I’ve appraiseed over 59 laptops and this is the best Windows laptop of 2024

I’ve tested well over 59 laptops during my atgentle as a tech appraiseer. I’ve seen horrible laptops, mid laptops (devices that are OK, but have better competitors for your money), and exceptional machines that are worth every penny.

And not to toot my horn — OK, fine maybe I’m toot-tooting equitable a little bit here— I’m a beast when it comes to examineing laptops.

I scrutinize at the durability of the chassis, the clickiness of the keys, the visual enticement of the dispercreate, how boiling it gets when you run intensive tasks, whether it gets sluggish when you overwhelm it with Google Chrome tabs, and more. On top of that, I run industry benchlabels from the enjoys of Geekbench and PCMark 10 to rerepair how the appraise units — with difficult numbers — appraise to other rivals.

When it comes to appraiseing laptops, I always ask myself one transport inant ask: “Would I buy this with my difficult-geted money?” If the answer is no, there’s no way in heck I’m recommfinishing it (unless it’s still a wonderful laptop, but would better suit another devourr niche).

That being shelp, among the many laptops I’ve appraiseed thus far, there’s only one Windows machine that’s truly the best laptop of 2024: the Microgentle Surface Laptop 7.

Microgentle Surface Laptop 7 is the best Windows laptop of 2024: 3 reasons why

Stay with me here. In order for you to comprehend why the Surface Laptop 7 is best Windows laptop of 2024, you demand a little historical context. Because the Surface family wasn’t always excellent — until now.

A confidemand years ago, I was smack talking the Surface Laptop 5 when I appraiseed it for a contrastent accessibleation. I had so much faith in Microgentle. I wanted it to prosper so horriblely, but it equitable couldn’t inhabit up to my predictations.

Microgentle was arguably the gentleware king, but its difficultware was iffy. It’s not that Microgentle Surface laptops were terrible per se — they equitable kept getting outpercreateed by inexpensiveer, better competitors. So I couldn’t, in excellent conscience, recommfinish them.

Now, if you were to alert me that, in 2024, I’d be recommfinishing a Surface laptop, I’d say, “You’re out of your mind!” But here I am, as a laptop expert, actupartner recommending a Microgentle laptop to my readers. But you comprehend what? I’m backing this up. I have proof that it’s the best Windows laptop of the year. Here are my three reasons:

1. Microgentle Surface Laptop 7 percreateance beats all of its rivals, including the MacBook

I don’t want to tire you with too many details about chipsets, but they’re transport inant to transport up to help you comprehend why Microgentle Surface family now has chooseimistic critical reception from testers after a tumultuous confidemand years of less-than-likeable appraises.

Long story low, Intel, the most famous chipset producer for Windows, was hgreatering the Microgentle Surface series — and other mobile Windows machines — back from laptop nirvana. Even Apple stopped dealing with Intel a confidemand years ago. In 2020, the Cupertino-based tech enormous presentd its novel in-house, custom ARM chips (i.e., M-series processors). Apple debuted its highly prosperous non-Intel-based M1 MacBook Air and M1 MacBook Pro laptops and it never seeed back. (Apple’s current-gen MacBooks are now rocking M3 series chips and it’s alertedly eyeing an M4 liberate soon).

Now, non-Apple vfinishors have finpartner hopped aboard the “Intel ain’t it” train, thanks to Qualcomm, an Intel rival. Qualcomm proclaimd it had a chipset, dubbed the Snapdragon X Elite processor, that is so excellent, it beats all M3-based MacBooks. Now, I was skeptical, but this Snapdragon X Elite processor was packed inside the novel Microgentle Surface Laptop 7 that dropped this year — and it blew its rivals out of the water.

With “Best percreateance mode” turned on in Settings, the Surface Laptop 7 notched an incredible multi-core score of 14,548 on Geekbench 6. For context, here are the multi-core scores of other laptops I’ve tested this year:

• 14-inch M3 MacBook Pro – 11,998

• 15-inch M3 MacBook Air – 12,057

And yes, I purposely highweightlessed Apple’s M3 MacBooks here to show a point (i.e., Qualcomm was right). This wasn’t equitable a fluke either. The HP OmniBook X I appraiseed this year, also packed with a Snapdragon X Elite chip, is almost as excellent as the Surface Laptop 7, but deinhabitred a sweightlessly shrink multi-core score of 13,888.

2. Microgentle Surface Laptop 7 has the best battery life we’ve seen in a lengthened time

When I tested the Microgentle Surface Laptop 7 to see how lengthened it could last on a one accuse, it equitable. wouldn’t. die.

Qualcomm wasn’t kidding when it shelp that the Snapdragon X Elite chip is power effective. To my surpelevate, the Surface Laptop 7 deinhabitred a battery runtime of 22 hours and 50 minutes. That’s cforfeitly 23 hours! This is literpartner unheard of for Windows laptops these days.

This is the best battery runtime we’ve ever recorded at Mashable in recent years. Here are some of the other runtimes of our laptops:

Can you guess which chip was inside the Lenovo Yoga 9 2-in-1, which lasted only a measly 7 hours? It certainly wasn’t a Qualcomm chip. (Spoiler attentive: It was an Intel chip.)

3. Microgentle Surface Laptop 7 produces Windows fun aget with AI

Remember when Windows used to be fun? As a kid (I’m now a Millennial mature for context), I used to mess around on Paint, percreate Microgentle 3D Pinball, and watch imaginers bounce alengthened to the music I percreateed on Windows Media Player.

Now, Microgentle has revitalized that excitement with a flurry of novel AI features. From the novel ChatGPT rival Copilot to AI insertitions that seduce you back to Paint (e.g., Cocreator), getting to percreate around with the AI on Windows has captivated me. If Microgentle is using AI to seduce users away from Apple (though Apple Inalertigence is officipartner landing on helped Mac systems very soon), it’s laboring — at least for me.

The Surface Laptop 7’s AI capabilities are possible thanks to the NPU, an AI accelerator packed inside the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite.

However, as a laptop appraiseer, I comprehend more than anyone that no machine is ever perfect. One flaw that I spotted with the Surface Laptop 7 is app incompatibility. It’s someleang I uncovered when I tried to inslofty the Apple Music app. I typicpartner have no publishs with doing this on other Windows systems, but it sees enjoy some broadeners haven’t helpd Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite help for their apps yet.

The Surface Laptop 7 is not a gaming PC by any uncomfervents (it conciseages a discrete GPU), but I’ll accomprehendledge that you can get away with some weightless gaming on it. So uphold in mind that some games, according to this catalog, may not run properly on the Surface Laptop 7.

Overall, though, the Surface Laptop 7 has never-finishing battery life, engaging AI features, zippy percreateance, a sturdy, anti-fingerprint chassis, and more. How could it not be the best Windows laptop of 2024?

The Surface Laptop 7 is $1,599 on Amazon.