Best Budget Laptop
This year we were on a mission to find super cheap laptops that were actually viable. We tested many, but either their performance was unbearably slow, or they had other material issues. Such as a display that was dim and washed out that it was difficult to see anything on it. Pretty much most that we tested were just e-waste. But one laptop stood out.
This laptop can regularly be found on sale for around $500 to $600. If it isn't on sale, you shouldn’t buy one. The Aero 13 gives you a powerful enough AMD Ryzen Zen 4 processor with ample amounts of memory and storage. What makes it really stand out, though, is its weight. It is insanely light and portable. Other than that, every other aspect of the laptop is good enough, which is what you want for a budget machine.
That is, the older 8GB of RAM model with 256GB of storage. With Apple putting more starting memory in their MacBooks, their older ones are now a lot cheaper. At $700 or less, this version is a good buy. It has a more premium build and better creature comforts than most laptops at this price point. That includes better speakers, better webcam, better trackpad, etc. And, of course, it has Apple’s M2 processor. That gives it snappy performance, decent battery life, and very solid integrated graphics. Its downsides are that you are only getting 8GB of memory and 256GB of storage. Many people will say this is a no-go, but if you stick to basic applications like web browsing or Office, and just play casual games, you’ll be fine. In fact, you will likely appreciate the more premium aspects of this laptop versus similar priced Windows ones that do have more memory or storage but cheap out in other areas.
Best Laptops for Office, Home & School
When it comes to the best laptop for light users, these buyers received a lot of love this year. We had Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon laptops burst onto the scene as well as Intel’s Lunar Lake. Both of these gave Windows laptops what MacBooks have had for years- good performance with long battery life and no annoyances like fan noise or a warm feeling laptop. That meant that we got a lot of great devices this year, and a couple of them really stood out. Each of these are winners in our book, and which one is right for you might depend on your use-case, so here's a little more about them.
The Surface Laptop 7 13 is my personal favorite laptop for light use. That includes browsing the web, working on office documents, and managing this business. In fact, the script for our most recent video was mostly written on the Surface. Here’s why I love it. It is the most premium feeling Windows laptop I've ever owned, and it looks slick and stylish with its blue color. It has a bright fast refresh rate display, which makes it perfect for using out and about. It has a phenomenally comfortable keyboard, and its haptic trackpad is the best of any Windows laptop. In fact, it is the only one that I feel can rival a MacBook’s. Other than this, carrying it around is a joy due to its lightweight and compact form factor. All these factors combined make me want to take it with me everywhere I go.
But, its main downside is that it has a Snapdragon processor. That means it runs the ARM version of Windows. Several specialist applications and a ton of games do not run or do not run well on this hardware. In fact, for most of the other awards in today’s video I'd outright disqualify a laptop with this processor. For example, when I play my favorite game League of Legends, I have to put down by Surface and swap to a different laptop. But, in the case of this award, the applications for basic home use all work very well. Other than this, the Surface’s battery is small, and its battery life is pretty mediocre. We have the less powerful X Plus chip, too. The version with the X Elite chip has worse battery life. We did a video comparing both, linked here.
This laptop is very compact, well built, and super lightweight. It has a nice OLED display, and very long battery life. It’s also an Intel laptop so all applications work, and you can even do some light gaming. The Intel Lunar Lake processor in this Zenbook has great integrated graphics. But, its display doesn’t get that bright, it is very glossy and reflective. I found using this laptop in coffee stores was challenging. I had to try to angle the screen in a variety of ways to avoid reflections.
Next is the Slim 7x. This is another really premium and stunning looking Snapdragon laptop. It is incredibly thin and light, especially given its large 14.5 inch display. It is also the best performing Snapdragon laptop we tested. It has very long battery life with its large battery, and it has the best OLED display of any laptop too. The Slim 7x’s display is bright at 500 nits and it doesn’t have a screen door effect. And, if all that wasn’t enough, the Slim 7x is incredibly well priced for what you get.
Its downsides are that its trackpad is very slippery and annoyingly loud to click, and its port selection is limited, USB C only with no headphone jack. It also has a Snapdragon processor, which means there is a risk that applications or games won't work. But, as I said, since many people in this category are just sticking to Office applications, web browsing and that sort of thing, you'd probably be fine.
This one is basically a larger version of the Slim 7x that solves all three of that laptop’s issues. It uses an Intel Lunar Lake processor, so all applications work, it has better ports, and its trackpad is much better. I find it less slippery and loud to click. The other main difference between it and the Slim 7x is a larger 15.3 inch IPS display. Not an OLED panel. Don’t worry though, its still a great panel. Bright, high-resolution, fast refresh rate, and you won't have to worry about OLED burn in. Plus, just like the Slim 7x it has a deliciously comfortable keyboard.
Overall it has minimal drawbacks, but many people won’t want a larger 15.3 inch laptop. Especially when it looks dull in comparison to these others.
Last, we have the MacBook Air with M3. It is the reliable choice. A very premium laptop with Apple’s efficient M3 processor. Everything just works really well. Bright screen, good trackpad, decent speakers and webcam etc. Plus, Apple just increased the starting memory to 16 GB. Its downsides are that its kind of fallen behind these windows laptops in several areas. It's keyboard feels low travel and isn’t that comfortable. It doesn’t have a fast refresh rate display nor a touch screen.
Best 2-in-1 Laptops
This year, we got a lot more serious about testing 2-in-1s, and for most of the year one laptop just stood out. The HP Spectre 14. Like all HP’s, it was regularly on sale, usually for around $1,200. For this price you got decent performance, ample memory and storage, and a lot of premium features. Most importantly, an accurate haptic trackpad and an OLED display. Since it is an Intel laptop, all software will run, even light games.
This laptop was later replaced by the HP OmniBook Ultra Flip. It has Intel’s newer and better Lunar Lake processor. But, this update was a case of two steps forward and a step back. The improvements are that the Flip is smaller and more portable than the Spectre, and it no longer has any fan noise, which the Spectre occasionally suffered from. But, unfortunately, one of the best parts of the Spectre is worse on the Flip- its keyboard. It is now much more shallow and less comfortable.
Despite everything good we have to say about both the Spectre and the Flip, they are only getting a runner-up spot because ASUS swooped in at the last minute with their PX13
The PX13 is a far more versatile 2-in-1. It has AMD’s new Zen 5 processor, which is much more powerful than the processor in the Flip. Plus, with the ProArt, you get powerful dedicated graphics with either an Nvidia RTX 4050 or 4060. So, you can do real performance tasks on this tiny laptop or enjoy some AAA games. That is something most 2-in-1s can’t even dream of. The ProArt also feels incredibly premium and it looks stylish. And, unlike the Flip, it has a very comfortable keyboard. Sure, it doesn’t have a haptic trackpad, but its mechanical one is pretty good.
Its main downsides are that its high-resolution screen doesn't get very bright, and it is locked at 60Hz which will definitely annoy some gamers who would've picked this one up otherwise. We still enjoy this one a lot, but it's worth mentioning. Overall, the ProArt PX13 is the ultimate premium, portable, and powerful 2-in-1.
Best Laptop for Gamers
It was a tough year for gamers. There were a couple of refreshes and new laptops, but most manufacturers are holding off till CES 2025, which is in January. That’s when we expect NVidia’s big RTX 5000 launch.That being said, there was one truly amazing gaming laptop launched this year. And it easily wins this award.
Originally launched with Intel’s Core Ultra Meteor Lake processor, the redesigned G16 got off to a bad start. That chip is simply not power efficient enough to be placed in a thin chassis like the G16’s. So, the laptop got warm and had a decent amount of fan noise, some of which was super annoying as it was high-pitched. After several bios updates the fan noise improved, but it wasn’t until Asus replaced Intel with AMD that it was solved completely. We have two identical G16’s both with RTX 4070s. One has the Intel processor and the other AMD. The difference between them is massive. On paper the AMD processor delivers more performance for the same power draw. In the real world the AMD variant feels significantly cooler while gaming and has less fan noise. Gaming laptops are prone to a lot of heat and fan noise, so this is a very welcome change. And, in light use, this laptop is dead silent unlike the Intel variant.
Overall, this is a phenomenal achievement given how compact and lightweight the G16 is. Everything else about the laptop feels premium. The display is a stunning high resolution OLED panel with a super-fast refresh rate. Its only real downside is that the AMD version can only be had with up to an RTX 4070. The Intel version, which is not as good, can be had with a more powerful RTX 4080.
We don’t have a runner up for this category as no other gaming laptop really stood out. The much-hyped Legion 7i, which was the replacement to our prior favorite the Legion Slim 7, just gets way too warm to the touch. Lenovo should never have put a power-hungry Intel HX processor in that laptop.
Best Laptop for Creators
The MacBook Pro 16 with one of Apple’s new M4 Pro or Max processors is by far the best for those doing creative work. These new MacBooks deliver jaw dropping performance, in line with huge heavy Windows gaming machines. And, when compared to those, the MacBooks are so much quieter while doing high performance tasks, and they don’t feel as warm to the touch. In fact, the MacBook Pro is really the only laptop where you can do real work while on battery without it dying. This is all due to Apple’s insanely power efficient M4 chips. If you are doing audio work or photo editing, save some money and go for an M4 Pro model. This year’s Pro chips are a huge improvement in performance from last year’s. If you are doing 3D work or video editing, I'd recommend getting one with a Max chip. You’ll appreciate those extra GPU cores and Media Engine.
If you don’t want a Mac, our runner up for Creators is the Asus ProArt P16. This is a super thin and portable 16-inch laptop that is very powerful. It’s basically the creator version of the Zephyrus G16 I mentioned earlier. It uses the same chassis, which makes it lighter and more portable than the MacBook Pro 16. You get AMD’s Zen 5 processor inside, which as I’ve said is currently the best processor for high performance Windows laptops. It doesn’t give the most performance, that would be Intel’s HX chips, but it gives you the best balance of performance and power efficiency. So, the laptop doesn’t sound like a jet engine or feel as hot. With the ProArt P16, you can get it with an Nvidia RTX 4060 or 4070. It can be had with plenty of memory up to 64g and it has a stunning color accurate 4K display. Its main downside is that its display only refreshes at 60Hz, and the screen isn’t as bright as I'd like.
Best Laptop for Programmers
This time both the 14 and 16-inch models are our winners because a lot of coders will want to sacrifice some screen real estate for more portability. By the way, for those coders who don’t want a MacBook hang tight, you are going to love our runners-up.
The MacBook Pros have stunning, large, very bright, high-resolution displays. Perfect for viewing a ton of small code. As mentioned, you get incredible performance and unparalleled power efficiency. This means you won’t be distracted by fan noise or a warm feeling laptop while you debug someone else’s terrible code. And, if you want to code on battery, MacBooks have you covered and will last a lot longer than Windows laptops. For most programmers, a MacBook Pro with an M4 Pro chip is ideal. 24GB of RAM should be enough for most of you. For example, you can run an 8GB VM while keeping 16GB for your core system.
For those doing Data Science, MacBook Pros are quite unique. They give you that perfect combination of large amounts of fast memory and powerful dedicated graphics. Ideal for training your models. For you, an M4 Max equipped MacBook Pro is ideal for those extra GPU cores and large amounts of memory. So if you can afford it, spring for that one.
This laptop is just good at everything and it often goes on sale making it extremely reasonably priced. Especially compared to those MacBook Pros. It’s a 16inch laptop that has a powerful enough Core Ultra 9 processor paired with NVidia’s RTX 4050, RTX 4060 or even a 4070 for those outside the USA. It has a fantastic MiniLED display that is bright, high-resolution, and has a fast refresh rate. Perfect for viewing a ton of code. It also has one of the most comfortable laptop keyboards that I've ever used. It’s a joy to type on. What you’ll notice about this laptop is that it stays cool to the touch no matter what you do on it. This laptop can really do it all, from coding, to gaming, to video editing.
Now, what if you don't want dedicated graphics? Unfortunately, our current favorite is not yet available in the US, but it definitely deserves a spot here regardless. It offers a compact form factor with a bright, high-resolution 14.5-inch screen, a new AMD Zen 5 processor, and a super comfortable keyboard. This type of performance machine is better for those of you who don't do any machine learning or gaming on the side.
Best Laptop of 2024
I think you may have guessed this from all the awards it won. Folks, these laptops deliver crazy performance and power efficiency that completely embarrasses Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm. They really define what a laptop should be. They are portable, they are insanely powerful, they give you very long battery life in real world use (not just in benchmarks), and they don’t disturb you with fan noise. Plus, they are all round premium devices. Great trackpad, keyboard, webcam, and speakers. Their only real negative is their price, but often in life, you get what you pay for, and that is the case here.
Of course, some people would consider MacOS a negative as well, but that depends on what you're doing on your laptop. Unless you're doing AAA gaming, most applications are available on their ecosystem these days. For most users, who aren't gamers, these are wonderful machines.
For those gamers I just mentioned, this is our favorite laptop of the year for you. It's also powerful enough for creators who game on the side, it comes in a shockingly thin form factor, and it offers broad app compatibility. If you're not into MacOS but still want that premium feel with a larger, fast refresh rate screen, this is the one to get.
This is Cierra's pick for best laptop of the year, and there's a lot of good reasons for that. This was a little bit of a magical device packing so much performance into such a lightweight, compact, and flexible form factor. It's also traditional Windows and the most affordable of these three premium devices which gives you a lot for the price. If you're a digital artist who games on the side, you might enjoy picking this one up instead of a drawing tablet like the iPad. Its main downsides we've mentioned are that its glossy screen is prone to reflections and it is capped at 60Hz. If these things don't bother you, there's not much else to be worried about with this laptop.
