The Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 (Intel) is an affordable laptop with solid performance, great battery life, and strong hinges, but its display and audio fall flat.

The Dell 14 Plus makes a good first impression with its battery life and performance, but its mediocre display, lousy audio, and shallow touchpad let it down.

From dollars to battery life, some sacrifices need to be made for x86

The Acer Aspire 3 15 is an affordable laptop that sacrifices a bit too much for me, especially with its battery life and performance. But it's not all bad.

Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition offers a perfect combination of display and audio quality mixed with longevity and portability, as well as a clicky keyboard.

The HP Omen Max 16 delivers so much good with its intense RTX 5090 GPU and gorgeous OLED display, but battery life and audio disappoint for a $4,000+ laptop.

The HP EliteBook Ultra G1i AI features a stellar display, an ultra-portable design, and a great keyboard, but battery life holds it back from greatness.

The Acer Chromebook Spin 312 is a solid laptop for anyone on a tight budget, especially students or retirees. With a sturdy build, vivid display, and easy set-up, it’s a quality Chromebook.

The Asus Vivobook 16 (2025) is a solid Windows 11 laptop that does what it needs to at a relatively affordable price, but you’ll need to compromise on a few things.

The Gigabyte Aorus Master 16 champions Nvidia’s latest RTX 5080 GPU in its slick chassis with a gorgeous display and bouncy keyboard, but one critical flaw stunts its growth into full bloom.