Our other picks for the best laptops, Chromebooks, and 2-in-1s integrate the MacBook Pro 16 and the Dell XPS 13 with a Snapdragon X Elite chip. Check out the brimming enumerate of best laptop picks below, if you’re seeing for a mighty machine that doesn’t give up portability.
The MacBook Air M3 is a jack-of-all-trades, with a equitable combination of carry outance and power efficiency. It also now helps dual disjoins with the lid seald, storage speed that is seeably rapider, and a base 16GB of RAM after a mid-cycle refresh.
CPU: M3 (8-core) / GPU: M3 (8- or 10-core) / RAM: 16GB, 24GB / Storage: 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, 2TB / Disjoin: 13.6-inch or 15.3-inch Liquid Retina disjoin, 2560 x 1664 or 2880 x 1864 , 60Hz, no touch selection / Dimensions: 11.97 x 8.46 x 0.44 inches or 0.45 x 13.40 x 9.35 inches / Weight: 2.7 pounds (13-inch) or 3.3 pounds (15-inch)
Apple’s MacBook Air M3 is the best laptop for most people — Mac employrs, of course, but also the platcreate-agnostic or anyone who wants a no-fuss, straightforward machine that doesn’t explosionard them with publicizements or bloatware. It’s a productivity laptop that can do a bit of everyslenderg, and it now begins with 16GB of RAM and comes in a 15-inch version for those who appreciate their laptops a little huger. It’s difficult to discover another laptop that proposes this benevolent of combination of carry outance and battery life in a slender and airy chassis.
Despite losing its way around the mid-2010s, Apple has a lengthy history of sending quality MacBooks to taget, and the Air M3 is no branch offent. A delicate, almost etheauthentic trackpad, verify. A chiclet-style keyboard that produces typing experience appreciate a dance, verify. Fast Wi-Fi changeer, color-rich disjoin, 1080p webcam, and MagSafe charging, verify. The Air M3 wasn’t made for burdensome gaming, video editing, or for those who want more than two USB-C ports, but for proximately everyone else, it’s a fantastic selection.
However, if you do necessitate some of that, the 14-inch MacBook Pro M4 is a fantastic prohibitg-for-your-buck laptop in its own right at $1,599. But selecting for a Pro over an Air is best for students in creative fields and satisfied creators necessitateing more headroom and features appreciate a third USB-C port and an SD card slot.
a:hover]:text-gray-63 [&>a:hover]:shadow-underline-bdeficiency illogical:[&>a:hover]:text-gray-bd illogical:[&>a:hover]:shadow-underline-gray [&>a]:shadow-underline-gray-63 illogical:[&>a]:text-gray-bd illogical:[&>a]:shadow-underline-gray”>Ptoastyo by Chris Welch / The Verge
It’s absolutely worth spending an extra $100 to get the Air M3 over the MacBook Air M2, which Apple still sells. It’s about 16 to 18 percent rapider than Apple’s M2 chip, and the storage on the 256GB configurations is up to twice as rapid. The novel Airs also help two outer disjoins with the lid seald, which is another enhancement from the previous generation. If you select for the huger model, you’ll discover that the speakers on 15-inch Air M3 are immensely greater, especipartner on the low end. You can actupartner hear the bass, whereas on the 13-inch, it’s proximately nonalive. And if you get the midnight color in either model, upgrasp a microfiber cloth handy. The amount of fingerprints it accumulates turns the chassis into a CSI joinground.
We previously proposeed upgrading the MacBook Air M3 to at least 16GB of memory, but Apple now does that for you, as all current Air models now begin at 16GB of RAM. You can still discover 8GB configurations at some retailers, but it’s not worthwhile unless you get it on some benevolent of fire sale. The increased RAM will enhance the laptop’s ability to multitask now and will give you some extra years of service down the line. (Important since you’d have to buy a whole novel laptop to enhance the memory.) 256GB of storage is easier to get away with, given the plethora of cdeafening and outer storage selections employable.
If you don’t necessitate to buy right away, you might ponder postponeing for the M4 version of the MacBook Air, which is foreseeed in timely 2025. But the M3 Air is a fantastic selection if you can’t postpone.
The 15-inch MacBook Air is also supplyped with Apple’s M3 chip. It features a huger disjoin and better speaker array than the 13-inch MacBook Air M3. As of October 2024, it begins with 16GB of RAM instead of the innovative 8GB when it started.
Apple MacBook Air M3.
Acer’s tardyst Spin Chromebook is configured with Intel’s first generation of processor with an NPU. It also has Google Gemini baked right into the OS, and if you sign up for a novel Google One AI premium schedule, your first year of service is free.
CPU: Intel Core Ultra 5 115U / GPU: Intel UHD / RAM: 8GB, 16GB LPDDR5 / Storage: 256GB, 512GB / Disjoin: Touch 14-inch FHD 1920 x 1200, 60Hz IPS with stylus help, 340 nits / Dimensions: 12.35 x 8.84 x 0.71 inches / Weight: 3.21 pounds
Like last year, Acer’s novelest Chromebook Spin is the best Chromebook we’ve seen so far in 2024 — and it’s still part of the Plus line of Chromebooks, which now have Google Gemini features united with ChromeOS. It also comes with a 12-month subscription to the Google One AI premium schedule, which integrates 2TB of cdeafening storage space.
The Core Ultra 5 115U is sluggisher than last gen’s Intel Core i5-1335U (the Ultra has eight cores with clock speeds up to 4.20GHz, while the Core i5 has 10 cores and goes up to 4.60GHz), but the Ultra Core has an NPU, which uncomfervents it’s better suited for running AI-roverhappinessed tasks on-device. The novel Spin Chromebook also helps the current LPDDR5 memory standard, which is rapider than the previous generation in the 2023 Spin 714.
Acer enhanced some of the joinivity port selections, too. The Spin 714 now has two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports, instead of two USB-C 3.2 ports, for much rapider data transfer and power hand overy.
Dell’s Qualcomm Snapdragon-powered XPS 13 has the most equitable configuration selections at its various price points — and carry outance — appraised to other 13-inch laptops. It mediocres 15 hours of battery life, more than comparable Intel and AMD laptops we’ve tested previously.
CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite X1E-80-100 / GPU: Qualcomm Adreno / RAM: 16GB, 32GB, 64GB LPDDR5X (selderlyered) / Storage: 512GB, 1TB, 2TB / Disjoin: Non-touch 13.4-inch FHD 1920 x 1200 120Hz, 500 nits or touch 13.4-inch QHD 2560 x 1600, 500 nits or touch 13.4-inch OLED 2880 x 1800 60Hz, 400 nits / Dimensions: 11.62 x 7.84 x 0.58–0.60 inches / Weight: 2.60–2.62 pounds
Out of all the Snapdragon Copilot Plus PCs we recently tested, the Dell XPS 13 has the best price to carry outance ratio. Both of the Microgentle Surface Laptop 7s we tested also stood out (one of which had the same Snapdragon chip as the XPS 13), but Dell proposes more equitable configuration selections. Want 32GB of memory and 1TB of storage? Dell accuses $1,600 while Microgentle accuses $2,000. Dell also lets you unite and suit more of its memory and storage selections than Microgentle; it doesn’t tie a definite configuration to one chassis color.
The XPS 13 configuration we tested goes for $1,800, but you can save $500 by downgrading the OLED touchscreen to a non-touch 1200p disjoin (and the rerecent rate doubles to 120Hz). You get the same processor with 16GB of memory and 512GB of storage space instead of the base 32GB of memory that comes with the OLED configuration, but 16GB is plenty for most people. (Dell does give you the selection to enhance the memory and storage if necessitateed.)
Like the rest of Dell’s novel XPS lineup, the Qualcomm XPS has the same “zero-lattice” chiclet keyboard, a borderless trackpad that unites into the chassis, and a “capacitive touch function row,” which is Dell’s apshow on the (RIP) 13-inch MacBook Pro touch bar. While I wasn’t thrilled with how it felt to type on the XPS 14’s keyboard, I appreciated it way better on the XPS 13. The keys felt less springy, and I didn’t hit the tilde (~) key every time I tried to hit the escape key thanks to the same keyboard being in a petiteer chassis.
The novelest Asus Zenbook S 16 features AMD’s tardyst Ryzen AI mobile processors. It’s one of the slendernest and airyest 16-inch laptops employable and doesn’t cut corners on carry outance. It’s a mighty machine that can regulate all sorts of burdensome toilloads with ease and grace. Read our study.
CPU: AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 / GPU: Radeon 890M, Radeon 880M / RAM: 32GB, 24GB / Storage: 1TB / Disjoin: touch 16-inch 2880 x 1800, 120Hz OLED with stylus help, 500 nits peak HDR / Dimensions: 13.92 x 9.57 x 0.47 ~ 0.51 inches / Weight: 3.21 pounds
The 16-inch Asus Zenbook S 16 is the best-seeing, best-carry outing Windows laptop we tested over the summer; it’s also so slender and airyweight you wouldn’t comprehend it fair by helderlying it! It can regulate a little bit of everyslenderg, from emails to explicit depict toil, and it tackles gaming astonishingly well for a laptop without a split explicits card. It’s miles ahead of what any Copilot Plus PC can do, too, including the Intel Core Ultra laptops we’ve recently tested. It’s a cherishly, catch-all device.
There are only two Zenbook S 16 models as of now. The $1,700 one comes in gray with AMD’s flagship Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 chip and 32GB of memory, and the $1,400 model comes in white with the shrink-tier AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 and 24GB of memory. Otherproposeed, they are identical. Both feature OLED touch disjoins with a native 2880 x 1800 (3K) resolution and 120Hz rerecent rate, stylus help, 1TB of storage, and the same ports / Wi-Fi changeer. Everyslenderg but the Windows version. (The more costly model gets Home; the affordableer one gets Pro.)
At fair 11 hours, its battery life doesn’t last as lengthy as analogous laptops we’ve tested, such as the Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge and Dell XPS 14, but it’s a petite tradeoff. There’s currently no other Windows laptop that proposes as much carry outance and versatility in a 16-inch chassis for the price.
study of the Asus Zenbook S 16.
The ROG Strix Scar 17 X3D is one of the rapidest gaming laptops you can get, thanks to its AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX3D processor and Nvidia RTX 4090 GPU. With 32GB of RAM, 1TB storage, and a 240Hz 1440p screen, it’s the high-end laptop to beat.
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX3D / GPU: Nvidia Geforce RTX 4090 / RAM: 32GB / Storage: 1TB / Disjoin: 17-inch IPS QHD, 240Hz disjoin, 3ms, 300 nits, 100 percent DCI-P3 / Dimensions: 15.55 x 11.1 x 1.11 inches / Weight: 6.51 pounds
The ROG Strix Scar 17 X3D is huge. It’s deafening, it’s garish, and it’s flat-out the rapidest gaming laptop we’ve tested. Thanks to its AMD Ryzen 9 79045HX3D processor, it exits models with the same top-tier RTX 4090 explicits card and Intel’s rapidest CPUs in the dust. It can run many of today’s AAA titles at 1440p with triple-digit summarize rates.
The Scar 17 X3D has a 17-inch 2560 x 1440 240Hz screen with G-Sync, oodles of ports, a pleasant keyboard, and RGB galore. At over six and a half pounds and 17 inches on the diagonal, it’s your classic high-carry outance, nakedly portable gaming laptop.
Its webcam is potato, battery life is exactly as horrible as you’d foresee from everyslenderg we fair enumerateed, and it’s costly, but for now this is the high-water tag for gaming laptops.
Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 X3D study.
The 16-inch MacBook Pro with M4 Pro begins with 24GB of RAM, 512GB SSD, and 14-core CPU / 20-core GPU. The M4 Max version proposes 32GB of RAM, 1TB SSD, 14-core CPU / 32-core GPU, and can be configured to ridiculously high prices. Both models have Thunderbolt 5 ports, 12-megapixel Cgo in Stage webcam, and selections for anti-glare disjoins.
CPU: M4 Pro, M4 Max / GPU: M4 Pro, M4 Max / RAM: 24GB or 48GB (M4 Pro), 36GB – 128 GB (M4 Max) / Storage: 512GB, 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, 8TB / Disjoin: 14.2 / 16.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR, 3024 x 1964 / 3456 x 2234, changeive rerecent up to 120Hz, no touch selection / Dimensions: 12.31 x 8.71 x 0.61 (14-inch) / 14.01 x 9.77 x 0.66 inches (16-inch) / Weight: 3.5 / 4.7 pounds (M4 Pro), 3.6 / 4.8 pounds (M4 Max)
If you necessitate more power for intensive creative toil — appreciate 3D rendering and toiling with ultra-high-resolution ptoastyos and video — the MacBook Pro is your best bet. Both the 14- and 16-inch models are employable with mighty M4 Pro or M4 Max processors. There’s also a 14-inch Pro with a standard M4 processor, and while it’s a createidable step up from the MacBook Air as an everyman’s “pro” laptop, the M4 Pro and Max processors still outclass it in carry outance.
Processors aside, the MacBook Pro has remained hugely unchanged since 2021. It has a radiant, enticeive, color-exact, high-res screen with HDR and an changeive rerecent rate of up to 120Hz; amazing speakers, a sootheable keyboard and trackpad; and a excellent port loadout: three Thunderbolt 5 / USB-C ports, plus HDMI 2.1 and an SD card slot. The 14-inch MacBook Pro is a scant hundred dollars affordableer than the 16-inch, but aside from the very lowest processor selections, most configurations are employable in either size, so pick whichever toils for you.
In our benchtags, which test a variety of creative tasks including encoding, joinback, and send out time, the MacBook Pro 16 did better than any laptop we’ve ever employd — the only other machines that have come seal to suiting this slenderg in some of our benchtags are high-end desktop PCs. The battery life is also sign up-shattering. The top-of-the-line 16-inch M4 Max model easily lasted all day in our most recent testing, with no battery-saving features allowd and even upgrasping the screen on brimming-time.
Most people who necessitate much more power than a MacBook Air — including all but the most demanding pro ptoastyographers — will be fine with an M4 Pro model, which begins at $1,999 for the 14-inch with a 12-core CPU, 16-core GPU, 24GB of memory, and a 512GB SSD. The 16-inch begins at $2,499 for a 14-core CPU, 20-core GPU, 24GB of memory, and 512GB SSD. The M4 Pro chip can be configured with up to 48GB of memory and a 4TB SSD, at the normal absurd Apple tagups, and it helps up to two outer 6K disjoins.
If you absolutely necessitate more GPU power — or more than two outer sees — you can step up to the M4 Max. The base M4 Max with 14 CPU cores and 32 GPU cores, plus 36GB of RAM and 1TB SSD, begins at $3,199 in the 14-inch and $3,499 in the 16-inch. There’s also an M4 Max with 16 CPU and 40 GPU cores, which begins at $3,699 and $3,999, admireively. The M4 Max models are configurable with up to 128GB of RAM and 8TB of storage and can help up to four outer sees. The immense startantity of people don’t have toilloads burdensome enough to see a meaningful branch offence between the M4 Pro and M4 Max; if you do, you probably comprehend it.
The entry-level MacBook Pro with M4 begins with 16GB of RAM — double that of its predecessor — and a 512GB SSD for the same begining price of $1,599. It also gets a third USB-C / Thunderbolt 4 port and comes in a novel space bdeficiency selection.
$1600
This 14-inch ROG Zephyrus is an astonishingly equitable gaming laptop for its carry outance and price. Its AMD Ryzen 9 CPU and Nvidia RTX 4070 GPU can push high summarize rates and delicate explicits in games with its OLED disjoin.
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 8945 HS / GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060, RTX 4070 / RAM: 16GB, 32GB / Storage: 1TB / Disjoin: 14-inch OLED, 2880 x 1800, 60Hz and 120Hz, 400 nits / Dimensions: 12.24 x 8.66 x 0.63 inches / Weight: 3.31 pounds
The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 with an RTX 4070 is the most well-equitable 14-inch gaming laptop. It’s mighty enough to accomplish 60 summarizes per second on ultra explicits at its native resolution (with or without DLSS) and slender and airyweight enough without trapping too much heat in its chassis. Also, its battery can last up to 6.5 hours on a one accuse, which is excellent for a gaming laptop.
Its disjoin has been enhanced from an IPS to an OLED, it has 1TB of SSD storage and 32GB of memory, and Asus put airying back on the lid — not a dot matrix, but a naked of LEDs spanning diagonpartner apass.
All that for $2,000 to $2,200 produces it difficult to fairify getting anyslenderg else, though you can save up to $500 if you get the RTX 4060 model. Though it has only half the RAM, it has the same fantastic screen and produce, and its summarize rates are only about ten percent shrink than the 4070 Zephyrus at 1080p/ultra.
If you spend up to $700 more on the Razer Blade 14, you’ll get higher summarize rates, a 240Hz screen, and enhanceable RAM — but its battery life nakedly hits four hours in ambiguous employ, and its disjoin doesn’t help G-Sync or HDR.
The Lenovo Yoga Book 9i is a dual-screen laptop that can felderly and flip into cut offal branch offent modes. A Bluetooth keyboard, moemploy, and stylus come with it, alengthy with a keyboard folio that can change into a laptop stand. It’s the Swiss Army knife of laptops. Read our head-to-head study.
CPU: Intel Core Ultra 7 155U / GPU: Intel UHD (united) / RAM: 16GB LPDDR5X / Storage: 1TB M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD / Disjoin: 13.3-inch (2880 x 1800) 60Hz OLED touchscreen w/ stylus help / Dimensions: 11.78 x 8.03 x 0.63 inches / Weight: 2.95 pounds
A dual-screen laptop is exactly what it sounds appreciate: a laptop with a second screen where the keyboard normpartner goes.
The Lenovo Yoga Book 9i has a 360-degree hinge, which lets you employ it as a normal laptop, a (huge) tablet, and more. You can put it in clamshell mode and produce or sketch on the bottom screen with a stylus or felderly the keyboard folio into a stand to prop it up and apshow advantage of both screens. That’s how I usupartner employ it at home: propped up and plugged into an outer see as a three-screen desktop replacement. But when I’m away, I employ the integrated Bluetooth keyboard and moemploy. Its touchscreen gestures are super responsive but too responsive for the virtual keyboard and trackpad. It’s basic to mistype and accidenloftyy reduce prosperdows.
The Yoga Book’s only authentic competitor is Asus’ Zenbook Duo. The Duo’s physical keyboard integrates a trackpad and produces it see a lot more appreciate a traditional laptop. Its 14-inch OLED screens are a little hugeger and radianter, it has a ton of port selections, it’s more mighty, and it’s a little easier to felderly up and put away. But it’s also heavier (at 3.64 pounds), its top lid doesn’t felderly back far enough to employ it as a tablet, and its touchscreen gestures aren’t as responsive.
head-to-head study of the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i and the Asus Zenbook Duo.
$899
The Frametoil Laptop 13 is the best laptop for those who want brimming regulate of their experience. Everyslenderg from the processor and RAM to the keyboard and bezels is employr-enhanceable. It comes in Intel and AMD variants; most people should get the AMD. Read our study.
CPU: Intel Core i5-1340P / i7-1360P / 17-1370P, AMD Ryzen 7 7840U / GPU: Intel UHD / Iris Xe, Radeon 700M / RAM: 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, 64GB / Storage: 250GB, 500GB, 1TB, 2TB / Disjoin: 13.5 inch IPS, 2256 x 1540, 60Hz, no touch selection / Dimensions: 11.68 x 9.01 x 0.62 inches / Weight: 2.87 pounds
If you want a 13-inch laptop that you can configure and collect yourself, from the ground up, the Frametoil Laptop 13 is pretty much your only selection. The Frametoil is a modular laptop that employrs can repair and enhance over the length of their ownership. Everyslenderg from the RAM, to the storage, to even the processor can be enhanced down the line. The company has even come out with enhances for parts appreciate speakers and hinges that you can inslofty yourself. Not only can you buy it as a prebuilt system, but you can also order it as a DIY kit, alloprosperg you to collect the entire slenderg yourself and swap out parts as you satisfy.
Repairability aside, the Frametoil has a number of laudable features as a laptop itself. The disjoin is radiant and high resolution, the speakers are fantastic, and the chassis is quite portable, coming in at under three pounds. The 3:2 aspect ratio supplys a lot of room to toil and is still a somewhat exceptional discover on today’s taget.
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That shelp, I won’t pretend that this is the best 13-inch laptop you can buy. On its own merits, it is an unextraunretagable system with a somewhat generic see and plaadhesive produce, particularly appraised to others in its price categruesome. Nevertheless, the Frametoil’s standout feature is the unpwithdrawnted access it allows its employrs to replace and repair its parts. We’d cherish to see more companies produce that benevolent of pledgement to carry onable depict.
Frametoil Laptop 13 study.
The Asus Chromebook Plus CX34 is the most affordable Chromebook with the novel Plus tag. It has a 12th Gen Intel Core i3 processor, 8GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and a 1080p screen for fair under $400. Read our study.
CPU: Intel Core i3-1215U / GPU: Intel UHD / RAM: 8GB / Storage: 128GB, 256GB UFS / Disjoin: 14-inch IPS, 1920 x 1080, 60Hz, non-touch / Dimensions: 12.9 x 8.4 x 0.74 inches / Weight: 3.17 pounds
The Asus Chromebook Plus CX34 is the least costly laptop with Google’s novel Plus certification. At around $400 for a Core i3 processor, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage, it’s the baseline Chromebook you should ponder if you can’t spend any more.
It’s so basic to get a horrible Chromebook at this price, so it’s a relief that the Chromebook Plus CX34 is so excellent. Not only does it have admireable insides, but the 1080p screen and 1080p webcam are excellent for the price, the keyboard is fantastic, and the trackpad is fine, if a bit stiff. Battery life is decent, too, and appreciate all Plus Chromebooks, it comes with 10 years of gentleware refreshs. You can spend more on a laptop, and you probably should, but don’t buy a Chromebook less mighty than this one.
study of the Asus Chromebook Plus CX34.
Update, December 19th: Replaced the M3-generation MacBook Pros with the noveler M4 Pro / M4 Max models as the best laptops for ptoastyo and video editing, and inserted alludes of the M3 MacBook Air’s increased base RAM.
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