTube videos, one running "Spider-Man Into The Spiderverse.” There was no lagging performance, and the fan noise was minimal, but I could feel them pushing out warm air. The cooling system on the Pro 14 helps with performance, although occasionally, the fans revved up a bit loudly.

Our Asus Zenbook Pro 14 OLED review unit surpassed the category average during our synthetic tests, starting with Geekbench 6, an overall performance benchmark. The Pro 14 scored 13,249, leapfrogging the average mainstream laptop score of 8,508 and leading our group.

The MSI Stealth 14 Studio (Intel Core i7-13700H) was second with a score of 12,841, followed by the Non-Pro 14 7,785 (AMD Rvzen 7 7730U). The Lenovo Slim Pro 9i (Intel Core i9-13905H) tallied 8.351.

During the Handbrake video-editing test, which requires the laptop to transcode a 4K video to 1080p, the Zenbook Pro 14 scored above the mainstream laptop average of 7 minutes and 39 seconds, taking 5:42 to transcode the media. 

The Slim Pro 9i dominated this benchmark taking just 3:59 seconds to finish the task, with the Stealth 14 Studio following coming with an acceptable 4:41 seconds. The other Zenbook 14 handled the job in 8 :5. 

During our file transfer test, the Pro 14 OLED (1TB SSD) averaged a transfer rate of 1,239.69 megabytes per second, shooting past the 929.39 mainstream laptop average when duplicating 25GB of mixed-media files. The 9i (1TB SSD) delivered a group-leading transfer rate of 1,964.94 megabytes per second, blasting past the rest of the group. The third spot belongs to the M 310.05 MBps.

Asus Zenbook Pro 14 OLED battery life

When you combine a potent CPU and GPU, as we find on the Pro 14, battery life is going to take a hit. During our in-house battery test (continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits), the Omen lasted 6 hours and 51 minutes, so you can get through most of your day without plugging it in. However, I would toss the charger into my backpack, just in case. 

The Asus Zenbook 14 OLED (AMD) led our group, averaging 11:32, with the Lenovo coming in at 6:12. The MSI Stealth took 3:17 minutes as it treated its battery like a bag of dark chocolate almonds, devouring it in no time.

Asus Zenbook Pro 14 OLED heat 

The Zenbook’s cooling system is adequate, and I never felt like it was too hot for my lap. However, our test results tell a slightly different story. During our heat tests, which consisted of a series of temperature scans after running a fullscreen HD video for 15 minutes. The touchpad measured an acceptable 81.5 degrees Fahrenheit, and the space between the G and H keys measured a comfortable 91.6 degrees. The laptop’s underside barely exceeded our 95-degree comfort threshold at 95.7 degrees.

Asus Zenbook Pro 14 OLED webcam

The FHD (1920 x 1080) webcam on the Zenbook Pro 14 OLED is an excellent webcam that produces nicely saturated still images and video. You experience crisp, clear videos and images even with inadequate lighting.

I also found the camera did an excellent job adjusting to changes in my surroundings and never became pixelated. The Windows camera software has accurate autofocus and tracking. There is also a push-button security shutter to keep peeping eyes out. 

Although the Pro 14’s webcam offers solid imaging, if you need more resolution, I would check out our best webcams page for some extra guidance if you need more. 

Asus Zenbook Pro 14 OLED software and warranty

The Zenbook Pro 14 OLED comes with Windows 11 Home but doesn’t come with an obnoxious amount of software or bloatware. Although, like every Windows 11 computer, there are apps for Skype, Office 365, Microsoft Solitaire suite, and Xbox console. Other than that, you can get into gaming or pushing documents without dealing with deleting extraneous software. 

The My Asus app allows users more intimate control of the laptop performance and grants the user access to battery performance, adjust the ANC levels, MUX switch, and cooling.

The Asus Zenbook Pro 14 OLED comes with a one-year limited warranty. See how Asus performed on our Tech Support Showdown special report.

Bottom line

If you need a lightweight, super potent content-creator laptop, the Asus Zenbook Pro 14 OLED is hard to beat. It has a better display and can go toe to toe with the MacBook Pro 14 performance-wise. The only place where the MBP 14 dominates the Zenbook is in battery life, where Apple laptops are own the market. 

The Zenbook Pro 14’s 2.8K OLED touch display is stunning, and Apple doesn’t do touch. Also, to get a MacBook Pro 14 with 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage will run you $2,899. If you want to save some money and get equal performance, the Asus Zenbook Pro 14 is a great option you need to take seriously. You may lose a battery life battle, but you can afford a good external battery pack with what you save and still have money for other gear. 

We’ve seen some wild designs throughout the years, and Lenovo shoving e-ink displays in laptops is nothing new, but the company has yet to nail it down — and with the Lenovo ThinkBook Plus G4, it still hasn’t.

For a whopping $2,976, the ThinkBook Plus offers a gorgeous 13.3-inch OLED display, solid speakers, and decent performance packed into a neatly designed chassis. However, that ridiculous price also gets you an e-ink display on the lid. It’s wild and fun to play with… if you have the patience of a saint — I do not.

The Lenovo ThinkBook Plus G4 is a decent attempt at a 2-in-1 laptop with an e-ink display, but it hasn’t filtered out the flaws enough for it to make it on our best 2-in-1 laptops or even best Lenovo laptops pages.

Lenovo ThinkBook Plus G4 price and configurations

Lenovo sent me the $2,976 model, which comes with a Intel Core i7-1355U processor, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, an Intel Iris Xe Graphics chip, and a 13.3-inch, 2880 x 1800 OLED display. So why is it so expensive? Well, that’s thanks to the 12-inch, 2560 x 1600 colorful E-Ink screen on the lid.

You can get this laptop with a 1TB SSD ($3,094) or a Core i5 CPU ($2800). If you’re already paying nearly $3K, you might as well jump in for a fully decked out product.

If you’re way out of your budget, consider checking out our best cheap laptops.

Lenovo ThinkBook Plus G4 design

I was already preparing my rant about silver and gray notebooks when I pulled the Lenovo ThinkBook Plus G4 out of the box, but then I was shook by a full display on the lid. “Uh oh,” I muttered under my breath, realizing that this would not be a simple review. Yep, that’s a 12-inch e-ink screen for a lid, paired with a sensor atop its thick bezels.

Opening the laptop reveals the main 13.3-inch display with some relatively thin bezels and a webcam at the top attached to the lip of the lid. The deck features an edge-to-edge keyboard along with a smallish touchpad.

Okay let’s get to the interesting part — this is not your typical 2-in-1 laptop. The hinge that connects the deck to the lid is a small centerpiece that swivels. Using this hinge, you can make either display your lid, which is a much sturdier design choice over the typical 2-in-1 design. Since it has a display on either side, you can even use it in tent mode. 

I have some concerns about the hinge’s durability and longevity, but I’m not going to throw it against a wall to see if it stays together — so just don’t drop it. And the hinge only swivels 180 degrees, which I’m also concerned about because it’s easy to accidentally put too much pressure in the wrong direction. Lenovo claims that it features MIL-SPEC durability, but I’m not testing my luck. I hear a snapping sound in someone’s future. 

Despite its wild design, the ThinkBook Plus is relatively slim, coming in at 3 pounds and 11.7 x 8.6 x 0.7 inches. Meanwhile, its predecessor, the Lenovo ThinkBook Plus Gen 3, was actually a 17-inch laptop, weighing in at 4.4 pounds and 16.1 x 9.0 x 0.6~0.7 inches. We’re also pitting the latest ThinkBook Plus against the HP Dragonfly Folio G3 (3.1 pounds, 11.7 x 9.2 x 0.7 inches) and Dell Inspiron 16 2-in-1 (7620) (4.6 pounds, 14.1 x 9.9 x 0.6~0.7 inches).

Lenovo ThinkBook Plus G4 ports

Ports, where art thou? No where.

The ThinkBook Plus G4 has three ports: One Thunderbolt 4 and a headphone jack on the left, and one Thunderbolt 4 on the right. You can even find the power button on the right side as well, which we’ve complained about in the past (but this is one of the few laptops it makes sense for).

Do you find yourself in need of more ports? Check out our best USB Type-C hubs and best laptop docking stations pages.

Lenovo ThinkBook Plus G4 display and e-ink

The Lenovo ThinkBook Plus G4’s 13.3-inch, 2.8K OLED display is the drop-dead gorgeous beauty at the ball that you could only dream of dancing with. Well, I’ve had the pleasure, and damn.

I watched The Little Mermaid, and outside of being bombarded by terrible CGI, there are some lovely establishing shots of the coast and the castle that popped beautifully at night and in the crispy blue dusk. Halle Bailey’s locs were sharper than ever on screen, and despite how dark the night shots got, especially during the storms, I  saw every detail on and off the ship.

According to our colorimeter, the ThinkBook Plus G4 covered 137.8% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, which crushed the premium laptop average (97.6%). It even bested the ThinkBook Plus G3 (108.6%), Dragonfly Folio (80.5%), and Inspiron 16 (69.5%).

At 360 nits, the ThinkBook Plus G4 is bright, but not the brightest, outshined by the category average (426 nits). It beat the Dragonfly Folio (332 nits) and Inspiron 16 (307 nits), but it couldn’t overcome its predecessor, with the G3 model hitting 382 nits.

Let’s move to the 12-inch, 2560 x 1600 E-Ink screen. I won’t get too deep into it since we’re using it only for note taking and reading (I would not recommend it for drawing, which I’ll get into later). You can adjust the brightness and contrast in the settings as well as the type of display mode, Dynamic or Reading. The former is more reactive to your input, while the latter is meant for a stagnant screen. Despite being an e-ink panel, it is in color, although it’s not nearly as colorful as the normal display. Everything looks washed out, but it’s just colorful enough to give an idea of what the colors are.

As far as benchmarks go, the e-ink averaged 46 nits of brightness and covered a whopping 0.4% of the DCI-P3 color gamut. Yeah, I wouldn’t rely on this information to judge the e-ink side of things.

Lenovo ThinkBook Plus G4 keyboard, touchpad and e-ink

I feel like I’m typing on a MacBook. The keys are desperately shallow, but there is a clickiness to them, so it’s not necessarily bad, but it’s not for me. I need some travel.

I hit 80 words per minute on the 10fastfingers.com typing test, which is above my usual 78-wpm average. The clicky keys got me across that finish line, not to mention the decent spacing and size of the keys.

The 4.1 x 2.7-inch touchpad is too sticky, making it hard to glide across its surface with my fingers, but it does offer a meaty click. Windows gestures like two-finger scrolling and three-finger tabbing work fine.

I have mixed feelings about the e-ink display. On one hand, it’s super neat to have an e-reader and note-taker ready to go and built into your laptop. But it has issues. First off, it’s slow — it lags when I’m navigating from program to program. The laptop does not register my input quick enough with the stylus for me to reliably take notes or even draw. Outside of using this as an e-reader, I see this display being a frustrating experience for people trying to work on it. It’s got neat settings and a feature that lets you reset the ghosting that happens, but if the tech isn’t quick enough, then it might as well be a paperweight.

Lenovo ThinkBook Plus G4 audio

Color me… play me…impressed? I am impressed. The ThinkBook Plus G4’s bottom-lip-firing speakers are full of life and sound.

I listened to “Challenging a Queen” on the Stray Gods soundtrack (yes, I’m obsessed), and the speakers capture the cymbals subtly raising the tension as Persephone sings. When Grace makes her come back, the vocals are rich and poppy alongside the elusive electric guitar riff. The horned instruments that are featured throughout the song benefited from the extra bass provided by the speakers.

Lenovo provides the Dolby Atmos app, which offers Dynamic, Game, Music, and Movie settings. There are custom settings and different balance settings as well, which helped with rounding out the audio.

Lenovo ThinkBook Plus G4 performance

Packed in the Lenovo ThinkBook Plus G4 is an Intel Core i7-1355U processor and 16GB of RAM that powered through a couple dozen Google Chrome tabs and a handful of YouTube videos without issue. However, there’s some serious lag when switching between displays. This thing is always LOADING — I have no patience for it.

On the Geekbench 5.5 overall performance test, the ThinkBook Plus G4 scored 7,766, which doesn’t quite meet the 8,059 premium laptop average. While it did speed past the Dragonfly Folio’s Core i5-12500H (6,879) and the Inspiron 16’s Core i7-1265U (6,757), it actually failed to surpass its predecessor. The ThinkBook Plus G3 scored 9,977 with a Core i5-12500H.

The ThinkBook Plus G4 transcodes a 4K video to 1080p in 12 minutes and 11 seconds on our HandBrake benchmark, which is slower than the 8:08 category average. It found itself lagging behind the ThinkBook Plus G3 (6:40), Dragonfly Folio (11:16), and Inspiron 16 (11:27).

Lenovo provides a 512GB SSD with a transfer rate of 1,488 megabytes per second, which is speedy compared with the premium laptop average (1,320 MBps). The 512GB SSDs in the ThinkBook Plus G3 (1,292 MBps), Dragonfly Folio (675 MBps), and Inspiron 16 (802 MBps) couldn’t keep up.

Lenovo ThinkBook Plus G4 graphics

I didn’t expect much out of the Intel Iris Xe Graphics chip in the ThinkBook Plus G4, and neither should you.

On the 3DMark Fire Strike synthetic graphics benchmark, the ThinkBook Plus G4 scored 4,326, which doesn’t put a dent in the premium laptop average (8,414). The integrated graphics in the ThinkBook Plus G3 (4,282), Dragonfly Folio (4,357), and Inspiron 16 (3,869) didn’t do any better.

The ThinkBook Plus G4 averaged 28 frames per second on the Sid Meier's Civilization VI: Gathering Storm (1080p) benchmark, which doesn’t make it to the 30-fps playability threshold. Neither did the Inspiron 16 (19 fps), but the ThinkBook Plus G3 (30 fps) and Dragonfly Folio (40 fps) were up to the task.

Lenovo ThinkBook Plus G4 battery life

With two displays, I’m not surprised that the ThinkBook Plus G4 couldn’t get in a word before its battery life died. On the Laptop Mag battery test, the ThinkBook Plus G4 lasted 6 hours and 50 minutes, which falls flat on its face against the 10:28 premium laptop average. Its predecessor, the ThinkBook Plus G3 had a similar battery (6:52). But if you’re looking for something with longevity, then the Dragonfly Folio (9:36) and Inspiron 16 (13:28) are solid choices.

Lenovo ThinkBook Plus G4 webcam

The 1080p webcam is trash, and that’s normal.

My face was hazy and my hair looked like it was drawn on by my one-year-old. The poor contrast blew out my entire ceiling and window behind me. However, the colors on the posters behind me were decently poppy, but I’ll attribute that more to the OLED display than anything else. Do yourself a favor and get a discrete webcam — take a look at our best webcams page.

Lenovo ThinkBook Plus G4 heat

To my surprise, the ThinkBook Plus G4 didn’t get as hot as I anticipated. The underside reached 97 degrees Fahrenheit, which is just slightly over our 95-degree comfort threshold. The center of the keyboard and touchpad hit 93 and 80 degrees, respectively. Meanwhile, the hottest it got was 107 degrees on the underside near the vents.

Lenovo ThinkBook Plus G4 software and warranty

Every Lenovo comes with Lenovo Vantage. That’s where you’ll find system settings, warranty information, visual and audio settings, and much more. Lenovo minimizes the bloatware to that one app. However, there are some more apps in this laptop because of the nature of it, like Lenovo Pen Settings and Lenovo Reader, which are self-explanatory.

The ThinkBook Plus G4 comes with a one-year limited warranty. See how Lenovo performed on our Tech Support Showdown and Best and Worst Brands ranking.

Bottom line

The Lenovo ThinkBook Plus G4 is great in concept, but falters in execution. You’d think that the design would be the problem, but it’s not — it’s the performance. And for $3K, I expect both panels to feel silky smooth when I use them.

If you can move to a more normal 2-in-1 laptop, we highly recommend the Dell Inspiron 16 2-in-1 (7620), which offers double the battery life at half the price.

Overall, the ThinkBook Plus G4 is a solid laptop, but between its price and sluggish e-ink display, it’s hard to recommend to people who want to draw professionally on e-ink.

Dell's sitewide sale currently slashes up to 50% off select business laptops. Now is a great time to save big on pricier configuration Dell Latitude notebooks. 

One standout deal is the Dell Latitude 7430 Intel vPro i7 Laptop for $1,279. Previously priced at $2,553, that's a massive $1,274 in savings. This is the lowest price we've seen for this 2-in-1 business laptop and one of the best Dell deals of the season.

If you're on a smaller budget, consider the Intel i5 Dell Latitude 5430 Intel i5 Laptop for $921 ($910 off). 

Today's best Dell Latitude 7430 deal

Released in 2022, the Latitude 7430 caters to business pros and college students. It does so by perfectly balancing power, security, and reliable performance. The laptop on discount packs a 14-inch (1920 x 1080) 300-nit display, Intel Core i7-1265U vPro Enterprise 10-core CPU, 16GB of RAM, Iris Xe Graphics and 512GB SSD. For Zoom meetings and secure logins, it has a built-in 1080p IR camera with privacy shutter. 

We didn't get to test this exact model, however, its previous-gen sibling, the Dell Latitude 7320 2-in-1 review, earned a 4.5 out of 5-star rating from us. It won us over with its lightweight, sturdy build, colorful display, solid performance and battery life. Latitude 7430 reviews from Dell customers average 4.3 out of 5-stars. The overall consensus among owners it's that it's a fast, competent, lightweight, quality-built laptop with sturdy hinges. Others praise the laptop's travel-friendly size, crisp display, and comfortable keyboard. Overall, it's a solid personal computer for traveling professionals, remote workers, and scholars.

With a weight of 3 pounds and measuring 12.7 x 8.2 x 0.7-inches, the Dell Latitude is fairly portable for a 14-inch laptop. It's lighter than the 2023 Apple MacBook Pro 14 (3.5 pounds, 12.3 x 8.7 x 0.6 inches) and slightly heavier than the Lenovo ThinkPad Carbon X1 Gen 11 (2.4 pounds, 12.42 x 8.76 x 0.6 inches).

Now 50% off, the Dell Latitude is a no brainer if you're looking for a powerful, rugged and secure Windows 11 Pro laptop.

Microsoft’s Surface event is closing in, debuting on Sep. 21, and it’s then we’ll likely get an update to the Surface Laptop Go 3.

Apparently, the laptop’s codename is Gulliver. However, there’s nothing official out in the world just yet, so take all of the following information with some salt, pepper, and spice.

Here’s everything we know about the Surface Laptop Go 3.

Surface Laptop Go 3 release date

We don’t have a release date just yet, but if the Surface Laptop Go 3 is truly being unveiled on Sep. 21, its release will likely follow shortly after.

Historically, Surface machines launch in the following months, either October or November. Pre-orders might even start during the event, but don’t hold your breath.

Surface Laptop Go 3 pricing

It’s anticipated that the Surface Laptop Go 3 will increase its base specs from its predecessor (we’ll get into that later), thus resulting in an increased starting price.

The Surface Laptop Go 2 started at $599, so it’s probably going to jump to $699 or more. But get with the times, Microsoft. That base version isn’t even in stock anymore on the company’s website. The Surface Laptop Go 3 should start at the same price as its predecessor (yes, even with the better specs).

Surface Laptop Go 3 design and display

The Surface Laptop Go 3 is expected to have similar dimensions and weight to its predecessor (11 x 8.1 x 0.62-inches, 2.5 pounds), that’s including the ports, keyboard, and touchpad, which is fine for those that enjoyed the previous model.

Unfortunately, the 12.4-inch touchscreen display is also reported to be the same as its predecessors. Companies like Apple and Samsung are doing exciting things with new display technology, so it’s a bit disappointing that we’re getting the same old thing with Microsoft’s flagship mobile product.

Surface Laptop Go 3 specs and features

According to Windows Central, the Surface Laptop Go 3 will be outfitted with an Intel 12th-Gen Intel Core i5, 8GB of RAM and 256GB of SSD storage.

That’s kinda weird. Why do we have last year’s chip in a new product? It’s bad enough that 13th Gen will be outpaced by 14th Gen sometime early next year. That means the Surface Laptop Go 3 will be two years out of date just a few months after launch.

At the very least, we’re cutting out the base 4GB and 128GB model that makes any laptop practically unusable to anyone but a websurfer. I just hope that the price also doesn't skyrocket.

Apparently, the Surface Laptop Go 3 will have slightly longer battery life. Anything is better than the original Surface Laptop Go, which lasted only 7 hours and 42 minutes on a charge during our battery test.

AI might make more of a presence in the Surface Laptop Go 3, enhancing the microphone quality with Voice Clarity and Voice Focus.

Outlook

Everything I’ve read about the Surface Laptop Go 3 is not very exciting. The laptop sounds like it’s meant to be a simple refresh, which is kind of a joke if it ends up with a 12th Gen processor. 

Microsoft has done refreshes like this before, but it continues to feel like the company is rolling over on its stomach and giving in to Apple and other big laptop companies. Windows is the biggest operating system around, so why isn’t Microsoft taking advantage of that to provide a more personalized experience on its laptops?

We’ll see what happens when the Surface Laptop Go 3 is unveiled, but my hopes aren’t high for its showing. Stay tuned for the announcements as well as our full review and benchmarks of the product when the time comes.

HP continues its office-appropriate gaming laptop design with the Omen 16, and I like it. The Omen features strong performance driven by its Intel Core i7-13700HX CPU and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 GPU. On the outside, the Omen is all office elegance, but inside it's a finely tuned athlete, thirsting to score the winning touchdown. 

The Omen comes with a 16.1-inch QHD(2560 x 1440) 240Hz display that delivers crisp, colorful, tear-free performance whether you’re scoring touchdowns in Madden or splitting skulls with your battle ax in Assassin's Creed Valhalla. Let’s see if the Omen 16 takes advantage of the specs it’s packing. 

HP Omen 16 pricing and configurations

Our review model costs $2,389.99 and comes with an Intel Core i7-13700HX CPU, 16GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 GPU with 12GB of VRAM, and a 16.1-inch, 16:9 aspect ratio, 2560 x 1440-pixel display with a 240Hz refresh rate. These are solid premium gaming laptop specs and should handle the needs of most new gamers. 

There is a base model, Omen 16, that costs $1,199.99. This model has a Core i7-13700HX processor, RTX 4060 GPU with 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of SSD storage. If you choose not to buy a pre-built version, you can build your own, but it will change the pricing accordingly. 

HP Omen 16 design

HP seems to revel in creating office chameleon laptops. With its lovely all-metal satin black body, black chrome logo, and overall stately styling, the Omen 16 fits in while secretly hiding its gaming heart.

When looking at the rear of the Omen 16, you’ll notice the black chrome Omen logo on the back of the lid, adding another refreshing hint of sophisticated styling that gives a knowing nod that something special may be lurking beneath.

When you open the Omen, your eyes meet the massive deck and full-sized, RGB-lit keyboard; you’ll see the Bang & Olufsen speaker grill centered above the keyboard. The touchpad also has a nice black chrome-cut finish that embraces the touchpad as it sits nestled into the deck; it’s a very polished look.

The embossed 16 to the right of the deck, gives the Omen a touch of flair that lets you know something special is under the hood.  You also come face to face with the massive 16.1-inch QHD (2560 x 1440) 240Hz display that is colorful and crisp. At the top center of the micro-edge bezel, we find the webcam.  

The HP Omen 16 measures 14.5 x 9.7 x 0.91 inches and weighs 5.3 pounds. The weight is well distributed, so it feels lighter than its five-plus pounds. The Omen slid easily into my backpack next to my main work laptop as I left to start my day. The Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 weighs in at 5.51 pounds (13.94 x 10.39 x 0.89 inches), followed by the Origin EON 16-S (14.1 x 10.74 x .78 inches) at 5.5 pounds. The largest member of our group is the MSI Raider GE78 HX, which measures 15.0 x 11.7 x 1.1 inches and weighs 6.5 pounds

HP Omen 16 ports

The Omen 16 has ample ports that most gamers will appreciate. On the left, we find the combo audio jack and two Thunderbolt 4 ports.

On the right, there is a single USB Type-A port. 

In the rear sits the AC power port, an Ethernet port, an HDMI port, and an additional USB Type-A port.  

HP Omen 16 display

For gaming, you want a display with excellent contrast that produces powerfully saturated colors and crystal-clear quality, and the Omen’s 16.1-inch QHD (2560 x 1440) 240Hz display checks off all those boxes. The 240Hz refresh rate ensures your gaming is smooth and tear-free, and its 16.1-inch size also gives the user a very immersive experience. And while the color isn’t the most vibrant out there, I didn’t really notice during real-world testing.

I thoroughly enjoyed the brightly colored uniforms and hard hits as I played Madden 24. The Omens display is crisp, with excellent detail bringing individual players' faces to life. I could see New York Giants QB Daniel Jones's furrowed brow.  The display also did a fantastic job reproducing the smallest details on the shiny football helmet. I felt like I was back on the field again, leading my squad to a winning touchdown. The 16.9 aspect ratio gave me an excellent field of view, making sure I could pick out the best receiver to throw to.

So after my New York Giants slaughtered the Lions, I rewatched The Avengers movie on Disney Plus, enjoyed the CGI of aliens attacking Manhattan, and watched the building I worked at many years ago get blown to bits.

The explosions were brightly colored with vivid oranges, reds, and blacks with white plumes of smoke. I didn’t notice any color bleeding you can sometimes spot. I loved it when Thor and the Hulk slaughtered that giant alien flying dragon, followed by the green rage machine sucker-punching Thor out of view.

During our testing, the HP Omen 16 reproduced 78.1% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, which is below the premium gaming average of 92.9%, which was surprising. Meanwhile, the MSI Raider GE 78 HX led our group with 115.4%, followed by the Origin Eon 16-S, which tallied 83.5%, with the Strix Scar right behind it, with a DCI-P3 average of 83.3%. 

Our Omen 16 produced 305 nits of brightness, below the premium gaming laptop average of 426 nits. The Asus Strix Scar produced a stunning 503 nits of brightness, lighting the way for our merry band of gaming laptops. The MSI followed with 412 nits, while the Origin averaged 326.4 nits. 

HP Omen 16 keyboard and touchpad

The Omen 16’s RGB keyboard is massive, even for monstrous mitts like mine. Although the Omen is office-safe, you can still have a little fun and design your per-key RGB lighting scheme within the Omen Gaming Hub software included with the unit. The keyboard is hyper-responsive with fast, excellent bounciness that’s great for gaming. It’s not clicky and loud, which some prefer for gaming, going for a more definitely silent and deadly route.

During the 10FastFingers.com typing test, I typed 91 words per minute with 90% accuracy. Usually, I am in the 85 to 90 words per minute range with 85% accuracy, so I was within my average speed with slightly elevated accuracy.  

The 4.9 x 3.1-inch touchpad is responsive and accurate when navigating websites or documents. It nicely performed all Windows 11 gestures, such as two-finger swipes and three-finger taps. The bottom corners give firm and clicky feedback when using right or left clicks. 

HP Omen 16 audio

The audio experience on the HP Omen is solid and reminiscent of my recent experience with the HP Victus 16, producing the same levels of excellent depth for laptop speakers. The Bang & Olufsen speaker system creates enough tonal separation to easily determine the differences between highs, mid-ones, and lows. The Omen’s speakers may not be bass-pushing thunder drivers, but they produce more than loud enough audio for an individual to enjoy while gaming or binge-watching video. 

I fired up The Bass Police's “Shake That,” and the Omen’s speakers remained clear without distortion, even with the too-heavy bassline pushing its tiny drivers. It held up well, delivering very discerning, clear audio with depth. In honor of Hip Hop’s 50th birthday, I listened to the classic “White Lines” by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five. The Omen did a nice job with the disco-inspired beat, Grandmaster Flash’s smooth lyrics, and the triumphant horns in the background. The thumpy bass was well separated from the high and mid tones, and I had a brief flashback to my older brother mixing records in our home. 

While watching The Avengers, the vocal reproduction and tonal depth were precise. Sound effects were reproduced cleanly, without distortion, during those loud explosion scenes. The mic array on the Omen 16 worked very well, and the people I video chatted with said my voice sounded clear. 

HP Omen 16 graphics

The HP Omen 16 has an Nvidia RTX GeForce 4080 GPU and 12GB of VRAM. The 4080 easily handled Madden 24, as I spent part of my grueling workday playing quarterback for the New York Giants and crushing every team I played. 

On the 3DMark Fire Strike benchmark, the Omen scored 29,005, which beats the average premium gaming laptop (26,746). However, the MSI Raider (Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080) crushed this benchmark with a score of 34,015, followed by the Asus (Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080) 31,761, with the Origin EON 16-S  (Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070) closing things out at 26,022. 

The Omen surpassed the 93 frames per second premium gaming laptop average during our Far Cry 6 (1080p) benchmark, averaging 98 frames per second. The Strix Scar blew this benchmark away, averaging 133 fps, with the MSI Raider hot on its tail averaging 121 fps. The Origin followed along, averaging a respectable 99 frames per second. 

Finally, we ran the GTA V (Very High, 1080p) benchmark, and our unit fell a smidge below the premium gaming laptop average of 128 fps, averaging 126. Our group leader was the MSI Raider, which averaged 157 fps, followed closely by the Asus at 147 fps. The EON 16-S  closed us out, averaging 97.48 frames per second during this benchmark.

HP Omen 16 performance

With an Intel Core i7-13700HX CPU, 32GB of RAM, and a 2TB SSD, the Omen delivered a solid performance throughout my time with it, and I never experienced any lag while using different applications.  

When I got the Omen in hand, I plugged it in, powered it up, and immediately opened up 50 tabs in Google Chrome. Several were playing YouTube videos, one running "Avengers" on Disney Plus. There was no lagging performance, and the fan noise was minimal, but I could feel them pushing out warm air. The cooling system on the Omen is quite effective, which obviously helps with performance. 

Our HP Omen 16 review unit surpassed the category average during our synthetic tests, starting with Geekbench 6, an overall performance benchmark. The Omen 16 scored 13,940, leapfrogging the average premium gaming laptop score of 11,170. The ROG Strix Scar (Intel Core i9-13980HX) led our group with a score of 16,493, followed by the MSI Raider’s 15,916 (Intel Core i9-13950HXc). The Origin EON16-S (Intel Core i9-13900H) closed things out, tallying 14,068. 

During the Handbrake video-editing test, requiring the laptop to transcode a 4K video to 1080p, the Omen fell just below the premium gaming laptop average of 4 and 18 seconds, taking 4 minutes and 29 seconds to transcode the media. The Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 owned this benchmark taking just 2 minutes and 50 seconds to transcode the same media, with the EON 16-s following that up with a speedy 3 minutes and 46 seconds. The MSI Raider handled the job in 4 minutes and 8 seconds. 

During our file transfer test, the Omen 16 (2TB SSD) averaged a transfer rate of 1,989.7 megabytes per second, shooting past the 1650 premium gaming laptop average when duplicating 25GB of mixed-media files. The Scar (1TB SSD) delivered a group-leading transfer rate of 2,042 megabytes per second, blasting past the rest of the group. The third spot belongs to the Origin EON 16-S (2TB SSD) with 1,818.53 MBps. The MSI Raider (2TB SSD) closed us out, averaging 1,715.14 MBps.

HP Omen 16 battery life

As with many gaming laptops, the Omen 16’s battery life is nothing to brag about, but top-of-the-line gaming hardware devours power. During our in-house battery test (continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits), the Omen lasted 4 hours and 8 minutes, which is okay for a gaming laptop but below the premium gaming laptop average of 4 hours and 44 minutes. While gaming, the Omen 16 lasted just 1 hour and 27 minutes. 

The Asus ROG led our group, averaging 5:32, with the Origin coming in at 5:06. The MSI Raider lasted 2 hours and 33 minutes, as it treated its battery like a box of Teddy Grahams, devouring it in no time. 

HP Omen 16 heat 

The Omens cooling system is very effective, and I never experienced feeling like this is too hot for my lap. It scored well during our heat tests, which consisted of a series of temperature scans after running a fullscreen HD video for 15 minutes. The touchpad measured 75.2 degrees Fahrenheit, while the space between the G and H keys measured 84.4 degrees. The laptop's underside was also acceptable at 90 degrees during testing and below our 95-degree safety threshold. 

Those were the non-gaming scores. After 15 minutes of gaming, the temps in two areas got steamy. The touchpad measured a still very acceptable 73.8 degrees. However, the center of the keyboard peaked at a temperature that rivals an Arizona heatwave: 103.6 degrees. The underside was measured at 119.8 degrees, so I recommend placing the laptop on a table or desktop while gaming. 

HP Omen 16 webcam

The FHD (1920 x 1080) webcam on the HP Omen 16 is one of the better webcams you’ll find on a laptop. The 1080p resolution is more than enough for streaming and meetings. During my time with the unit, I found the camera provides excellent crisp images and is color-accurate in all lighting conditions. 

I was happily surprised by how quickly the webcam adjusted to low-light conditions. However, at times, there was some pixelation, but I expect that with most built-in webcams. 

The Omen’s webcam offers solid imaging, but if you need more resolution, I would check out our best webcams page for some extra guidance if you need more.

HP Omen 16 software and warranty

The HP Omen 16 comes with Windows 11 Pro but minimal added software or bloatware. The HP Omen Gaming Hub app gives users intimate control of the entire system, from CPU overclocking to RGB lighting and audio. The user-friendly app made me feel more in tune with the laptop. You will find that HP’s Windows experience is very similar across all their gaming laptops.

Like every Windows 11 computer, there are apps for Skype, Office 365, Microsoft Solitaire suite, and Xbox console. Other than that, you can get into gaming or pushing documents without dealing with deleting extraneous software. 

The HP Omen 16 comes with a one-year limited warranty. See how HP performed on our Tech Support Showdown special report.

Bottom line

The HP Omen 16 is a good gaming laptop that represents a step up from budget gaming without traipsing into the $3,000+ for some of the best gaming laptops. Its Core i7 CPU and Nvidia 4080 GPU combo can easily handle your triple-A game titles.  The only thing that sticks out for me is I found it too similar to the Victus 16, which could be a good thing if you’re moving up to a new level of gaming. However, I don't know if the performance boost is enough to warrant spending the extra money.

The Omen’s display is an excellent selling point as it reproduces imagery beautifully, although according to our testing, it's not very bright, in real-world usage I found it sufficient, but be wary if you are often gaming in an overly bright environment. Overall, the HP Omen 16 is a fine premium gaming laptop to spend your weekend gaming on, but watch those add-ons if you are customizing as it can get expensive quickly.

The HP Envy x360 2-in-1 laptop will make your digital creator friends green to the gills. This 15.6-inch clamshell convertible provides powerful productivity in a purely portable package, with plenty of battery life to boot. This Ryzen-powered notebook is loaded with an AMD Ryzen 7 5825U CPU (paired with AMD Radeon graphics), 12GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD, all behind a silky smooth FHD LCD (1920 x 1080) touchscreen display, which can easily shift between laptop, tablet, and tent mode.  

Intel makes some of the best laptop CPUs around, but there are scores of new AMD Ryzen 7-powered laptops that are just as capable as other Core i5 or Core i7 laptops on the market. When we reviewed the first HP Envy x360 15 back in 2021, we noted solid performance thanks to an AMD Ryzen 7 5700U CPU — paired with capable AMD Radeon graphics — and 16GB of RAM. Is its younger brother one of the best 2-in-1 laptops you can buy right now? (Or even one of the best 15-inch laptops, for that matter?) It’s certainly one of the best AMD Ryzen laptops we’ve seen on sale lately, but its lackluster benchmark scores give us pause. Read on to find out why. 

HP Envy x360 2-in-1 (2022, 15-inch) price and configurations

The AMD-powered HP Envy x360 I reviewed comes with an AMD Ryzen 7 5825U CPU (up to 4.5 GHz, 16 MB L3 cache, 8 cores, 16 threads), AMD Radeon graphics, 12GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. Right now, you’ll find it on sale at Best Buy for $750, down from $1,049. 

Dig the Envy x360’s detailed design but not the AMD innards? As of this writing, the Intel-powered $599 Envy x360 base model on HP’s site features an Intel Core i5-1335U CPU (up to 4.6 GHz, 12 MB L3 cache, 10 cores, 12 threads), Intel Iris Xe Graphics, 8GB of RAM, a 512GB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD, and a multitouch-enabled 15.6-inch FHD (1920 x 1080) display. Not bad for an entry-level 2-in-1 laptop, especially for high school or college students. 

On the other end of the spectrum, the premium $1,469 config I specced out on HP’s website comes with a Core i7-1355U CPU (up to 5.0 GHz, 12 MB L3 cache, 10 cores, 12 threads), Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 graphics (4GB VRAM), 16GB of RAM, and a 1TB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD, which should give you a bit more oomph under the hood.

The Envy x360’s 15.6-inch display is plenty big for multitouch productivity, but creators of every ilk will want to consider a multi-monitor setup at home. Never fear: we’ve got you covered with the best monitors, best curved monitors, and the best keyboard and mouse combos. (Oh, and the best mouse.)

HP Envy x360 2-in-1 (2022, 15-inch) design

First things first: this is one beautiful machine. Featuring a slick Nightfall Black aluminum chassis and extra-thin bezels on either side of the 15.6-inch FHD (1920 x 1080) edge-to-edge multitouch display, I felt like a Mission: Impossible side character as soon as I opened the lid. (Which was so damn attractive, in fact, that my fingerprints just couldn’t keep themselves away.) 

HP hasn’t changed the overall design much since our original Envy x360 15 review, and that’s a good thing. In fact, the whole package looks like a younger cousin of the ferocious HP ZBook Fury 17 G8, whose deeper deck is similarly adorned with top-firing Bang & Olufsen speakers. 

Once you pop open that angular lid, however, the Envy x360 is comparably sleeker to HP’s older, bulkier 17-inch workstation, with dual speakers flanking either side of the backlit keyboard (instead of one long speaker above the keys). 

Above the display you’ll find HP’s True Vision 5MP IR camera, capable of streaming video at up to 2592 x 1944 resolution…which will make it easier to watch your nephew pick his nose in the background of your next Zoom chat. Similar to other laptops in this price range, the webcam utilizes temporal noise reduction for enhanced video chats. (More on that below.) 

Flip the laptop upside down, and you’ll find two rubber feet to elevate the machine's lower thermals, and two bottom-firing speakers near the front edge to complement the top-firing ones. 

Measuring 12.3 x 8.4 x 0.7 inches and clocking in at 3.1 pounds, the 15.6-inch HP Envy x360 is a full pound lighter than the previous model. Its rival, the 15-inch Microsoft Surface Laptop 5 (3.4 pounds, 13.4 x 9.6 x 0.6 inches) is another sleek machine, though both 2-in-1 laptops are more portable than the similarly equipped 16-inch Lenovo Legion 5 Pro (5.4 pounds, 14 x 10.4 x 1.1 inches).

HP Envy x360 2-in-1 (2022, 15-inch) ports

Enviously slim as the HP Envy x360 may be, it’s still got plenty of connectivity for jetsetting creators. On the left side of the laptop, you’ll find a headphone/mic combo jack, a USB Type-A port, and a full-size SD card slot, which is great news for mobile photographers. (Though serious photogs may want to invest in a dedicated laptop for photo-editing, not to mention a laptop backpack like the Peak Design Everyday Backpack V2 30L to keep your tech protected.)

There are two USB type-C ports on the right side, along with another USB Type-A port and an HDMI port.  

Not enough cutting-edge connectivity for ya? Fine, get yourself a laptop docking station or USB Type-C hub for even more powerful productivity with your portable peripherals. 

HP Envy x360 2-in-1 (2022, 15-inch) display

At first glance, the 15.6-inch (1920 x 1080) edge-to-edge glass display on the Envy x360 is pleasing to the eye; this multitouch-enabled slab can instantly morph between tent, tablet, or laptop mode. The display’s side bezels are super-slim, with that aforementioned 5MP IR webcam nestled up top.

When I changed the default desktop background to a hi-res image from the James Webb Space Telescope (8423 x 14589), the gloriously detailed Pillars of Creation came through crisp and clean, with well-saturated blues from the distant depths of deep space.

In a 4K YouTube video of upcoming movie teasers, Jason Statham’s jawline came in just as sharp as the sharks’ teeth that were chasing him in the Meg 2 trailer I watched, as did the granular sands (and sandworms) of Arrakis in Dune 2. 

HP Envy x360 2-in-1 (2022, 15-inch) keyboard and touchpad

Sitting front-and-center on the keyboard deck is a generously sized 4.8 x 3-inch touchpad that's just a smidge bigger than the 4.5 x 3-inch trackpad on the Microsoft Surface Laptop 5. I had zero issues executing advanced Windows 11 gestures like two-finger scrolling or three-finger swipes to switch windows; the touchpad was very responsive, with just the right amount of friction and plenty of bounce to boot. This island-style keyboard is flanked by two speakers.

The Chiclet-style keys on the Envy x360 aren’t nearly as punchy as what you’ll find on traditional mechanical keyboards (i.e., the best gaming keyboards, hands-down) but they still provided excellent travel in my testing; there’s just enough room to rest your wrists on either side of the deck as you work. During the 10FastFingers.com test, my dodgy digits achieved 61 words per minute with a 89.3% accuracy — right on the heels of my normal mechanical keyboard speed of 65 wpm and 92.6% accuracy. 

HP Envy x360 2-in-1 (2022, 15-inch) audio

Conspicuously, HP doesn’t have much to say on their website about the Envy x360’s top-firing Bang & Olufsen speakers, and for good reason. When I pumped Fleetwood Mac’s “The Chain” up to 100% volume, it was barely loud enough to fill my bedroom, with much more background distortion than I was expecting; vocals were muddled, and the acoustics were tinny at best. That infamous bass solo around the 3-minute mark was accompanied by an annoying background hum that stuck around until the electric guitar chimed in again. 

That being said, the Envy x360 is absolutely not a gaming laptop, and even the very best laptops are mostly cursed with subpar speakers. Audiophiles will want a dedicated pair of Bluetooth headphones or external speakers for more dynamic audio.

HP Envy x360 2-in-1 (2022, 15-inch) performance

For this config, HP pairs an AMD Ryzen 7 5825U CPU with AMD Radeon graphics and 12GB of RAM. With 50 Google Chrome tabs open over Wi-Fi (10 playing 4K YouTube videos); music streaming over Spotify; and the laptop connected to an external display, the Envy x360 barely broke a sweat.

To give you an idea of what the Envy x360 can handle on the benchmark side of things, we put it to work in our testing lab. Clocking in at 7,476 on our Geekbench 5.4 overall performance test, the Envy x360 beat the average mainstream laptop score (7,137), but not by much. It also outpaced the Microsoft Surface Laptop 5 (6,560) with its 12th Gen Intel Core i7 1265U CPU and the Ryzen 7-powered Lenovo Legion 5 Pro (7,342).

On the Handbrake video transcoding test, it took 7 minutes and 30 seconds to convert a 4K video to 1080p, which easily outpaces the Surface Laptop 5 (8:53) and edges out the mainstream laptop average (8:02) by nearly half a minute, but still lagged behind the Legion Pro 5, which completed the same task in 7 minutes and 6 seconds. 

The HP Envy x360 earned methodically mediocre marks when it came to transferring data. Its 512GB SSD duplicated a 25GB multimedia file in 33.7 seconds at a rate of 796.4 megabytes per second. This is markedly slower than the average file-transfer rate for mainstream laptops (933.9 MBps), but still spiffy enough for everyday productivity chores.

In comparison, the 512GB Samsung PCIe NVMe SSD in the Microsoft Surface Laptop 5 took 50 seconds to convert a 25GB multimedia file for a transfer rate of 532.5 MBps. Meanwhile, the Legion Pro 5 achieved an impressive 832.7 MBps transfer rate with its 512GB PCIe SSD.

HP Envy x360 2-in-1 (2022, 15-inch) graphics

I wasn’t expecting too much from the Envy x360’s integrated AMD Radeon graphics, which aren’t meant for mainstream gaming. It scored a disappointing 3,308 on the 3DMark Fire Strike test, which is roughly half the 7,142 premium laptop average. This couldn’t even keep up with the Surface Laptop 5 (4,670), powered by Intel Iris Xe guts. 

Similarly, on the Sid Meier’s Civilization VI: Gathering Storm (1080p) benchmark, the Envy x360 managed a playable 34.5 frames per second, which is just above our 30-fps threshold — and neck-and-neck with the Surface Laptop 4’s 33 fps. The Lenovo Legion 5 Pro, however, was able to consistently bang out 60 fps or more in a variety of different gaming titles like Grand Theft Auto V and Red Dead Redemption 2.

Long-story-short: while some Ryzen 7 laptops can certainly be used for light gaming, you might want to check our top picks for the best gaming laptops. 

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

Battery life can be a mixed bag for laptops in the 15-inch range, and the HP Envy x360 didn’t surprise us in the endurance department: it lasted 9 hours and 52 minutes on the Laptop Mag Battery test, which involves continuous Web surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits. That’s 50 minutes better than the Microsoft Surface Laptop 5 (9:02), and well ahead of the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro (6:16). Most mainstream laptops last 9 hours and 33 minutes, though, and that gives this Envy the edge. 

Still, the first Envy x360 we reviewed back in 2021 (similarly equipped with a Ryzen 7 5700U CPU and AMD Radeon graphics) lasted 11 hours and 23 minutes in our testing, so this feels like a step backwards. 

Thanks to HP Fast Charge technology, the Envy x360’s battery can juice up from 0% to 50% in just 30 minutes. To test this feature, I waited until the laptop was at roughly 1% battery, then shut it down and plugged it in; after exactly 30 minutes, I turned the laptop back on and checked the battery life, which had reached 52%. Nice! This is great news for anyone with limited outlet access in their day-to-day routine. 

HP Envy x360 2-in-1 (2022, 15-inch) webcam

 HP’s True Vision 5MP IR camera has a built-in camera shutter for enhanced privacy. The integrated dual array digital microphones also feature temporal noise reduction, which performed well during my video test chats (via Zoom and Google Meet). There’s also a dedicated mute key situated on the keyboard’s top row, which makes it easier to follow the standard Zoom etiquette we’ve all grown accustomed to.

In a test call over Zoom with video settings on high (720p), my friend said my voice came through crystal clear on her end, as she did on mine. When I turned on some bass-thumping tunes in the background (about ten feet to my right), she could barely hear the music at all, which speaks to the Envy x360’s temporal noise reduction capabilities. 

I never expect much from laptop webcams, but my friend could easily make out plenty of detail in my home office, right down to the hanging plants on the wall behind me (and my bushy brows up front when I leaned closer to the webcam lens.) This webcam is perfectly acceptable for on-the-go video chats, I’d say, even in low lighting.

HP Envy x360 2-in-1 (2022, 15-inch) heat

A quality 2-in-1 laptop should rest as comfortably in your lap as a purring cyber-kitten, and thanks to the Envy x360’s EPEAT Gold rating, one would expect the machine’s temperature output to match the economical energy output. (Not to mention the ergonomic ventilation system you’ll find on the underside of the chassis.) 

Consider our expectations exceeded. The touchpad reached a relatively cool 81.5 degrees Fahrenheit in our benchmark testing; the center of the keyboard (88.5 degrees) and underside (90 degrees) were noticeably warmer, but still well below our 95-degree comfort threshold. The hottest area of the machine — underneath, near the vents — rose to 98.5 degrees, but in my anecdotal testing, the laptop’s exterior rarely rose above 90 degrees during use unless I was stressing the system out somehow. (Like playing YouTube vids from multiple Chrome browsers.) 

HP Envy x360 2-in-1 (2022, 15-inch) software and warranty

You won’t find the Envy x360 among the best business laptops, but that doesn’t mean HP isn’t packing a little security under the hood. For example, you can use the webcam’s infrared (IR) sensor to sign in using Windows Hello, and there’s a proximity sensor to lock out unwanted individuals and wake up Windows when the user returns, and TPM support on the backend. (A fingerprint reader might have been a nice *ahem* touch, but its absence is expected at this price point.)

The HP Command Center lets you adjust system performance, temperature, and cooling preferences. With HP QuickDrop, you can wirelessly transfer photos, videos, documents and more between your PC and mobile device.

The Envy x360 runs on Windows 11 Home, so you’ll find the standard fare of Microsoft apps, including Microsoft 365, Edge, Photos, Teams, Paint, and more. If you enjoy built-in games, check out apps like Simple Solitaire, Solitaire & Casual Games, and Minecraft Education after you settle into your new notebook.

The HP Envy x360 is backed by a one-year limited warranty. See how HP performed on our Tech Support Showdown and Best and Worst Brands ranking.

Bottom line

If you’re on the hunt for a convertible notebook that’s as affordable as it is capable, the HP Envy x360 2-in-1 laptop isn’t a bad bargain, especially if you catch it on clearance.  There’s a lot to be said for the usefulness of this form factor, especially if you’re always multitasking between work and play with your laptop, and you can expect a full workday of battery life on the backend. 

That being said, there are some compromises to be made with the Envy x360 at this price point (ie, under $1,000), and this config didn’t exactly blow us away in the benchmarks department. 

Similarly equipped AMD Ryzen 7 systems like the Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 and Lenovo Legion 5 Pro both give the Envy x360 a run for its money when it comes to performance, but the units we tested were also priced a bit higher, too. 

The HP Envy x360 2-in-1 laptop is a good value for high school and college students, and it might be just the back-to-school tool you never knew you needed.

I couldn’t contain my excitement when pulling the Lenovo Slim Pro 9i out of its box. Lenovo has been knocking it out of the park this year, with the Lenovo Yoga 9i solidifying itself as my favorite laptop ever and the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro blowing my expectations  for what a gaming laptop could do on a budget. I prepared myself for another home run from the company.

In most ways, that remained true. Lenovo has poured its best into this beast, constructing a productivity laptop with staggering performance in both its processor and graphics card, alongside a display that turned my eyes into a puddle of adoration. Alongside an excellent keyboard design, solid aluminum exterior, and surprisingly good webcam, there’s a lot to love here.

But productivity laptops are often designed to be taken on the go, and although this does have gaming capabilities, long-lasting battery life is a necessity for the mainstream. And that’s where the Slim Pro 9i fails, incapable of getting anywhere near the expected eight hours you’d need for a full workday. This flaw has me hesitant, but I still love the Lenovo Slim Pro 9i and would say it’s one of the best 16-inch laptops out there, so keep reading to see if it’s right for you. 

Lenovo Slim Pro 9i price and configuration 

Our model of the Lenovo Slim Pro 9i was built with an Intel Core i9-13905H processor, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU, 32GB of RAM and 1TB of Samsung PM9A1 SSD storage. It also features a lovely 16-inch, 3,200 x 2,000-pixel Mini LED touch display at 165Hz refresh rate. 

It’s currently not available at Lenovo, but it was available at Costco for $1,599. A similar model that is the same in every aspect except it bumps the graphics power to a RTX 4060 is $1,799 on Lenovo’s website. 

Lenovo Slim Pro 9i design 

Lenovo has remained consistent in its modern laptop series, presenting minimalistic silver or gray exteriors without much that stands apart outside of a reflective company logo in one of the corners—in this case, the Slim Pro 9i is dark gray with the signature “Lenovo” at the bottom right. Unlike the Yoga series, there is no additional text that marks it belonging to a larger set of laptops, but there is a reflective camera bar at the top of the lid with small text that reads “SMP f/2.0 Quad Mic Array.”

Lifting the lid reveals a similarly minimalist deck with the keys themselves sharing the same dark gray tint as the rest of the laptop. The Lenovo logo makes its return on the bottom right, and two near-invisible speaker openings sit to the left and right of the keyboard.

I wish the company had something to latch onto here as far as design goes, as the laptop isn’t graced by the iconic and shiny Yoga font seen in that series. But at least the aluminum lid and chassis are strong and didn’t yield under pressure, alongside the hinge that could be bent at any point and would remain stiff, but not too difficult to move.

The Slim Pro 9i measures 14.3 x 9.6 x 0.7 inches and starts at 4.9 pounds. Competitors like the Acer Swift X 14 (12.7 x 9.0 x 0.7 inches, 3.4 pounds) and Dell XPS 15 9530 (13.6 x 9.1 x 0.7 inches, 4.2 pounds) are smaller and lighter, but the LG Gram 17 (14.9 x 10.1 x 0.7 inches, 3 pounds) is larger yet lighter. 

Lenovo Slim Pro 9i ports 

A bit lacking in its overall number of ports, the Slim Pro 9i comes out of the woodworks with a decent selection that could be better. On the left side, it features a USB Type-A 3.2 Gen 1, HDMI 2.0, Thunderbolt 4 and audio jack. On the right side, there’s a webcam privacy shutter switch, SD card reader, another USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 port, and worst of all, the power button.

Yes, Lenovo continues its trend of including the power button on the side of the laptop, which we’ve previously complained about, and it especially makes no sense since this isn’t a 2-in-1 laptop. Otherwise, I wish the company would have at least included an additional Thunderbolt 4, as a single USB-C port is underwhelming. 

Lenovo Slim Pro 9i display 

Built with a stunning 16-inch, 3,200 x 2,000-pixel Mini LED touch display at 165Hz refresh rate, no one will walk away disappointed from the Slim Pro 9i’s lustrous glossy screen. During every one of my tests, whether it was involving a game or movie, the laptop effortlessly transported my consciousness into another world.

I watched the “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” trailer and was enchanted by the color depth as Miles Morales overlooks an expansive New York City skyline while nightfall makes its steady approach. And when the vivid set of flashbacks showcase a younger, more naïve Spider-Man teaming up with others of his kind, the deep orange autumnal forests contrasting with another scene showcasing our protagonist leaping from a skyscraper within the neon-lit city had my eyes glued to the screen.

I launched Elden Ring and was wowed. It took only a few moments before I murmured an exasperated profanity under my breath in amazement. The Slim Pro 9i’s rendition of this beautiful world made it pop more than I’d ever seen before—after all, laptops with gaming capabilities rarely feature a display this phenomenal. Witnessing the golden shimmering leaves atop enormous trees appeared like a collection of crystals seeking to welcome me into their embrace. Simple things such as the slightly burnt hue of fall’s grass appeared deeper and more varied than I’d ever been used to, and as I witnessed great castles and stone structures, their worn gray hue contrasted elegantly against the color of nature.

Demolishing our color tests without a sweat, the Slim Pro soared with its reproduction of 111.2% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, which destroyed the 94.7% mainstream laptop average. But its competitors did even better, with the Swift X (138%), Gram 17 (115%), and XPS 15 (137.9%) pulling ahead.

It did even better in our brightness tests, hitting a peak brightness as high as 637 nits, turning the 359 nit average into mincemeat. While the Slim Pro 9i wasn’t the best in its color, it absolutely demolishes The Swift X (359 nits), Gram 17 (438 nits) and XPS 15 (371 nits) in brightness. I found myself squinting even in my harshly lit basement when staring at the Slim Pro 9i’s display at maximum brightness from sheer luminosity, so it’ll perform excellently on a sunny day if you’re outdoors. 

Lenovo Slim Pro 9i keyboard and trackpad 

Lenovo recently crafted what I boldly stated was my keyboard soulmate with the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro. As you can imagine, I was pretty excited when seeing that the Slim Pro 9i is similar on most fronts. It does fail to fulfill my love of regular-sized arrow keys, as the up and down are cut in half, which gets annoying when navigating pages. Otherwise, this laptop keyboard is as good as it gets.

I took the 10fastfingers typing test and my initial assumption proved true. I achieved 116 words per minute with a 99.7% accuracy on my first try. This number is usually around 96% to 97% accuracy and a bit lower at 110 words per minute on most laptops I test, which goes to show how comfortable it feels to type on this keyboard. 

Its 1.5-millimeter keyboard travel offers a perfect distance, and the slightly smaller size of the keys appeals to me. I’m also glad that the left and right shift-keys are full size, alongside the enter and backspace key, as that can often mess me up when typing quickly. I don’t make it a secret that I’m a huge sucker for full number pads as well, especially on gaming laptops when I want to get lost in my macros for a World of Warcraft raid.

I came away happy from this laptop’s enormous 6.1 x 3.9-inch touchpad. Touch gestures are easy to perform, as moving vertically and horizontally with three fingers to swap tabs is at a decent level of sensitivity and let me jump between them with ease. Clicking and dragging didn’t require that much pressure, and moving from point to point had a solid amount of friction without feeling too sluggish.

Lenovo Slim Pro 9i audio 

Built with two nearly invisible top-firing speakers placed at each side of the keyboard, the Slim Pro 9i offers solid audio quality that can pack a punch when it needs to. Its biggest flaw is that it sounds near-imperceptible during moments when a game, movie or song is a little low, and even when audio gets grandiose, still I wish it could get a little louder. This was especially true while gaming, as the sound of the fans almost overpowers the speakers themselves.

When watching the “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” trailer, the Slim Pro 9i did an okay job representing its highs and lows. With an unpleasantly quiet opening that slightly improved as the nostalgic ensemble accompanied flashbacks to the first movie, sound effects like the slinging of webs were lost to the powerful music. Alongside this, the dialogue didn’t mesh too well with the orchestra, making it come across as a bit quiet.

I played Elden Ring and was still disappointed in the laptop speakers maximum audio capacity, as it remained at the same noise level of the intensely blowing fans themselves. The game’s orchestral overworld music is stunning to get lost in, but it was quickly overshadowed by the intense whirring of heat emitting from its vents due to this demanding game. Otherwise, it sounded good, with the clopping of hooves against dirt and slashing of swords against foe packing decent thuds.

I listened to “Stairs to the Attic” by The Antlers and was disappointed by the quietness of the opening ringing bell against the acoustic strings. Even within my small office, it was barely audible. But as the vocals began in contrast to a stronger strumming guitar, it reached a decent volume with a steady crispness, and when the final explosive act began, I was far happier with the overall loudness.

Lenovo Slim Pro 9i performance 

Packed with an Intel Core i9-13905H processor, 32GB of RAM and 1TB of Samsung PM9A1 SSD storage, the Slim Pro 9i is a powerhouse. It effortlessly demolished its competition on nearly every performance test, and has shown that its lesser battery life and heavier build are likely a result of its beastliness.

On the Geekbench 5.5 overall performance test, the Slim Pro went above and beyond with the inspiring power behind its 13th Gen 9i processor, managing a multi-core score of 14,700. Not only does this bulldoze the 8,450 category average, but competitors like the Swift X (Intel Core i7-13700H, 12,168), Gram 17 (Intel Core i7-1360P, 9,945), and XPS 15 (Intel Core i7-13700H, 12,171) didn’t stand a chance.

This powerhouse continued to perform excellently while converting a 4K video into 1080p using the HandBrake app in 3 minutes and 59 seconds, which is better than the 7 minute and 47 second category average. It also managed to be nearly two times faster than the Swift X (7:46), while the Gram 17 (9:09) was especially left in the dust. The XPS 15 (5:01) got the closest of its competitors.

Last but not least, the Slim Pro’s Samsung PM9A1 SSD duplicated 25GB of multimedia files in 15.7 seconds at a transfer rate of 1,712 megabytes per second, scrubbing the 872MBps category average out of the picture. While the Swift X (1TB SSD, 1,963MBps) and XPS 15 (1TB SSD, 2,061MBps) were a few hundred megabytes faster, the Lenovo outperformed the Gram 17 (1TB SSD, 1,393MBps) without issue.

Lenovo Slim Pro 9i graphics 

Boasting a seemingly underpowered RTX 4050 Laptop GPU with 6GB of vRAM, the Slim Pro 9i impressed me with how it handled games and defeated similar laptops in performance. It’s not great for those seeking a dedicated gaming laptop, as its GPU is considered one for those on a tight budget, but it is a good addition to anyone who wants to do some light video editing or gaming alongside everything else packed inside this beast.

But why go easy on this thing, right? I wanted to put it against the Elden Ring test, so I launched the game, set the graphics to maximum at 3K resolution with no ray tracing, and loaded into the world with uncertainty. To my surprise, I managed a pretty steady 40 to 45 frames per second while galloping throughout Limgrave. But I decided to take a trek into a forest that I learned was infamous for destroying frame rates while testing the game on other hardware, and it dipped to around 35 fps, which is still above our 30-fps playability threshold. 

I boldly took this a step further and bumped those settings up to maximum ray tracing to see if the game could even run with this GPU. Unsurprisingly, it dipped to a pretty consistent 30 fps, and when entering that one demanding forest, it would spike as low as 25 fps. Regardless, I was pretty impressed that this RTX 4050 laptop could do so well with Elden Ring.

On our Sid Meier’s Civilization VI: Gathering Storm test, we reached 124 frames per second at 1080p, whereas the category average is trapped at 40 fps. Bumping the resolution up to the native 3,200 x 2,000 dropped that number down to 95 fps, though. We tested it against laptops that are productivity focused but boast a discrete GPU, and we used the same model number between both the 40 series and 30 series. 

None were a match for the Slim Pro 9i, even the Swift X (RTX 4050, 92 fps) with the same GPU. And of course, older generations like the Gram 17 (RTX 3050, 50 fps). We also pit it against the XPS 15 (RTX 4070, 115 fps), yet somehow, even with a significantly worse GPU, it performed better.

During the 3DMark Fire Strike Synthetic benchmark, we were impressed by the Slim Pro 9i’s score of 20,193, which is nearly three times better than the 7,097 category average. The Gram 17 (7,155) performed significantly worse, which isn’t surprising, but the Swift X’s (13,642) performance caught us off guard considering both have the same RTX 4050 GPU. To take this shock further, the XPS 15's RTX 4070 GPU couldn't compete and only managed as high as 17,340 on this benchmark.

Lenovo Slim Pro 9i battery 

Battery life is the Slim Pro 9i’s Achilles heel. Delivering excellence in all avenues except its longevity, I’m pretty hesitant about this laptop for those who need it on the go. It lasted 6 hours and 12 minutes on the Laptop Mag battery test, which involves continuous web browsing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits. This is significantly worse than the 9 hour and 21 minute category average.

Its poor battery life can be attributed to the presence of its RTX 4050 graphics card, as they’re notorious for being battery-killers. However, The Swift X (7:26) features the exact same GPU yet lasted over an hour longer. The Gram (12:02) which is built with the RTX 3050, also survived way longer. Yet the XPS 15 (8:58) comes out the most impressive here, managing nearly three more hours of battery life even with its RTX 4070.

Lenovo Slim Pro 9i heat 

The Slim Pro 9i stayed pretty cool while it wasn’t gaming, reaching a peak at its underside of 90 degrees Fahrenheit, which is a decent bit below our 95-degree comfort threshold. Otherwise, its G/H keys hit 83 degrees, which means you won’t have to worry about burning your hands while typing up a storm. And in a similar vein, the touchpad’s 75 degrees will keep your fingers cool while clicking and swiping.

Lenovo Slim Pro 9i webcam 

Decent webcams on a laptop are quite the rarity, but the Slim Pro 9i effortlessly breaks the mold. Featuring a 5-megapixel lens that snaps high-quality photos at 2560 x 1440 resolution, I was impressed with this camera beyond just its crispness.

Taking a photo within my harshly lit office did not result in a washed-out image, and even when I shut the lights off and let my warmly glowing lamp provide lumination, it adjusted to the perfect level to ensure my white ceiling was still visible. I also appreciate that the webcam privacy shutter button on the right side of the laptop quickly turned the camera off without issue, and flipping it back on quickly made it available again. 

Lenovo Slim Pro 9i software and warranty 

Coming pre-installed with Windows 11 and a slew of Lenovo-based software, the Slim Pro 9i has a few useful tools. Lenovo Hotkeys showcases available combinations like Function and R, which swaps the refresh rate between 60Hz and 165Hz. Function and Q quickly adjusts performance between modes for battery saving, high performance and cool performance. The built-in Smart Key can also launch custom-bound applications, with the defaults being Lenovo Vantage and Lenovo Smart Appearance.

Lenovo Vantage is the company's jam packed software feature that can modify device settings, view battery information, and update the system. Settings for power, audio, display, camera, input, accessories and security are also available, alongside information on warranty status and far more. Lenovo Smart Appearance is an app that can enhance video quality by smoothing the face, changing the background, and offering filters.

Lenovo Now essentially just puts all of the company’s apps in one place, so it isn’t worth opening unless you want to register your hardware. It also is pretty obnoxious with tons of advertisement pop ups showcasing Lenovo’s support plans, including Premium Care Plus Support, Accidental Damage Protection and Lenovo Smart Lock. It then shows apps you might want before offering three free months of Amazon Music and also suggesting McAfee.

The Slim Pro 9i comes with a 1-year warranty offering Lenovo’s “better” Premium Care Onsite Support. See how Lenovo did in our Tech Support Showdown special report. 

Bottom line 

It’s disappointing when an otherwise great laptop makes one misstep that pulls it away from greatness. Don’t get me wrong, the Lenovo Slim Pro 9i is wonderful, boasting excellent productivity scores thanks to its 13th Gen i9 power, stunning brightness and vibrancy in its 3K Mini LED display, and surprisingly good gaming performance considering its RTX 4050 GPU.

But it’s hard to feel enthusiastic when this incredible piece of hardware is hindered by as little as six hours of battery life. While that’s not terrible coming from a gaming laptop, the Lenovo Slim Pro 9i isn’t one. Yes, it can handle gaming decently, but its focus on productivity makes it a mainstream laptop first and foremost, so I can’t imagine many will walk away happy with its weak battery. And even if you wanted to use it primarily as a gaming laptop, we would recommend something more powerful like the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro. 

As it stands, the Slim Pro 9i was so close to being a near-perfect mainstream laptop that could also handle gaming, but long battery life is a necessity in the former category. Without it, users won’t even last a full workday on the go, while another RTX 4050 laptop like the Acer Swift X at least gets close to 8 hours, while Dell XPS 15 exceeds that threshold with an RTX 4070. If you imagine longevity won’t be an issue for you, the Slim Pro 9i is fantastic, but if you need it for more than six hours at a time between charges, you’ll walk away disappointed. 

Lenovo back to school savings slash up to 72% off sitewide. One ongoing standout deal is the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11 for $1,215. via coupons, "BYOTHINK2023" and "BUYMORELENOVO" at checkout. When not on sale, this notebook would set you back a smooth $2,319, so that's $1,104 in savings. Students save an additional 10% with ID.me which knocks up to 50% off. Among today's best back to school laptop deals, this sets a new price low for the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11.

Looking for a laptop under $1,000? Lenovo offers the ThinkPad X1 Nano Gen 3 for $983 ($756 off) via coupons, "THINKAUG" and "BUYMORELENOVO".

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11 business laptop is great for college students and educators. Configurations start with a 14-inch (1920 x 1200) 400-nit display, 13th Gen Intel Core i5-1335U 10-core CPU, 16GB of RAM, Intel Iris Xe graphics, and 256GB SSD. 

Lenovo lets you build your own ThinkPad with customizations up to a 13th Gen Intel Core i7 vPro chip, up to 32GB of RAM, and up to a 2TB SSD. Choose from 14-inch non-touch anti-glare displays up to (2880 x 1800) with 400 nits of brightness. Or, you can go for the 1920 x 1200-pixel 500-nit anti-glare touch display if you prefer an interactive screen. For video conferencing, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11 equips you with up to a 1080p IR hybrid webcam with privacy shutter.

In our Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11 review, we liked its lightweight design, fast SSD, and great battery life. Following real-world and performance tests, we gave it a solid rating of 4 out of 5-stars. Logins are fast and secure thanks to Windows Hello face recognition and the laptop's integrated fingerprint reader.

Built tough to military specifications, ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11 can withstand heavy everyday use. So whether you need a reliable laptop for school, home office or business, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11is highly recommended. 

It's tough to find an affordable laptop that provides the most it can for your money, and while Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 tried to be that — this ain’t it.

For $799, this looks like a sleek machine on the outside, but if you take a closer look you’ll soon see this laptop isn’t worth your time or money. From its poor display and mushy keyboard to its middling performance and below average battery life, the Flex 5 can’t keep up with its competitors. It has certainly fell from grace since its 2022 outing.

I cannot recommend the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 for our best laptops or best laptops under $1,000 pages, let alone recommend purchasing it at all.

Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 (2023) price and configurations

Oh boy, it was a journey to find the model of the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 we reviewed. It costs $799 (on sale for $699 at the time of writing) and comes with an Intel Core i5-1335U processor, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and a 14-inch 1200p display. I found this version is available only at Costco.

However, there are other models available elsewhere. There’s a $605 version on Lenovo’s website that drops down to 8GB of RAM. There’s also an AMD version that costs $829 at Lenovo, which comes with 8GB of RAM as well and a AMD Ryzen 5 7530U processor.

If you’re looking for a laptop even more affordable, check out our best cheap laptops page.

Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 (2023) design

One thing I like about the IdeaPad Flex 5 is that it doesn’t look cheap. Instead of the usual black or silver, the Flex 5 sports Lenovo’s Abyss Blue color over its metal hood. That’s complemented by its curved edges and neat Lenovo stamp on the top left corner. 

The interior shifts to a plastic deck and an awkward-looking gray keyboard — it should have been black. There’s a decent-sized touchpad, and a fingerprint reader on the right side. Surrounding the keyboard are top-firing speakers. The display sports relatively thin bezels, but the top has a lip for the webcam.

This is a 2-in-1, so the Flex can literally flex all the way up to 360 degrees, which offers tent and tablet positions for you to experiment with.

At 3.4 pounds and 12.3 x 8.85 x 0.7 inches, the Flex 5 doesn’t get much slimmer or thinner compared with the competition. Except for the 16-inch Lenovo Yoga 7i (Gen 8) (4.5 pounds, 14.3 x 9.8 x 0.7 inches), the Acer Swift Go 14 (2.9 pounds, 12.3 x 8.6 x 0.6 inches) and Asus ZenBook 14 OLED (3.1 pounds, 12.4 x 8.7 x 0.7 inches) are lighter and not as wide as the Flex 5.

Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 (2023) ports

There’s a decent number of ports onboard the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5.

If we look to the left, we see the power jack, an HDMI port, one Thunderbolt 4 port, and a headphone jack, whereas the right side holds room for two USB Type-A ports, an SD card slot, and the power button.

Find yourself in need of more ports? Check out our best USB Type-C hubs and best laptop docking stations pages.

Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 (2023) display

Oof. Even for a sub-$1,000 laptop, the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5's 14-inch, 1920 x 1200 display performed poorly all around.

I watched Dimension 20's A Court of Fey & Flowers, and the greenery that made up the set was dull and muted. When the background switched to a dimly lit scenic view, it felt like I was watching the show in battery-saver mode, which was made all the worse by its glossy panel. Despite that, the panel was sharp enough to capture the details in Aabria Iyengar's lovely lashes.

According to our colorimeter, the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 covered a measly 42.2% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, which is less than half of the mainstream laptop average (91.8%). The Yoga 7i (45.8%), Swift Go 14 (175.7%), and ZenBook 14 (95.6%) destroyed the IdeaPad.

At 288 nits of brightness, IdeaPad Flex 5 could not get past the 341-nit average. It did best the Yoga 7i (267 nits), but couldn't get near the Swift Go 14 (395 nits) and ZenBook 14 (375 nits).

Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 (2023) keyboard and touchpad

Typing away on the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 felt weird — the keys were shallow and mushy, and not at all satisfying to use.

However, I hit 83 words per minute on the 10fastfingers.com typing test, which is above my 78-wpm average. The keys were well-spaced, like most Lenovo keyboards, which is likely why I did well. But I didn’t like it.

The 4.9 x 2.9-inch touchpad is smooth, but offers shallow clicks, like the rest of the laptop. However, Windows gestures like two-finger scrolling and three-finger tabbing worked fine.

Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 (2023) audio

I love top-firing speakers, but not the ones in the IdeaPad Flex 5. The audio was low and hollow, and the only compliment I can pay it is that it was audible.

I listened to Honey Revenge’s “Airhead,” and the opening guitar sounded a bit distorted. When the vocals took over, they were clear, but the guitar in the background remained noisy, if not more hollow. The percussion was low and couldn’t catch a bass. The instruments were distinguishable from one another, but overall, the sound was low and unfulfilling.

While Lenovo packs in the Dolby Access app, with settings for Movies, Music and Games, there’s not much more that the app can do to help the audio.

Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 (2023) performance

Tucked in the chassis of the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 lies an Intel Core i5-1335U with 16GB of RAM. It had no trouble working through a couple dozen Google Chrome tabs and a handful of YouTube videos.

On the Geekbench 5.5 overall performance test, the IdeaPad Flex 5 scored 8,440, which doesn’t quite make the mainstream laptop average (9,064). It faltered against the Yoga 7i’s Core i7-1355U (8,663), the Swift Go 14’s Core i7-13700H (11,815), and the ZenBook 14’s Core i5-1240P (8,590) processors.

The IdeaPad Flex 5 transcoded a 4K video to 1080p in 11 minutes and 41 seconds, once again dropping short of the category average (8:10). It fell into last place against the Yoga 7i (10:12), Swift Go 14 (5:35), and ZenBook 14 (8:40).

Lenovo’s 512GB SSD sports a transfer rate of 788 megabytes per second, which isn’t too far from the average mainstream laptop (833 MBps). It crushed the ZenBook 14’s 256GB SSD (246 MBps), but it got nowhere near the 512GB SSDs in the Yoga 7 (1,380 MBps) and the Swift Go 14 (1,481 MBps).

Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 (2023) graphics

The Flex 5 isn’t offering anything special in terms of graphics, sticking with its standard Intel Iris Xe Graphics chip just like its competitors. 

Yet, it somehow ended up last again on the 3DMark Fire Strike synthetics graphics benchmark. The IdeaPad Flex 5 scored 3,936, slowing down against the average mainstream laptop (5,073) as well as the Yoga 7i (5,027), Swift Go 14 (5,533), and ZenBook 14 (4,048).

On the Sid Meier's Civilization VI: Gathering Storm (Medium, 1080p) benchmark, however, it scored 28 frames per second, which might not be playable (30-fps), but it averaged better than the Yoga 7i (25 fps), Swift Go 14 (27 fps), and ZenBook 14 (21 fps).

Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 (2023) battery life

It could be worse, but it could be better. The Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 lasted 8 hours and 22 minutes on the Laptop Mag battery test, falling below the mainstream laptop average (9:54). It survived the Swift Go 14 (8:05), but died before it could see the Yoga 7i (12:04) and ZenBook 14 (10:52) succeed.

Last year's model lasted 14 hours and 16 minutes. A massive step down.

Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 (2023) webcam

I recommend the IdeaPad Flex 5’s 1080p webcam if you feel like being humbled. 

The colorful posters that adorned the wall behind me were muted and faded, like I threw them in the washing machine for a dozen cycles. In terms of contrast — no, the window behind me was washed out and begging for help. Meanwhile, my face looked like a grainy mess. I recommend picking up one of our best webcams.

Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 (2023) heat

Poetry — the IdeaPad Flex 5’s lack of power helps it remain relatively cool. It measured 98 degrees Fahrenheit on the underside, which is just slightly above our 95-degree comfort threshold. Meanwhile, the center of the keyboard and touchpad reach 93 and 80 degrees, respectively. The hottest that the machine got was 101 degrees on the underside, near the hinge.

Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 (2023) software and warranty

If you’ve ever had a Lenovo laptop, you know that the company packs all of its useful systems in the Lenovo Vantage app. This lets you obtain information about your system and warranty, and lets you adjust settings for power, audio, display and more.

There’s some bloatware onboard, like Spotify, WhatsApp, and Solitaire.

The IdeaPad Flex 5 has a one-year limited warranty. See how Lenovo performed on our Tech Support Showdown and Best and Worst Brands ranking.

Bottom line

The Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 falters in more ways than one. Despite its affordable price and its neat design, everything under and around the hood found itself way below the quality we expect from a laptop at this price.

For example, the Asus Zenbook 14 (Q409ZA) OLED is $749 and offers a bright, sharp display, better battery life, and better performance despite its lacking components.

We cannot in good conscience recommend purchasing the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5. There are better options out there for better prices.

I love a shiny new display. The HP Omen Transcend 16 flaunted its gorgeous 16-inch, mini-LED display at me before I realized what hit me. 

I was so enamored that I didn’t notice the $3,049 price tag nor the lacking RTX 4070 graphics chip. It’s not just the dazzling display that threw me for a loop — its raw CPU performance and loud speakers (wrapped in a sleek black chassis) left me flabbergasted, too.

But that’s not enough to overlook a graphics card that I’ve seen in the best gaming laptops at half the price. You can do better with your hard earned cash than the HP Omen Transcend 16.

HP Omen Transcend 16 price and configurations

Our version of the HP Omen Transcend 16 will cost you a whopping $3,049, and that comes with the Shadow Black Magnesium Aluminum chassis, an Intel Core i9-13900HX processor, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 GPU with 8GB of VRAM, 32GB of RAM, a 2TB SSD and a 16-inch, 1600p, 240Hz, mini-LED display.

The most affordable model will still cost you $1,699, and that’ll drop you to a Core i7-13700HX, an RTX 4050 GPU, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and a 16-inch, 1200p, 165Hz display — that’s a bad deal all around. The mid-tier version costs $1,979, and that’ll bump you up to an RTX 4060 GPU, a 1TB SSD, and a 16-inch, 1600p, 240Hz display (not mini-LED).

If this is too much, consider looking at our best cheap gaming laptops or best gaming laptops under $1,500.

HP Omen Transcend 16 design

I can complain about basic design choices all day — black, white, silver — please, give us some variety. The HP Omen Transcend 16 went with black, but the only reason I’m letting HP off the hook is because the soft black paint combined with the glossy black Omen logo gives it a refined look. I even like the little 16 logo on the hinge where it says “Designed and engineered by HP.” It feels more like a stylish piece of tech than a gaming laptop.

However, I’m disappointed with the interior. The black is more basic than minimalist; its 16 logo and keyboard font are a little too gamey for my tastes. The bezels on the display are relatively thin, but there’s still enough room for a webcam and privacy shutter at the top.

The HP Omen Transcend 16 comes in at 5.2 pounds and 14 x 10.6 x 0.78 inches, which is decent compared to laptops of varying sizes. The Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 (5.51 pounds, 13.94 x 10.39 x 0.89 inches) and MSI Katana 15 (4.96 pounds, 14.13 x 10.2 x 0.98 inches) are heavier and thicker, respectively, while the Razer Blade 14 (4.05 pounds, 12.2 x 9 x 0.7 inches) escapes both.

HP Omen Transcend 16 ports

There are ports everywhere on the HP Omen Transcend 16.

On the left side, you’ll see two Thunderbolt 4 ports and a headphone jack, while the right side shows off one USB Type-A port.

The backside of the Transcend holds room for the power jack, an Ethernet port, an HDMI port, and one USB Type-A port.

If you need more ports, check out our best USB Type-C hubs and best laptop docking stations pages.

HP Omen Transcend 16 display

It’s rare that I fall in love with a gaming laptop display because that’s usually the first thing to go in terms of cost-saving strategies, but HP brought its A game with the Omen Transcend’s mini-LED, 240Hz, 16-inch, 2560 x 1600-pixel display.

I watched the trailer for Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One on YouTube, and the green knock-out gas both literally and visually exploded on the Transcend’s display. The surrounding bricks in the dark alley where Ethan Hunt does his signature sprinting were detailed. The panel was sharp enough to capture the pores on Tom Cruise’s face, too.

In Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, the countryside looked like a water coloring painting — all the green and yellow notes of the world immersed me into murdering some fools. When I dove into one of the nearby houses, the contrast did its wonky thing, but thanks to the overpowered brightness of the Omen, I could navigate without issue. When turning down the graphical settings, I got to feel that silky smooth high-refresh rate, which made it easier to dodge enemies.

According to our colorimeter, the Transcend 16 covered 122.8% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, which is far above the average premium gaming laptop (91.8%). It even made quick work of the Blade 14 (114.3%) and Katana 15 (46.1%).

At 811 nits of brightness, nobody could talk smack about the Transcend 16, nearly doubling the category average (418 nits). The Blade 14 (465 nits) and Katana 15 (248 nits) were no match.

HP Omen Transcend 16 keyboard and touchpad

It’s OK. The Transcend 16 has a decently spaced keyboard, but the keys don’t travel very far and they aren’t as clicky as I’d like them to be.

I typed out 80 words per minute on the 10fastfingers.com typing test, which is slightly above my usual 78-wpm average. The lack of texture in the keys really threw me off.

As I mentioned earlier, I’m not a fan of the keyboard font, but the RGB lighting is nice. We can find the Light Studio in the Omen Game Hub, although it’s not installed by default, so you’ll have to do that. It also features per-key lighting for maximum customizability.

The 3.4 x 5.4-inch touchpad is large, offers little-to-no resistance, but its clicker is shallow and soft. Windows gestures like two-finger scrolling and three-finger tabbing worked fine.

HP Omen Transcend 16 audio

If you’ve been following HP, you won't be surprised to learn that the Omen Transcend 16 features a pair of Bang & Olufsen speakers, and they performed well.

I listened to The Oh Hellos’ “Soldier, Poet, King,” and the opening stringed instruments were as melodic as I remember. The vocals were soft and crisp, not overtaking the background percussion. When the chorus kicked in, I could still make out each of the distinct instruments.

In Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, my ax attacks were meaty and sharp. Launching arrows at the nearby enemies produced a satisfying snap and crack upon impact. When Eivor spoke, the dialogue was loud and clear.

HP Omen Transcend 16 gaming, graphics and VR

Tucked away within the bowels of the HP Omen Transcend 16 lies an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 GPU with 8GB of VRAM that tore through the vast fields of England in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla at 105 frames per second on Ultra, 1080p settings (69 fps on 1600p).

On the Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark (Highest, 1080p), the Transcend 16 scored 104 fps, which falls short of the premium gaming laptop average (135 fps) as well as its competition. The RTX 4070s in the Blade 14 and Katana 15 hit 114 and 113, respectively, while the RTX 4080 in the Scar 16 averaged 181 fps. At 1600p, the Transcend hit 60 fps.

The Transcend 16 managed 97 fps on the Grand Theft Auto V benchmark (Very High, 1080p), which beat the Katana 15 (96 fps), but faltered against the Scar 16 (147 fps), the Blade 14 (100 fps), and the category average (128 fps). At 1600p, the Transcend scored 54 fps.

On the Far Cry 6 benchmark (Ultra, 1080p), the Transcend 16 got 96 fps, which actually put it on top against the average premium gaming laptop (93) as well as the Blade 14 (85 fps) and Katana 15 (2023) (94 fps). At 1600p, the Transcend averaged 63 fps.

The Transcend 16 fell short again on the Borderlands 3 benchmark (Badass, 1080p), with a 90-fps score versus the 120-fps category average. The Blade 14 (98 fps) and Katana 15 (99 fps) also did better. At 1600p, the Transcend achieved 56 fps.

HP Omen Transcend 16 performance

Packed inside the Transcend 16 is a monster Intel Core i9-13900HX processor accompanied by 32GB of RAM. It was more than capable of withstanding a couple dozen Google Chrome tabs and a handful of YouTube videos.

On the Geekbench 6.0 overall performance test, the Transcend 16 scored a whopping 15,643, crushing the average premium gaming laptop (11,055). It killed the Blade 14’s AMD Ryzen 9 7040HS (11,881) and the Katana 15’s Core i7-13620H (12,562). However, with the same CPU as the Transcend 16, the Scar 16 overpowered with a 16,493.

The Transcend 16 transcoded a 4K video to 1080p in 3 minutes and 45 seconds on our HandBrake benchmark, which speeds past the category average (4:18), the Katana 15 (4:35) and Blade 14 (4:45). However, the Scar 16 flew by once again, with a 2:50 runtime.

HP’s 2TB SSD has a transfer rate of 2,177 megabytes per second, dominating the average premium gaming laptop (1,637 MBps) as well as the 1TB SSDs in the Blade 14 (1,230 MBps) and Katana 15 (784 MBps).

HP Omen Transcend 16 battery life

It’s not bad, but it’s not good either. The Transcend 16 lasted 4 hours and 51 minutes on our Laptop Mag battery test. That’s only a couple minutes short of the average premium gaming laptop (4:53). It lasted longer than the Katana 15 (2:48), but the Blade 14 left everything and everyone in its dust, with a lifespan of 8 hours and 34 minutes.

HP Omen Transcend 16 webcam

The 1080p webcam in the Transcend 16 will not get me any acting gigs, but it’s workable.

My green shirt was colorful, and the surrounding room was well lit, but it completely blew out the window behind me. I couldn’t even see my blinds — it was full white. My face was also a little fuzzy; there weren’t any sharp details in my beard or hair. It looked like someone hand-painted my poor curls. Do yourself a favor, check out our best webcams page.

HP Omen Transcend 16 heat

I’ve seen hotter, which is a good thing. After gaming for 15 minutes, the underside reached 109 degrees Fahrenheit, which is above our 95-degree comfort threshold. The center of the keyboard and touchpad hit 90 and 79 degrees, respectively. However, the hottest it got was actually 110 degrees on the F8 key.

When you’re not gaming, you can expect the underside to reach 100 degrees at its hottest, 90 degrees on the keyboard, and 79 degrees on the touchpad.

HP Omen Transcend 16 software and warranty

HP loves bloatware. Inside the Transcend 16 is the Omen Gaming Hub, which you can use to control your performance, fans, lights, voice, and game aggregation. Then there’s HP PC Hardware Diagnostics, HP Privacy Settings, HP QuickDrop, HP Smart, HP Support Assistant, HP Event Utility, and HP Documentation — apps that facilitate laptop management and updates. However, I’d prefer it if HP threw them all into one hub.

The Transcend 16 comes with a one-year limited warranty. See how HP performed on our Tech Support Showdown and Best and Worst Brands ranking.

Bottom line

I love the HP Omen Transcend 16’s mini-LED display. It’s the highlight of this product and why it costs so much, but that doesn’t excuse HP for slotting in a subpar GPU in a laptop that costs as much as a used car.

Do yourself a favor; check out the Strix Scar 16 instead. It’s over $200 less, you’ll get a faster GPU, and you’ll even get a mini-LED display.

The HP Omen Transcend misses the mark by not including a better GPU in its wildly priced package.

The Microsoft back to school sale knocks hundreds off the Surface Laptop 5. For a limited time, you can get the 512GB Surface Laptop 5 with Intel i5 CPU and 8GB of RAM for $999 at the Microsoft Store. This model typically costs $1,299, so that's $300 in savings. This is one of the lowest prices we've seen for this configuration and one of the best back to school laptop deals you can get. 

You can also snag it from Best Buy for the same price. 

Microsoft manufactures many of today's premium PCs and the Surface Laptop 5 is no slouch. It's one of the best laptops for college students and anyone else looking for a capable machine. The laptop in this deal packs a 13.5-inch (2256 x 1504) touchscreen, 12th Gen Intel Evo Platform Core i5-1235U 10-core CPU, 8GB of RAM, and Intel Xe graphics and 512GB of storage.

As we praise in our Microsoft Surface Laptop 5 review, it boasts a slim, premium design, great sounding speakers, and a tactile, clicky keyboard. While our review unit's performance was underwhelming, software updates seem to have fixed the issue. Surface Laptop 5 reviews average 4.7 out of 5-stars at Best Buy with happy customers citing smooth, fast performance and good battery life. 

For your connectivity needs, the Surface Laptop 5 has a USB 3.1 Type-A port, USB-C port with USB4 and Thunderbolt 4 support and Surface Connect port. There's also a headphone/mic combo jack onboard for private listening and audio recording.

Now $300 off, the Surface Laptop 5 is worth considering if you're in the market for a new daily driver. 

Lenovo ThinkPad laptops are up to 75% off for back to school season. One standout deal knocks hundreds off the 2023 Lenovo ThinkPad T14.

Right now, you can get the Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 4 for $943 when you apply discount codes, "BYOTHINK2023 and BUYMORELENOVO" at checkout. Traditionally priced at $1789, that's a massive $846 in savings. This is the lowest price we could find for this particular Lenovo machine. 

In fact, it's one of the best laptop deals we've seen all month.

Lenovo's 4th generation ThinkPad T14 brings the latest Intel processor to the series. Students and work professionals will benefit from the laptop's multitasking performance, durability and security. This machine packs a 14-inch WUXGA (1920 x 1200) 300-nit display, 13th Gen Intel Core i5-1335U 10-core CPU, 8GB of RAM, Intel UHD graphics, and 256GB SSD.

While we didn't test it, the Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 4 has an average customer review rating of 4.4 out of 5-stars. Happy owners like its sleek, portable design which easily fits in small backpacks. Others like the laptop's top tier performance and beautiful matte display.

For security and privacy, the Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen 4 features an optional fingerprint reader built into the power button. Facial recognition unlocks the laptop via the optional IR camera whereas human-presence detection automatically locks the laptop when you move away from it.

For under $950, the Lenovo ThinkPad T14 Gen ticks all the right boxes if you prioritize durability, performance, and security.

HP ZBook workstation laptops are heavily discounted in the HP Black Friday in July sale. For a limited time, save big on select HP ZBook Firefly, HP ZBook Fury, HP Studio G9 and HP Power G10 configurations.

As part of the sale, you can get the HP ZBook Firefly 16 G10 for just $845 when you apply coupon, at checkout. Typically, $2,073, that's a massive savings of $1,227. This is the lowest price ever for this HP workstation. It's one of the best laptop deals you can get. 

It's also a cheaper alternative to the HP ZBook Fury 16 G9 — now on sale for $1,490 ($1615 off)

Best HP ZBook deal

Powered by Windows 11 Pro, the HP ZBook Firefly 16 G10 is one of the best workstation laptops around. The base model HP ZBook Firefly 16 G10 features a 16-inch (1920 x 1200) 250-nit matte display, 13th Gen Intel Core i5-1335U 10-core CPU,16GB RAM, Intel Iris Xe Graphics, and 256GB SSD. It includes an AI enhanced 5MP IR auto tracking camera with dual array microphone for video calls.

Although we didn't get to test this exact workstation, we reviewed the HP ZBook Fury 16 G9. We gave its sibling a solid rating of 4 out of 5-stars citing its powerful hardware, stunning 16-inch color-rich display and solid military grade rugged build quality. 

Our review unit's 12th Gen Intel breezed through multasking with ease. We expect the laptop in this deal to be on par thanks to its latest 13th gen Intel chip.

Find an HP ZBook laptop for under $900 is unheard of — you'd be hard pressed to find a better deal. It's a no brainer if you're looking for a powerful laptop for work or school.

Prime Day 2023 has burst through the door and it's presenting us with great deals left and right, and if you're in need of new hardware to game with, it's easy to get overwhelmed with the amount of gaming laptops on sale right now. But as someone who has been reviewing laptops for years, I've found the best gaming laptop deal for something I personally tested and fell in love with. Yes, the MSI Katana 15 is now $250 off in this phenomenal deal.

Packed with a 13th Gen Intel i7 processor and RTX 4070, the MSI Katana 15 is $1,349 at Amazon. I've seen plenty of gaming laptop deals during Prime Day, but this one is easily the most impressive, offering ideal mid-range RTX 4070 gaming performance alongside a powerful processor for 16% off.

Why the MSI Katana 15 is the best gaming laptop Prime Day deal

The MSI Katana 15 is an excellent mid-range gaming laptop boasting Intel Core i7-13620H processor, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 graphics card, 16GB of RAM, 1TB of SSD storage and a 15.6-inch, 1920 x 1080-pixel IPS 144Hz display. While we found its color depth and peak brightness to be underwhelming, it is an excellent choice for cost conscious gamers needing something strong without breaking the bank.

When I reviewed the MSI Katana 15 I gave it a 4/5 and noted its superb gaming performance, solid productivity scores, satisfying keyboard and decent sound system. Even at its initial launch price, I believed it was pretty affordable for its specs and that MSI had chose great price at $1,599. But now seeing that the laptop has dropped to $1,349, it has become a real steal.

On the Geekbench 5.5 overall performance test, the Katana 15's multi-core score of 11,581 is surprisingly great considering the category average is all the way down at 5,643. It also performed excellently in gaming metrics, managing 96 frames per second on Grand Theft Auto V at 1080p, 94 fps on Far Cry 6, 103 fps on Dirty 5, 106 fps on Assassin's Creed Valhalla and 99 fps on Borderlands 3. 

There are only major two reasons we'd recommend against purchasing the MSI Katana 15 as your next gaming laptop. First of all, it's only ideal for those needing a mid-tier GPU, as those who prefer budget or high-end laptops should look elsewhere. But even then, I've previously written about how buying an RTX 4080 laptop or higher is setting your money on fire, so be sure to reconsider that decision.

Second, the Katana 15's display is underwhelming and is easily its greatest flaw. It only reproduced 46.1% of the DCI-P3 color gamut in our tests, and its average brightness rested at 248 nits. This is undeniably lackluster and dim, but considering the price point, it's no surprise that MSI had to sacrifice something to maintain its affordability.

Looking for more phenomenal Prime Day deals? We've got you covered! Visit our Prime Day deals hub for the best summer discounts.

If you're outside of the laptop world, it's easy to be dazzled by big-name brands like Apple, Lenovo and Dell while shopping for the best Prime Day laptop deals, but as someone who actually tests them for a living, I can tell you that there are laptops that are better and cheaper than popular laptops like the M2 MacBook Air.

Case in point: the Acer Swift Go 14, which is now only $799 on Newegg for Prime Day.

This bad boy is a MacBook Air killer, crushing it in several categories, including CPU performance, DCI-P3 color gamut coverage, productivity, creativity and responsiveness.

The best Prime Day laptop deal that's better than the M2 MacBook Air

Proof that the Acer Swift Go 14 is better than the M2 MacBook Air for Prime Day

As mentioned, the Acer Swift Go 14 is only $799 for Prime Day at Newegg, down from its original listing price of nearly $1,000. And it's better than the 13-inch M2 MacBook Air, according to our testing. (It's better than the 15-inch model, too, but we'll be focusing on the 13-inch model for simplicity.) 

Here are three reasons why:

• Its display blew us away. It is one of the most vivid displays we've tested of all time. It has a DCI-P3 color gamut coverage of 175.7% compared to the M2 MacBook Air's measly 78.6% score.
• Thanks to its Intel Core i7-13700H processor, it has faster CPU performance, crushing the M2 MacBook Air with a Geekbench multicore score of 11,950. Compare this to the M2 MacBook Air's score of 9,824.
• The Acer Swift Go 14 is better at productivity (word processing, editing documents, manipulating spreadsheet data web browsing). It delivered a productivity Crossmark score of 1,858 compared to the MacBook Air's 1,380.
• The Acer Swift Go 14 is better at creativity (editing digital photos, cataloging digital photos and editing digital video). It output a Crossmark creativity score of 2,048 compared to the MacBook Air's 1,845.
• The MacBook Air is less responsive at opening files, saving files and writing files.  On the Crossmark responsiveness test, it delivered a score 1,064, which was crushed by the Acer Swift Go 14's 1,856 score.

The Acer Swift Go 14 in this Prime Day laptop deal comes with the following specs:

• 13th Gen Intel Core i7-13700H
• Intel Iris Xe graphics
• 16GB of DDR5 RAM
• 512GB of SSD storage
• 14-inch, 1920 x 1200-pixel touchscreen display
• Windows 11 Home

You'll want to act fast! This is the last day of Prime Day, and you'd hate to suffer from regret for not snatching up this deal fast enough.

Prime Day is where you'll get some of the best deals on everything from a toaster to an oven, but we're Laptop Mag, so check out these Prime Day laptop deals like the HP Envy x360 for less than $1000.

You can find the HP Envy x360 with a 13th Gen Core i7 for $899 @ Amazon. That's $300 off its $1,199 list price and the lowest price we've seen for this laptop. It's one of the best Prime Day laptop deals you can get. 

HP Envy x360 laptops are some of the most premium and stylish laptops around, but this model also comes with a 15-inch, 1920 x 1080-pixel display, an Intel Core i7-1355U CPU, Intel Iris Xe Graphics, 16GB of RAM, and 1TB of SSD storage.

With a 2-in-1 laptop, you can use its versatility for drawing, watching, or surfing the web. Measuring 14.1 x 9.01 x 0.73 inches and weighing 3.88 pounds, this versatile HP Envy x360 easily slips into your backpack for easy travel. 

This Envy x360 comes with 2 USB-Type A ports, 2 Thunderbolt 4 ports, an HDMI port, and a combo audio jack.

Another cool feature is that the Envy x360 comes with a 5MP IR webcam, so that means it works with Windows Hello (a security feature) and you'll look better than on your average 720p webcam.

I just reviewed this alien-esque, funky laptop, packed with an RTX 4070 GPU, that you can wear as a crossbody bag, and now, with the Swift X 14 in my hands, I’m back into the land of boring laptops where no other color seems to exist besides gray and black. Sigh!

But you know what? Sometimes, boring is good. The bad boy is exciting, wild and chaotic, but truthfully, you need someone grounded, practical and down-to-earth — and that’s the Swift X 14. This laptop — as uninspiring as it may seem — will facilitate your content creation tasks, thanks to its 13th Gen Intel Core i7 processor and Nvidia RTX 40-series graphics. 

Plus, with a starting price at $1,099, Swift X 14 is easy on your pockets, too. Although the Swift X 14 undercuts similarly specced competitors with an attractive price tag, this comes at a cost. The Swift X 14 struggled to beat its pricier competitors on some benchmarks, but perhaps you may find that the performance delta is worth overlooking in favor of its great value. Read on to find out if the Swift X 14 is best for you — and whether it’ll land on our best laptops page.

Acer Swift X price and configurations

The Swift X 14 I tested costs $1,499 at B&H and Acer, and comes with an Intel Core i7-13700H CPU, 16GB of DDR5 RAM, 1TB of SSD storage, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 GPU with 6GB of VRAM, and a 14.5-inch, 2880 x 1800-pixel, 16:10, 120Hz display.

The cheapest configuration costs $1,099, which downgrades you to an Intel Core i5-13500H CPU, 16GB of DDR5 RAM, 512GB of SSD storage, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 with 6GB of VRAM, and a 14.5-inch, 2560 x 1600-pixel, 16:10, 120Hz display.

Note: This review unit is currently on sale for $100 off at B&H Photo.

Acer Swift X design

The Acer Swift X 14 is yet another silver laptop — insert eye roll — but it’s actually quite sophisticated looking, especially when you look at the deck. The island-style, slightly recessed keyboard looks like it’s got a subtle, barely there frame that makes it look like an eye-catching centerpiece.

There is a craftily made vent — I initially thought they were speakers — that runs the length of the keyboard and sits right between the hinge and the function row. The lid is a bit of a snoozefest — you’ll see more of that silver hue with a lustrous stamp centered at the top that says, “Acer.” Riveting.

Overall, the Swift X 14 has a solid, sturdy build. The hinge is tightly wound while still being flexible enough to bend backwards until it hits its limit, and no matter how hard I press on the deck, it refuses to give in to pressure.

The Swift X 14 certainly isn’t the lightest laptop I’ve gotten my hands on, but considering the powerful components inside, it’s got a lot less heft than you’d expect.

The Swift X 14 has dimensions of 12.7 x 9.0 x 0.7 inches and weighs 3.42 pounds. The competitors I’ll be comparing to the Swift X 14 in this review are the MSI Stealth 14 Studio (3.75 pounds, 12.4 x 9.69 x 0.75 inches) Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra (3.95 pounds, 14 x 9.86 x 0.65 inches), making the Acer laptop the lightest compared to its rivals. 

Acer Swift X ports

Which ports does the Swift X 14 offer? Well, on the left side, there are two Thunderbolt 4 ports, an HDMI 2.1 port, a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port, and a headset jack. On the right side, you’ll find a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A port, a Kensington lock slot, a microSD card slot, and a power button that doubles as a fingerprint reader.

These ports should be sufficient, but if you’re hungry for more, check out our best USB Type-C hubs and best laptop docking stations pages. 

Acer Swift X display

The Acer Swift X 14 packs a 14.5-inch, 2880 x 1800-pixel, OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, a 1ms response rate, and a 16:10 aspect ratio.

I fired up Queen Charlotte: A Bridgerton Story on Netflix, and I was pleasantly surprised by how well the display produced the vivid splashes of color that enlivened the Georgian-era show. As the protagonist strutted around with an ostentatious, regal gown fit for the Queen, I marveled at the baby blue dress as it complimented the actress’s caramel skin tone quite well. As India Ria Amarteifio, the actress who plays the queen, gracefully made her way through the lush gardens on a royal estate, I couldn’t help but notice the verdant, rich greens that emanated from the panel. 

Acer boasts that the Swift X 14 covers 100% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, but what do our in-house results say? As it turns out, not only is Acer spot on, but the Swift X 14 actually exceeds the Taiwan-based company’s claims with a DCI-P3 color gamut coverage of 138%! This beats the average premium laptop (128%), the MSI Stealth 14 Studio (114%), and the disappointing Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra (86%).

Acer also claims that the Swift X 14 has a 400-nit display, However, according to our testing, the panel is slightly dimmer than that with an average of 359 nits. This is less luminous than the average premium laptop (387 nits), the MSI Stealth 14 Studio (370 nits), and the Galaxy Book 3 Ultra (378 nits).

The Swift X 14’s color accuracy is pretty damn good. It has a Delta-E score of 0.9 (closer to 0 is better), which beats the average premium laptop (0.23) and the Galaxy Book 3 Ultra (0.15), but matches the Stealth 14 Studio (0.9).

Acer Swift X 14 keyboard and touchpad

The Acer Swift X 14 has a typical black-keys-ivory-letters design. It has dual-tier backlighting that can be activated with the F11 key. 

I’m typing this very section of the review on the Swift X 14 laptop, and I don’t love it, but I don’t hate it either. It gets the job done, but I wish the keys were springier, propelling my fingers to fly off from one letter to another. Overall, it’s just a run-of-the-mill, forgettable, mushy keyboard. What I do love about this keyboard, however, is that it is library quiet. If I ever lock myself in a closet during the zombie apocalypse, the Swift X 14 is the one laptop I’d want to have with me; I can quietly contact 911 for help — if that’s even possible. Still, after this section, I’ll be hopping right back onto my HP Envy 13, which has one of my favorite keyboards ever.

On the 10FastFingers.com typing test, I managed to hit an average of 87 words per minute, which matches my typical 87-89 wpm average.

The OceanGlass touchpad, made with ocean-bound plastic waste that will pluck the hearts of eco-friendly users, is quite large, sporting dimensions of 5.0 x 3.1 inches. Again, it does the job — it has the right balance of grippiness and smoothness, allowing me to navigate Windows 11 like a champ. I also tested Windows 11 gestures such as three-finger tabbing and two-finger scrolling — all responded as if they were at my every beck and call.

Acer Swift X audio

The Acer Swift 14 comes packed with bottom-firing, dual speakers. I fired up the Hot Hits USA playlist on Spotify, which launched “All My Life (ft. J. Cole)” by Lil Durk. 

The uplifting, mid-tempo hip hop tune struggled to sound full and well balanced with the mélange of the simple piano melody, the subtle drum beat, and Lil Durk’s vocals. The speakers won’t be loud enough to start a block party, but it filled my medium-sized testing room. 

The Swift X 14 could still use some tuning, so I fired up the DTS:X Ultra app, which comes with seven presets: Automatic, Music, Voice, Movies, Strategy, RPG, and Shooter. I preferred the Automatic profile, which is designed to optimize audio depending on what you’re listening to — Lil Durk’s vocals sounded smoother and more honeyed.

Acer Swift X performance

I feel bad for the Swift X 14. It came into the market equipped with some fine internal components, but unfortunately, the competition is stiff. The Acer laptop is packed with an Intel Core i7-13700H CPU and 16GB of RAM.

Still, the Swift X 14 is one tough cookie. Even after slamming it with 40 Google Chrome tabs, some of which were playing Twitch streams simultaneously, the Acer laptop continued to function like a well-oiled machine, juggling tasks like a talented court jester.

On the Geekbench 5.5 overall performance test, the Swift X 14 scored a stellar multi-core score of 12,168, but as mentioned, it’s up against some top dogs. While it beat the average premium laptop (7,949), it couldn’t not keep up with the Stealth 14 Studio (12,841) nor Galaxy Book 3 Ultra (12,405) — even though they have the same exact processor as the Swift X 14. Tsk, tsk!

Can the Swift X 14 beat its rivals on the Handbrake benchmark? Unfortunately, the answer is no. The Acer laptop took 7 minutes and 46 seconds to transcode a 4K video to 1080p. To complete the same task, the Stealth 14 Studio (4:41) and Galaxy Book 3 Ultra (6:06) were much faster.

Like its MSI and Samsung rivals, the Swift X 14 is outfitted with a 1TB, which took 13 seconds to duplicate 25GB of mixed-media files at a rate of 1,963 megabytes per second, zipping past the average premium laptop (1,372.4 MBps) and the Stealth 14 Studio (1,208 MBps), but the Galaxy Book 3 Ultra was unbeatable in this round with a breakneck file-transfer rate of 2,075.9 MBps.

Acer Swift X graphics

The Acer Swift X 14 comes with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 GPU with 6GB of VRAM — the same graphics packed inside the Stealth 14 Studio and the Galaxy Book 3 Ultra. The discrete graphics card makes the Swift X 14 an ideal choice for content creators and casual gamers, but is it the best laptop you can get? Let’s take a look at how it performed against its rivals.

On the 3DMark Fire Strike benchmark, the Swift X 14 delivered a score of 13,642, which beats the average premium laptop (7,863), but it struggled to surpass the mighty MSI Stealth 14 Studio (22,675) and the speedy Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra (14,307). Although all three laptops share the same GPU, it’s worth noting that the Stealth 14 Studio has more VRAM onboard (8GB vs 6GB), which likely contributes to its spectacular graphics performance.

Now, let’s take a look at how well the Swift X 14 can handle gaming. On the Sid Meier’s Civilization VI: Gathering Storm (1080p) benchmark, the Acer laptop notched an average of 92 frames per second. This beats the average premium laptop (53 fps), but it couldn’t outpace the Galaxy Book 3 Ultra (95 fps). Unfortunately, we don’t have numbers on how well the MSI Stealth 14 Studio performed on the same benchmark. 

Acer Swift X battery life

I typically like my laptops to have at least 10 hours of battery life, but with the Swift X 14, I have no choice but to be more lenient. After all, it’s packed with beastly, power-consuming internals that are bound to negatively affect its battery life.

For example, the MSI Stealth 14 Studio has been obliterating the Swift X 14 on almost every benchmark this far, but its power comes at a cost — it only last 3 hours and 17 minutes on a single charge, according to the Laptop Mag battery test (which involves continuously surfing the web at 150 nits of brightness).

The Swift X 14 lasts 7 hours and 26 minutes, which isn’t half bad for a laptop packed with RTX 40-series graphics, but it could not compete with the Galaxy Book 3 Ultra, which delivered an impressive runtime of 9 hours and 3 minutes.

Acer Swift X webcam

The Swift X 14 webcam is OK. At the very least, it’s not a 720p camera — I’m glad that the market is moving away from those. The 1080p shooter on the Acer laptop supposedly comes with Temporal Noise Reduction, which appears to help to an extent. It’s not too noisy, but I could still see some grain.

On the plus side, the Swift X 14 captures colors well, accurately rendering my bright, multi-colored top that featured bright orange and blue hues. 

If you want something more suitable for video calls, check out our best webcams page.

Acer Swift X heat

Under the hood, the Swift X 14 features dual copper heat pipes and a redesigned fan with inclined blades that boost air intake by 7% compared to its predecessor. 

Let’s see how well the Swift X 14 handles our heat test, which involves streaming a 15-minute video. When we tested the touchpad (79 degrees Fahrenheit), keyboard center (89 degrees) and underside (90 degrees Fahrenheit), all regions managed to stay cool and well below our 95-degree comfort level threshold.

Acer Swift X software and warranty

The Acer Swift X 14 runs on Windows 11 Home and comes equipped with a gaggle of Acer-branded apps, including the Care Center, which lets you see your system’s serial number and whether it needs any updates. Plus, you can do battery checkups and backup your data.

You’ll also find Clipchamp, a beginner-friendly app that lets you casually edit videos. Other Microsoft-owned apps include Teams, News, Photos, OneNote, Paint, People and more.

The Swift X 14 comes with a one-year limited warranty. See how Acer performed on our Tech Support Showdown and Best and Worst Brands ranking.

Bottom line

I’m big on battery life, and unfortunately, the Swift X 14’s 7-hour runtime just doesn’t cut it for our spot on our best laptops page. You may argue that this isn’t half bad for a laptop with an RTX 4050 GPU, but keep in mind that the Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra has 9 hours of battery life and packs the same exact specs.

At the same time, the Galaxy Book 3 Ultra is significantly pricier than the Acer laptop, which has a painful price tag of $2,400 — that’s nearly $1,000 more than the Swift X 14! As such, you’ll have to consider whether the performance bump and the extra battery life is worth an additional $1,000.

The MSI Stealth 14 Studio was a champ in this review, beating both the Acer and Samsung laptops. It costs $1,799, which is a little more palatable than Samsung’s price tag, but its 3-hour battery life is abysmal.

That being said, the Swift X 14 may be the best choice. It has more than enough power to handle your content creation tasks and has decent battery life, but it won’t break the bank.

Which HP EliteBook business laptops are best for you? Read on for our top picks. HP EliteBook business laptops are workhorses built for the long haul. Whether you're an IT manager equipping a thousand employees or a power user due for an upgrade, HP has a solution for you.

These machines boast sleek aluminum designs, comfortable keyboards, and top-notch security features - think optional privacy screens, IR cameras, and integrated webcam covers. They're no surprise regulars on our "best laptops" and "best business laptops" lists.

Choosing the best EliteBook to meet your needs can be a daunting task, no worries, we’ve got you covered. Read on for our top picks to find the perfect HP EliteBook for your business needs.

The Quick List

Best Battery Life

The battery runtime on the HP Elite Dragonfly G3 will knock you off your feet. According to our in-house testing, it lasted an amazing 14 hours and 20 minutes. The average laptop lasts about 10 hours, give or take, so we were taken aback to see that the Elite Dragonfly G3 survived an extra four hours.

The Elite Dragonfly G3 comes with 12th Gen Intel Core i5 and i7 processors, and a minimum of 256GB of SSD storage and 16GB of RAM. The cheapest Elite Dragonfly G3 you can get is about $1,900, but the total could climb to $3,999 if you need 32GB of RAM, 1TB of SSD storage, 5G support, and a 12th Gen Intel Core i7 vPro processor.

Best of all, the Dragonfly G3 actually has a good webcam. It has a 5MP shooter, which is much better than the not-so-great 720p and 1080p webcams that continue to plague the laptop market.

See our full review of the HP Elite Dragonfly G3.

best business laptop

The Envy and Spectre series tend to get all the praise, but many of their best characteristics can also be found in HP's business laptops, especially the flagship EliteBook x360 1040 G7.

It flaunts an attractive metal chassis, boasts lightning-quick performance, and lasts for more than 15 hours on a charge. The 1080p display is a good one for work and play, plenty of ports mean you don't need a dongle, and a spattering of default and optional features make your work experience more secure and efficient.

The sky-high price means the 1040 G7 is only meant for the high-rollers; execs making the six-figure salaries, invaluable researchers working long nights, and the paper pushers with a Fortune 500 company attached to their LinkedIn profiles.

See our full HP EliteBook x360 1040 G7 review

best budget laptop

The highlight of these laptops. the EliteBook 830 G7 and EliteBook 840 G7, are their sleek aluminum chassis, which smartly blends form with function. Looking past the frame, these two EliteBook models get you a solid 1080p display, fast performance, a bevy of security features and a comfortable keyboard — everything you need to finish projects at work or relax after you clock out.

At the right price, I'd consider these models over the ThinkPad X1 Carbon, our long-standing best business laptop. It ultimately comes down to pricing — if you can find these on sale for less than their rivals, then don't hesitate to snag them for your workforce — they'll be happy with their new systems, trust me.

See our HP EliteBook 830 G7 and 840 G7 review

Best HP EliteBook Performance

The HP EliteBook 845 G7 is a lightweight, slender 14-inch powerhouse with a lovely FHD display. At $1,419, it’s a bargain due to its speedy performance and ability to handle anything you throw at it. Whether you’re working from home, returning to the office, or traveling the world, the HP EliteBook will win you over.

The EliteBook was released without much fanfare but its snappy performance, picturesque display, and well-distributed lightweight chassis make this a great buy. I’d snatch one up while it’s still flying under the radar.

See our HP EliteBook 845 G7 review

Best HP EliteBook convertible laptop

The HP Elite Folio is packed with innovative, solution-solving tech — not gimmicks — that substantiates its $2,000 price tag. It also gives the Energizer Bunny a run for its money; it lasted a jaw-dropping 16 hours and 21 minutes on a charge.

Not only does the Elite Folio have the endurance of an Olympic champion, but it breaks records like one, too. The Elite Folio is the world’s first business convertible with a spectacular pull-forward mechanism. The feature lets you transform the display into a digital easel so you can get your Bob Ross on. The Elite Folio comes with an awesome stylus — a plus for users who have an affinity for digital note-taking and doodling.

See our full HP Elite Folio review.

How to Choose the best HP EliteBook business laptop

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

To make your shopping process a little easier, our Editor-in-Chief Sherri L. Smith has put together some tried-and-true guidelines to help you choose the best laptop.

Budget: What you get for the money.

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

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 use your computer on your lap or carry it around a lot, go for one with a 12, 13 or 14-inch display. If you want to use the computer on tables and desks and won't carry it around much, a 15-inch model may give you more value. Some gaming rigs, media machines and workstations even have 17 or 18-inch screens, but those are hardest to carry.

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 using it standing up, a 2-in-1 could be for you. However, you can often get better features or a lower price by going with a traditional clamshell-style laptop.

Battery Life: 8+ Hours for Portability

Unless you only plan to use your laptop on your desk, battery life matters. Even within the home or office, having plenty of juice enables you to work on the couch or at the conference table, without being chained to the nearest outlet. For the best portability, we recommend getting a laptop that lasted over 8 hours on the Laptop Mag Battery Test. The longest-lasting laptops endure for over 10 hours.

Specs: 1080p / Core i5 / 8GB Are Best Bets

You can spend a lot of time delving into specs, but here are the key components to think about. If you just want really good mainstream performance, go for a Core i5 CPU, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD and a 1080p screen.

How We Test the best HP EliteBook business laptop

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.