Best laptops 2024 tested — September top picks (2024)

The best laptops are powerful enough to handle both work and play, comfy enough to carry all day and efficient enough to ensure you won't run out of juice when you're in the lurch.

Luckily lots of great laptops exist to meet these needs, but that abundance also makes finding the best laptop for you awfully tricky. You can get a Chromebook or a compact, speedy Windows 11 laptop for not a lot of money, and those who can afford to spend a bit more have access to a slew of the best laptops from the likes of Apple, Dell, HP, Lenovo and more.

That's why we test and review dozens of laptops from top manufacturers every year, then gather the very best together here in one easy-to-read list to help you make a smarter purchase.

You can count on the fact that every laptop on this list has been tested and reviewed by myself or one of my colleagues, so you know a real person has used it in real life and really likes it.

So whether you're shopping for a sleek new ultraportable, a cheap Chromebook, a new gaming laptop or the best MacBook for your needs, you can count on finding at least one great option here!

The quick list

In a hurry? Here's a brief overview of the laptops on this list, along with quick links that let you jump down the page directly to a review of whichever laptop catches your eye.

Written by

Written by

Alex Wawro

Alex Wawro is a lifelong journalist who's spent over a decade covering tech, games and entertainment. He oversees the computing department at Tom's Guide, which includes managing laptop coverage and reviewing many himself every year.

The best laptops you can buy today

The best laptop overall

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What you need to know
The MacBook Air M3 is an excellent all-rounder that feels truly worthy of the Air name. Though it's virtually indistinguishable from the excellent MacBook Air 13-inch M2 that previously topped this list, the M3 variant is hard to dismiss.

The MacBook Air M3 (from $1,099) is a breath of fresh you-know-what, and that’s because Apple paired that speedy M3 chip with the same ultraportable design of its predecessor. It's a potent blend of performance and portability, one we recommend as one of the best laptops for getting work done on the go for most folks.

Design:The MacBook Air M3 is so thin it could easily be mistaken for an iPad when closed (especially if the Apple logo is facing out). That’s how slim this notebook is. Measuring just 0.44 inches thick with the lid open, an everyday Bic pen looks chunky next to this machine.

Don't expect to get much in the way of ports, however. As before, you get just a pair of Thunderbolt 4/USB 4 ports along the left edge, alongside a MagSafe power adapter. At least you also get a headphone jack.

Display: The 13.6-inch display offers a 2,560 x 1,664-pixel resolution and gets nice and bright in person, so it's a pleasant place to watch videos, write emails, edit photos and whatever else you want to do.

The MacBook Air M3 did well in our display tests, too. When we tested it with our light meter we found it delivers an average brightness of 476 nits, peaking around 496 when viewing HDR videos. That’s brighter than theDell XPS 13 OLED’s 357-nit average.

Performance:On Geekbench 6, which measures overall performance, the MacBook Air M2 hit 3,082 on the single-core CPU test and 12,087 on multi-core. That’s faster than both its predecessors, though the performance gulf is widest between the old Air M1 and Air M3.For more details, check out our in-depth MacBook Air M3 benchmark results!

Battery life:The MacBook Air M3 is one of the longest-lasting laptops for the money. On the Tom’s Guide battery test, the new Air averaged 15 hours and 13 minutes, which is better than average.

Read the full review: MacBook Air 13-inch M3

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The best value laptop

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What you need to know
The Asus Zenbook 13 OLED remains one of the best values in Windows laptops despite its age, delivering good performance, great battery life and a beautiful OLED screen for under a grand.

Of course, you have to make some trade-offs along the way. The keyboard is unsatisfying, there's no headphone jack and the webcam sucks. But if you can live with those compromises you get a lot of laptop for not a lot of money with the Asus Zenbook 13 OLED. Of course, that's assuming you can find one — we've kept this laptop on this list for years because it's such a great deal, but it's been superseded by newer, more expensive models that deliver less value, like the Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED.

Design:The Asus Zenbook 13 OLED looks good on a desk and is easy to carry, measuring 11.98 x 7.99 x 0.55 inches and weighing just over 2.5 pounds.

There's a spun-metal finish sporting an offset Asus logo on the lid, and inside you'll find subdued black plastic hues. Along the sides of this slim ultraportable you'll find a decent port array, including USB-C and USB-A ports, a microSD card reader and an HDMI out. The lack of a headphone jack hurts, but the laptop comes with a USB-C adapter if you want to plug some in.

Display: One of the biggest selling points of this laptop is its 13.3-inch 1080p OLED display, which looks lovely and vibrant in person. OLED displays often appear to display brighter brights, darker blacks and deeper contrasts between light and shadow than traditional IPS panels, and it's rare to get one this good on a laptop that costs under $1k.

But you should be aware that this laptop is difficult to use outside in direct sunlight, as it doesn't get terribly bright and the reflections make it hard to see what you're doing. If you're chiefly planning to use it indoors, then there's nothing to worry about.

Performance:The AMD CPU powering our Zenbook 13 review unit proved more than capable enough to tackle daily computing tasks without issue. It also managed to do so while only sipping battery power, which you'll notice when you look down at your battery testing charts.

Note that since there's no laptop GPU onboard and only 8GB of RAM this plucky little laptop is a pretty poor gaming machine, but it's but it's plenty good enough for work and simple games.

Battery life:The OLED-equipped Asus Zenbook 13 lasted roughly 15 hours in our battery test, which is incredible for a Windows laptop. It rivals the best MacBooks in that regard, and even lasted longer than Asus' advertised 13 hours.

That's excellent battery life, and it should help you feel more assured about leaving the house without a charger when you take your laptop on the go.

Read the full review: Asus Zenbook 13 OLED

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The best Windows laptop

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What you need to know
The Dell XPS 13 hits a sweet spot between portability, price and performance in a Windows laptop.

We've long loved the excellent compromise between portability and screen size that is the XPS 13, and the 2024 model maintains that killer look while upgrading to a killer Snapdragon X CPU that delivers outstanding battery life.

While the row of capacitive touch function keys and the invisible touchpad are controversial design choices that take some getting used to, those that do will be rewarded with one of the best Windows laptops you can buy. The 2024 Dell XPS 13 may only have a pair of USB-C ports and little else in the port department, but if you just need a fast, lightweight Windows 11 machine for getting things done on the go, this is a great choice.

Design:At 11.6 x 7.8 x 0.6 inches inches and roughly 2.6 pounds heavy, the Dell XPS 13 is pretty portable and easy to carry. Plus, it looks great on a desk. You can throw it in your backpack and carry it through a day of school or work, without having to worry about feeling the extra load.

Display: The 13.4-inch display on the XPS 15 looks great and almost appears to hover in the the air thanks to the thin bezels of its InfinityEdge display. It's not especially lush but it does get bright, which is nice when working outside in the sun.

Performance:The Dell XPS 13 is a capable machine, and our review unit was more than speedy enough at time of review thanks to its Snapdragon X Elite CPU, 16GB of RAM and 512GB SSD.

However, be aware that without the option to put a discrete graphics card in this laptop it will never be great for gaming on anything other than cloud gaming services.

Battery life:Our Dell XPS 13 review unit lasted 19 hours and 41 minutes in our battery test, which is amazing battery life. You can carry this laptop through a whole day of work or school confident that you won't have to bring a charger.

However, it is much better than many Windows laptops, including the preceding XPS 15 (2021), which couldn't even last 8 hours in the same test. The newer XPS 15 also beat out both Windows ultraportables like the theLenovo Yoga 9i Gen 7(8:06) and gaming laptops like the Alienware x14 (5:35).

Read the full review: Dell XPS 13 (2024) review

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The best Copilot laptop

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What you need to know
The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x is built for portability and efficiency.

Thanks to its Snapdragon X Elite chip, you'll get more than all-day battery life and enough performance to power through your regular workload. The OLED panel is a marvel to behold, and its ultraportable design makes it easy to travel with. For $1,199, it offers an excellent value all around.

Design:At 12.8 x 8.8 x 0.5 inches and weighing 2.8 pounds, this svelte notebook is almost as thin and light as the 13-inch MacBook Air. And thanks to its sturdy aluminum chassis and tasteful Cosmic Blue color, it looks just as good as Apple’s laptop.

Display: The OLED display is a big selling point. It pumps out inky blacks, eye-scorching whites, and super-saturated colors. In addition, the sharp 2,944 x 1,840 resolution means everything you’re looking at is nice and clear.

Performance:The Yoga Slim 7x can easily handle most everyday workloads thanks to its fast Snapdragon X Elite processor and 16GB of RAM (upgradeable to 32GB). It also runs cool and quiet. In our battery test, it matched or exceeded its Apple M-series and Intel Core Ultra-driven competitors.

Battery life:In our battery test, the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x averaged 14 hours and 14 minutes, which is astonishing for a Windows laptop.

Read the full review: Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x

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The best Chromebook

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hat you need to know
The Lenovo Chromebook Duet 3 is a cheap, performant Chrome tablet with a great screen and a packed-in keyboard that makes it a surprisingly versatile 2-in-1.

The fact that the Duet 3 doubles as both a tablet and a laptop gives it remarkable versatility for the price, but you should know that detachable keyboards are not as comfortable to type on as a traditional clamshell laptop keyboard. So if you plan to do a lot of writing on your Chromebook, you might be happier with another of the best Chromebooks on the market.

But if you like the idea of a Chrome tablet that you can type on when you want to knock out an email or a social post, the Duet 3 delivers great value in a slim package.

Design:The Duet 3 sports a luminous 11-inch 2K (2,000 x 1,200 pixels) screen housed in a black aluminum chassis that, at 10.16 x 6.48 x 0.31 inches and just 1.14 pounds, isn't hard to hold. Sure, the Duet 3 isn't quite as thin or light as pricier tablets like the baseiPad 2021(0.29 inches, 1.09 pounds), but it's awful close and feels plenty light enough to carry around the house all day.

Display: The Duet 3's 11-inch 2K display on the Duet 3 gets nice and bright, with good color accuracy. It's plenty responsive too, which you want in a touchscreen.

It gets a bit reflective in direct sunlight, but remains plenty usable for most applications.

Performance:Our Duet 3 review unit is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 chip, and it feels plenty snappy for basic work. In my own day-to-day work and play I was able to open 2-0+ tabs in Chrome and stream music, watch videos on the Amazon Prime Video app, and play a game downloaded from the Google Play Store with no hitching or performance issues.

This tablet is no speed demon, but if you just need it for basic web browsing and entertainment you'll have no complaints.

Battery life:The Duet 3 lasted roughly 10 hours and 30 minute in our battery test, which is good enough that you can carry it to a day of classes without having to worry about plugging in. In my own hands-on time using the tablet at home, I found I could reliably use it sparingly for a few days and still count on having upwards of 70% battery life when I picked it up.

Read the full review: Lenovo Duet 3

The easiest laptop to repair and upgrade

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What you need to know
When it came out we called the Framework Laptop the Anti-MacBook because it's everything Apple doesn't do in laptops: Repairable, upgradable and respectful of your rights as an owner.

I was initially excited about those promises but dubious the company could deliver on them without some glaring sacrifices. But now that I’ve used one myself, I’m happy to report the Framework Laptop is as good as advertised. The updated Framework Laptop 13 the company shipped in 2023 only reinforced my opinions. With its intentionally easy-to-repair design (you can pop pieces off this laptop and get at the innards in minutes, with no tools besides the spudger it comes with) and super cool swappable Expansion Card ports, the Framework Laptop 13 is a versatile ultraportable that's one of thebest laptopsyou can buy if you care about your right to repair and tinker with your devices.

Design:The Framework sports a simple silver aluminum chassis that blends right in with all the other laptops in the coffee shop, until you spot the Framework gear logo on the lid. At 11.67 x 9 x 0.62 inches in size and just 2.8 pounds, this DIY ultraportable is just as thin and even a hair lighter than Apple'sMacBook Air with M1, an especially incredible feat when you realize the Framework achieves that 0.62-inch thinness while still being modular and full of easy to access, mostly user-replaceable parts that, unlike a MacBook, aren't needlessly soldered to the mainboard in a way that makes repairing or upgrading a MacBook nearly impossible.

Display: The Framework's 13.5-inch display is sharp and functional, and its relatively7 rare 2,256 x 1,504 resolution (a byproduct of the 3:2 aspect ratio) is well-suited for viewing webpages and text.It also gets plenty bright in person, though you'll probably be frustrated if you try using it outdoors in direct sun.

Performance:While the Framework I tested performed well under pressure, the cooling fans are awfully loud and sometimes kick on even when doing light work like browsing the web. It also underperformed a bit in our performance benchmarks compared to a lot of its contemporaries. Our unit also fell a bit behind its contemporaries in our performance tests, so while it's great for work and some light gaming I wouldn't try taxing it with anything more serious.

Battery life:The Framework’s battery is good enough to get you through a day of work without needing to pack a charger, which is great to see in a productivity laptop. The Framework lasted 11 hours and 38 minutes in our battery test, which as you'll see from the chart of test results is quite good compared to some other laptops on this page.

Read the full review: Framework Laptop 13 (2023)

The best gaming laptop

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What you need to know
The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 is one of thebest gaming laptopson the market for most people because it's powerful, easy to carry and offers best-in-class battery life (for a gaming laptop). The newer models offer a better, brighter screen than earlier models, with good speakers and an AMD CPU/GPU combo that delivers solid gaming performance. This model also has a webcam built into the top bezel of the display, a convenience for video calls that earlier models lacked.

However, the Zephyrus G14 can't always deliver better performance than similarly-priced gaming laptops, and the webcam isn't very good. Still, you'd have a hard time finding a better gaming laptop (that can also double as a work or school laptop) for this price.

Design:The Zephyrus G14 measures 12.28 x 8.94 x 0.77 inches, weighs 3.79 pounds and looks good in Asus’ bright Moonlight White color scheme. The rounded corners and tapered edges balance out the sharp diagonal vents scattered across the chassis, and the optional and eye-catching AniMe Matrix mini-LED display on the back of the lid is a $600 cosmetic upgrade that will definitely turn heads.

Display: The 14-inch WQXGA (2,560 x 1,600 pixels) display on the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022) looks great, and with its 16:10 aspect ratio I had no trouble juggling a lot of open windows on the desktop. The 120Hz refresh rate, 3ms response time and support for Dolby Vision HDR ensure the display is well-suited to making games and movies look their best.

Performance:Gaming performance is what matters in a laptop like this, and the 2022 Zephyrus G14 delivers if you configure it right. Our well-equipped review unit to hit 30-40 frames per second in Cyberpunk 2077 on max settings. However, that was with the help of AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution upscaling tech. In general, this laptop can run the best PC games quite well, and it has no trouble with basic productivity tasks.

Battery life:The Asus Zephyrus G14 (2022) lasted roughly 10 hours and 14 minutes in our Tom's Guide battery test, and barely over an hour when gaming. That's great web browsing time for a gaming laptop, so this is a great choice if you want a gaming machine that can also last through a day of classes.

Read the full review: Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022)

The longest-lasting laptop

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What you need to know
The new M3 MacBook Pro represents a big shift in Apple's laptop range, as the company (finally) killed off its 13-inch model with Touch Bar in favor of the far more premium 14-inch frame.

Alongside this, it delivers mind-blowing performance along with a class-leading battery life, a Liquid Retina XDR display, full-height function keys, amazing speakers, and a class-leading battery life.

Design:The new MacBook Pro features that same unibody aluminum design that was previously reserved for the Pro and Max MacBook Pros. Gone is that classic look with the eyesore of a Touch Bar, and in its place is a utilitarian frame that comes with a somewhat distracting display notch.

Along the left side of the laptop you'll find the MagSafe charging port, two Thunderbolt / USB 4 ports and a 3.5mm headphone jack. Over on the right you’ll find the HDMI port and SD Card slot.

Display: The MacBook Pro M3’s 14-inch, mini-LED Liquid Retina XDR display is still one of the best you’ll find on any laptop, even if it’s not as rich as an OLED panel. And Apple has boosted the brightness on the latest model when viewing SDR (standard dynamic range) content to 555 nits in our own testing.

Performance:The MacBook Pro’s M3 chip is the latest and greatest slice of Apple silicon, which is why this is one of the most powerful laptops on this list if you care about demanding work like photo/video editing or game development.

Our testing reveals this beast is at least 20% faster than the 13-inch MacBook Pro M2, and it's a decent gaming laptop as well as it can run the latest titles like Lies of P at a smooth 60 FPS, with bells and whistles like hardware-accelerated ray tracing.

Battery life:In our battery testing our 14-inch M3 MacBook Pro lasted for 17 hours and 23 minutes. That's admittedly not quite as long as the 18:20 delivered the 13-inch MacBook Pro M2, but with that model now discontinued this is the new top dog of Apple's laptops when it comes to battery life.

In short, the M3 MacBook Pro can easily last you through a full day of work and beyond. If you need great battery life, this is the longest-lasting laptop on this list.

Read the full review: MacBook Pro 14-inch (M3, 2023)

The best MacBook Air alternative

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What you need to know
The Acer Swift 5 (2022) is a svelte Windows laptop sporting a slick design, a gorgeous 1600p display and a speedy enough 12th-gen Intel chip onboard to get you through a day of work. It’s also cheaper than its chief rivals when comparably equipped.

While this laptop has some flaws, it's a great machine that delivers a lot of value for its sub-$2k price tag.

Design:While older Swift 5 laptops looked pretty generic, the 2022 model has a beautiful design with eye-catching edges decked out in a double-anodized gold treatment.

Measuring 12.2 x 8.4 x 0.59 inches and weighing just 2.65 pounds, the Acer Swift 5 is thicker than Apple's MacBook Air but also a hair lighter. The Acer Swift 5 feels sturdy despite its light weight thanks to its resilient aluminum chassis, and our review unit had a beautiful diamond pattern traced on it in gold lines that are as thin as a human hair, according to Acer.

Display: The Acer Swift 5’s 14-inch panel looks beautiful, and its WQXGA resolution (2560x1600, or 1600p) ensures it can deliver more pixels on-screen than more traditional 1080p or 1440p laptop displays.

The display offers a 16:10 aspect ratio, and in our testing the big, wide screen was easy to digest at a glance and made the games and movies we watched on it look great.

Performance:The Acer Swift 5 is plenty speedy thanks to its Intel CPU and 16GB of RAM. While this machine can't achieve the same speeds as other, more expensive laptops on this list, like the M3 MacBook Pro, it's plenty powerful enough for getting work done.

And while you shouldn't expect to play the latest and greatest games at max settings on this laptop, less demanding games like Fortnite, Rocket League, and League of Legends can be enjoyed for hours with decent-looking graphics courtesy of the laptop's integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics chipset.

Battery life:Sadly, we've hit the one disappointing point in this otherwise glowing overview. While the Acer Swift 5 is a stunning little Windows laptop that's plenty good enough for what it costs, the fact that it barely lasted over 11 hours in our battery test was a little disappointing.

Don't get me wrong, it's still longer-lasting than most Windows laptops, including a few on this list. But our battery test is done under controlled conditions with the screen kept quite dim, and in the real world when you're perhaps using it in the bright sun or playing games on it, it will last a lot less time. In our review we noticed that using the laptop normally at max brightness caused it to conk out in about 5 hours, which is disappointing. Thankfully, it does charge quickly.

Read the full review: Acer Swift 5 (2022)

The best 2-in-1 laptop

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What you need to know
The Asus Zenbook 14 Flip OLED has a gorgeous display that's ideal for watching videos, and it has one of the best laptop keyboards we’ve tested in a long time. It's also a decent performer, so you don't have to deal with the slow loading and weak gaming potential of some other 2-in-1 laptops.

However, it's not perfect. The webcam isn't great, and the battery life can leave you wanting. The light-up LED number pad on the touchpad is a nice touch, but it can be annoying if you don't like it.

That said, this is inarguably one of the best 2-in-1 laptops on the market because it performs well, looks great and offers plenty of ports for a price that never gets higher than $1,300.

Design:Measuring 12.2 x 8.8 x 0.6 inches and weighing 3.3 pounds ensures the Zenbook 14 Flip is a great travel laptop. While it's not as thin and light as the 13-inchMacBook Air M2or some other laptops on this list, it's easy to carry from room to room and not a hassle to throw in a backpack to take with you to school.

Display: One of the main selling points of this laptop is its 14-inch 2.8K OLED panel, and it delivers both in our own hands-on testing and in our performance testing lab, achieving bright brights, deep darks and beautiful contrasts between light and shadow. A good OLED panel makes everything you do on it look better, and this laptop is no exception.

Performance:The 13th Gen Intel Core CPU and 16GB of RAM in our Asus Zenbook 14 Flip OLED review unit ensure that this thin-and-light laptop doesn't straggle when it comes time to work. While this laptop can't exactly tear through big video editing projects or play the latest and greatest games at ultra-high settings, it's more than good enough for work and play.

Battery life:In our battery test the Asus Zenbook 14 Flip OLED lasted for 8 hours and 53 minutes, which is good but not great. It's acceptable and not a huge hassle if you don't plan to carry it around for a full day, but if you do it's kind of a bummer that you need to bring a charger with you or else risk running out of juice at a key moment.

Read the full review: Asus Zenbook 14 Flip OLED.

The best MacBook Pro alternative

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What you need to know

The Asus ProArt P16 takes the familiar aluminum unibody enclosure of the ROG Zephyrus G16, classes it up a little and repurposes it for creators. It sounds like a small change, but the big updates on display here make it a true masterpiece of a portable creation station.

That 4K OLED display is super crispy and color accurate for crucial edits, the combination of AMD Ryzen AI 9 and RTX 4070 power through any and all tasks you throw at it, and the super responsive touch screen + DialPad control give you the options to make the most finite of changes to your creations.

Design: The ProArt P16 feels unmistakably luxurious with its aluminum construction. It copies some of the ROG Zephyrus G16’s homework, but in a good way — replacing that silver tone with a mean matte black finish. And at 13.9 x 9.7 x 0.7 inches with a weight of 4.1 pounds, it manages to shave a bit of weight off the M3 Max MacBook Pro too.

Display: Opening up the ProArt P16 will reveal its mouthwatering 16-inch 4K OLED screen. It may only run at 60Hz, but for the creative pro, you just need super crispy detail and color you can trust, which this absolutely delivers on. Not only that, but the 16:10 aspect ratio is great for productivity, and that vividness alongside the amazing contrast makes this a fantastic binge watching display.

Performance: This laptop is a monster — packing AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 combined with RTX 4070 GPU. Not only can it crush graphics-intensive creative tasks in a time that would make any MacBook Pro blush, but it’s also great for gaming too. Pair that with a ton of RAM, and you won’t see one iota of slowdown no matter what you do.

Battery life: In regular day-to-day use, the ProArt P16 does OK with over 9 hours in our battery test. But you’re probably more bothered about putting it under prosumer strain, at which point it does stumble slightly. If you plan to tax it with 4K video edits and the like, make sure you keep that charger with you.

Read the full review: Asus ProArt P16

The best powerful MacBook

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What you need to know: The 16-inch MacBook Pro with the M3 Max chip is one of the most powerful laptops we’ve ever tested. That's not a huge surprise since we said that about its predecessor theMacBook Pro 16-inch with the M2 Maxchip, but it remains amazing that Apple's own chips can deliver this much power and efficiency in a laptop.

The M3 MacBook Pro 16-inch is basically identical to its predecessors in all the other ways too, right down to the size, screen and number of ports. The only new thing besides the M3 chips is a new Space Black color scheme for the top-tier models, which admittedly does look stellar.

Design: The MacBook Pro M3 Max measures 14.01 x 9.77 x 0.66 inches and weighs 4.8 pounds (or a slightly lighter 4.7 for the less powerful M3 Pro model). That is pretty big and heavy, but at least the laptop's squared-off aluminum chassis feels durable in your hands.

Display: The 16.2-inch Liquid Retina Display (3,456 x 2,234) on the MacBook Pro M3 Max looks just as good as it did on previous models, and the 120Hz refresh rate can help make scrolling feel smoother and allow some games to run at a very high framerates. Admittedly some people don't like the notch that hangs down from the top bezel, where it contains the camera equipment, but I find that you quickly stop noticing it once you get used to it.

Performance: The MacBook Pro 16-inch M3 Max is the most powerful laptop we've ever reviewed as of the end of 2023, though we expect that to change in the months ahead. But even if it does eventually lose that title, there's no question that the 16-inch MacBook Pro is a powerhouse. You can get better performance out of the M3 Max model than the weaker M3 Pro version, but both are plenty powerful enough for demanding work like video editing and programming.

Battery life:The 16-inch MacBook Pro M3 lasted roughly 17 hours in our in-house battery tests, which is remarkable. While it's not the longest-lasting MacBook on this list, it lasts hours longer than any competing Windows laptop. No need to lug the charger with you when taking this out for a day at the office.

Read the full review: MacBook Pro 16-inch (M3 Max, 2023)

The best dual screen laptop

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What you need to know: The Asus Zenbook Duo (2024) could be easily mistaken for a gimmick — most dual-screen laptops are. But this is the one that transcends that label with a finely tailored UI, sleek and durable hardware, and two gorgeous 14-inch OLED displays, to become one of the best laptops you can buy today.

Moving away from the awkwardly sandwiched second display of its predecessors, the new Zenbook Duo takes inspiration from the likes of the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i and HP Spectre Fold, while refusing to compromise on key specs and offer it all at an affordable $1,499 price.

Design: The Asus Zenbook Duo measures in at 12.3 x 8.5 x 0.8 inches and weighs 3.6 pounds. That additional thickness is down to the detachable keyboard and trackpad deck for full dual-screen action. For those who are worried about the durability of a dual-screen laptop, fear no more — the hinge and kickstand are super strong.

Display: With two 14-inch OLED panels, the Asus Zenbook Duo provides great color and a crisp contrast to all visuals — lending itself to instilling confidence in you when editing photos. Plus, with a 16:10 aspect ratio and 120Hz refresh rate on both, they feel silky smooth to interact with. Be it with the trackpad or your fingers for multi-touch gestures.

Performance: The Asus Zenbook Duo packs up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 chipset, which guarantees a decent amount of power for chewing through even the most intensive of workloads. This comes down to two key strengths: that NPU taking on some of the AI-driven tasks, and a boost in graphics with that ARC-inspired iGPU meaning that more visual-intensive workloads are handled effectively.

Battery life:The Asus Zenbook Duo does fall down slightly when it comes to battery life, which is expected given the 75Wh cell is powering two panels. Specifically, you're hitting just over 8 hours on one charge (10 hours if you're using this in single-screen. Make sure you keep a charger around with you.

Read the full review: Asus Zenbook Duo (2024)

Also tested

We test and review dozens of laptops every year, and just because they don't all make this list doesn't mean they aren't good machines.

No, there are loads of great laptops that don't quite achieve the level of excellence needed to be leaders of the pack. Below we've gathered all the good laptops we've tested which don't quite make this list, but are still great alternatives well worth considering if they meet your unique needs, or if you can't find your first choice on sale.

The Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 ($999 to start) is the first Surface Laptop to ship with a Qualcomm CPU inside, and the extra power and battery life it affords make this the best Surface Laptop yet.

While there's not a lot of flash to this workhorse, those in need of a straightforward no-frills Windows 11 laptop will be well-served by the Surface Laptop 7. Available with your choice of a 13-inch or 15-inch 120 Hz touchscreen, these laptops offer good performance and a comfy typing experience for not too much money.

Admittedly, the port array is sparse at best (all you get is USB-C) and you won't be doing much hardcore gaming on this portable PC. And while its Snapdragon X chipset qualify this as one of Microsoft's first Copilot+ PCs, the AI features on offer feel frivolous and fun to have at best.

But that may change down the line, and even if you don't care a bit about AI this remains a great ultraportable for Windows fans.

Read our full Microsoft Surface Laptop 7 review.

Battery benchmarks: comparison

We run every laptop we review through a series of battery tests to see how long it actually lasts on a full charge, which is one of the key deciding factors for most people when buying a laptop. You want to know about how long a laptop will actually last on a full charge so you know when to carry a charger with you, and when you're safe to leave it at home.

Note that these tests do not reflect real-world use patterns since we have to set every laptop to the same settings in order to do fair comparisons. Thus, while the times listed here are accurate and useful as a comparison point, your own experience with a laptop's battery life will likely vary quite a bit.

This is because when we run our battery test we set the laptop's display to 150 nits of brightness and have it endlessly browse the web via Wi-Fi until it dies. However, when you use your laptop you're likely adjusting brightness on the fly, doing all sorts of different tasks while perhaps listening to music or watching a video at the same time, and generally putting the machine through more of a workout than it gets in our test.

So while I stand by our testing and the battery life results we compare in the chart below, I want to be clear that your own experience will vary!

How to choose the best laptop for you

What kind of power do you want? If you only need something basic for surfing the web, consider a Chromebook or a cheap Windows laptop with an Intel Core i3 processor and 4GB of RAM, because that's the minimum you should expect from a modern laptop. If you want something that feels speedy and can handle more than basic writing and web browsing, look for beefier laptops with at least an Intel Core i5 CPU from the past few years, 8 to 16GB of RAM and a 256GB to 512GB SSD for storage.

What kind of games do you want to play? Most laptops feature integrated graphics chipsets that are built into their CPU, which usually struggle to run demanding modern games but can often handle old or less graphically-demanding games. But if want to play the latest and greatest games on your portable PC you'll want a dedicated gaming laptop, because they come with more powerful discrete laptop graphics cards, more RAM, better cooling systems and other advancements designed to make them decent gaming machines. Of course, you have to make compromises when buying a gaming laptop that you don't have to make when buying one of the best gaming PCs, since your laptop needs a beefy battery and enough room to be able to discharge heat effectively without cooking its innards.

How big of a laptop do you want? Think about how often you might carry this laptop around. Machines such as the Dell XPS 13 and MacBook Air are remarkably light and slim, but their 13-inch screens are on the small side. You can get a larger 15-inch display on a premium ultraportable like the XPS 15 and still not have to worry about weight too much, but once you start getting up into the realm of 16-inch to 18-inch screens, expect your laptop to weigh at least 3-5 pounds. As mentioned above gaming laptops are almost always several pounds heavier than thin-and-light ultraportables because they need more room for beefier components, but they offer big power in exchange.

Do you want Chrome, macOS, or Windows? Windows is the most common operating system, while macOS is more ideal for folks already tied into Apple's ecosystem. ChromeOS is Google's minimal operating system, which has the advantage of being decent and cheap but the disadvantage of requiring an Internet connection to take advantage of its full features.

So if you don't think you'll be online often, a Chromebook is a poor choice and you should go with Windows or macOS instead. On the other hand, if you just need a low-powered laptop or tablet for browsing the web, writing emails and watching videos, ChromeOS will do you just fine.

Whichever system you decide on, you may also want to consider investing in the best mouse and best keyboard for your needs so you can have some more ergonomic options for getting work done on your new laptop. I also recommend getting yourself an affordable laptop stand, as a $45 stand revolutionized the way I work on the go.

Frequently asked questions

How we tested these laptops

How we test the best laptops

In our never-ending quest to find the best laptops we put every computer we test through a barrage of synthetic and real-world tests to benchmark how well it performs compared to the manufacturer's claims, and compare how good it is relative to the competition.

These tests include, but are not limited to: measuring the average brightness and color quality of each laptop's display using our in-house colorimeter, using a heat gun to measure the heat generated by the laptop after 15 minutes of strenuous work, and using a mix of real-world and synthetic benchmarks to test how well a laptop performs at various day-to-day tasks. We run all laptops through the Geekbench CPU performance benchmark tests as well as various 3DMark tests to measure graphics capabilities. We also run a file transfer test to measure how fast a machine's hard drive is, a video transcoding test to gauge how well a laptop can cut video and a custom battery test that has the machine browse the internet over Wi-Fi until it runs out of juice.

We also run every laptop we test through a basic game test using Sid Meier's Civilization VI: Gathering Storm to gauge how good it is at running games compared to other laptops. We use this old game because it runs on a wide variety of laptops across different prices, sizes and operating systems, so it's great for comparing performance.

Of course when testing dedicated gaming laptops we run benchmarks for many more demanding and popular games, including Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Cyberpunk 2077 and Red Dead Redemption 2. For more information on our testing process, check out our guide to how we test.