Copilot+ PCs are essentially all laptops with capability to run the latest in AI processing tech and applications, which promises to bring great benefits in productivity for the user, as well as in more mundane (but important) factors such as battery life and raw processing power.

The first of these devices have hit the shelves, and we’ve put together a shortlist of the best of the bunch, each fulfilling a particular niche which might meet your needs as a consumer. Read on for all the details!

What is a Copilot+ PC?

A Copilot+ PC is one that has a processor chipset with an NPU (Neural Processing Unit) powerful enough to run the latest AI functions within the Copilot suite. By definition, a Copilot+ PC is one which meets the requirements set out by Microsoft of having an NPU with 40 TOPS of power (Tera/Trillion Operations Per Second), plus 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage space. Consequently, this excludes the previous generation of Intel AI-driven CPUs, the Meteor Lake/Intel Core Ultra series, which are limited to a maximum of 34 TOPS.

At the time of writing, it’s only Qualcomm’s ARM chips that are capable of meeting the Copilot+ requirement when the first devices are released on the 18th of June, so this guide will be limited to those options, however, when AMD Ryzen AI 300 and Intel Lunar Lake models come out later in 2024 we’ll have more options to choose from. 

You can read more about whether one of these devices is right for your needs in our 5 Reasons to buy a Copilot+ PC guide.

The perfect general productivity laptop?: Microsoft Surface Laptop (7th Edition)

The MacBook Air series has enjoyed the crown for best productivity laptops for a good few years now, particularly given its fairly reasonable pricing (which isn’t typical for an Apple product). Of course, not everyone wants to use MacOS and there have been various competitors in the Windows laptop market that have tried to match these devices, but they’ve all fallen short in at least one area by comparison: be it the display quality, processor performance, battery life, speaker quality, general build quality, or pricing.

It could be however that the latest 7th Edition Microsoft Surface Laptop is a device worthy of the crown, as the new Snapdragon X Plus chipset (only available on the 13.8” model) or the more powerful Snapdragon X Elite chipset (available with both the 13.8” and 15”) have both the processing power and battery life to match Apple’s finest devices. This is alongside a sleek, slimline chassis and high resolution (2304 x 1536 or 2496 x 1664) display, with 120Hz maximum refresh rate. The laptop looks great and is available at a very reasonable starting price.

Ultralight laptop with an OLED display: Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x

With the introduction of the new range of Copilot+ chipsets and their improved efficiencies, we should hopefully see great developments made in terms of thin and light devices, and one we’re immediately excited about is the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x. This 0.51-inch thick notebook is very slender indeed, and at 1.28kg/2.82lbs it’s also very light, but this doesn’t mean it skimps on its other features.

This Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite machine not only has a powerful processor but comes packing with a lush OLED display, with 3K (2944 x 1840) resolution that reportedly supports HDR 600 True Black with up to 1000 nits of peak brightness. You also get an impressive 90Hz max refresh rate, meaning some light gaming isn't’ out of the question. The keyboard and trackpad are also of a high standard, making this a great all round productivity device.

A slimline laptop with 5MP IR camera: HP OmniBook X 14

The Omnibook X 14 is a brand new line of laptops from industry veterans HP, who are also looking to take on the MacBook alternative space with a slimline (0.56-inches thick) 14” screen device that also comes packing with the powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite processor. The new design looks particularly nice around the keyboard, with its differently-colored function keys and power key.

Besides this you get high-quality 5MP IR camera for an excellent image when you’re making videocalls and a 2.2K (2240 x 1400) display. 

An upgraded 13-inch laptop with haptic switch design: Dell XPS 13 (9345)

The Copilot+ variant of the Dell XPS 13 (the model 9345) essentially has the same design as the previous variants, though from an aesthetic perspective at least this is no bad thing: the XPS 13 is one of the nicest looking laptops on the market, with its minimalist seamless trackpad design (which merges into the chassis of the laptop with no visible edges). In terms of functionality the XPS 13 divides opinion: some dislike not being able to quickly identify where the trackpad begins and ends, and others being turned off by the haptic/capacitive function keys, though if you’re a fan of these features then it’s unquestionably a great device. It comes with a bright (500 nits) 120Hz screen with a 1920 x 1200 resolution: not the highest on this list but plenty good for a 13-inch screen.

The difference from the previous version then lies solely with the new Snapdragon X Elite chipset, which should bring great processing power and top-notch battery life.

General productivity device with a 1600p touchscreen: Dell Inspiron 14 Plus

If you’re happy with a more conventional Dell laptop design with a more affordable price tag, then this latest in the long-running Dell Inspiron series could be the pick for you. It comes packing with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus (a 10-core CPU), which doesn’t quite have the oomph of the 12-core X Elite but if your focus is general productivity then you possibly don’t need this anyway.

It does however have a high resolution 14-inch, 2560 x 1600 screen, that comes with touchscreen functionality, along with a microSD card reader, fingerprint reader, and an impeccable keyboard for typists: all great features for an office place device. On top of that you get a HDMI 1.4 output which you won’t find on the thinner chassis designs here.

Best 2-in-1 device: Microsoft Surface Pro (11th Edition)

Our final pick is another Microsoft Surface Pro, but this time the original rather than the clamshell laptop variant above. The Surface Pro is the pioneering, much imitated 2-in-1 device, which essentially resembles a tablet (with touch screen and stylus support) with a detachable keyboard section, that can be used in either laptop or tablet form factors.

This remains a very popular design for office workers, students, and similar, and the additional battery life, processing power, and OLED panel in the latest 11th Edition variant should make this iteration even more of a popular choice.

There haven't been a great deal of Ryzen 8000 series laptops released at this time, with many brands opting for Intel 14th Gen laptop CPUs (be they Raptor Lake Refresh models for the more powerful gaming devices or Intel Ultra Core for the more energy efficient, slimline productivity machines). For the more affordable gaming laptops that have gone with Ryzen CPUs, they’ve tended to opt for Ryzen 7000 series processors instead to keep costs down, given that the difference in actual gaming power between the generations is relatively small.

Hawk point vs Strix point

Back in December AMD held a presentation entitled AMD Presents: Advancing AI, where they unveiled the upcoming Ryzen 8040 series aka the 'Hawk Point' range, with a particular focus on the AI abilities of these new chips, cantered around their NPUs. These processors are designed primarily for creative and productivity uses, though they can also be used for gaming, with the focus of the presentation on their iGPU (aka internal graphics) performance, rather than in conjunction with a separate graphics card. You will still find laptops with these chips in with a dedicated graphics card as well however, such as the simultaneously announced Acer Nitro V 16, which comes with up to a Ryzen 7 8845HS along with an Nvidia RTX 4060 mobile GPU.

For those looking for more high-end Ryzen 8000 series gaming laptops, it looks like you'll have too wait a bit longer for the 'Strix Point' series to release, which we assume will be designated as the 8050 series, but given AMD's recent track record with naming their products, who knows at this point? Details are thin on the ground but a few rumors are circulating. Read below for further details.

Best Ryzen 8000 series laptops 2024

Whilst the below list of laptops is a bit short at the moment, as new products hit the shelves we'll be updating it accordingly.

A terrific 14-inch gaming laptop & productivity laptop for creatives

The ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 is frequently our top pick for best 14-inch gaming laptop year on year. The previous variants we’ve reviewed have all been great performers, and each year ASUS improves on the formula. The 2024 variant sees a complete redesign of the laptop - it’s now more slimline, looks like a sleeker productivity machine rather than a gaming device, and comes with a welcome improvement to the keyboard (which was always the weakest aspect of the previous entries). 

Crucially, ASUS have chosen to cap the maximum graphics card SKU at the RTX 4070, rather than having RTX 4080 and RTX 4090 options as with the previous generation. The calculation from the company is that A - these more powerful models did not sell enough, and B - part of the reason for this is the power limits and temperature issues imposed by the smaller chassis on GPUs of this power limited their utility. Most people looking for an RTX 4090 laptop would opt for a larger size model with the necessary cooling and Wattage to make the most out of it, consequently ASUS have decided to instead lean into improving what a 14-inch laptop can do better. Fortunately, the end result is a near-perfect balance between a portable gaming laptop and a creative productivity machine. 

In terms of actual gaming performance it’s about on par with the previous gen RTX 4070 G14, but the attraction lies in the other features. The 120Hz OLED screen is fantastic display, with the unbeatable response time that OLED panels provide; the 100% DCI-P3 coverage and sub-1 ΔE color variance also make it perfect for color accurate work. The screen’s peak brightness reaches 420 nits in SDR mode and 500 nits in HDR mode, meaning it’s suitable for outdoor use with the latter enabled. When set to battery saver mode you can expect 10 or more hours of battery duration out off this machine, which is very impressive. The slightly cheap feeling keyboard of the older variants has been replaced with a newer version which is a much more satisfying typing experience - with a somewhat tactile feel and a nice depth to each keypress.

In terms of the drawbacks the slimmer design means soldered RAM that you cannot upgrade after purchase, and it would have been nice to see WiFi 7 support to maximise its future-proofing, however besides this it’s a great machine.

Another 14” Ryzen 8000 series gaming laptop with 240Hz display

Like ASUS, Razer have decided to cap the graphics card SKUs of their latest 14-inch gaming laptop at RTX 4070 (although the previous gen versions with RTX 4080 and 4090 GPUs are still available). Once again in gaming terms the Ryzen 8945HS performs about the same as the previous 7940HS CPU option, though with the benefit of enhanced AI performance, in fact it’s almost identical to the previous gen model in every other respect: it has a great 240Hz 1600p IPS display with 100% DCI-P3 color replication and good accuracy, plus 500nits peak brightness (suitable for outdoor use); the build quality is excellent, as are the aesthetics, and the keyboard and trackpad are solid. 

You’ll get 8-10 hours max of battery life on battery saver mode when doing general productivity and web browsing, which is a good result. This is helped by the setting you can enable to turn the screen automatically to 60Hz on battery, to save power.

This iteration of the Razer Blade 14 actually has a slight price decrease relative to the previous generation, making it one of the less pricey options in the Razer catalogue relative to the competition, however it’s still $200 more in MSRP terms than the latest ASUS G14, which has had a price increase, therefore we’d still class it as expensive (just not very expensive). Still, if you’re after a quality portable gaming laptop with a high refresh rate, then this could be the device for you.

AMD Ryzen 8000 series laptop release date window

The official AMD press release states that the Ryzen 8040 range 'are expected to be broadly available from leading OEMs including Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Razer, beginning in Q1 2024'. We've already seen the first models arrive in January, though we expect significantly more to release into March. Acer confirmed that their new Nitro V 16 gaming laptop will be coming out in March 2024.

The more powerful Strix Point range are supposed to be shipping in 2024 as you can see in the image below, although beyond this AMD have not confirmed a tighter time window. That being said, people such as WCCFTech are claiming that a mid-year release is on the cards, which would fit with the pattern of the more powerful Ryzen 7045 series laptops that came out in 2024, which started to appear in the summer. As we get more confirmed info, we'll be updating this page accordingly.

AMD Ryzen 8000 series laptop specs & features

Ryzen 8040 series specs

So far we've only seen specifications for the 'Hawk Point' 8040 series released by AMD, though they have unveiled the full SKU list (as detailed below). These APUs (basically CPUs with strong integrated graphics) represent an update to the existing Ryzen 7040 'Phoenix' family - they will retain the Zen 4 core architecture and maintain compatibility with the FP7/r2 and FP8 platforms, supporting DDR5/LPDDR5x memory. They will also be limited to the RDNA 3 graphics architecture.

Clock speeds, core count, and TDP remain very similar to the Ryzen 7000 series Phoenix line, and in fact the cache is actually lower than that of the previous gen when comparing the same SKUs. This most likely points to a relatively insignificant update in terms of processor performance on its own, including scenarios like gaming where it would be paired with a separate dedicated graphics card, however the improved NPUs should bring greater performance enhancements to those productivity applications that can take advantage of AI technology, plus enhanced integrated graphics performance. More on this below.

What about Ryzen 8040HX laptop processors?

It's unclear if there will be any 8040HX CPUs, instead AMD may be focusing on the Strix Point series CPUs (which we think will be designated as 8050) to fill out their high-performance offerings.

AMD Ryzen 8050 series specification speculation

Although we have very little information on the Ryzen Strix Point series, including whether it will definitely be called the Ryzen 8050 range (Ryzen 9050 is a less likely, though still plausible alternative), we do know that it will feature enhanced XDNA 2 AI architecture, meaning its NPU cores should be substantially more powerful (more than 3x according to AMD). Although this has not yet been confirmed, we also hope that these chips will be built on Zen 5 CPU architecture, bringing enhanced processor power, though there's no actual data to go on for this, so don't hold your breath.

AMD Ryzen 9 8940H vs Intel Core i9 13900H performance

Below you can see the Ryzen 8040 laptop CPU performance data, courtesy of the latest AMD press release, however there are a few important facts to be aware of when taking a look at it. First of all, as revealed in the text of the press release, a 0.8x gain for the Gaming category actually means '77% faster gaming than our competitors' - this is perfectly legitimate rounding up to one decimal place but just something to bear in mind.Secondly, and most crucially, the Endnotes of the presentation reveal that these results are specifically for the Ryzen 9 8940H, which we assume will likely show the best uplift of the bunch (or else AMD wouldn't pick it for their presentation graph), plus it represents comparative Gaming performance at 1080p resolution, on low settings, and using iGPU performance only on the following titles: Borderlands 3, F1 2022, Far Cry 6, Grand Theft Auto 5, Hitman 3, League of Legends, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Tiny Tinas Wonderland, WoTenCore (we assume the average was taken). This means these results are only relevant for those who have an interest in buying a laptop without a dedicated graphics card, relying entirely upon the iGPU, which excludes most serious gamers.

The Multi-thread results aren't exactly hugely impressive in terms of uplift, though the content creation performance improvement (if accurate) does look quite nice.

Additional points to note

DDR5 RAM support

All of the Ryzen 8000 series will have Dual-Channel LPDDR5x RAM support (basically laptop DDR5 Memory). This includes both the Ryzen 8040 series and the Strix Point range.

Zen 4 architecture = 4nm process node?

The previous generation of Zen 4 CPUs were based on a mix of different generational architecture, ranging between 5nm to the smallest 4nm for the Phoenix range. We assume the latest Hawk Point 8000 series range will also use the 4nm process node.

In terms of what the Strix Point architecture will be, this is uncertain, but there's a good chance if it's based on a new Zen 5 architecture that it could be a 3nm process node. We'll have to wait and see over the coming months.

Ryzen 8000 series laptop price

Laptops featuring the Ryzen 8000 series CPUs will span various budgets and price categories, determined by the particular CPU model. It's unlikely you'll encounter many in our very budget-focused guides (such as the best gaming laptops under $500), as laptops in this price range typically incorporate older technology. We do know however that the new Acer Nitro V16 will start at $999.99 / €1,199, though this will only be for the most low-specced model. Still, we expect to see models appearing in our best gaming laptop under $1,000, under $1,500, and under $2,000 guides, as well as even higher.

Ryzen 8000 series laptop FAQs

Final Word

We'll be filling this page with the best AMD Ryzen 8000 series laptop models on the market as they release, covering the full range of price points and use-cases, so make sure you keep checking back around the time of the launch. Do be sure to also check the dropdown menu for our myriad other laptop guides, including our primary best gaming laptop page.

Either way we always keep this article updated with the latest products and there are still a couple of 13th gen models we expect to release this year, so keep checking back after newer releases. If you don't have a great deal of time and want to know what the best Intel 13th gen laptops are for your needs, we'd suggest the ASUS ROG Strix G18 for high-end gaming, the Gigabyte AORUS 17H for competitive gamers who care about value for money, and the Samsung Galaxy Book3 Pro 360 for general productivity use in the office or at school. We have other picks further below though that fulfil other niches, so be sure to take a look.

Best Intel 13th Gen gaming laptops: reviews

The below selections represent a shortlist the best Intel 13th Gen gaming laptops currently available. Do also check out our main best gaming laptop page for a longer list, which also includes AMD Ryzen laptops and also Intel 12th gen laptop selections.

The ASUS ROG Strix G18 (a more affordable offering than the similar ASUS Strix SCAR 18) comes with the most powerful Intel 13th gen laptop CPU currently available, and indeed, the most powerful laptop processor on the market, full stop: the Intel Core i9-13980HX. With unparalleled single-core and multi-core performance, this will absolutely chew through anything you throw at it: from rendering workflows and intensive workstation tasks, to high-end gaming. On top of this you get the massively powerful Nvidia RTX 4080 laptop graphics card, which comes with great improvements over the previous-gen, including DLSS 3.0 support and greater energy efficiency.

The most impressive thing about this machine though is the price: this laptop originally went on sale over at Best Buy for $2,499 USD, which is a ridiculously good price. The device has since gone out of stock here, and we wouldn't be surprised if they up the price a bit, but even if you end up paying a few hundred dollars (or equivalent) more, this would still be respectable value.

Though the 18" screen on the G18 might be a bit too big if you're after a more portable laptop, there's no doubt that playing on it is a fantastically immersive experience, especially with the additional vertical headroom afforded by the 16:10 aspect ratio. In our view the 240Hz 1600p screen is the right balance between high-resolution and speed – well suited for either slower-paced, immersive games or competitive twitch shooters. The 5.5ms average grey-to-grey response time also helps minimise ghosting.

Considering the great value of this device, you don't quite get everything: the webcam quality isn't great and the somewhat plasticky build doesn't compare to the metal chassis Razer Blade laptops, though the G18 is still a well-put together machine as with most ASUS products. It's certainly not a quiet laptop on the higher fan and voltage settings - as is often the case with powerful gaming laptops - however some users have reported coil whine issues (stick your headphones on and it shouldn't be a problem though).

Some of these issues aren’t present in the more expensive ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 18, which has a better webcam as well as superior RGB, but still comes with a fairly plastic build. Another alternative is the XMG Neo 17 E23 (in Europe) / Eluktronics MECH17 GP2 (in the US), which has a superior Cherry MX mechanical keyboard option and compatibility with external OASIS liquid cooling, to further maximise performance, though again this is more expensive than the ASUS G18 and you’re limited to a maximum 17.3” size (16-inch variants are also available). Considering the relative (current) pricing, we'd definitely opt for the G18.

If you want to further improve the cooling and reduce thermal throttling on this beast, have a read of our best laptop cooling pad and best laptop stand guides for some affordable solutions.

If you’re only interested in lightning fast gaming at 1080p resolution, then the Gigabyte Aorus 17H (2023) is the one for you. The Intel Core i7-13700H processor is plenty powerful for gaming on, even on the highest settings, and it's paired with an Nvidia RTX 4080 GPU to boot. We've yet to see another RTX 4080 laptop this cheap, we've seen them go for $2,299 on Newegg, which for this amount of GPU and CPU power is terrific value.

The 17.3” 1080p screen has a very fast 360Hz maximum refresh rate, pretty much the highest you're likely to see in a gaming laptop, and arguably more than you'd ever need, certainly more than quick enough to maximise your advantage in any fast-paced shooter, and make best effective use of the FPS the core components are able to churn out. The claimed response time is 3ms, which is very respectable (though we’ve yet to test this ourselves to see how well this holds up). Color replication is definitely good enough for gaming, though creatives should probably look elsewhere. The peak brightness and contrast are both respectable, though neither will blow your socks off.

Ideally more RAM options than the 16GB 4800MHz would have been preferable, though we've heard these may be coming in the future (though probably for more money). Regardless, it supports DDR5 and you can always upgrade the RAM yourself should you want to.

The build is fairly plastic, though this is to be expected for this price, and despite this the trackpad and keyboard are both solid and the laptop looks nice overall. The battery duration lasts around 7 hours of general usage, which is very good for core components of this power. Everything considered, a great value Intel 13th gen gaming laptop.

The Acer Predator Helios Neo 16, offers fantastic mid-range gaming performance if you equip it with the latest RTX 4060 and Intel 13th gen i7-13700HX CPU, as we found in our in-depth review, where we benchmarked and tested the laptop. It punches above its weight in FPS terms when gaming, comes with Advanced Optimus (fairly unusual at this price point), and even has a pretty great battery life (certainly for a gaming laptop) of around 7 hours of general use on battery saving mode.

There are some minor downsides, such as the less-than-ideal build quality of the bezels, a somewhat hefty power adapter, and the expected mediocrity of the webcam and microphone in an affordable gaming laptop, however these are outweighed by the numerous advantages it offers. The primary drawback lies in the noisy fans when the Turbo mode preset is active. However, users can mitigate this by fine-tuning settings in the onboard software to strike a balance between in-game performance and noise levels.

The laptop sports a bright (500 nits peak brightness) and relatively color-accurate high-resolution screen with 1600p resolution, a 165Hz max refresh rate, and G-Sync support, making it suitable for outdoor use. It also provides a robust selection of ports including Ethernet support.

While some aspects of build quality could be improved, and fan noise can be significant on maximum presets, these trade-offs are justifiable considering its attractive price tag.

The Acer Predator Triton 17X is a recent addition to Acer's lineup of gaming and creative laptops, and we had the opportunity to conduct an extensive review, complete with benchmarking and testing of the device. Most notably, this laptop stands out due to its exceptionally high-quality display, which we found to be the best we've encountered on a laptop thus far. However, it's important to acknowledge that the RTX 4090 graphics card in this laptop falls short in terms of in-game FPS performance when compared to the competition, even when paired with the powerful Intel 13th gen i9-13900HX CPU, being more in line with an RTX 4080 laptop. Still, it's plenty powerful enough to run the latest, most demanding titles on max settings at its native 2560 x 1600 resolution.

The Mini-LED screen has remarkable brightness, exceptional color accuracy (around 0.56 delta variance following calibration), extensive gamut coverage (100% of sRGB and DCI-P3), impressive contrast, and gamma scores - all of which make it ideal for a creative machine. Moreover, this screen offers a terrifically fast maximum refresh rate of 250Hz. Additionally, the membrane keyboard and trackpad provide a delightful user experience, and the overall build quality is excellent.

It's worth noting that the laptop's battery life isn't particularly impressive, but this is a common trade-off with laptops that feature a Mini-LED display combined with high-end core components.

Best Intel 13th Gen laptops for work & school

The following are the best general use laptops and/or laptops for creatives that are currently available to buy with Intel 13th gen CPUs. It's a relatively short list at present, but as more hit the shelves we will be adding to this list accordingly. Have a read of our best laptop for students page or best laptop for working from home guide if you want more examples with different CPUs for your studies/office work.

The Samsung Galaxy Book3 Pro 360 is a great mid-range creator's laptop that comes with a 13th gen Intel Core i7-1360P processor and a touchscreen 2-in-1 design that lets it convert into a tablet form factor, better suited for drawing and the like. The standard clamshell non-touchscreen Galaxy Book3 Pro is also available for slightly cheaper and also comes in the 14-inch display size model, if 2-in-laptops aren't your thing.

The AMOLED display looks great, with superb contrast as you'd expect, although it's limited to a somewhat disappointing 400 nits peak brightness. The included S-Pen stylus works very well on it and the color replication and accuracy allows you to perform color-accurate work to a professional standard in the sRGB, Adobe RGB and DCI-P3 spaces.

For general productivity purposes the keyboard is solid, as is the very large trackpad. Some may find the trackpad size a bit over the top, but this is ultimately down to personal preference. The speakers are decent for a Windows laptop, though they don't match up to those of a MacBook. The aesthetic design is elegant and reserved, and the chassis is very light and slimline, making it easy to transport.

Although the build quality is good on the whole, the one exception is that the screen has a bit too much wobble for our liking, though this isn't the end of the world. Still, if you want a sturdier screen, less subdued aesthetic design, a more tactile keyboard, but don't mind it being a bit heavier, then you should also consider the HP Spectre x360, although currently only one of the the 16-inch variants comes with a 13th gen CPU options (an i7-1360P) and this one doesn't have an OLED panel.

Ultimately, despite not being perfect in every way, this is a great laptop, and if you can afford the relatively high price tag, then you'll get much enjoyment out of it.

The Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra comes with the same 120Hz AMOLED display as the Book3 Pro variants, but has higher-powered CPU (Intel Core i7-13700H or i9-13900H) and GPU (Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 or RTX 4070) options, making it more suited to intensive workloads, including gaming. It's a major competitor for the latest in the MacBook Pro series, beating it in some areas, less so in others, but is priced cheaper than the expensive Apple device (with an MSRP of around $2,200 - $3,000 depending on loadout) and has the improved flexibility of being a Windows machine (including a lot more games).

Both GPU options will help you make short work of any graphical rendering tasks, or when using otherwise GPU-intensive creative software. The RTX 4050 laptop GPU will let you play the latest, most demanding games on the lower settings for a decent FPS, whereas the RTX 4070 laptop GPU option will manage medium-high settings. This isn't of course a dedicated gaming device however, so you won't get the same performance as you would from a gaming laptop with ostensibly the same GPU and CPU, and the keyboard isn't as well suited for this purpose in terms of travel and responsiveness, however it does the job.

Overall the keyboard, trackpad, and build quality are pretty much the same as the standard Galaxy Book3 pro and the 360 variant discussed above, but the Ultra only comes in traditional clamshell form, not 2-in-1. Considering it comes with a dedicated graphics card, the laptop is remarkably light: it weighs 3.9lb/1.8kg, which is nearly 1lb lighter than theM2 Max variant of the MacBook Pro 16.

By the standards of most Windows laptops the speakers are of a good standard, certainly better than the dross you get with most dedicated gaming laptops, however they're still a way off the standard of those on the MacBook - lacking in bass replication and fidelity at the higher volumes by comparison.

The 400 nits display is fine but is very much overshadowed by the ridiculous 1000nit MacBook display. The battery life could be better, and (unlike the MacBook) performance in any demanding task drops substantially when you unplug it, however the array of ports is better on the Book3 Ultra and it's generally a more flexible device as discussed. Overall, a great premium Windows laptop for creatives.

READ NOW: Best laptop under 400 USD (non-gaming)

Intel 13th gen laptop performance

Intel 12th gen laptop CPUs took the crown for the most powerful devices of 2022, beating the AMD Ryzen 6000 series laptops in both single-core and multi-core performance, though losing out in terms of power efficiency and battery life. Intel cemented its performance lead further at the very high end through the release of the 12th gen HX series, which added additional cores and cache onto the most powerful options in the range.

Although it's early days yet, it seems that 13th gen laptop CPUs won't offer as big of an uplift as the 12th gen did, with Intel claiming up to 12% performance increase over the previous generation, though the 'up to' bit is crucial, with many games showing only a few % difference in the graph that we were shown at CES 2023, with the average difference only being about 6%. We will have to wait for independent testing to know for sure whether these are accurate.

Intel 13th gen laptops vs AMD Ryzen 7000 series laptops

It seems likely that the new Ryzen 7000 series laptops will beat Intel once again in terms of power efficiency and gaming performance on battery life, given Intel are still using the same architecture as they did previously compared to AMD’s smaller process node. In terms of raw power though we don’t have any indication beyond the claims of the company.

AMD are stating that there will be greater than 15% single-thread performance gain with their new architecture. We already know that the existing Intel Core i9-12900K laptop CPU is (very) roughly 10% faster in single-core workloads than the AMD Ryzen 6900HX laptop CPU (depending heavily on the laptop in question, its voltage, what programs you are running etc.). So if we add say 6% uplift for the 13900K (taking a very loose average from the titles in the graph above) to this lead we get 16%, compared to the 15% AMD are claiming, which points to a possibility of a very close race between the two flagship CPUs at least.

When did Intel 13th gen laptops come out? Intel 13th gen laptop release date

The first Intel 13th gen laptops were released in February 2023 and since then we've seen a gradual trickle of them hitting the shelves as the weeks go by. We'll continue to see new models released all the way up until the end of summer 2023, though it's likely most will have come out by the end of May.

Have a read of our specific Intel 13th gen laptop release date pages on various models listed below.

Intel 13th Gen laptops to watch out for

Below is a shortlist of some of the laptops we're looking forward to seeing that can come equipped with 13th gen CPUs, and the latest information regarding their specific release dates. Currently this is primarily focused around gaming laptops, but we'll be including more non-gaming varieties soon:

Intel 13th gen laptop CPU specs : Raptor Lake laptop SKUs

Below you can see the full specifications of each of the new Intel 13th gen laptop CPU SKUs. As is always the case with laptop CPUs, the core count, clock speed, and TDP are lower than in the desktop iterations.

As you can see these Raptor Lake CPUs are separated into the H-series (for gaming laptops and more powerful workstation/creative machines), the P-series (for creative laptops and general purpose laptops that still have a bit of oomph), and the U-series (for ultra-thin and/or budget laptops), and finally a new N-series (for entry level laptops suitable for web browsing, word processing, and for educational usage).

Intel 13th gen H-series laptop CPUs

Intel 13th gen P-series laptop CPUs

Intel 13th gen U-series laptop CPUs

Intel 13th gen N-series laptop CPUs

Intel 13th gen series laptop price

Intel 13th gen laptops will cross a whole range of budgets and price points, depending on the specific model of the CPU. It’s unlikely though that you will see many in our best gaming laptops under $500 guide, as these will mostly be older tech machines. When you get to the upper end of ‘mid-range gaming laptops’ ending around the 1,500 USD mark (check out our best gaming laptop under $1,500 guide for some examples), you’ll end up seeing quite a few, and similarly in the high-end range, starting with our best gaming laptop under $2,000 guide.

Things to consider if you’re thinking of buying an Intel 13th gen laptop

The below goes into greater detail about the features of the new Intel 13th gen laptop CPUs, to help you decide whether they’re worth the wait, or if you’d rather opt for a different AMD/Intel-powered laptop sooner.

Intel 13th gen motherboard compatibility

Intel 13th gen CPUs will use the same LGA 1700 socket as the preceding Alder Lake CPUs, which Intel promised to keep in use for a few years after it was introduced in late 2021. Almost all gaming laptops use a different type of socket to desktop PCs, however, it does give us an indication of the technology that the Intel 13th gen laptop will be equipped with.

Raptor Lake CPU architecture, 10nm process node

Intel 13th gen laptops will use the same 10nm architecture as the preceding 12th Gen Alder Lake laptop CPUs. This is considerably larger than the 5nm/4nm process that the new Ryzen 7000 series will be using, and points to a likelihood of lower power efficiency compared to AMD’s tech, which is what was seen in the previous generation. Still, this does not mean the CPUs will be less powerful in terms of in-game FPS/other intensive workflows, as we saw with 12th gen.

Intel Xe vs RDNA 3 laptops

We have absolutely no information on the integrated graphics (iGPUs) the Intel 13th gen laptops will be coming with, but given they will be using the same basic architecture then there’s a reasonable chance it will be a similar tech to the previous Intel Xe iGPUs used by 12th gen.

If this is the case, the Ryzen 7000 series laptops will probably have a substantial advantage in this area by comparison, as AMD is putting a lot of focus on their new RDNA 3 iGPU tech. This will however be mostly focused on the low-mid range entries in the series, as it’s assumed more powerful laptop CPUs will be paired with dedicated graphics cards. You can read more about this in our AMD Ryzen 7000 series laptop guide.

Intel 13th gen laptop FAQs

Final Word

We’ll be updating this page with all the latest Intel 13th gen laptop info as it’s released, and eventually breaking down the best of the laptop series on the market when they come on the market, to help you pick the right one for you. Until then, make sure you stay locked onto WePC for all the latest AMD, Intel, and Nvidia tech news.

We regularly update this article to include the latest products in the range, so you can rest assured that these picks are the best you can get. If you're short on time and looking for the best Ryzen 7000 series laptops tailored to your needs, consider the ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 17 for high-end gaming, the ASUS ROG Strix G17 for more affordable upper-mid-range gaming, or the HP Envy x360 (2023) if you're after a 2-in-1 office place device.

Below you can see what some of the best laptop deals are on the market today. Alternatively, check out our Black Friday laptop deals and Black Friday gaming laptop deals pages for some great savings once November comes back around.

Best Ryzen 7000 series laptop 2024: reviews

As far as gaming goes, all the below picks are still some of the best devices you can get. If your focused more on a general productivity latpop however, then you may want to consider the Meteor Lake releases in the Intel 14th gen laptop range. Alternatively, if you want to stick to AMD and your focus is on AI processing, take a gander at the new Ryzen 8000 series laptop devices.

ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 17 represents the most powerful gaming laptop in the ASUS range, coming equipped with not only the Ryzen 9 7945HX CPU, which is now recognized as the most powerful laptop CPU across any brand currently available, but also options for the superb RTX 4080 laptop GPU or RTX 4090 laptop GPU.

Unless you're looking to do some very high-end workstation / graphical design / rendering tasks, we'd opt for the RTX 4080 option, which is currently available for around the $2,900 mark with 1TB SSD and 32GB of DDR5 RAM - in our opinion a great value package considering the power you get. Higher-specced SSD and RAM options are also available for more money.Looking at the screen the 17-inch 1600p 240Hz display has a 5.5ms average grey-to-grey response time, which isn’t quite good enough to completely eliminate ghosting at this refresh rate, but it’s still a good score for a laptop display. Brightness is good, as is color replication in sRGB (100%) and DCI-P3 (97%). All-told, a fantastic premium gaming laptop.

If you want to further improve the cooling and reduce thermal throttling on this beast, have a read of our best laptop cooling pad and best laptop stand guides for some affordable solutions.

Another ASUS model, this non-SCAR variant is a more affordable option than our top premium pick, with slightly less impressive build quality, but still comes with a powerful RTX 4070 graphics card, alongside the brand new AMD Ryzen 9 7845HX, which is a superb high-end performer.

Although the 144Hz 1080p resolution option might not be to everyone's taste on a screen of this size, you can't argue with the pricing: this amount of power and new hardware, plus DDR5 RAM and a 1TB SSD, can be bought for around $1,900, which is superb value in our opinion.

This budget-friendly 120Hz 1080p gaming laptop with RTX 4050 laptop GPU is an affordable option for those looking for a machine they can bring into the office but also run older games / newer games on lower settings. Although the RTX 4050 doesn't quite match up to the performance of the RTX 3060 laptop GPU, it's not far off, and this is before you factor in the additional boost afforded by DLSS 3.0. It certainly smashes the older RTX 3050 Ti series out of the water.

In addition you get 16GB of DDR5 RAM, plus 512GB of SSD storage, which isn't always common at this price point. The 120Hz refresh rate of the screen is all you'll need at this level of performance, although we would have liked to have seen a brighter screen - as it's a bit dim even if you're indoors near a window.

Still, the AMD Ryzen 7 7735HS CPU in this machine is a great mid-range performer, for both gaming and creative tasks, and makes this laptop well worth the low asking price.

The Zephyrus Duo 16 again comes with the most powerful AMD Ryzen 7000 series laptop CPU, the Ryzen 9 7945HX (which beats the most powerful Intel offering), plus GPU options in the form of the RTX 4080 or RTX 4090. It also comes with a dazzling bright 700 nits (or 1400 nits for HDR content) 240Hz Mini-LED screen that comes with both FreeSync and G-Sync. You get 100% sRGB and 100% DCI-P3 coverage, with a color accuracy of between 1.7 - 1.2 ΔE depending on how you calibrate it, making it ideal for color-based workflows.

The most distinctive feature of the Asus Zephyrus Duo series is of course the secondary screen, placed between the keyboard and the main display, which lifts upwards. This second display has touch screen functionality, and can be used to display alternative media whilst gaming (Discord or YouTube for instance) or different windows of your editing program (the timeline for example, allowing more screen space to watch the footage and to move and manipulate it via touch).The inclusion of the second display does mean that the trackpad (which doubles as a numpad) is off to the side of the keyboard, which can take a bit of getting used to but the actual quality of the keyboard is decent and it feels responsive. All-in-all, a fantastic laptop for the streamer or high-end creative that also likes to game.

The HP Envy x360 is a series of laptops that offers convertible/2-in-1 hinge functionality that effectively allows you to use it as a tablet. This year's HP Envy x360 comes with a slick design that's similar to their premium Spectre series - it looks great and has top-notch build quality, alongside many other features that make it a great buy for the money. The webcam is one of the best available in this price range, with 1440p resolution and a 5 MegaPixel camera, it also supports Windows Hello.

You get a great selection of ports, including two USB-C sockets and two USB-A, which is a rarity these days, plus an HDMI port and an SD card reader. The trackpad and keyboard are also of great quality.

Pretty much the only real downside of this device is the peak brightness is lower than we would have liked: at 250 nits you can comfortably use it indoors, but outside use is beyond what it's capable of. We would have liked to have seen a 16:10 aspect ratio to the display to give more vertical headroom, but this isn't really the end of the world.

For a general use machine, this latest Dell Inspiron is a worthy pick for those after a more conventional laptop form-factor. It has a good quality keyboard and trackpad for those lengthy typing sessions, plus the fans are nice and quiet. The battery life is decent for a general purpose machine - lasting around 9 hours. The overall build quality is good and its a very slimline and light device despite the larger 16-inch display - great for travelling. For a Windows machine, the speakers are also pretty good too - both in terms of quality and volume.

Once again the peak brightness of the display isn't that great (capping at around 265nits), which is the biggest downside of this device, but you can still use it without issue in an indoor setting. The color gamut is also very limited - around 56% sRGB - which makes it unsuitable for any kind of creative image/video editing work where color is important, but for general web browsing and non-creative workloads this shouldn't be an issue.

To be honest, although this is a solid device, we'd probably recommend opting for a 2020 MacBook Air with M1 chip if you don't mind using the Apple operating system, as these are now available for a similar amount of money and are about as good, though without the display issues. Still, if you're after a Windows device specifically and aren't too fussed about the brightness, this is a solid pick overall.

AMD Ryzen 7000 series laptops explained

CES 2023 saw the grand unveiling of these new laptop CPUs, along with a few surprises. Firstly, there's a new naming convention just to make things extra confusing for you, so the Ryzen 9 7945HX is now the most powerful in the series, equivalent to the flagship AMD Ryzen 6000 series laptop CPU: the Ryzen 9 6980HX. See the image below for a rundown of what each number and letter signifies.

The second big surprise is that some of the less powerful 7000 series CPUs (names the Rembrandt, Barcelo, and Mendocino laptop CPUs) are actually based on older architecture, and not Zen 4 like we'd expect.

Gaming laptop deals are live! Get huge savings on gaming laptops on the Lenovo Store, Best Buy or HP in 2024, as well as Amazon of course.

AMD Ryzen 7000 Mobile Dragon Range vs Phoenix vs Rembrandt vs Barcelo vs Mendocino

AMD Ryzen 7045 Dragon Range laptop CPUs

The AMD Ryzen 7000 Dragon Range is the medium-high end of the 7000 series mobile CPUs, geared towards gamers, workstation users, and high-end creatives who will have a separate, dedicated graphics card (dGPU). As a result, they will have less focus on integrated (iGPU) power, and more on raw CPU output, in terms of higher clock speeds, CPU cores, and cache. All of the Dragon Range are based on Zen 4 architecture.

AMD Ryzen 7040 Phoenix laptop CPUs

Conversely, the AMD Ryzen 7000 Phoenix / Phoneix Point line of laptop CPUs/APUs will be more targetted towards creatives who want more slimline machines and those interested in light-medium gaming at the upper end of the SKU list, with powerful iGPUs that might even compete with dedicated Nvidia RTX 3060 laptop graphics cards (albeit lower-powered ones), which would be impressive indeed. All of the Phoenix laptop CPUs are based on Zen 4 architecture.

AMD Ryzen 7035 Rembrandt-R laptop CPUs

Lower-powered Ultrathin laptop CPUs geared towards creatives, these CPUs will be based on the same Zen3+ architecture as the 6000 series, so expect similar performance to the thin and light laptops in that range. If you're looking for a laptop for your studies also consider reading our best laptop for students guide fo other examples with different CPUs.

AMD Ryzen 7030 Barcelo-R laptop CPUs

These laptop CPUs are geared more towards general-use thin and light laptops, and utilize the older still Zen3 architecture.

AMD Ryzen 7020 Mendocino laptop CPUs

Finally, the Mendocino CPUs use the virtually ancient Zen2 architecture and represent the cheapest, least powerful options available.

READ NOW: Best laptop under 400 USD (non-gaming)

Things to consider if you’re thinking of buying an AMD Ryzen 7000 series laptop

The below goes into greater detail about the features of the new AMD Ryzen 7000 laptop CPUs, to help you decide whether they’re worth the wait, or if you’d rather opt for a different AMD/Intel-powered laptop sooner.

AMD Ryzen 7000 series motherboard compatibility

AMD Ryzen 7000 series desktop CPUs will require an AM5 platform motherboard with LGA 1718 socket in order to be compatible, which the company will launch at the same time as the CPUs themselves. This is the first update to the platform/socket type that AMD has done in 6 years. Whilst this is more of a thing that desktop users who are putting together their own rig have to be aware of, it gives us an insight into the new technology that Ryzen 7000 series laptops will come equipped with.

DDR5 RAM support

Expect Dual-Channel DDR5 Memory Support.

No PCIe 5 support

Despite claiming that the Ryzen 7000 series would support PCIe 5 in previous presentations in 2022 (see this screengrab from an AMD presentation as evidence).

Zen 4 architecture, 4nm & 5nm process node

The (laptop only) AMD Ryzen 6000 series of Zen 3+ CPUs were based on an improved version of the same architecture used by the 5000 series (Zen 3), which used a 7nm process node i.e. 7n sized transistors. The new Zen 4 architecture from AMD predominantly uses a 5nm process node, which means smaller transistors, meaning more can be packed onto the Integrated Circuit, therefore more power in the same sized chip and potentially greater power efficiency.

Even more impressive, the Phoneix Point line of APUs will be built on the even smaller 4nm process node, allowing them even greater efficiency.

According to AMD the new 5nm Zen 4 architecture will offer a ‘greater than 15 percent’ improvement to single-threaded performance compared to Zen 3, though we haven’t yet heard anything in the way of multi-core performance.

RDNA 3 laptops vs RDNA 2 laptops

RDNA is the name of the architecture used by AMD in their GPUs and APUs. AMD already led the way in terms of onboard RDNA 2 graphics in their Ryzen 6000 series, but it seems like RDNA 3 will be a massive leap forward. AMD claim that the new iGPU (integrated GPU) technology offers 50% more performance per the same amount of Wattage, but stress that they’re looking to push the boat on gaming performance rather than reducing power draw, meaning substantially more shaders/CU cores as you can see in the table above for the Phoenix Point line. As stated by leaker Greymon55, the most powerful of these in the Phoenix APUs may be comparable (at least, not far off) to a mobile version of an RTX 3060, albeit one with a lower 60W TGP (higher wattage ones would still perform better).

AMD Ryzen 7000 series laptops vs Intel 13th gen laptops

We don’t quite yet know how the Ryzen 7000 series will compare to the upcoming Intel 13th gen CPUs in terms of raw power, but the signs are that the latest generation from the blue team won’t quite be the massive leap forward that the Intel 12th gen laptop CPUs were (and the desktop versions). The 12th gen series pretty much dominated the AMD Ryzen 6000 series in both single-core and multi-core performance, losing out to the red team’s efforts only in terms of power efficiency (Ryzen 6000 laptops invariably had superior battery life) and gaming performance on battery power. It seems this time it’s AMD’s turn to potentially leap ahead with its new Zen 4 architecture.

Whilst the Ryzen 6000 series broke ground in terms of their power efficiency, meaning better battery life and gaming performance on battery, they didn't have the computing power to take on the impressive Intel 12th gen machines in terms of raw performance.

We already know that the new Ryzen 7000 desktop CPUs narrow this gap with Intel, and though the Intel 13th gen CPUs do still outperform in single-core and multi-core workflows, it's by a slimmer margin, and the Ryzen chips are generally available for cheaper. The new CPUs represent a massive boost to processing power with their brand new architecture, translating to more FPS-generation in games, faster render times, and improved performance across the board.

AMD Ryzen 7000 series laptops vs Ryzen 7000 series laptops

Ryzen 7000 series laptop price

Ryzen 7000 series laptops will cross a whole range of budgets and price points, depending on the specific model of the CPU. You're unlikely to see many in our best gaming laptops under $500 guide, as models this cheap tend to be reserved for older tech. When you get to the upper end of ‘mid-range gaming laptops’ ending around the 1,500 USD mark (check out our best gaming laptop under $1,500 guide for some examples), you'll end up seeing quite a few, and similarly in the high-end range, starting with our best gaming laptop under $2,000 guide.

Final Word

We’ll be updating this page with all the latest AMD Ryzen 7000 series laptop products as they come out. DO also check out our main best gaming laptop guide covering all tech and price ranges, or see the dropdown menu above for myriad other guides covering different laptop types and price ranges.

Ryzen 7000 series laptop FAQs

Each of our buying guides are frequently updated with the latest products that we consider worthy of inclusion, ensuring you get the best available. If you'd like to learn more about the market before delving into our reviews, you can scroll down to the "Things to Consider When Buying the Best Laptop Under $800" section below. If time is of the essence, our top three recommendations are the late 2020 MacBook Air with M1 chip, the ASUS ZenBook 14 OLED, or the Microsoft Surface Pro 8 if you're looking for a 2-in-1 device. See the reviews further down this page for more models and the individual product reviews of each. Do also be sure to check out our Black Friday laptop deals page for some fantastic savings this month.

Best laptop under $800: reviews

The best 13-inch laptop for general productivity

Since the release of the latest MacBook Air with M2 chip, the price of the previous generation equipped with M1 chipsets has dropped substantially, which is great news for consumers. Ultimately the newer devices are very similar to this version, besides the processor itself, so for those who don't need the additional processing power, this cheaper model just makes more sense.

As with most Apple products, the build quality and aesthetics of the MacBook Air are top-notch. The high-res display (2560 x 1600) is lush, vibrant, and bright (reaching a peak of 400nits), plus it has excellent color replication if you're doing some color-based creative work (with 100% sRGB coverage and around 99% DCI-P3). Battery life isn't quite as good as on an M2 MacBook Air, but you still get around 11 hours of general usage depending on what you're doing, which is still quite impressive.

All told, there isn't much to say that's negative about this machine, and the base model actually represents good value for money, which isn't something you can say about a lot of overpriced Apple products, however the RAM and storage upgrades beyond the standard 8GB/256GB do cost substantially more than the base loadout, which isn't ideal.

A great 14-inch Windows laptop with OLED display

This ASUS ZenBook 14 OLED is a great challenger to the MacBook Air, with solid build quality, keyboard, and trackpad, an elegant design, and a good number of ports and sockets. The Intel Evo i5-1240P gives solid performance for a general productivity machine, capable of running light creative software.

The 16:10 high-res 2.8K display is just as good as the M1 MacBook Air's - with an actual peak brightness of around 400nits, plus 100% sRGB and DCI-P3 coverage. Although you'll often find it retailing with 8GB of RAM rather than 16GB, you can get a 1TB SSD for not much additional money over the baseline 512GB, which is very nice indeed. Being an OLED panel, you obviously get excellent contrast and black points too, and with a 90Hz refresh rate, you can enjoy light gaming in those non-demanding titles that the integrated graphics can manage.

As far as the negatives go, battery life, whilst not terrible, could be better, as you'll get around 6-7 hours of general use with some YouTube thrown in. The fans can also get a bit loud on the higher performance pre-sets, but you only really need to do this if you're working on some sort of more demanding creative software or the like (or perhaps some light gaming). Besides these points though, there again isn't a whole lot to criticise this machine about - it really is a very impressive laptop.

Best 2-in-1 laptop under $800

The Microsoft Surface Pro series stands out as a popular choice among convertible laptops, seamlessly combining the functionalities of a windows laptop and a tablet. Unlike traditional 2-in-1 laptop designs with hinging bottom sections, the Surface Pro adopts a tablet-centric design: it features a detachable keyboard that magnetically attaches to the bottom and a kickstand for propping it up. This device combines the advantages of the Windows operating system, laptop functionality, touchscreen capabilities, stylus/pen support, and the portability of a tablet.

While the Surface Pro 9 is the latest model, the Surface Pro 8, released in 2021, offers compelling value, especially for users who don't require a high-powered CPU for their daily tasks (with RAM being a more critical consideration for web browsing).

The Surface Pro 9, part of the 9th generation, provides options for either Intel 12th gen CPUs or Microsoft SQ3 processors. In contrast, the Pro 8, belonging to the 8th generation, is equipped with Intel 11th gen CPUs. Both versions feature two USB-C ports, a headphone jack, and a 13-inch, 2280 x 1920, 120Hz display. The 13" device boasts high resolution and pixel density (267ppi), reaching a peak brightness of around 330nits. Notably, it covers over 100% sRGB for vibrant colors and has a color accuracy of approximately 1.24 (average deltaE*00), making it suitable for light, accurate color workflows. The absence of a USB-A port might limit functionality, but users can address this by using a separate USB hub plugged into the USB-C port. Be aware that some retailer listings do not include the keyboard or stylus with the device, and these accessories can be relatively expensive, though this is counteracted a bit by the overall value of the device.

The best laptop under $800 for gaming

If you're looking for a budget gaming device then this Lenovo Legion 5 is the best pick overall for the price. Gaming laptops aren't cheap, so for this amount of money you can't expect to being playing the latest AAA titles on high settings (see our best gaming laptop under $1,500 and $2,000 guides if that's what you're looking for), however you will certainly be able to play older titles on this rig, and even the odd new game if it's not particularly demanding and/or you turn the settings down.

The Lenovo Legion 5 range consistently makes it into best-of guides every year, as they are great all-round devices. The GPU in this particular model is the RTX 3050 Ti laptop GPU, which isn't exactly a powerhouse but when combined with the AMD Ryzen 5 5600H processor it performs pretty respectably for the money. The Ryzen CPU also ensures solid battery life: you get approximately 7 hours of non-gaming use, with all battery saving settings enabled.

The build quality is solid with a respectable keyboard and trackpad. The only real downside to note however is that for this price you're limited to 8GB of RAM, and we'd advise bringing this up to 16GB. You can read our how to upgrade RAM on laptops guide for the simple steps you can use to do this.

This to consider if you're looking to buy the best laptop under $800

Before you pull the trigger on a new purchase, consider the below to ensure you get the right model for your needs.

CPU & graphics

For $800 you can easily get a machine with a processor powerful enough to do every day productivity tasks, and run some creative software to a reasonable degree. Most general productivity machines will just come with integrated graphics (iGPUs) where the graphics processing is done on the main CPU chipset. Gaming laptops will however come with dedicated GPUs - separate graphics cards that will require more power to run. For $800 you will only get a fairly entry-level gaming laptop, but you'll be able to run older titles and some newer games on low settings.

Memory & SSD size

It's recommended to have a minimum of 8GB of RAM, which should suffice for general usage and most basic software programs. If you tend to have multiple tabs open, use somewhat demanding creative software, or want to play games, opting for 16GB of RAM is a better choice. The amount of HDD/SSD storage you'll need depends on your particular requirements, such as how frequently you handle large files, though for gaming we'd advise a minimum of 512GB. You can however always supplement your laptop's internal storage with an external hard drive for additional space.

Battery duration

Battery life is an important consideration for most laptops - allowing you better flexibility of working or viewing media wherever you happen to be. For a general productivity laptop you should expect a minimum of at least 7 hours for the price of $800, though ideally more. Gaming laptops use up battery life quicker due to their more powerful components, so it's common for these to last for less time.

Best laptop under $800 FAQs

Final Word

We trust that our guide to the best laptops under $800 has been helpful. If you haven't found what you're seeking here, be sure to explore our guides for the best laptops under $400, $600, and $1000 for more models across different price points. Besides this, if you're interested in gaming laptops, our best gaming laptop guide might have just what you're looking for.

All of our buying guides are regularly kept up to date with the latest products, as long as we deem them worth of inclusion, so you're guaranteed to get the best products around. If you want to read a bit more about the market before getting stuck into our reviews, scroll down to the this to consider if you're looking to buy the best laptop under $600 section below. If you're short on time, then the top two picks we'd recommend are the MacBook Air from early 2020, if you don't mind using MacOS, or this previous gen Dell XPS 13 if you're after a Windows model. The other selections are equally as good, but are for more specific niches. Please do also read out Black Friday laptop deals page for some great savings this month.

Best laptop under $600: reviews

The best all-round general productivity device

If you’re after a Windows laptop with the elegant design and nice aesthetics of an Apple laptop, then the Dell XPS series is a great MacBook alternative, with the XPS 13 being a worthy replacement for the MacBook Air.

The Dell XPS 13 has a sturdy yet slimline and portable design and looks great. Although not up there with the MacBook Air in terms of screen brightness, it’s still good enough to be used outdoors and again has a 16:10 screen to maximize vertical headroom when typing in a document or web browsing etc. These laptops have been around for several years, which means you can find older refurbished models at budget-friendly prices while still enjoying the benefits of a high-quality machine. The keyboard and trackpad quality on XPS laptops are also both good, ensuring a satisfying user experience.

The Dell XPS 13 has been around for a few generations now and you can pick up an older, less powerful model for cheaper which will do just fine for writing purposes. In terms of battery life, it varies depending on the model, but even the worst have a respectable battery life, with the best of the series being impressive – reaching up to around 11 hours.

Although the port selection on these laptops might be somewhat limited, you do get a MicroSD card reader, which is useful. If you do buy a newer model, be aware that you’ll probably end up paying quite a bit of money, but you do at least get a high quality device for your hard currency.

A solid 13-inch MacBook Air

The early 2020 version of the MacBook Air didn't come equipped with the M1 chip like later models did that year, and so doesn't compete in terms of processing power or battery life with those devices, however it is available for considerably cheaper. You can pick up a refurbished model of this 13-inch laptop for a very good price, and still enjoy the premium design, build quality, and sumptuous high-res screen that the series is famous for.

The retina display comes with a resolution of 2560 x 1600 and looks exquisite: offering vivid and bright visuals with a peak brightness reaching 400 nits. Its color reproduction is excellent, making it suitable for color-based creative work with full coverage of 100% sRGB and approximately 99% DCI-P3. The battery duration lasts around 9 hours of general use - which is respectable.

Overall, there aren't many negative points to highlight about this machine. The base model provides good value for money, a rarity among certain overpriced Apple products. However, it's worth noting that RAM and storage upgrades beyond the standard 8GB/256GB come with a substantial additional cost, which may not be ideal for everyone.

The best 2-in-1 laptop for $600

The Microsoft Surface Pro 7 is a good few years old now, having been succeeded by the Microsoft Surface Pro 8 and the Pro 9, however it still offers many of the same excellent features as these later devices, but with less processing power and a lower refresh rate, neither of which essential for many general productivity use-cases anyway). The size of this device is a bit smaller than the later models - being 12.3-inches diagonally as opposed to 13.3-inches - but you still get a nice and high screen resolution of 2736 x 1824.

Distinct from conventional 2-in-1 laptop designs with hinging bottom sections, the Surface Pro takes on a tablet-centric approach. It incorporates a detachable keyboard that securely attaches through magnetic connections and a kickstand for convenient propping. This unique device amalgamates the benefits of the Windows operating system, laptop functionality, touchscreen features, stylus/pen support, and the ease of portability associated with tablets.

Ports sockets, and other features include: USB 3.0 ports, a microSD card reader, a 3.5mm headphone jack, Mini DisplayPort socket a 1080p webcam (of good quality) and two cameras: one a 5MP front-facing lens and the other a and 8MP rear-facing one.

Best laptop under $600 for gaming

If your budget for a gaming laptop is around $600, the Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 is the best overall choice. It goes beyond many of the typical offerings in this price range by featuring a dedicated graphics card, the Nvidia GTX 1650, which is a rarity at this budget. Complementing this, it boasts a robust AMD Ryzen 5 5600H CPU, a powerful mid-range processor from a previous generation. The reality is you shouldn't expect much in terms of gaming power at this budget, but this GPU/CPU combination delivers respectable FPS performance on older games on lower settings.

The Ryzen 5 5600H offers an additional advantage of being highly power-efficient compared to its Intel counterparts. This efficiency translates to an extended battery life of at least 7 hours in battery-saving mode, making it versatile for general use or office tasks.

The laptop's display sports a 120Hz refresh rate, which, given the components' power, ensures smooth gameplay when FPS is sufficiently high.

It's important to note that the configuration in this price range only includes 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD, both of which are quite limited. However, you can upgrade the laptop RAM yourself fairly easily, and supplement the SSD with external storage solutions.

This to consider if you're looking to buy the best laptop under $600

Before pulling the trigger on your new device, make sure you take the following into account to ensure you end up with the best product you can for the money.

Processing power

If you're only using your laptop for browsing the web, watching videos, and typing up documents, then processing power isn't really a top priority. If you're planning on using creative software applications then you'll want to make sure your CPU matches the recommended requirements for whatever piece of software it is you're running.

RAM & storage

The minimum amount of memory/RAM you should have in a laptop is 8GB, which will cover you for general usage and the vast majority of basic software programs. If however you're prone to opening lots of tabs, you plan on using moderately demanding creative software, or you fancy doing a bit of gaming on your device, then you should go for 16GB of RAM. HDD/SSD storage is more dependent upon your needs (i.e. how often you download and save large files) and more easily solved by supplementing your laptop's internal storage with an external hard drive.

Battery life

If you're planning on working a lot on the move - either on public transport or you like to set yourself up in a coffee shop and type away - then battery life is an important consideration, given you're less likely to be bale to plug in your device. Gaming laptops pretty much always require plugging in if you're playing a game, though you can put them on battery for general use as you would with any other laptop (though typically it will run out quicker due to the more power-hungry components).

Best laptop under $600 FAQs

Final Word

We hope our guide to the best laptop under $600 has proven useful. If you didn't find what you're looking for here do also take a look at our best laptop under $400, $800, and $1000 guides for more options in different price ranges, or check out our best gaming laptop guide if that's more what you're looking for.

The new MacBook Pro M3 series has of course recently been launched, but these are considerably more expensive and powerful than both the laptops on this page so don't work as well for a comparison. If you want to know the differences between them, basically, whatever applies to the M2 option we're comparing below - just exaggerate further and this will give you a good idea of the M3 MacBook Pro. Also, make sure you check out our Black Friday MacBook Air deals and Black Friday MacBook Pro deals hubs for some great savings this November.

Today's best MacBook deals

MacBook Air 15 vs MacBook Pro 16 M2 specs comparison

MacBook Air 15 vs MacBook Pro 16 M2 display

Although both laptops come with Liquid Retina displays, the 2023 MacBook Pro 16 comes with the XDR variant that is capable of much higher peak brightness, particularly when viewing HDR content. It also has ProMotion tech that effectively boosts the maximum refresh rate to 120Hz.

In terms of resolution, the MacBook Pro also has a higher pixel per inch (ppi count) than the 15-inch MacBook Air.

MacBook Air 15 vs MacBook Pro 16 M2 chipset

The Apple M2 Pro and M2 Max chipsets in the latest MacBook Pro 16 are substantially more powerful than the regular Apple M2 chip in the 15 inch MacBook Air (even if it is more powerful than that in the 13 inch MacBook Air), however this level of power is beyond what you'd need for casual general use.

The M2 Pro is best for those with moderately demanding editing workloads (be they photo/video/audio) whereas the M2 Max is only for really strenuous workloads, or many running simultaneously, heavy CAD rendering or the like.

The M2 chip in the MacBook Air is certainly adequate for general use and light creative workloads however.

MacBook Air 15 vs MacBook Pro 16 M2 battery life

The MacBook Air 15 inch model comes with a smaller 66.5 watt-hour battery than the larger 100 watt-hour one in the MacBook Pro, but it has a less powerful (and therefore less power-hungry) chipset.

We'll have to wait for third party testing to know how the 15 inch MacBook Air battery life performs in different real-world scenarios, but based on the specs provided by Apple, it's claimed that both laptops should be able to manage 'up to 15 hours wireless web browsing', although the MacBook Pro can apparently manage up to 22 hours of Apple TV app movie playback, whereas the Air can only manage 18.

MacBook Air 15 vs MacBook Pro 16 M2 price

The 15 inch MacBook Air price starts at $1,299 for the lowest storage and RAM loadout, with upgrades in either of these areas costing more.

The MacBook Pro 16 (M2) price begins at $2,299 for the M2 Pro version, and $3,199 for the M2 Max.

Final Word

So, to sum up, the 15 inch MacBook Air vs 16 inch MacBook Pro - which should you pick? Well the two devices are ultimately aimed at different users, with different needs and different budgets. The lighter, thinner, and much more affordable MacBook Air is a much better choice for the average general user, looking for a quality machine for the office, studying, or light creative use.

The MacBook Pro however (as the name suggests) is more geared towards creative professionals doing more demanding tasks, with a need for greater processing power, storage, RAM, and an HDR capable screen, for whom the steep asking price is worth the money.

You may want to also consider some Windows laptops on our best MacBook Pro alternatives guide.

Intel 14th gen Core HX vs Core Ultra laptops

In slightly simplified terms, the present Intel 14th gen laptop range is split between processors designated 'Core HX' e.g. the Intel Core i9-14900HX, which are based around an updated 'refresh' of the 13th gen Raptor Lake architecture, and the 'Intel Core Ultra' processors e.g. the Intel Core Ultra 9 185H, which are based around the completely new Meteor Lake architecture. The former are 'high-end' CPUs meant for powerful gaming laptops with separate dedicated GPUs and the like, whereas the latter are more focused on power efficiency and integrated graphics performance, although do also crop up in gaming devices.

Although we've only really seen the i9-14900HX so far from the Core HX range, if this is anything to go by then there's not been a great deal of improvement in performance in these processors from their preceding 13th gen counterparts. The Core Ultra line on the other hand represent a substantial improvement over previous Intel processors designed for productivity laptops and thinner devices, in battery life, integrated graphics performance, and the new field of AI processing. Read further down this page for more information.

Best Intel 14th gen Core HX laptops (Raptor Lake refresh mobile)

The below are the best Intel 14th gen Core HX laptop models currently available - at present it’s limited to Intel Core 14900HX models, but lower SKUs will be appearing in the coming months. As stated, these are primarily of interest to those looking for a new gaming laptop or a high-end workstation machine. Given the relatively minor improvement of this range of the previous generation, you may also want to check out our best Intel 13th gen laptop guide, although the newer devices on this page will likely have other improvements that may make them more appealing.

The most powerful Intel 14th gen laptop: a desktop replacement beast

The Titan is MSI’s desktop replacement line, geared towards those who want a hugely powerful workstation for demanding productivity tasks alongside gaming on the maximum settings. It differs from the MSI Raider, which is the primary high-end gaming laptop of the company and can be equipped with the same Intel Core i9 14900HX processor and RTX 4090 laptop GPU, in that it has a ridiculously high threshold for memory and storage upgrades, allowing for 128GB of DDR5 RAM and 12TB of total SSD storage in this particular generation, plus comes with a higher combined total power limit. Whereas the Raider has a 250W combined power limit (175W for its GPU and 75W for the CPU), the Titan has a larger 95W limit for the processor (270W in total) which translates to greater performance from the processor.

The downside of this additional power is that the laptop is heavier as a result, given the additional cooling that is required. That being said, this latest model has a reduction in the number of fans from four to just two compared to the model last year, however it now comes with a vapor chamber cooler to compensate, plus 3D cooling stands. Other changes include the introduction of WiFi 7 and bluetooth v5.4 support - ideal for maximising productivity - plus a new RGB haptic touchpad.

The 18-inch display has 4K resolution - perfect for creative work  - but also a 120Hz refresh rate for gaming purposes. The Mini-LED panel ensures nice high brightness and it’s got 100% DCI-P3 color replication to boot.

Even considering all of these core specs this is a very expensive laptop, and only really suitable for those that either will utilise it for working purposes or who just have money to burn and want the most powerful model there is.

The best high-end Intel Core HX gaming laptop, with Mini-LED display

The 2024 ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 18 is fairly similar to its preceding 2023 model, with the only real differences being the newer gen Intel CPU and the addition of a Mini-LED display, compared to the IPS panel in the older variant.

The Mini-LED screen has 100% DCI-P3 coverage and 100% sRGB and strong color accuracy, meaning it’s suitable for any color-based creative software you may also wish to use it for, besides gaming. With a peak brightness of around 500 nits it’s also suitable for use outside. The 32GB of DDR5 RAM is exactly what you’d want and the 1TB SSD is sufficient for most gamers. 

The RTX 4080 laptop GPU is one of the best mobile graphics cards we’ve seen released for some time, so in terms of performance this laptop is undoubtedly a beast, however interestingly when we benchmarked it (the review is coming soon), it only outperformed the 13th gen variant of the same laptop in some scenarios, and actually underperformed in some titles, despite being the later model (this has also been reported by other reviewers besides us). The top-notch display still makes it worth your consideration but if you’re happy with the IPS version then you should consider the older model and save some money.

The best mid-range Intel Core HX gaming laptop currently available

If you’re after a relatively affordable mid-range gaming laptop then this latest ASUS ROG Strix G16 could be the one for you. At around the $1,800 mark it’s slightly above what we’d typically classify as mid-range (see our best gaming laptop under $1,500 guide for some more typical examples) but this is a reflection of the fact that it comes with a more powerful processor than you’d typically expect to see paired with a mid-range GPU like the RTX 4060.

Pairing an Intel Core i9-14900HX with this graphics card is an unusual choice for a gaming laptop, given the latter component is more important in determining how the vast majority of games perform, and users are likely to see GPU bottlenecking occur well before CPU bottlenecking does. That being said, if you’re looking for a machine you can use for CPU-heavy productivity tasks alongside your gaming then this could be ideal.

Besides the CPU and GPU you get your typical 16GB of DDR5 RAM and 1TB NVMe SSD, a solid overall build quality, and a nice 240Hz QHD+ display on a 16-inch screen - the ideal setup for most gamers.

Best Intel 14th gen Core Ultra laptops (Meteor Lake laptops)

The following Intel Core Ultra aka Meteor Lake laptops are ideal if you're after an energy efficient machine with strong integrated graphics performance and AI processing. Primarily these are productivity machines, however there are some gaming laptops available with these CPUs as well.

An affordable 14-inch Meteor Lake gaming laptop

The HP Omen Transcend 14 is the first ever 14-inch gaming laptop released by HP, and it’s made some waves by coming equipped with some fairly impressive specs and yet carrying a pretty reasonable price tag.

The most eye-catching of these features is the 2.8K VRR OLED screen, which has a solid 120Hz refresh rate. It was very rare to find a gaming laptop with a OLED screen and a sufficiently high refresh rate last year, and certainly not for this asking price. Although the color replication on this laptop isn’t up there with what you’d want for a creative device, it’s certainly good enough for gaming and the unbeatable contrast ratio and response time offered by OLED panels make it a fine choice.

The Intel Core Ultra SKUs you can equip this device with max out at the Ultra 9-185H, and the top graphics card is the Nvidia RTX 4070. In terms of power, the GPU is limited to 80W, so if you were to go for the RTX 4070 option it would be less powerful than competing models, however it would still be a potent GPU regardless. The RTX 4060 is the option that offers the best value in our opinion as a mid-range device.

Ultimately this is a laptop that’s designed to bridge the gap between a sleek portable productivity device and a gaming laptop. Coming in at only 1.637kg it is a remarkably lightweight machine and the chassis as a whole looks great, however the main issue we have with the laptop is the keyboard. In terms of looks the translucent edging to the keys looks a bit naff, and the feel of the keys is a tad spongey, however this factor alone shouldn’t take away from the fact that this is overall a very impressive machine.

Best MacBook Air alternative

If you’re looking for a slick ultralight and portable laptop with a great screen then the ASUS ZenBook 14 with touchscreen OLED display is a great option. This range has been a solid pick for the last couple of generations, but the inclusion of the latest Intel Ultra Core processors gives it an additional edge when it comes to energy efficiency - with a battery life that now competes with the likes of Ryzen APUs and the Apple M2 range. Although not quite as good as the battery life of the latest MacBook Air series when doing low-intensity workloads like web browsing (you’ll get around 9 hours in this device compared to the c.11 hours in the Apple machine), it does compete in terms off battery performance when doing more strenuous activities, like watching fullscreen video or running Photoshop for instance.

Furthermore, the Intel Core Ultra Zenbook surpass the MacBook Air in terms of CPU performance and integrated graphical performance, so you get more rendering power in creative software and the like. With the 120Hz OLED screen, you can even do a bit of light gaming on non-demanding titles, as long as the integrated GPU meets the minimum specs.

The keyboard does lack a numpad, even an electronic one on the trackpad, which could be a bit of a pain for some users, but besides this it's a pleasure to type on. This device looks great, and is a pleasure to use as a general productivity machine.

Best MacBook Pro alternative

The new Dell XPS is available in either 13-inch, 14-inch, or 16-inch sizes, though it’s the 16-inch model we’re most interested in as a competitor to the larger MacBook Pros. The 16.3” display comes in two variants, the cheaper 1200p non-touch which has 500 nits of peak brightness (meaning you can use it outdoors) and 100% sRGB coverage, or the 4K+ OLED touchscreen model, which has 100% DCI-P3 coverage, making it more suitable for color-based productivity tasks, although a lower 400nits of brightness.

This new Dell XPS range has been redesigned more to resemble the XPS Pro of previous years: for better and possibly for worse, depending on your preferences. There’s no doubt that the laptop looks exquisite - it’s arguably the nicest on the market, however it features a relatively controversial capacitive function key design that has proven divisive in the past. It’s an unusual choice the company has made to replace the top row of physical function keys with haptic LED keys, given this was unpopular enough on the MacBook range that Apple removed it from more recent models, still, not everyone has a problem with this.

Processor options for the 16-inch version go up to the Intel Core Ultra 9 185H and you can equip it with a dedicated Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 GPU should you wish (the smaller variants cap out at an RTX 4050), which is far more powerful than you’d get in a MacBook, even if it only has a 60W TGP. The lower TGP means you won't’ get the performance you would from a dedicated gaming laptop, but given the decent refresh rate of the two screen variants (120Hz for the FHD+ and 90Hz for the OLED) you can definitely game on the higher powered models.

RAM and storage options go all the way up to 64GB off DDR5 and 4TB of SSD storage, which is nice and high for those that need it, and shouldn’t cost as much as the upgrades do for Mac laptops (which are frankly ridiculous). It has the latest WiFi 7 support, along with Bluetooth 5.4 - something the present range of MacBooks do not have.

Intel 14th gen laptop release date: when did Intel 14th gen laptops come out?

December 14th was the confirmed launch date of the new Meteor Lake mobile processors but the actual release date for most was in early January. The Raptor Lake Refresh models were first released around CES 2024, which ran from January 9th - 12th.

So is Meteor Lake the same as Core Ultra?

Meteor Lake and Core Ultra are indeed the same thing - they are the chips based on brand new architecture that focuses on AI processing, integrated graphics performance, and increased power efficiency. In Q4 2023, Intel's marketing department appears to have shifted to using Intel Core Ultra as the designation for the new range, and Meteor Lake became referenced much less, even though it was being used only as far back as September at the Intel Innovation event. Most tech commenters are now using both names to refer to the range.

Is Meteor Lake coming to desktop?

Meteor Lake processors are (for now) mobile only. They will be confined to laptops, possibly tablets, and perhaps gaming handhelds, although we may see some released within Mini-PCs.

Meteor Lake vs Raptor Lake - improvements & changes

If you want to dig more into the changes that come with the new Intel Core tech, read below for a breakdown.

Meteor Lake architecture / Intel Ultra Core architecture

The Intel Ultra Core architecture is a more advanced version of the P-core and E-core (i.e. Performance and Efficiency) setup introduced in previous architectures, based on a 7nm process. According to WCCFTech the two core types are known as Redwood Cove P-Cores and Crestmont E-Cores, with the majority of upgrades coming to the E-cores.

The structure of the new architecture is based around a more tiled structure for improved power efficiency, similar to AMD's chiplet design, that will separate the process nodes between an IOE Tile, SOC Tile, Graphics Tile, and the Compute Tile. The latter two of these tiles are exactly what they sound like - covering integrated graphics and processing. The SOC tile serves a dual purpose: it handles low-intensity tasks with utmost energy efficiency and accommodates the NPU (Neural Processing Unit) responsible for advanced machine learning capabilities that will be a highlight of the new line-up. The IOE tile is in charge of a range of connectivity functions, including PCI Express, WiFi & Bluetooth, USB4, Thunderbolt, and more.

Meteor Lake vs Raptor Lake laptop specs (example)

Below is a specification breakdown of an Intel 14th gen laptop Meteor Lake CPU from WCCFTech (who are usually right about these things), sourced heavily from a UserBenchmark leak of a supposed Meteor Lake laptop CPU.

How much faster is Meteor Lake? CPU power

When it comes to CPU processing performance alone, Meteor Lake does not see much uplift in raw power terms. As PCWorld noted after a preview of the new CPUs at Intel’s Penang factory, 'Intel is targeting the performance of its 13th-gen mobile Raptor Lake chips' in terms of FPS output. The focus of the company in this update is instead on power efficiency and integrated graphics performance, with the aim of surpassing AMD's Ryzen 7000 series laptops in these aspects (who currently are market leaders in these areas).

Integrated graphics in Meteor Lake CPUs

Intel is making significant improvements in terms of integrated graphics with its Meteor Lake CPUs, including a transition from the previous Intel Xe/XeLP technology to a new XeLPG integrated graphics core. These new integrated graphics units (iGPUs) will incorporate technology found in the Intel Arc dedicated graphics cards, known as XeHPG graphics tech. This upgrade allows the new iGPUs to support Ray-Tracing, although the exact level of Ray-Tracing capabilities remains uncertain.

Even more thrilling is the fact that these Intel iGPUs will be compatible with Intel's Frame generation technology, called XeSS, which is Intel's counterpart to DLSS. This means that these iGPUs can use XeSS to boost FPS performance in games that support it, surpassing what their raw specifications would typically achieve.

Intel claims that integrated graphics performance will double compared to their previous 13th Gen lineup. This performance boost could even exclude the additional performance benefits brought by, frame generation technology, if this is the case it would be an exciting development for Intel's integrated graphics capabilities.

Intel Core Ultra Battery life

While single-core and multi-core performance is expected to be similar to Intel's 13th-gen laptop CPUs, the Meteor Lake processors achieve this with approximately half the power consumption, resulting in significantly improved laptop battery life. Core Ultra series laptops now have comparable battery efficiency compared to Ryzen 7000 series and Apple M2 laptops, although Apple still has the edge on energy efficiency when the laptop is idling. MSI has claimed (according to Tomshardware) their new MSI Prestige 16 laptop, which is thought to come with a Meteor Lake laptop CPU: will have a battery life of nearly 24 hours, which is an unbelievably high duration if true (we assume it wouldn't get this in real world testing, but even 20 hours would be hugely impressive).

Final Word

We trust you are now fully satiated with information on the Intel 14th gen laptop series. Do be sure to take a gander at our main best gaming laptop guide and also best laptop for students and best laptop for working from home guides.

We regularly keep our buying guides updated with the latest products, should we deem them worthy of inclusion, so you can rest assured that these are the best options available at any given time. If you’re pressed for time, we suggest either the MacBook Air 2022 13.6″ if you're open to using the Mac operating system, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 9 if you're after a Windows laptop, and the Microsoft Surface Pro 8 if you fancy a 2-in-1, tablet-like device.

Which is the best-sized laptop for travel?

The best size laptop for traveling is subjective to a point, depending on your personal needs and preferences, however, we can say in terms of screen size it's somewhere in the 12 - 14 inch range. 15.6 inches is the standard laptop screen size and you can travel with these depending on the size of your bag and your own personal willingness/ability to carry larger devices, however, you will find it difficult to use a 15-inch machine on a fold-down tray table on a plane/coach/train for instance, whereas a 14-inch or smaller device should probably work fine for this. All of the laptops in our guide will therefore be within this size range, though by the time you get to 12 inches you're really dealing with a small display that's usually too small for most people's needs.

Best travel laptop 2024

Best all-round laptop for travel

If you don't mind using macOS - the Apple operating system - rather than Windows, then the 13.3-inch Apple MacBook Air is the best all-round travel laptop on the market. It offers a combination of portability, durability, a great keyboard and trackpad, a nice strong battery life, and a quality webcam.

You can pick up the 15" MacBook Air with very similar specs for a slightly higher price if your bag has the space for this size, as it remains a very thin and lightweight machine, but for most of those looking for a travel laptop, the 13--inch model offers much better portability.

The M2 chipset the latest MacBook Air comes with delivers impressive performance for such a slim device and can handle non-demanding video editing workflows and light gaming. Despite its power, the chipset is highly energy-efficient, providing the MacBook Air with a fantastic battery life of approximately 11-13 hours for general usage and web browsing. The Liquid Retina IPS display features a high resolution and contrast, with a peak brightness of 500 nits, making it a bright screen suitable for outdoor use.

As is typical with Apple products, these laptops come at a premium. Nevertheless, the MacBook Air is considered one of the more reasonably priced models in Apple's line-up. If you're comfortable with 8GB of RAM and the base 256GB SSD size (which you can supplement with an external hard drive), you can get the base model at a fairly competitive price. Keep in mind though that additional RAM and SSD storage upgrades can be costly, and these components cannot be upgraded after purchase, which is annoying because 16GB memory and a 512GB SSD would be our ideal.

The most robust, secure travel laptop with an excellent keyboard

The Lenovo ThinkPad series is generally recognized as the leading brand of business laptops; known for producing rugged, secure devices with excellent keyboards that offer arguably the best typing experience, matte displays that reduce glare, and superior file security. The premium option of the range is the ThinkPad X1 Carbon series. The latest iteration, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11, has the most powerful CPU options, specifically Intel's 13th-gen laptop CPUs, and the latest DDR5 RAM. The generation before, the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 10 featured Intel's 12th-gen laptop CPUs and also DDR5 RAM. However, our preferred choice remains the Gen 9 due to its cost-effectiveness and superior battery duration. The Gen 9 offers a remarkable 13-15 hours of battery life whereas the Gen 10 model, gives around 8-10 hours, which is still decent.

The keyboard is an unusual design, combining aspects of a low-travel chiclet keyboard, like those on a MacBook, with a tactile mechanical keyboard, making it a very satisfying typing experience. What's more, the keys are ergonomically shaped with perfect size and spacing to minimize typing errors. The trackpad is also of high quality. The entire laptop is built to military standards, featuring a MIL-STD 810G certified chassis, making it robust enough to endure drops, shocks, and extreme temperature variations, perfect for traveling with.

Other features include an InfraRed webcam with Windows Hello, Kensington lock, fingerprint sensor, and TPM 2.0 data encryption for your files and ThinkShield software - ideal for business users dealing with sensitive documents. You get a decent array of ports and sockets, including an HDMI port and an optional Nano SIM slot, plus an RJ-45 Ethernet port in some models.

This isn't a nice-looking laptop, unless you've got a thing for retro utilitarian business computers. Additionally, the asking price can still be a bit steep, although you do get quality for your money. You could also however, also consider the cheaper ThinkPad E14 G3, another 14-inch option that sacrifices some features such as speaker and webcam quality but retains the advantages of a matte screen, rugged design, security features, and an excellent keyboard.

Best 2-in-1 laptop for travel

The Microsoft Surface Pro series is a leading line of 'convertible laptops' or '2-in-1 laptops' that are popular with business people - essentially devices that combine the functionality of both a laptop and a tablet. Unlike most 2-in-1 laptop designs where the bottom section hinges back around to create a tablet form factor, the Surface Pro more closely resembles a tablet with a detachable keyboard that clips magnetically to the bottom and also has an in-built kickstand for propping up the screen. Compared to the majority of 'full' tablets that are Android-based, the Surface series uses the Windows operating system, giving users a laptop-like experience while offering touchscreen functionality, stylus/pen support, and tablet-like portability.

The model we've selected is the Microsoft Surface Pro 8, which isn't the latest model in the Surface Pro lineup (that would be the Surface Pro 9) but it is the one that makes the most sense for most consumers. The design between these two generations is very similar, with the only big difference being the choice of CPU. The Surface Pro 9 is equipped with options for either Intel 12th-gen CPUs or Microsoft SQ3 processors. In contrast, the Surface Pro 8 features Intel 11th-gen CPUs, but offers better value for users who don't necessarily require a powerful CPU for their daily work; the available RAM is often more critical for web browsing and general productivity.

Both models come with two USB-C ports and a headphone jack, as well as a 13-inch, 2280 x 1920, 120Hz display. The resolution and pixel density (267ppi) are quite high for a 13-inch device. The screen's brightness peaks at around 330 nits, which is sufficient, and it covers over 100% of the sRGB color space with a color accuracy of around 1.24 (average deltaE*00), making it suitable for light and accurate color workflows. One drawback is the lack of a USB-A port, but you can address this by purchasing a separate USB hub to connect to one of the USB-C ports.

One final note: make sure your model comes with an included keyboard and pen/stylus, should you want these features. These can often add to the cost substantially, which is annoying, but there are some good deals out there.

Best affordable laptop for travel

The Dell XPS 13 range covers different generations of laptops that are all great-looking, slimline, well-made devices that seek to offer a Windows alternative to the MacBook series. Although they don't always quite manage to achieve this aim, they're definitely quality machines and any one of them you pick, whether it has newer-gen tech or is an older model, will do great as a travel laptop, particularly the more compact 13-inch models

In terms of our specific pick though, we've selected one of the slightly older models with an 11th-generation Intel processor as it still offers plenty of power for general productivity but is now available for a very reasonable price. By contrast, the newer models can be quite a bit more pricey, and the upgrades they bring are fairly unnecessary for most consumers.

All versions of the XPS series offer an aesthetically pleasing design. The peak brightness of the display might not quite match that of the MacBooks, but still exceeds the typical brightness levels of Windows laptops in the same price range. The keyboard and trackpad quality are both impressive, although the port selection can be somewhat limited (usually USB-C only), you can always expand this with a USB port hub, should you need to.

Best gaming laptop for travel

The ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 has consistently been one of the best gaming laptops year after year. Since its initial release in 2001, it has remained a top choice for those seeking a great 14-inch gaming laptop, and ASUS continues to make improvements with each new model. Its portability, 16:10 display, MicroSD slot, and fairly bright screen also make it an excellent dual-use machine for general productivity and creative use.

The 2023 edition builds on the strengths of its predecessor, the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022), which we reviewed and tested in-depth. If you're looking for a more cost-effective solution, the 2022 model is still a superb mobile gaming device, even the 2001 model is still a solid machine. The latest model however, features several improvements, including a higher maximum refresh rate of 165Hz, upgraded Nvidia GeForce 40-series graphics cards, AMD Ryzen 7000 series processors, and various minor enhancements on top of this. It still offers a vibrant 16:10 display with a fast response time, accurate color reproduction, a good selection of ports given its compact size, and surprisingly impressive speakers, which are not commonly found in gaming laptops.

You have the option to choose between the Ryzen 7 7735HS or 9 7940HS processors, which can be paired with an RTX 4060, 4070, 4080, or 4090 GPU based on your desired level of performance and budget. Regardless of your choice, the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 remains an outstanding upper mid-range portable gaming laptop that can also handle creative software workflows with ease.

Things to consider before buying a laptop for travel

Have a read of the below points before you pull the trigger on a new travel laptop purchase, just to make sure it's the right option for you.

Is it better to travel with a laptop or tablet?

Tablets are generally more portable than laptops, however, they do not have the level of functionality you'll get with a laptop device. As a rule of thumb, if you're only interested in browsing the web and watching videos on your device, then a tablet is probably the best option to travel with. If however, you plan on working or gaming, or doing anything that requires the use of a keyboard, or you need greater processing power for some sort of creative software or workstation program, then a laptop is the better traveling companion. 2-in-1 laptops / convertible laptops are often a good middle ground, but they're usually heavier than pure tablet devices.

Best travel laptop FAQs

Best travel laptop 2024: Final Word

We trust you are now fully up to speed on what is the best travel laptop for your needs. Do be sure to have a look at some of our other guides if you're still not sure, such as our best laptop under $1,000 guide, and our best gaming laptop guide.

Read below for everything you need to know about laptop NFC tech, and also have a look at our best laptop under $1,000 guide if you're in the market to pick up one of these new machines, or check out our Black Friday laptop deals page for some great offers this November.

What is NFC?

The short answer: NFC tech is the same thing that lets you make contactless payments with your debit/credit card or phone.

Going slightly more in-depth: Near Field Communication (NFC) is a method of data transference that uses magnetic induction to transmit over very short distances - no more than around 4-inches but often shorter, sometimes with the two devices at either end of the communication having to touch. It involves the 'reading' device transmitting radio waves which themselves power the thing they are reading (the NFC 'tag') when in close enough proximity, charging the tag and transferring the data across to the reader.

There are a multitude of uses of NFCs that basically all maximise convenience by enabling data transfer with one simple movement, and these commonly involve the use of your smartphone to say swipe against a person's business card and automatically load their contact info, or swipe against a pre-programmed tag by your bed stand to load up a particular bedtime playlist on your connected sound system.

Do any laptops have NFC?

There have been a few rare laptops over the last couple of years that incorporated NFC tech, like the Dell Latitude 5580, though primarily it's been limited to tablet devices and 2-in-1 laptops like the Huawei MateBook 13. Recently however MSI announced that their upcoming Commercial 14 business laptop would have at least an NFC reader included - though we're not sure if this will also function as a NFC writer.

What is the point of NFC on a laptop?

An NFC reader on a laptop would essentially allow you to do the same stuff as you would with a phone using NFC technology, though would obviously be a lot more inconvenient when it comes to say paying for something in a shop by whipping out your laptop.

It would however allow you to potentially pay with your card when web browsing by tapping it to your laptop. Also you could instantaneously transfer data from a pre-programmed NFC tag that someone may have given you - allowing for quick image file transfer / contact details transfer / a link to a web page or something similar.

An NFC writer on a laptop would however give a lot more functionality - allowing you to program your own NFC tags to use how you like (e.g. setting up a business card or token which could take people to your Linktree/Instagram/LinkedIn account, or ones that you could place around your home to instantaneously set your smart devices to how you'd like them with a swipe of your phone).

NFC on laptop devices: Final Word

You should now be fully up to speed regarding NFC laptop technology. Do also take a gander at our other laptop and gaming laptop pieces whilst you're here, including our best laptop for students and best laptop for working from home, to make sure you're fully up to date.

Read below for everything you need to know about IR cameras on laptops and what they're used for. Also, do check out our best laptop deals section below if you're planning on picking up a new device, or take a look at our Black Friday laptop deals and Black Friday gaming laptop deals pages for the biggest discounts this November.

What is the point of an IR camera on a laptop?

The primary purpose of having an IR camera on a laptop is security. Essentially an IR camera allows a similar level of security to prevent people who aren't you from accessing your laptop as a fingerprint reader does, but by using face authentication.

Most commonly this is done via the Microsoft technology known as Windows Hello. Basically, rather than (or in addition to) entering a password to unlock your laptop, you can scan your face with the IR camera, which will recognize your unique features and let you in.

This can be accomplished because InfraRed light penetrates the surface layers of your skin, meaning it can pick out your unique facial features (such as surface vein patterns) that are harder to replicate. Basically, it gives more detail to your unique facial pattern compared to cameras which just detect the visible light spectrum, making it a more secure method of accessing your device.

IR laptop camera FAQs

What is an IR camera on a laptop? Final Word

What is an IR camera on a laptop? Well we hope we have satisfactorily answered this question above. If not, then sadly you are beyond our help sweet child. Good look in life - you will need it.

Before you go though... do please have a read of our various other best laptop and best gaming laptop guides in the main menu on top of this page.

We strongly suggest you read our things to consider before upgrading laptop RAM plus FAQs section further down this page before diving into the steps themselves however, even if you've done this before and are only here for a refresher. If you're in the market for some new memory, do check out our Black Friday RAM deals page, and the same goes if you're after a new laptop or gaming laptop device this November: our Black Friday laptop deals and Black Friday gaming laptop deals guides have you covered.

How to upgrade RAM on laptops

Things to consider before upgrading laptop RAM

SODIMM vs DIMM memory

DIMM stands for Dual In-line Memory Module, and is the type of 64 bit memory used for desktop computers. SODIMM stands for Small Outline Dual In-line Memory Module, and is the same type of RAM but thinner and smaller in size, and therefore better suited to laptops and notebooks. This is the type of RAM you will typically look for when upgrading your laptop.

Upgrade RAM on laptop FAQs

Can you upgrade DDR4 to DDR5 memory?

You cannot upgrade DDR4 RAM to DDR5 RAM in a laptop as the pin layout is different on both the RAM itself and the socket on the motherboard at the point where you plug one into the other. This means upgrading from DDR4 to DDR5 without completely changing the motherboard is impossible, and whilst you can do this for a desktop gaming PC, upgrading the motherboard of your laptop is not something you can do.

Which laptops support DDR5 RAM?

AMD Ryzen 6000 series laptops and Intel 12th gen laptops support DDR5 memory, and the latest Ryzen 7000 series laptops and Intel 13th gen laptops also support the RAM tech.

Ryzen 6000 series laptop motherboards actually only support DDR5 RAM (so if you have one, you know it will be DDR5 compatible). Intel 12th gen (Alder Lake) laptops can support either DDR4 or DDR5 (though never both, as explained above), so you will have to check the specs of your particular laptop if it’s an Alder Lake machine to work out which memory generation it supports.

What is my RAM speed?

Our comprehensive RAM speed guide will tell you everything you need to know about understanding what it is and how it can affect your PC's performance in greater depth. In a nutshell though, there are two numbers you need to be aware of: RAM frequency (measured in MHz e.g. 3200MHz) and CAS Latency (a.k.a. memory timings e.g. 14-15-15-39).

The effective speed of your RAM is worked out through a combination of the first two figures of the CAS latency, plus the RAM frequency, after you both plug them into the following equation.

Thus, a higher RAM frequency and tighter timings (i.e. a smaller number on the CAS latency) mean faster RAM. Both of these can also be tweaked through RAM overclocking (depending on the make of your memory and the BIOS of your laptop) for further speed gains.

More RAM Or Faster RAM?

Faster RAM will improve performance somewhat in some games (particularly those where memory bottlenecking can occur), and can make a bigger impact on the performance of workstation/creative software, however for the majority of users the amount of RAM they have in their laptop will be much more important.

RAM speed is really only something high-end enthusiasts who already have the best GPU and CPU combination need to worry about, as they want to squeeze every last drop of performance out of their machines. For everyone else - it's the amount of RAM that takes priority.

How much RAM do I need in my laptop?

16GB is the minimum amount of RAM we'd recommend for people buying a new laptop, unless they're working with a really low budget. 8GB is sufficient for light web browsing, but open too many tabs or run too many programs at the same time and you'll definitely notice a substantial slowdown.

16GB will work perfectly fine for most people, but if you're running a machine with high core specs and what to reduce any possibility of memory bottlenecking, then 32GB will be more than enough. We'd recommend 32GB in particular if you're planning on using your laptop for creative/workstation tasks outside of gaming, or just love to have lots of browser tabs open and/or programs running simultaneously. 64GB is only really recommended for very high-end creative laptops (powerful editing / animating machines and the like), and is pretty much overkill for 90% of users.

How to upgrade RAM on laptop devices: Final Word

This has been our how to upgrade RAM on laptop devices guide. If you're looking for the best DDR5 RAM for desktop computers, check out our Best DDR5 RAM for gaming and workflows guide (which includes several Corsair offerings). We do not yet have one of these for laptops, but will put one together soon for you. Also take a look at some of our myriad laptop and gaming laptop guides, including our best gaming laptop page and best laptop under $1,000 guide.

The most straightforward way to right click on a laptop that has buttons in the trackpad/touchpad is to (stay with us here) simply click the button on the right-hand side. Of course, many laptops these days don’t have visible buttons, and instead require you to depress the trackpad itself in the corresponding location. Usually, single-clicking the bottom right of the pad on a Windows laptop will be the equivalent of right-clicking, however on MacBooks the action is usually two fingers clicking anywhere on the touchpad, and some Chromebooks and Windows laptops also follow this method. If you have a touchscreen laptop, then you'll want to know that Windows 10 machines allow you to hold your finger down on the screen to bring up the right-click context menu.

Our advice would be to try all of the above methods and if you’re still struggling to get the right click action, read the more in-depth solutions below. The methods involving the keyboard are particularly useful if your trackpad isn’t working at all.

Other laptop guides

How to right click on a laptop : Final Word

This has been our in depth guide on how to right click on a laptop. We hope you have found it an illuminating experience. Do be sure you check out our other how to guides on the subject of laptops and other laptop articles generally under www.wepc.com/laptop/ or have a look at our gaming laptop pieces under www.wepc.com/gaming-laptop/.

We're always looking to update our guides with the latest and best products, so keep checking back to see if anything new has made the cut. If you ain't got time to read and want something fast then the HP Spectre x360 is the best 2-in-1 out there, the Dell XPS 15 is the best MacBook replacement option for general productivity, and the MSI Raider GE67HX is the best option for gamers. Read our Things to consider when buying an OLED laptop section further down the page if you want to get a bit more information before you pull the trigger.

Should I buy an OLED laptop?

If you are a creative who wants a laptop with a wide color gamut that they can do color-accurate work on (be it photo editing, graphic design, color grading of video footage etc.), then an OLED laptop would be an ideal choice. Equally, if you’re just looking for a laptop with a display that really pops for watching films on, then the OLED could be right for you. Until recently, those looking for a gaming laptop would have bee advised to look elsewhere (such as our best gaming laptop guide) as the maximum refresh rate on OLED laptops was usually capped at 60Hz. Recently however, there have been some OLED gaming laptops released that are well worth considering, which we'll list below.

Read our Things to consider when buying an OLED laptop section below for more information. If you're looking for a laptop for your studies also consider reading our best laptop for students guide.

The Best OLED laptop 2024: reviews

A uniquely powerful OLED gaming laptop

The MSI Raider GE67 HX is a 240Hz 1440p OLED powerhouse of a laptop. Coming equipped with either RTX 3070 Ti or RTX 3080 Ti graphics cards, plus either Intel Core i7-12800HX or Intel Core i9-12900HX processor. This is by far the best gaming laptop with an OLED screen you'll find, and is quite a unique proposition overall.

The graphics card options are of the highest TGP available, and you're guaranteed to demolish any game played at the native QHD resolution. The high refresh rate means you can indulge in competitive gaming, and the OLED display lends itself to creative use and viewing tv/film media, You get the standard high build quality that you get with all MSI Raiders, plus the latest DDR5 RAM, a great selection of ports, and 1TB of SSD storage.

Basically the only downside of this fine machine is the asking price, but considering what you get for the money, relative to the rest of the market it's not actually that expensive. So snap yours up now!

A Premium Quality 2-In-1 OLED Laptop

The HP Spectre x360 14 equipped with OLED 3000 x 2000 display is not a cheap laptop, but it is definitely a quality piece of technology, and one of the best all-round 2-in-1 laptops out at the moment: these combine the form factor of a laptop with an ability to fold backward into a tablet-like device. This plus the touch screen make the Spectre x360 a great flexible machine for creatives on the move. The 3K2K OLED display has superb contrast, a fairly high peak brightness of around 340 nits, and a superb color gamut, covering well over 100% sRGB and 100% DCI-P3, making it ideal for any sort of color-accurate workflow. Although the 14 in the name would indicate a 14-inch laptop, the actual diagonal screen size of the HP Spectre x360 is 13.5-inches (technically correct if you’re rounding up but still, a bit sly from HP).

The OLED version is powered by up to an Intel Core i7-1195G7 CPU with either Intel Iris Xe onboard graphics or the more powerful Nvidia GeForce MX450 (2GB). You won’t be able to do much in the way of gaming on this machine, but combined with 16GB of RAM then this will definitely do well for light workstation use.

Although looks are subjective, most people would agree this is a nice-looking laptop. We think the metallic detailing around the edges and joints and the thin bezels around the screen give the machine a quality aesthetic. In terms of build quality, the Spectre x360 is the best 2-in-1 device you will find, with the hinge joint in particular (often a weak point on cheaper models) feeling sturdy, which is exactly what you’d want. Most of the machine is made from aluminium, meaning the chassis feels robust with little flex, though it remains not too heavy despite this.

The keyboard of the HP Spectre x360 14 is particularly good for such a thin machine: it uses scissor switches and has 1.5mm key travel, and is the best typing experience you will get from a 2-in-1 laptop, with nice tactile responsiveness as well as nicely sized and arranged keys. The trackpad is also of good quality, and features a fingerprint scanner for added security. The port coverage is also good despite its slimline design, with two USB-C ports that support Thunderbolt 4 and DisplayPort 1.4, a USB-A port, and a microSD card reader in addition to the usual headphone/mic jack. A nice selection for any content creator needs. The included stylus pen is of decent quality, has two programmable buttons, and is rechargeable via USB-C.

The speakers are solid (for a laptop), with respectable bass replication and sound quality, though not quite up there with the MacBook’s. The webcam is unfortunately not the best, and its image quality (not terrible but not great) is one of the few criticisms we can level at this machine, though it does at least have InfraRed functionality supporting Windows Hello.

A superbly slimline OLED laptop that competes with the MacBook Air

The Dell XPS 15 is a major challenger of the Apple MacBook Air’s throne for the best high-quality ultraportable notebook laptop, with the traditional clamshell design and one of the nicest looking aesthetics of any laptop out there. It isn’t designed to be a gaming machine, but a premium general use and light workstation laptop, for office workers, writers, and creatives who don’t need a lot of rendering power in their workflows. That being said, the Intel Core i9-12900HK CPU is powerful, and the RTX 3050 Ti graphics card, whilst substantially weaker than its older RTX 3060 sibling, is still a dedicated graphics card capable of light gaming and rendering workloads.

The 3456 x 2160 (a.k.a 3.5K) screen has a 16:10 aspect ratio, which gives you a bit of extra headroom and vertical space on the page when reading documents, web browsing, or editing an image. Bezels are also pleasingly thin, maximizing the screen space you do have. The display itself is sublime, covering 100% of both the sRGB and 100% DCI-P3 spectrum, with a sensational 100,000:1 contrast ratio and the brightest screen on this page at 500nits on max settings. This makes the Dell XPS 15 a great choice for photographers, video editors, graphic designers, and others involved in color-accurate work.

Build quality on this machine is top-notch, and it’s genuinely impressive how sturdy the Dell XPS 15 feels despite being so thin. The membrane keyboard is a pleasure to type on, even if it doesn’t quite match up to the HP Spectre x360 with its superior travel distance, and the trackpad is also pleasingly responsive and accurate. Fan noise is also kept to a minimum, making this the ideal working laptop when on public transport or a quiet study area. The microSD card reader it comes with is another welcome feature, particularly one that runs as fast and efficiently as this one. The speakers are respectable, but not as good as those of the HP Spectre x360. Battery life on the OLED version of the Dell XPS 15 lasts for 7-8 hours, which is decent for this kind of display, and with a CPU and GPU of this power, if not the best out there. The 1080p webcam does have InfraRed technology but is merely adequate in terms of quality, along with the internal mic.

Besides these points though, the only real downside of this OLED laptop is the price, which can be brought down a bit if you opt for the less powerful CPU, less RAM, and a smaller SSD size, but we’re still talking a significant price tag. Still compared to the MacBook it doesn’t seem so unreasonable, and you do get one of the nicest designed laptops on the market.

The perfect AMOLED/ OLED laptop to mix color workflows with gaming

Straight away we should point out that the Gigabyte Aero 15 4K stretches our definition of ‘gaming laptop’ somewhat in that it only has a 60Hz refresh rate display, which effectively caps any game you play to 60FPS. At this present time though, this is the best you can hope for with an OLED/AMOLED screen, and the Gigabyte Aero does at least comes with options for powerful enough components that you’ll be able to consistently reach the 60FPS mark in games on the higher settings (assuming you set your in-game resolution to 1080p that is).

The maximum specs top out at the Intel Core i9-11980HK and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 graphics card. Although the TGP of the RTX 3080 is relatively low compared to some of our favorite gaming laptop picks, it’s still a powerful graphics card at the end of the day. You can spec out the RAM up to 32GB of DDR4 and have up to a 1.5 TB SSD, though you can also upgrade this further yourself.

Besides the refresh rate, the 4K AMOLED display on this machine is absolutely fantastic with 100% sRGB and DCI-P3 gamut coverage, and a Delta score of less than 1, making it very color-accurate and a superb choice for anyone looking to do a color-based workflow. Both the contrast and peak brightness on the screen are superb, and it comes with HDR support, specifically DisplayHDR 400 certification. The more recent versions of the Aero 15 come with Thunderbolt support and there is a good range of ports besides this, including a UHS-II SD card reader. The full-sized keyboard is of a respectable standard, as is the trackpad, and the latter comes with a fingerprint reader.

In terms of the drawbacks, the 720p webcam is placed in that irritating under the chin position that some laptop makers continue to use. Fan noise is also unfortunately loud at times, even on battery saver mode, though on the plus side the laptop does run relatively cool considering its powerful components. The laptop lacks G-Sync support, making the occasional bit of screen tearing more likely in games. Whilst of generally okay build quality, it’s not as nice looking as the other selections on this list, and is certainly on the thicker and heavier side, making it not the most portable. Still, everything considered, this is a great laptop for creatives who want to do some gaming on the side.

An affordable thin & light OLED laptop with good battery life

The Asus ZenBook 13 (UM325) is not only the most affordable OLED laptop on this list, it also has one of the best battery life durations, and a pretty powerful (for a non-gaming notebook) AMD Ryzen 7 5800U CPU, which has comparable performance to Intel’s Core i7-1185G7. The AMD CPU means that the battery life of the ZenBook 13 stretches to about 10-11 hours of general usage on 50% brightness, which is an impressive result for an OLED laptop. It can be equipped with up to 1TB SSD and 16GB of RAM.

The display has the classic 16:9 1920 x 1080 resolution, which is good for watching Netflix on. It has a great 7400:1 contrast ratio, a solid peak brightness of 370 nits, and the color gamut is also superb at 100% sRGB and DCI-P3, and near enough that at 99% Adobe RGB – definitely good enough for color-based creative work in these color spaces, particularly as it also shows good color accuracy.

At 2.5lb / 1.13kg the ZenBook 13 is lighter even than the 2.8lb MacBook Air. Dimensions-wise it’s comparable to the Dell XPS 13 and is overall an extremely portable machine. The build quality is not quite up there with these machines, as you’d expect given the lower price tag, with more of a plasticky feel, but it’s not bad either. The keyboard is of a decent size and is okay to use, though the keypresses do feel a bit on the mushy side compared to the more clicky and responsive premium options on this list. The trackpad is similarly fairly middle of the road, though it can be turned into a digital numpad should you wish. Speakers on this laptop are actually above average, certainly better than those on your classic ‘gaming laptop’, if not up there with the MacBook Pro et al. There is some level of bass replication and sound quality is good, though they could be a bit louder.

The biggest criticism we can level at this ASUS laptop is the lack of a headphone jack, meaning you need to use a headphone with USB-C support (or an adapter at least). The second biggest critique is of the 720p webcam, which has pretty dire image quality – not the best for conference calls. Still, besides these points, there’s not too much negative to say about this great value OLED laptop.

A flawed but interesting OLED laptop for creators with secondary display

The Asus ZenBook Pro Duo 15 has many superb quality features and has the potential to be a great OLED laptop, though falls slightly short due to a couple of questionable design choices. It’s still definitely worth considering though if these aspects don’t put your off.

Starting with the positives, the 2021 version of the machine comes with a powerful CPU & CPU combo in the way of the Intel Core i9-10980HK processor and the Nvidia RTX 3070 graphics card. The RTX 3070 has a max TGP of 110W with Dynamic Boost, which is up there with most gaming laptops that pack the same GPU. Although, as with all OLED screens, you will be capped at an effective 60FPS by the 60Hz display, you can definitely game on this machine as long as you turn the in-game resolution down to 1080p. An Intel 12th gen version of the same laptop was released in 2022, which comes with options for either an Intel Core i7-12700H or i9-12900H processor, but seems to be limited to the RTX 3060 GPU for some reason. You also get the option for a 1080p OLED display, should 4K resolution be unnecessary for you and you wish to save some money.

The main OLED display is terrific, with great contrast and 100% color gamut replication across the sRGB, DCI-P3, and Adobe RGB spaces, making it ideal for color-based workflows. The peak brightness is merely adequate rather than stellar, but should be fine for most indoor environments. The secondary 3840 x 1100 display between the main display and keyboard has touchscreen functionality and is useful for displaying different windows of whatever software you are using if you’re a creator. There is a Control Panel app created by ASUS that can occupy the second screen which can give more streamlined functionality to Adobe Premiere, After Effects, Photoshop, and Lightroom Classic.

Onto the negatives: whilst the lack of an SD card wouldn’t necessarily be that big of a deal for other laptops, the Asus ZenBook Pro Duo 15 is designed specifically with creatives in mind, so its absence here is fairly irritating. The fans on this laptop also get very loud when its put under any sort of strain: not ideal if you’re using this thing in an office space. The keyboard with a trackpad placed to the right-hand side (to make space for the second screen) can be a bit awkward to use, and we’d recommend using a mouse. Finally, the battery life is pretty poor: you’ll get not more than 4 hours of general usage at 50% brightness (assuming both screens are on), which really just isn’t good enough for working on the move. Still, if these critiques don’t put you off, and you can afford the steep asking price, there is still much to like in this quality dual-screen workstation machine.

Things to consider when buying an OLED laptop

What is an OLED laptop display?

OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) is a display technology that uses a layer of luminescent organic compound that emits light when an electrical current passes through it. This means, unlike LED displays, a backlight is not needed, so these screens are capable of being much thinner. OLED technology also has superior brightness, fields of view, and often a better contrast ratio than other screen tech.

AMOLED vs OLED

AMOLED (Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode) screens are essentially a sub-type of OLED displays, which have an additional TFT (Thin Film Transistor) layer that acts as an electrical switch for each pixel in the displays, allowing for greater control and flexibility. AMOLED is typically the version of the technology you will see most commonly in smaller screen devices. This is because the TFT layer allows for greater variance in screen size compared to regular OLED displays.

OLED gaming laptops

Currently, you are only able to buy OLED laptops that have a maximum refresh rate of 60Hz. This is too low for what we’d usually look for in a gaming laptop (the next step up, 100Hz, is usually the standard). Although you can definitely game at this refresh rate (as console owners had to do until the latest generation Xbox / PlayStations), it will hinder your competitiveness in fast-paced online shooters as the maximum Frames Per Second you can effectively experience will be 60FPS. Hopefully, we’ll see faster displays in the not too distant future, as the technology is already there in OLED monitors and TVs for 120Hz screens.

Are OLED laptops expensive?

In almost all instances, an OLED or AMOLED laptop will cost more than its non-OLED counterpart. If you prioritize screen contrast, colors, and brightness for the reasons we’ve already mentioned though, then there isn’t really any other display that can compete, so often the extra money is worth it.

What is the risk of OLED laptop burn-in?

By far the biggest drawback of OLED panels is their susceptibility to image burn-in: this occurs when the same image is present on the display for an extended period of time, in the same position (the HUD on a first-person shooter game for instance) causing a ‘ghost’ of the image to remain scarred onto the screen, even when you change to a different image. This can be temporary or permanent. The most recent OLED panels are more resistant to burn-in, but it can still be a danger when gaming especially. As long as you take regular breaks between games though, you should be alright.

Best OLED laptop FAQs

Other laptop guides

Best OLED laptop 2024: Final Word

This has been our best OLED laptop buyer’s guide for 2024, we hope it has helped you find the right device for your needs. If it turns out your interest is not limited to OLED laptops, then do have a look at our other laptop guides for more options. Alternatively, see our best gaming laptop page if gaming is your main focus.

This page will be updated regularly with the latest picks every month to make sure you get the best choices for your money, so do keep checking back. If you need to buy a product now and don't have the money, we'd suggest the Lenovo IdeaPad 3 for a standard clamshell option, and the IdeaPad Flex 5 14 for a 2-in-1 variant. Read the Things to consider if you’re buying a laptop under 400 section near the bottom of this page for more detailed advice on what to look for when shopping this price range.

Is a laptop under $400 worth buying?

A laptop under $400 is definitely worth buying as long as you're prepared for a true budget experience. The vibrancy of the display, processing power, typing experience, and build quality are never going to match those of higher price points, and the device is unlikely to look that great either.

However, if you want a basic laptop that's capable of browsing the web, writing and viewing documents on, and answering emails, then $400 can still get you something that's worth your time.

Best laptop under $400 2024: reviews

The best Windows laptop for the money

The 14-inch Lenovo IdeaPad 3 is the best all round laptop you can get for under $400. The AMD Ryzen 5 5500U CPU is the most powerful processor you’re likely to see at this price point, and gives it a reasonable amount of battery life (expect around 9 hours of general usage - enough for the working day).

Despite being a budget offering, build quality is pretty good - the hinges feel solid, though there’s a fair degree of flex on the screen. This quality extends to both the keyboard and the trackpad which both feel sturdy, though the keyboard is a bit too sturdy in some ways - the keys requiring a fair bit of actuation and so resulting in finger fatigue after a while. The keyboard is full-size, including a numpad, which is nice to see, though the trackpad is a bit on the small side, particularly if you’ve got bigger paws.

The webcam is only 720p, but that’s to be expected at this price point. The quality of the image is above what you’d expect really as is the audio quality of the microphone, even if the audio is a bit on the quiet side. The display is a bit lacking in terms of contrast and color replication - it’s a bit washed out looking compared to more expensive machines, but not much more so than the other selections on this list. Peak brightness is reasonable for indoor use at just over 300 cd/m².

Port selection is solid with two USB-A ports, one USB-C port, and a SD UHS card reader, and though you don’t get charging or display output through the USB-C port, this is okay on this budget. 

The IdeaPad 3 is thin and at 4.40 lbs is very light and portable. The RAM is somewhat upgradable, which isn’t typical for a device of this size: you can add an additional 8GB to the soldered-on 4GB, to cap out at a maximum 12GB. All-in-all, a great little budget laptop.

The best 2-in-1 laptop under $400

The Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 14 is a very similar laptop to the IdeaPad 3 listed above, also from Lenovo. It comes with the same port coverage, and a very similar keyboard and trackpad and equally good build quality.

The main difference, besides the obvious change in form factor from the conventional clamshell laptop to the 2-in-1 design, is that the Flex 5 has lest powerful CPU options for the price, which is generally par for the course: you pay for the extra functionality that the 2-in-1 design brings, which means you need to splash out more if you want the same processing power.

Battery life is more or less similar between both the models, in fact you might get 30mins or so more on this 2-in-1 variant - up to a max of around 10 hours. Besides this the other difference to note is that you cannot upgrade the RAM at all on this version after the point of purchase.

The best Chromebook laptop under $400

If you’re not wedded to buying a Windows laptop then the Lenovo Chromebook C340 15 is a great option for under $400. For those looking for a larger 15-inch display, then this Chromebook has the screen real estate for you, however it remains very lightweight at 4.37 lbs, which is more or less the same weight as some of the smaller 14-inch selections on this page.

Being a Chromebook, the processor options are obviously less powerful, though less power is ultimately needed for the same level of performance: either the Intel Pentium Gold or Core i3 processor options are definitely powerful enough to provide a smooth experience on Chrome OS. RAM maxes out at 4GB, which isn’t exactly ideal - we would have rather have seen 8GB - however on the more efficient Chrome OS it does go further on a Windows machine.

The battery life for this machine though is exceptional, with the lower powered components extending the battery duration to around 12 hours, which is more than enough for most users.

You don’t get a SD card reader on this machine unfortunately, but you do get charging support and video output on the USB-C socket, as well as a Kensington lock.

Of disappointment is the lack of stylus support on this machine (which you’d expect given it is a touch screen), however the keyboard is the nicest of any of the picks on this page - being both responsive and comfortable to use.

An alternative 2-in-1 laptop for the price

The ASUS VivoBook Flip 14 can’t match the processing power of the Lenovo IdeaPad 3, however it does have the additional functionality that being a 2-in-1 laptop brings plus equally good build quality.

In most cases if you’re looking for a 2-in-1 device we’d opt for the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 14 instead, which is superior in most ways, though the VivoBook Flip is arguably the nicer looking device, plus the lighter laptop, weighing in at 3.31 lbs.

Unfortunately the battery life is shorter than ideal at just over 7 hours. Though this isn’t terrible there are better out there. The peak display brightness tops out around 210 cd/m2 and colore replication and contrast ratio aren’t great either. Still, if you can pick this up on offer for very cheap, it might be worth your consideration.

Things to consider if you’re buying a laptop under $400

Best Windows Laptop under $400 vs best Chromebook under $400

A lot of the laptops you will see for this price on the sites of online retailers will actually be Chromebooks, and you’ll want to make sure you read the details properly to make sure you don’t pick the wrong one up by mistake. 

Chromebooks differ from Windows laptops in that they are based around the Chrome Operating System (Chrome OS), which relies heavily on the Chrome web browser and access to the internet to function. Because they utilize ‘The Cloud’ a lot more they tend to have less powerful CPUs etc., so can be substantially cheaper than Windows laptops. You can get Chromebooks with OLED displays a lot cheaper than an OLED laptop running Windows for instance. 

However, Chromebooks are more limited in what they can do than laptops are, and require that constant internet connection to be fully functional. Still, if you have access to good internet and don’t mind working in the cloud, they could be right for you. Check out our best Chromebook guide for more info.

RAM & SSD size

If you’re buying a brand new, full-priced product, the maximum RAM and SSD size you will get on a laptop for $400 or less will be 8GB and 256GB respectively. This represents the upper end - most laptops under 400 dollars will have 4GB RAM and 128GB of storage, or even 64GB SSD space in some cases.

For hard drive storage you can always buy an external hard drive to keep larger files on and plug it into your laptop when necessary, which will allow you to get a larger GB SSD or HDD than if you upgraded the internal specs, or alternatively you can make use of cloud storage. Low RAM can be a bit more of a problem though, as web browsers are very RAM intensive. At 4GB you will notice a substantial slowdown if you have more than a few tabs open, or are running any background processes while browsing the web. We’d therefore recommend trying to stick to 8GB of RAM or more where possible.

Maximum refresh rate

At this budget, there is absolutely no chance of getting anything above a 60Hz refresh rate display, though this will be absolutely fine for general use. You only really need a higher refresh rate if you’re planning on playing games on your laptop, in which case you should instead have a read of our best gaming laptop under 500 USD guide, but even these will most likely be capped at 60Hz. It’s only really when you get to gaming laptops under 700 USD that you start to see a couple of models with higher max refresh rates.

Which is the best budget laptop brand?

HP, ASUS, Samsung, Lenovo, and Dell all offer laptops in the price range of $400 or less. You may also find the occasional Microsoft Surface Laptop that has been reduced in price.

Best laptop under $400 FAQs

Final Word

This has been our guide to the best laptop under $400. Do be sure to check out some of our myriad other laptop guides whilst you're here, in case you've not found what you're looking for, like our best laptop for working from home page, touch screen laptop, best OLED laptop, and best gaming laptop pages.

What makes a good laptop for writers?

The key things that you should look out for in a laptop for writing are a good quality keyboard, a screen you can comfortably look at all day, sufficient battery life, and portability to fit your needs. Other things that should also be considered are sufficient ports and sockets for your needs, whatever they may be, and of course, the thing that affects everybody regardless of what type of laptop they're looking for: price. For further discussion on this, have a read of our Things to consider when choosing the best laptop for a writer section further down the page.

In the unlikely event you don't find what you're looking for here, please do also have a read of our best laptop for students guide, as well as the best laptop deals and best gaming laptop deals pages that we continuously update with the latest offers.

Best laptop for writers: first look

Best laptop for writers: in-depth review

Best laptop for writers with Mac OS

The most popular laptop for authors overall, and also widely used by journalists on the go, the Apple MacBook Air is a top-notch thin and lightweight laptop with exceptional build quality and battery life. It's not as powerful as the more commonly known MacBook Pro, but for writers' needs it doesn't have to be - and the more slimline design, lighter weight, and cheaper price make it the better option of the two.

In contrast with most Apple products, you can actually pick up a MacBook Air for a relatively reasonable price, although upgrades to the memory and storage above the standard 8GB RAM / 256GB SSD do cost an unfortunate amount. Still, unless you're prone to opening a huge amount of tabs in your web browser or need to download video files or other large files, you can probably get by on these base memory and storage specs as a writer.

There are two different sized options for the latest 2022-2023 MacBook Air with M2 chipset: 15" and 13" (you can compare both in our 15-inch MacBook Air vs 13-inch MacBook Air guide). If portability is a priority and you don't mind using a smaller screen, then the latter is probably more up your street, otherwise the 15-inch gives more screen real estate, but is still very portable; besides this, both laptops are very similar. The M2 chip in both is powerful - well beyond what you'll need for writing - but if you're doing a bit of video editing on the side or running other more demanding software it's ideal. It's also very energy efficient, meaning the M2 models have a fantastic battery life of around 11-13 hours of general usage and web browsing. Older generation MacBook Airs are also available for less money, and though the battery life is slightly less impressive, you'll still get a good 9-11 hours out of them.

The chiclet keyboard is of excellent quality, as long as you don't mind the stiffer key feeling common to MacBooks, and the trackpad is also sturdy, clicky and responsive. The webcam is of good quality and it has a decent microphone, and the speakers are far better than you'll find in most Windows laptops.

Finally, the Liquid Retina display has a great peak brightness of around 500nits, meaning you can comfortably use it outside.

Best Windows laptop for writers

The Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon isn't the nicest-looking machine out there, but if you prize practicality, then the excellent keyboard, tough design, superb battery life and matte screen to reduce glare all make it an idea pick for any writer on the move.

The Lenovo ThinkPad series has earned its reputation as the premier choice for business laptops. The latest addition, the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11, boasts the most potent CPU options, specifically featuring Intel 13th gen laptop CPUs, and utilizes the latest DDR5 RAM technology. The ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 10, comes equipped with Intel 12th gen laptop CPUs and also DDR5 RAM. However, our top recommendation is the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 9, thanks to its cost-effectiveness and notably long battery life - you simply don't need the power of the later models for writing.

The Gen 9 comes with a hugely impressive 13-15 hours of battery life. All generations feature a unique keyboard design that strikes a balance between a low-travel chiclet keyboard (similar to a MacBook) and a more tactile mechanical keyboard that's easier on the fingers for a lengthy typing session. The kkeyboard features ergonomically shaped keys of optimal size and spacing, reducing typing errors and arguably offering the best laptop keyboard for typing on the market. The trackpad is also of high quality, and the entire laptop adheres to military standards, boasting a MIL-STD 810G certified chassis. This rugged construction can withstand drops, rough handling, and extreme temperature variations, making it ideal for writers with a mobile lifestyle.

Security features are robust, encompassing the standard Kensington lock, fingerprint sensor, and Windows Hello compatibility, along with TPM 2.0 data encryption to protect your files. ThinkShield software adds an extra layer of security, which is especially valuable for business users handling sensitive documents. The laptop offers a solid array of I/O ports, including an HDMI port and an optional Nano SIM slot, and some configurations even include an RJ-45 ethernet port.

For those who find the X1 Carbon series a bit too pricey, the ThinkPad E14 G3 is another 14-inch option to consider. While it may have slightly inferior speakers and a webcam compared to the X1 Carbon line, it retains many of the benefits, including the matte screen, rugged design, security features, and excellent keyboard.

Best MacBook alternative for writers

If you're after a Windows laptop with the elegant design and nice aesthetics of an Apple laptop, then the Dell XPS series is a great MacBook alternative, with the XPS 13 being a worthy replacement for the MacBook Air.

The Dell XPS 13 has a sturdy yet slimline and portable design and looks great. Although not up there with the MacBook Air in terms of screen brightness, it's still good enough to be used outdoors and again has a 16:10 screen to maximize vertical headroom when typing in a document or web browsing etc. These laptops have been around for several years, which means you can find older refurbished models at budget-friendly prices while still enjoying the benefits of a high-quality machine. The keyboard and trackpad quality on XPS laptops are also both good, ensuring a satisfying user experience.

The Dell XPS 13 has been around for a few generations now and you can pick up an older, less powerful model for cheaper which will do just fine for writing purposes. In terms of battery life, it varies depending on the model, but even the worst have a respectable battery life, with the best of the series being impressive - reaching up to around 11 hours.

Although the port selection on these laptops might be somewhat limited, you do get a MicroSD card reader, which is useful. If you do buy a newer model, be aware that you'll probably end up paying quite a bit of money, but you do at least get a high quality device for your hard currency.

The best convertible laptop for writers

The Microsoft Surface Pro series is consistently one of the most popular 2-in-1/convertible laptops/tablets year on year. Offering the versatility of both a laptop and a tablet in a single device, it's the ideal pick for writers who would like both but can't pick between the two. Although the Surface Pro 9 is the latest model, the Surface Pro 8 is pretty much the same design, only with a less powerful CPU and DDR4 RAM, however these aren't really necessary for the average writing task, and it's available for substantially cheaper.

Unlike traditional 2-in-1 laptop designs that feature a hinge allowing the bottom section to fold back into tablet mode, the Surface Pro more closely resembles a tablet with a detachable keyboard that can be magnetically attached to the bottom. It also features a built-in kickstand for easy propping. Operating on the Windows system, it functions like a laptop but offers touchscreen capabilities, stylus/pen support, and the portability of a tablet.

The Surface Pro features two USB-C ports and a headphone jack, along with a 13-inch, 2280 x 1920, 120Hz display. The screen sports a high resolution and pixel density (267ppi), making it suitable for detailed work. The peak brightness of around 330 nits is adequate - being fine for indoor use, though probably not good enough for using outside. The color replication however covers over 100% sRGB, and it offers a color accuracy of approximately 1.24 (average deltaE*00) - not really important for writing but if you're doing any graphic design/color-accurate work on the side this could prove useful.

The biggest drawback of the device is the absence of a USB-A port, though this can at least be addressed by using a separate USB hub plugged into one of the USB-C ports. It's important to note that not all retailers include the keyboard or stylus with the device, so potential buyers should be aware of this, and the cost of these additional accessories can add up. Despite these negatives though, overall this is a top-class product.

Best ChromeOS laptop for writers

Chromebooks are a great way to pick up an affordable device for writing on. These are essentially laptops that run on an operating system called Chrome OS, which is heavily focused on the Google Chrome browser for its functions, including the running of almost all applications. This means that Chromebooks are pretty reliant upon the internet to function properly, so if your internet connection is haphazard then you may not want to consider them, although in recent years Chromebook offline functionality has improved, and certainly extends to being able to write/type on them and save your work whilst offline. You will most likely be using Google Docs etc. for your work, however versions of Microsoft Office are also available.

The plus side of being very cloud-reliant is that Chromebooks don't require as powerful processors, nor the same size batteries to run them, so are often thinner and lighter, and almost always cheaper than laptops with the same level of build quality/other features. You can read our Chromebook vs laptop guide for more information on this.

The Lenovo ThinkPad C13 Yoga Chromebook resembles the Lenovo ThinkPad series is some ways, albeit to a more budget level. It still offers a fairly durable build (though it's not military grade like the ThinkPad X), it's compact and portable and includes features like a fingerprint scanner for added security and a webcam shutter for privacy. The keyboard on this Chromebook is comfortable to type on, and the trackpad is responsive, providing a satisfying user experience. Additionally, it features an old-school red trackpoint in the middle of the keyboard for those who prefer this navigation option.

The "Yoga" in its name indicates its 360-degree hinge, which allows it to function as a convertible 2-in-1 device. This flexibility enables you to use it as a tablet, making use of the touchscreen and the included stylus, which conveniently has a storage slot. This feature is beneficial for note-taking and creative tasks. While the battery life of around 7 hours isn't the best, it should still be sufficient for most of a day of writing when put on battery saver mode.

Despite being an older model, the Ryzen CPU in this Chromebook performs quite well for a device in its category. Memory and storage options vary, ranging from 4GB to 16GB of RAM and 32GB to 128GB of SSD storage - you'll want to avoid the 4GB RAM option, which just isn't enough these days, even for a writer.

Best ChromeOS laptop for writers with a quiet keyboard

The Google Pixelbook Go is another great Chromebook pick for any writers out there, particularly those looking for a nice quiet typing experience. The keyboard is not only nice to type on, but is one of the most silent you'll find, which could be useful if you often work on public transport, in libraries, or late at night in shared accommodation.

Besides this, the PixelBook Go has various other impressive features that mark it of a higher quality than your average Chromebook. The webcam is a full HD 1080p camera, capable of shooting 60FPS video, and is generally of a higher quality than you'll find in a lot of Chromebooks. The overall build quality is good, including the crucial hinger area, and the battery life extends to an impressive 9-11 hours of general, non-demanding usage on battery-saving mode.

In terms of downsides, you only get a couple of USB-C ports, so you'll probably want to pick up an adapter if you're planning on using a mouse or attaching any other peripherals/external storage. Additionally, most Google Pixelbook Go models came out in 2019 or 2020 so are a good few years older now. Whereas this wouldn't be much of an issue for a Windows laptop, for a Chromebook this means the Auto Update Expiration (AUE) date is closer than is ideal - past this point the Chromebook will no longer be supported by future ChromeOS updates, effectively reducing its functionality by a substantial amount (read more about this on our best Chromebook page). Do be sure therefore to doublecheck when a particular Pixelbook Go's AUE is with the seller/on the retailer's site before you make your purchase.

Things to consider when choosing the best laptop for a writer

Before going ahead with a laptop purchase, make sure you consider the following factors. These should be at the forefront of your mind when shopping for a new laptop for a new laptop for writing/typing work.

What's the best keyboard for a writing laptop?

Although some keyboards are objectively better than others, personal preference features heavily when picking a keyboard, whether it be for a desktop or the one your laptop comes with, so you should try and work out which type you prefer before pulling the trigger on a purchase. Although people can generally adapt to any keyboard after a short period of use, if your job is specifically that of a writer then you're going to want a comfortable keyboard to both increase your typing speed, reduce the number of typos/errors you make, and to reduce fatigue on your hands over time.

Most laptops have some sort of membrane keyboard, which can vary considerably in quality. MacBooks use chiclet-style keyboards which are good quality but require a fair bit of actuation force to depress, which isn't to everyone's tastes when doing a lengthy day's typing, though again some people will prefer it. Mechanical keyboards are rare outside of gaming laptops, however, some (like the Lenovo ThinkPad series) come with a key action that is somewhere in between membrane and mechanical - offering a similar typing experience to the latter.

Finally, finding a sufficiently well-backlit keyboard is also important if you're going to be typing in low-light conditions.

What screen should you opt for when buying a laptop for writing?

Size is the first obvious consideration when it comes to a laptop's display: bigger displays mean more space for work on the screen, opening multiple windows etc., however, this usually means a larger laptop as a whole, which will be heavier and with greater dimensions, making it less portable. Most people prefer a 14-inch or 15-inch laptop as the right balance between these two factors, although you can go smaller (13-inch) or larger (16, 17, or 18-inch laptops), depending on your preference. In terms of aspect ratio, 16:10 screens or thereabouts is the ideal as you get a bit more vertical room to view documents/web pages, whilst also not really impacting the overall size of the machine. 16:9 screens will still suffice though.

Besides screen size, display brightness is also important. A peak brightness of around 250nits or more is what you want for a comfortable indoor viewing experience, but comfortable outside use will likely require a peak brightness of around 400nits or more, depending on the level of sunlight.

Finally, there's the panel type. IPS displays are by far the most common, and these are usually glossy screens, which provide a nice clear viewing experience when watching video media, but have high amounts of light reflection, which can lead to discomforting screen glare when you're trying to work near a light source. There are rare options available however with matte screens that minimize reflections (the Lenovo ThinkPad series for instance), which is ideal for a lengthy typing session. OLED laptop screens are also becoming increasingly available, which provide rich deep blacks and high contrast ratio, but these are again almost always glossy and are targeted more at video media viewers. Providing the screen brightness is sufficient however, even glossy screens can be used outdoors.

What battery duration should you aim for?

The rate at which laptops consume battery life varies substantially depending on what energy settings you have enabled. The battery life figures we quote in our mini reviews for each of our suggested picks are usually what you'll get with battery saving mode switched on, Bluetooth off but Wi-Fi left on, brightness turned down to around 50% of the settings or 120nits, and the laptops being used over the testing period for general web browsing with a couple of hours watching YouTube - i.e. not running any more demanding programs than that. All this considered then, you want to be aiming for a battery duration of around 8 hours or more to cover a working day. For gaming laptops and the like this is quite a big ask, but for generally lower-powered writing laptops this is a respectable figure that will provide you with flexibility.

How much RAM and storage do you need?

These days you want to be aiming for 8GB or RAM as a minimum. 16GB is the ideal and is basically plenty for any writing laptop - you'd only really need more than this if you're also running some high-end creative software as well, or if you like to open a stupidly large amount of tabs in your browser, or multitask with several programs running simultaneously.

Looking at storage, Word documents and the like don't take up much file space, though if you're going to be downloading lots of images, audio media, or video media whilst you're writing, you may want to supplement your SSD size further. For a Windows or Mac laptop, 256GB of SSD storage is a reasonable starting point for most authors, and if you don't want to spend the money on upgrading the SSD/HDD to a larger size, then you can always pick up an external SSD.

Best laptop for writers FAQs

Best laptop for writers: Final Word

You now know what the best laptop for writers is, at least the one that fits your particular needs needs. If you didn't find what you were after, however, do have a read of our myriad other laptop guides in the dropdown menu above, including our best gaming laptop, best OLED laptop, best 4K laptop guide, best laptop for computer science, and more!

Best laptop for AutoCAD vs best laptop for CAD

CAD stands for Computer-Aided Design and is the catch-all term for the software used by engineers/designers to create and design their products, whether they be architects creating the blueprints for a building, aerospace engineers creating a vehicle, or any other kind of industrial designer looking to create a new product for the market. There are numerous different types of CAD software on the market, and one of the most well-known is AutoCAD, which is the brand name for a specific application.

Working out what the best laptop is for your needs depends on a couple of things: what the system requirements are for the particular CAD software you will be using, and what type of design you intend to be doing with said software. AutoCAD can be used for non-demanding 2D engineering jobs, as can other CAD software, and in this case, you might not even need a laptop with a dedicated graphics card. If you're doing more demanding 3D modeling however then you'll definitely want something with a dedicated GPU, and the further you get in your career the more likely you are to require something with more power to make your output faster and more efficient. For more information, read the Things to consider when buying a laptop for CAD section further down this page.

Each of the selections below are up to a sufficient specification to permit running AutoCAD and other CAD software, based on their system requirements. We've selected some high-end options as well as some mid-range and more budget-friendly models to cover your needs, whatever they might be. If you're just a student, you may want to take a look at our best laptop for engineering students guide for some slightly different options to reflect a less demanding workload.

Best laptop for CAD: products at a glance

Best laptop for CAD 2024: Our reviews

Best high-end laptop for AutoCAD & demanding 3D CAD software

The MSI Titan GT77 is our pick for the best AUTOCAD laptop in terms of raw power, but it's probably overkill for most peoples' needs. This is essentially a desktop replacement device / mobile workstation with a ridiculously powerful GPU and CPU pairing, ample RAM and storage, and a plentiful I/O ports.

This 17" laptop can be equipped with the RTX 4080 laptop or RTX 4090 laptop GPU, both of which will comfortably demolish any CAD workload, plus the Intel Core i9-13980HX CPU - the most powerful Intel 13th gen laptop processor money can buy. Memory options are either 32GB, 64GB, or a preposterous 128GB of DDR5 RAM, and the storage capacity can reach all the way up to 4TB of NVME SSD space. The 4K Mini-LED screen is sublime, with an impressive peak brightness and color accuracy, but still capable of achieving a 144Hz refresh rate for gaming.

The primary trade-offs associated with this immense power are its considerable weight, high price tag, and rapid battery drain. If you can overlook the weight and keep it tethered to a power source, you'll have a meticulously crafted, exceptionally potent device that effortlessly handles demanding rendering tasks, maxed-out 4K gaming, and most definitely any 3D modeling workflow with remarkable ease.

Best mid-range laptop for AutoCAD & demanding 3D CAD software

The Lenovo ThinkPad X series is a perennial favorite of any best laptop for working from home/the office guide, being focused towards high-end business people who need a tough device, but the 'Extreme' variants combine all the benefits of the typical X1s with a powerful dedicated graphics card. In this particular case, this model comes with a high-end Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti laptop GPU, paired with a tasty Intel Core i7-12800H CPU - this hardware is more than enough to take care of any high-end 3D modeling workload in AutoCAD or any other piece of software. You get up to 32 GB RAM and 1TB of SSD storage.

The rest of the plus points are the same as those on a normal ThinkPad X. The keyboard stands out as one of the most gratifying typing experiences available in the laptop market, with a design that strikes a balance between a low-travel chiclet keyboard (akin to that found on a MacBook) and a tactile mechanical keyboard. It features ergonomic keys with an optimal layout and spacing that minimizes typing errors. The matte screen's anti-glare properties reduce the strain on your eyes compared to the glossier screens that are much more widespread these days, and are therefore superior for a working laptop.

Additionally, the ThinkPad X series is renowned for its durability and sturdiness. These laptops are constructed to meet rigorous military-grade standards, which means they can endure large temperature variations, as well as the sort of impact damage they might experience being jostled about in a bag. Security features include a Kensington lock, fingerprint sensor, Windows Hello and also TPM 2.0 data encryption and ThinkShield software.

Provided you don't mind their utilitarian appearance, the only real downside of these devices is their price, but you do actually get a good amount of features for the money.

Best portable laptop for AutoCAD & demanding 3D CAD software

We've done in-depth reviews of multiple iterations of the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14, and it always scores highly - consistently being one of our top picks in the 'portable'/14-inch gaming laptop category, and just a great gaming laptop in general. For the same reasons it makes a great gaming laptop though, it's also a top choice for professional engineers, or those students who want a more powerful laptop capable of 3D modeling.

Whilst a newer 2023 version has been released, we think the 2022 version is the optimum pick. With this model you get a great balance between affordability and performance, plus it achieves the best battery life of any iteration so far (10 hours of general web browsing plus some YouTube), thanks to its AMD CPU and GPU combination. The laptop comes with a powerful Ryzen 9 6900HS processor and you can pick between a Radeon RX 6700S or RX 6800S GPU - either of which should suffice for CAD usage, with the latter being the more powerful option. The newer 2023 model by comparison is an even more powerful device but loses battery quicker and is more expensive - probably not a worthwhile trade-off if you're using it for this purpose.

Although it's a 14-inch display, the laptop's 16:10 screen gives you extra vertical real estate, which is beneficial for various work-related tasks. Its remarkable peak brightness of 500 nits also makes it suitable for outdoor use. In terms of connectivity, the laptop offers a range of ports and sockets, including a convenient MicroSD card reader for data transfer. Considering it's a gaming laptop (which aren't known for this) it also surprises with decent speaker quality - not exactly crucial for CAD tasks, but it adds to the overall user experience when viewing/listening to media or gaming. The only real downside of this laptop that's relevant to a CAD user is that the keyboard isn't exactly top-tier, though it's not bad either, just feeling a bit loose when typing, but you quickly get used to this. Besides this though, the laptop has solid build quality and craftsmanship.

Best affordable Windows laptop for CAD

The Lenovo Slim 7 Pro X is a great value pick capable of running any CAD software to at least some degree thanks to its dedicated RTX 3050 GPU complemented by the potent AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS processor. Besides this you get a lot for your money in most other areas too.

In terms of memory and storage, the laptop impresses with 32GB LPDDR5 6400MHz RAM and a generous 1TB SSD - just what you need when doing any 3D rendering workflow. You high-quality 1080p webcam for any online meetings, plus an impressive battery duration of approximately 10-11 hours of regular use (i.e. outside of running CAD software) with power saving settings activated.

The 14.5-inch display has an unusual 3,072 x 1,920 resolution aka 3K, and although you won't really need this for CAD it has 99% sRGB gamut coverage, so is suitable for work in this color space. With a peak brightness of around 380 nits, it offers respectable visibility, though it may not be ideal for outdoor use on sunny days. For those interested in a bit of gaming on the side, the screen supports a maximum refresh rate of 120Hz, which is good enough for online competitive shooters.

Pretty much the sole drawback is that it only has Wi-Fi 6 compatibility instead of Wi-Fi 6E, However, but this is also something you'd find in MacBook Pros and MacBook Airs, so isn't even that big of a negative.

Best touchscreen 2-in-1 laptop for CAD

ASUS offers two types of convertible 2-in-1 laptops, designed to cater to the needs of both gamers and creators: the ROG Flow 'Z' series and the ROG Flow 'X' series. The ASUS ROG Flow Z13 essentially functions as a gaming tablet with a detachable keyboard, allowing it to transform into a laptop form factor, much like the Microsoft Surface Pro series. However, for engineering students, we recommend the ASUS ROG Flow X13, which provides a superior keyboard typing experience for those long work sessions. Instead of detaching, the X13's keyboard can flip all the way around, allowing you to use it as a tablet in this mode or prop it up in a 'tent' position, ideal for presentations.

Similar to the Z13, the X13 features a touchscreen display with a maximum refresh rate of 120Hz. Additionally, both models offer various dedicated Nvidia GPU options. For engineering students, we suggest the GeForce RTX 3050 Ti. If you require extra power, this convertible laptop is compatible with the ASUS ROG XG Mobile external graphics card, enabling you to incorporate a portable RTX 3080, for instance, to enhance gaming performance or rendering capabilities for engineering tasks. The X13 also includes a MicroSD card slot along with a couple of USB ports and the standard audio combo jack.

While we haven't benchmarked the X13 yet, you can reference our review of the ASUS ROG Flow Z13 to gain a good understanding of its performance since these two devices share many similarities in this regard. If you're in search of a larger version of the X13, you can also explore our review of the highly recommended ASUS ROG Flow X16.

Things to consider when buying a laptop for CAD

What CAD software exists and how demanding is it?

Solidworks, Inventor, Revit, AutoCAD, Civil 3D, MicroStation, CATIA, Creo, SIEMENS NX, and Windchill are ten of the most popular CAD software on the market. The specialism of each varies from use in civil engineering, transportation, and water management to aerospace and automotive industries, plus general product development. AutoCAD is one of the oldest and most widely used pieces of CAD application, and has some of the most versatility and breadth in its applications.

To make sure your device is capable of running your chosen software to your satisfaction, we'd strongly recommend Googling the system requirements of whichever one you're interested in and comparing the recommended specs against those of your laptop. Generally though, any laptop listed here that we've said is capable of running 3D modeling software to a good standard should be able to run any of these other bits of software.

What specs are needed for a laptop to run AutoCAD?

The official AutoCAD system requirements are as follows. As a general rule, it's always wise to assume the minimum specs will barely run a piece of software, and aim as close as possible to the recommended specs if you want a decent experience. The recommended specs are by no means a ceiling and significantly more powerful laptops above this threshold will have significantly improved performance.

AutoCAD minimum system requirements

AutoCAD recommended system requirements

Workstation vs gaming: Which GPU is best for AUTOCAD?

Although you might think specialist workstation GPUs like the Nvidia Quadro series might deal with CAD workloads faster, this is not usually the case. Typically workstation GPUs might even have a slightly slower clock speed than gaming-focused ones, like the Nvidia RTX series, despite the fact that they often cost more money. Really what you pay for when you buy a device with workstation graphics card is greater stability and build quality, better aftermarket tech support, and error-correcting VRAM that reduces the chance of data corruption. For most people though, unless you're working on some kind of data-crunching scientific research project where every data point matters, a gaming GPU will be just fine - certainly for most CAD and AutoCAD users.

Best laptop for CAD & AUTOCAD FAQs

Best laptop for CAD 2024: Final Word

You should now be well-versed in everything there is to know about the best laptop for CAD and AutoCAD options available. For more options befitting other uses, take a gander at our best laptop for working from home guide, best laptop for students guide, best laptop for computer science students, or our best gaming laptop guide.

Our team of experts are always checking the market to make sure we know what the latest models are, in an effort to keep our buying guides up to date with the best picks for your needs. If you're short on time, the three picks we recommend for most users are the MacBook Air, Lenovo ThinkPad X1, and Microsoft Surface Pro 8 - although newer editions of these laptops exist, the ones we've selected offer the most performance/price. If you want to understand what makes a good Computer Science laptop, have a read of our Things to consider when buying a laptop for CS students section near the bottom of this page for what you should bear in mind before you buy. Do also take a gander at our Black Friday laptop deals page for some great offers this November, or see our shortlist of the best deals for today listed below.

Do Computer Science students need good laptops?

Despite what you may think, you don't need the most high-end device to do a computer science course, although it does have to be above a certain minimum standard. You won't require the latest Nvidia RTX graphics card, and can get by perfectly well just using integrated graphics, but a processor of reasonable power is essential, as is a sufficient amount of RAM. These needs can be met with a device of a few generations old however, provided it's of good enough quality. If you're uncertain though, worry not! All of our picks below will definitely cut the mustard. For more information, read out Things to consider when buying a laptop for CS section further down this page. If you want a list more suited to broader student needs across all ages, have a read of our best laptop for students guide.

Best laptop for Computer Science Students 2024

Best MacOS laptop for CS students

Whilst the more powerful and premium quality Apple MacBook Pro is a fantastic laptop, it's specifications pretty overkill for most coder's needs. The lighter MacBook Air however is considerably cheaper and more lighter and portable to boot. As long as you're sure that using a MacOS device is acceptable and comfortable for you (read more on this in our Things to Consider section below), this is a quality high-end device and actually reasonably good value for an Apple product.

The most recent iteration of the 13" model is the 2022 version featuring the M2 chipset, while the 15" M2 edition was recently introduced in 2023. The M2 is a powerful processor, boasting superior processing power and energy efficiency, above what you'll need for your CS studies to be honest. If you're looking to save a bit of cash, previous versions of the MacBook Air with M1 chip are available at more affordable prices and are still top class devices.

All iterations of the MacBook Air, in accordance with their name, exhibit a lightweight and portable design, showcasing the exemplary build quality that has become synonymous with Apple devices. This quality extends to the keyboard (important for when you're typing away at that code) and the trackpad, delivering an enjoyable user experience. The battery duration extends to a very impressive 11 to 13 hours of battery life usage for general tasks and web browsing - plenty for your average day of CSE study. The Liquid Retina IPS display offers vivid, high-resolution visuals well above the standard IPS panel options you'll see on other models listed here; on the latest models, the peak brightness reaches 500 nits, allowing for comfortable outdoor use except under direct sunlight. The built-in webcam is of good quality across all models as well.

Onto the drawbacks: the more affordable MacBook Airs only come with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD, and any upgrades in these areas cost quite a bit extra. As discussed below, 8GB of RAM will do in a pinch but you ideally want to get the 16GB upgrade. Besides this though, it's an excellent device.

Best Windows laptop for CS students

The Lenovo ThinkPad X series make it into commenters best-of guides every year without fail. Although designed with business users in mind, the Lenovo ThinkPad series are also ideal for CSE students for a number of reasons, as long as you don't mind buying a very utilitarian looking device.

Firstly, the keyboard: these laptops provide one of the most satisfying typing experiences of any laptop on the market. Their keyboard design bridges the gap between a low-travel chiclet keyboard (akin to that on a MacBook) and a tactile mechanical keyboard, offering ergonomic keys with an optimal layout and spacing that minimizes typing errors.

Secondly, the matte screen: matte screens are favoured among coders worldwide due to their reduction in screen glare, enabling lengthy typing sessions whilst being easy on the eyes, but they're harder to come by these days compared to the more flashy glossy screens that people prefer for watching video media.

Thirdly, the ThinkPad X series are renowned for durability and robustness - constructed to meet rigorous military-grade standards (MIL-STD 810G specifically) which means they can withstand extreme changes in temperature, but also, more useful for CSE students, you can toss them into your backpack without fretting about accidental impacts damaging them. Robust security measures are also included, encompassing not just the customary Kensington lock, fingerprint sensor, and Windows Hello, but also TPM 2.0 data encryption and ThinkShield software.

Whilst the latest Gen 11 iterations are the ones that come with the latest Intel 13th-gen CPUs and DDR5 RAM, we'd recommend looking at the cheaper Gen 10 units (with Intel 12th gen CPUs) or two generations earlier at the Gen 9 models (with Intel 11th gen CPUs). The 9th gen versions actually offer the best battery life: very impressively ranging between 13 to 15 hours on energy-saving mode.

Best touchscreen 2-in-1 laptop for CS students

Convertible laptops/tablets, also known as 2-in-1 laptops, are versatile devices that can transition between laptop and tablet modes, offering the advantages of both worlds. They come in two flavors: those with a hinge and those with a detachable magnetic keyboard, and the Surface falls into the latter camp. The Microsoft Surface Pro series is undoubtedly the most popular and highly regarded of this type of convertible devices, and comes with the latest Windows operating system (as you'd expect from a Microsoft product) rather than Android like many tablets.

These devices feature a kickstand for convenient positioning, touch screen functionality, and stylus pen compatibility (though the stylus may need to be purchased separately). This feature proves advantageous for those who prefer traditional note-taking methods or engage in sketching and design tasks as part of their studies. Although the detachable keyboard isn't as good as that on a good quality conventional laptop, it does the job, and makes the device highly portable.

While the latest Surface Pro 9th generation might be slightly overpriced for the needs of a nursing student, the Microsoft Surface Pro 8 has a very similar design, albeit with a slightly less powerful CPU, available at a considerably lower cost. Both iterations include two USB-C ports, a headphone jack, and a 13-inch, 2280 x 1920, 120Hz display. This screen boasts a high resolution and pixel density (267ppi), delivering a crisp and clear visual experience. The peak brightness, around 330 nits, proves sufficient for indoor use, though not the brightest available. Notably, the color gamut and accuracy (averaging around 1.24 deltaE*00) are impressive, though these aspects might not be critical for the needs of a computer science student.

It's worth noting that the absence of a USB-A port is a slight limitation to be mindful of. However, this drawback can be mitigated by obtaining a separate USB ports hub that connects through the USB type-C port.

Best budget Windows laptop for CS students

The Lenovo IdeaPad 3 stands out as an excellent and budget-friendly offering. New iterations of these devices are introduced annually, each featuring varying CPU configurations. Among these, the 2021 model in the 14-inch variant, equipped with the AMD Ryzen 5 5500U chipset, is what we'd recommend as an affordable pick for computer science students.

With a battery life of up to 9 hours in energy-saving mode, it provides ample endurance for a day of hard coding. The screen's peak brightness reaches 300 nits, ensuring satisfactory visibility for indoor usage. In terms of connectivity, the laptop offers a diverse array of ports, including two USB-A ports, one USB-C port, and an SD UHS card reader. While the USB-C port lacks charging and display capabilities, these concessions are reasonable given the device's budget-friendly nature.

Considering the price point, the build quality of the IdeaPad 3 is reasonable: there's a slight degree of flex noticeable in the screen, but the overall chassis demonstrates decent construction, especially around the pivotal hinge area. The keyboard boasts a full-size layout, complete with a numpad - an advantageous feature for CSE. The keys are somewhat stiff, which might lead to fatigue during prolonged typing sessions, though this largely depends on personal preference. The 720p webcam and microphone, while not exceptional in quality, are serviceable for basic needs.

Best gaming laptop for Computer Science students

Although you definitely don't need a gaming laptop's power for computer science, if you want to do a bit of gaming alongside your daily grind then The ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 consistently earns its place in our annual best-of lists as one of the premier 14-inch gaming laptops.

The 2023 iteration builds upon the strengths of its predecessor, the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022), which we previously reviewed. This updated version boasts enhancements including a higher maximum refresh rate of 165Hz, Nvidia GeForce 40-series graphics cards with all their latest DLSS 3.0 frame generation improvements, and the latest AMD Ryzen 7000 series processors. For a comprehensive grasp of the laptop's features, we recommend referring to our review of the previous model. In brief, it features a dynamic 16:10 screen with fast response times, accurate color representation, a suitable selection of ports given its compact form, including a MicroSD slot, and surprisingly impressive speakers - uncommon in gaming laptops. It's even got a pretty long battery life.

The keyboard isn't the best compared to our other picks here, but it's not exactly bad - just a bit loose feeling under the fingers. If you can put up with this though, this is a terrific gaming laptop.

Things to consider when buying a laptop for CS students

What operating system do I need for coding?

Windows and MacOS are both suitable operating systems for computer science students, but the likelihood is they will need to expand upon using just them in either case. Every computer scientist will end up using LINUX at some point, and this can either be installed on a Windows laptop through a dual-boot setup so you can use both operating systems, or via software on a MacBook such as Parallels that will let you run the features of both.

It's possible that you will be able to get away with not installing Linux for a while on a Mac laptop as it is a UNIX-based OS, just like Linux, so it has good native support of languages like C, C++, Python etc. Ultimately, before making your purchase, it's a good idea to check with your faculty/school about which operating systems are supported by the course ahead of time.

How much storage do I need for CSE?

Most programming won't take up a lot of space on your drive relative to other file types, so a 256GB SSD could suffice, but we'd still recommend aiming for 512GB where possible just in case. If however you'll also me managing a large number of image / video / audio files then you'll need considerably more. In either case, you can always supplement your onboard disk space with an external hard drive.

How much RAM is needed for CSE?

The bare minimum RAM you should have on a programming laptop, or most other laptops for that matter, is 8GB. In fact, although you can get by with 8GB in most cases, we'd recommend going for 16GB to ensure you'll be able to run multiple applications simultaneously without issue, not to mention open a good lot of tabs without worrying about your browser crashing. 32GB of RAM might be worth considering if you can afford it and your operating at the high-end with demanding software in your last year of studies and beyond, but it's unlikely to be a requirement.

What is the best laptop screen size / display type for Computer Science?

The ideal screen size for a computer science laptop is somewhat subjective, but for most people a 14-inch or even 13-inch laptop would be preferable to a larger 15.6-inch laptop for the sake of portability, even if you lose out on screen real estate. To ensure you do maximize it as much as possible however, we'd definitely recommend going for a 16:10 aspect ratio display where possible, which will give you an extra bit of vertical space without making the laptop noticeably more cumbersome.

What is the best laptop keyboard for coding?

Keyboards are a very subjective area - with some people preferring stiffer keys, others ones that require much less actuation pressure; some low travel chiclet-like keyboards, others preferring more mechanical-like. The main thing that coders need to be sure of, is that the laptop has the right sort of keyboard for them, as they will be doing a lot of typing on it - so make sure you know which you like before you buy.

Battery life for a Computer Science laptop

Battery life isn't quite as important as all the above, but could be vital for the computer science student on the move, as it's not always convenient to plug in your machine, particularly in a lecture hall or a coffee shop. In all our selections above we give you an idea of how much battery duration you're likely to get, so make sure that whichever option you pick fits your requirements.

Best laptop for Computer Science students FAQs

Best laptop for Computer Science Students 2024: Final Word

We trust that this best laptop for Computer Science students guide has helped you find the right pick for your CSE needs. If you didn't find what you're looking for here, do take a gander at our best laptop for working from home page or our best gaming laptop guide if you're looking for something a bit more spicy, plus our best laptop for engineering students if your course will also include this.

We'll be keeping this page up to date with the latest picks on a monthly basis, so you can rest assured that what you see here will be the best option at the time of writing (note though, that the best options doesn't necessarily mean the latest model, as we'll discuss below). Take a look at our Things to consider when buying a laptop for engineering section near the bottom of this page if you want to know more before making your pick, or if you're short on time, we recommend the MSI Titan GT77 for a premium professional model, the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 for a more portable and affordable model for professional engineers on the move, or the Lenovo Slim 7 Pro X for any engineering students. Do also take a gander at our Black Friday laptop deals page for some great offers this November, or see our shortlist of the best deals for today listed below.

Best laptop for Engineering vs best laptop for engineering students

A crucial thing to know before you spend your money is that the laptop requirements of an engineering student compared to an actual professional engineer can be quite different. Engineering students can sometimes get by using a laptop with integrated graphics, particularly if they are doing 2D engineering but even for the simple 3D engineering tasks they're likely to be doing. However, any professional engineer doing 3D modeling, using the AUTOCAD software or Solidworks for instance, should make sure they have a dedicated graphics card, although it doesn't have to be the most powerful GPU out there. Still, the more powerful the laptop, the better you'll be able to run multiple simultaneously and the quicker you'll be able to render your creations and get through your workload, so it can be worth it for some engineers to buy the most powerful piece of kit.

For more information, read the Things to consider when buying a laptop for Engineering section lower down this page. If you're looking for devices suited to students more generally across a range of courses and ages, have a read of our best laptop for students guide.

Best laptop for Engineering Students & Professionals 2024

Best high-end laptop for engineers (professionals) doing 3D modeling

The MSI Titan GT77 is a ridiculously powerful machine with a high upper ceiling on the memory and storage options you can equip it with. Frankly, this is overkill for most engineers out there, and certainly beyond the budgets or needs of most engineering students, but if you absolutely have to have the best around then this is it.

This 17.3-inch laptop has options for either the RTX 4080 laptop or RTX 4090 laptop GPU, plus the most powerful Intel 13th gen laptop CPU on the market: the Intel Core i9-13980HX processor, which comes with more CPU cores and threads than you can shake a stick at. You can equip it with either 32GB, 64GB, or 128GB of DDR5 RAM and up to 4TB of storage. You even get a 4K Mini-LED screen, which has terrific peak brightness and color replication, plus can reach a refresh rate of 144Hz for gaming. This larger laptop also comes with a plethora of ports and sockets to assist in your productivity, including ample USB type-C / Thunderbolt 4 ports, a fast SD card reader, Mini-DisplayPort and HDMI 2.1 ports, plus an RJ45 ethernet socket.

The main trade-offs for all this are that it's a heavy, expensive laptop that drains battery charge at a very fast rate. As long as you don't mind the weight and can keep it plugged in, however, you can have yourself a very well-made, stupidly powerful device with unbeatable specs that will demolish any rendering workflow or game at 4K on max settings with ease!

Best portable laptop for engineers (professionals) doing 3D modeling

The ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022), is 14-inch a gaming laptop that we did an in-depth review of and can't recommend enough for both gaming and for use by working engineers. The G14 series consistently impresses in the 14" laptop category each year, but the 2022 version is the best pick for most professional engineers in our opinion, as it offers a great balance between affordability and power along with the best battery life of the series thanks to its AMD CPU and GPU. The more recent 2023 variant has more oomph for gaming, but the Nvidia RTX graphics suck up power faster and cost more money. With this model, you can either pick from the AMD Radeon RX 6700S or RX 6800S graphics cards - both of which are plenty powerful enough for an engineering workflow, particularly when combined with the Ryzen 9 6900HS CPU.

The 16:10 screen gives you more vertical space to compensate for the smaller size of the screen - ideal for working on. It has a great peak brightness for a gaming laptop (500 nits), which is good enough to use outside, and the battery duration as mentioned extends up to 10 hours on battery saving mode when doing general browsing, though obviously the use of engineering software will drain it quicker.

You get a good array of ports and sockets, including a MicroSD card reader, which could prove useful. You even get decent speaker quality - not exactly essential for engineering but nice to have during your downtime - plus can also dabble in playing the latest games as well. The keyboard isn't exactly the best out there but it's not bad either, and generally, this is a well-made laptop, with good build quality.

Best Windows laptop for engineering students

The Lenovo Slim 7 Pro X is a great option for any creative, engineering student, or even professional engineer looking for an affordable device with a dedicated GPU. The RTX 3050 graphics card might not be the best out there when it comes to gaming, but it's certainly powerful enough to run most CAD software, plus it comes paired with the nice and powerful AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS processor.

Memory and storage is great for the price: you get 32GB LPDDR5 6400MHz RAM and a 1TB SSD, plus you get a good quality 1080p webcam. The efficient AMD CPU also gives a very solid battery life of around 10-11 hours with battery saving settings enabled during non-strenuous general usage/web-browsing.

The 14.5-inch display has an impressively high 3K resolution (3,072 x 1,920), 99% sRGB coverage (good enough for color-accurate work in the sRBGB space if you fancy doing some of this alongside your engineering work), and peak brightness of around 380 nits, which is a respectable result even if it's not ideal for using outdoors on a sunny day. If you fancy playing some older/less-demanding games on the machine, the screen also has a 120Hz maximum refresh rate, meaning you can enjoy a smooth effective FPS.

The only minor downside of this machine is that you're limited to Wi-Fi 6 rather than Wi-Fi 6E, but this is the same as all current MacBooks at the time of writing, so isn't really that big of a criticism.

Best MacOS laptop for engineering students

As we discuss in more detail in our Things to Consider section below, MacOS laptops do require some workarounds to get certain CAD software working on them, but they do also come with certain advantages in terms of native coding language support as well. If you're happy with this trade-off then the latest MacBook Air is a great shout for an engineering student looking for a good quality laptop.

Although not as powerful as the Apple MacBook Pro, the Apple MacBook Air has the advantages of being a more lightweight laptop, more slimline, and cheaper - all features that are advantageous to the cash-strapped student on the move.

The most recent iteration of the 13" model is the 2022 version featuring the M2 chipset, while the 15" M2 edition was recently introduced in 2023. These laptops only have integrated graphics, but as iGPUs go they are powerful performers, able to compete with weaker dedicated GPUs, and have superb energy efficiency to boot: you'll get an impressive 11-13 hours of use from your laptop on battery-saving mode when doing non-strenuous general browsing etc. Running CAD software will sap the battery at a much faster rate obviously, but you'll get more life from the MacBook Air than you would any other selection on this page.

Older variants with the M1 chip are available for cheaper but won't handle the more demanding software an engineering student might throw at them as easily, plus they don't come with quite as impressive battery duration. All variations of the MacBook Air boast a light and easily portable design, plus exceptional build quality, which extends from the chassis to the keyboard and touchpad. The Liquid Retina IPS display provides a vibrant, high-res picture with a very nice 500 nits peak brightness, meaning you can use it outdoors. Additionally, the built-in webcam is of good quality.

In terms of the downsides: the starting loadout typically has a mere 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD, which is less than ideal. Any upgrades come with a significantly higher price tag, but we still recommend that you do so. The placement of the webcam: cutting into the image at the top of the screen is a bit irritating, but this is a minor quibble on an otherwise excellent laptop.

Best touchscreen 2-in-1 laptop for engineering students

ASUS produces two forms of convertible, 2-in-1 laptops that are designed with gamers and creators in mind: the ROG Flow 'Z' series and the ROG Flow 'X' series. The ASUS ROG Flow Z13 is essentially a gaming tablet with a detachable keyboard that enables it to be used in a laptop form factor in a similar fashion to the Microsoft Surface Pro series. For engineering students however, we'd recommend the ASUS ROG Flow X13, as it has the superior keyboard typing experience for those long nights of work. Instead of detaching, the X13's keyboard hinges all the way back around, enabling you to use it as a tablet in this way or prop it up in a 'tent' position to be used as a presentation screen.

Like the Z13 the X13 is touchscreen, and comes with a maximum 120Hz refresh rate. Again like the Z13, there are different dedicated Nvidia GPU options you can choose, and for engineering students, we'd recommend the GeForce RTX 3050 Ti. If you feel you want the option for some extra power, this convertible laptop is also compatible with the ROG XG Mobile external graphics card from ASUS, which lets you buy a portable RTX 3080 say that you can plug into the device for superior FPS in games, or rendering power for your engineering workflows. There's also a MicroSD card slot in addition to a couple of USB ports and the usual audio combo jack.

Although we haven't yet benchmarked an X13, you can see our review of the ASUS ROG Flow Z13 to get a good idea of the power as the two devices are fairly similar in this respect. If you're looking for a bigger version of the X13, also check out our review on the highly recommended ASUS ROG Flow X16.

Things to consider when buying a laptop for engineering

Do engineering students use Mac or Windows?

Engineering students can use both MacOS or Windows laptops, however, professional engineers will invariably want to go with a Windows machine, depending on their specific workflow. The reason for this is that whilst MacBooks can run software like AutoCAD, MatLab, and LabView natively, other 3D CAD software like Solidworks, Catia, and Creo are not compatible, along with some Circuit design (DAQ Boards) software. You can still use these incompatible pieces of software on a Mac using a workaround: specifically, the software Parallels will let you run Windows in a separate window on your Mac's desktop, however, this is a bit too much of a hindrance to be an effective long term solution for professional engineers with money on the line; for students, it will suffice though.

If you have an older MacBook you may be able to use Bootcamp to install Windows directly onto the hard drive, however, this feature hasn't been on the newer MacBooks for a few generations now. The one advantage that MacBooks do have is that they natively support programming languages like C, C++, Python etc. so if you're doing some coding as well this may appeal to you.

CAD vs AUTOCAD - what's the difference?

CAD stands for Computer Automated Design and is just the broad term for any software that is designed to produce technical drawings, be they 2D or 3D; AUTOCAD however is a specific software designed for this purpose. AUTOCAD is typically used by professionals and is both more complex and more expensive than the simpler CAD tools on the market, including those used by engineering students.

If you're using AUTOCAD, you generally want a more powerful laptop, almost always one with a dedicated GPU. You can get more information on this and see more AUTOCAD-specific selections in our upcoming best laptop for AUTOCAD guide.

Is 16GB RAM enough for engineering?

Whilst an engineering student may be able to get by on just 8 GB of RAM we wouldn't recommend it, and suggest going for 16GB to ensure you can run any software you're likely to have to use. Professional engineers should consider 16GB to be the minimum but should probably actually aim for 32GB to make sure they can tackle any demanding programs without them causing slowdowns in their workflow.

AUTOCAD requires a minimum of 8GB of RAM to run, but this doesn't mean you're going to get good performance from it, and the recommended requirements state at least 16GB.

How much storage do I need for an engineering laptop?

We'd recommend aiming for a minimum of 512GB SSD storage if you're an engineering student, though you can always supplement a 256GB SSD with an additional external hard drive. Professional engineers will likely need substantially more, and should aim for the 1TB SSD bracket, though again external storage can be used for this purpose.

Best laptop for Engineering Students FAQs

Best laptop for Engineering Students 2024: Final Word

With any luck, you're now well-versed in what the contenders for best laptop for engineering students and engineers are. Do also consider taking a look at our best laptop for working from home guide or our best gaming laptop guide if you're looking for something a bit different from the options here.

With all this in mind, we've listed below our selections for the best laptops for kids of high school age (c.14-18 years), middle school age (c.11-13 years), and elementary school age (c.5-10 years). You may want to skip ahead to our Things to consider when buying a laptop for kids section for more information, or just dive right into our selections. The below are primarily non-gaming devices meant for schoolwork and homework, as well as web browsing and watching online media or playing non-demanding web-based games or interactive games designed for small children. If you're after something that will run graphically demanding titles and software then we'd recommend checking out our main best gaming laptop page instead, or the various price guides for them in the dropdown menu above. If you're looking for something for a bigger kid on their way to college, then also have a look at our best laptop for students page or best laptop for working from home guide.

Best laptop for kids: products at a glance

Best laptop for kids 2024

Best laptop for kids of high school age (14-18 years old)

For older kids of high school age, they want something that is a bit more capable, a bit more sleek and refined looking, but something that still needs to be somewhat durable. The Dell XPS 13 fits these criteria well, and though it won’t survive significant shocks if being thrown about in a school bag, if you get yourself a padded cover for it it should withstand the occasional knock and bump thanks to its excellent build quality. This is a Windows laptop so is the most versatile option, but if your high school kid’s workload allows them to use the Mac operating system then an older gen Apple MacBook Air would be an equally good pick.

The keyboard and trackpad are both good quality and a pleasure to use. As a fairly slimline 13-inch laptop, it’s nice and portable, fitting easily into a schoolbag. All variants of the XPS look stylish, which might be appealing to fashion-conscious teenagers. While they may not match the peak brightness of MacBooks, they still exceed the average brightness found in other Windows laptops in the same price range. The 16:10 aspect ratio provides more vertical headroom when reading documents or scrolling through web pages. The number of ports is a bit on the low side, but should still be sufficient for school use, plus can always be expanded using a separate USB dock.

The latest models of this laptop can be a bit on the pricey side, though you can pick up older gen renewed models, which are still very capable and reliable, for a cheaper cost. If you're willing to spend a bit more, newer full-priced options will provide greater processing power. If the renewed variants are still a bit steep for your budget, see below for some more affordable picks.

Best affordable laptop for kids of high school age (14-18 years old)

This 14-inch Lenovo IdeaPad powered by the Intel Quad Core i5-1135G7 processor is a great affordable laptop for kids of high school age. This laptop offers ample RAM and storage options. You can opt for a configuration with 12GB of DDR4 RAM and a 512GB SSD, which should be quite sufficient for any high school student’s needs - the 20GB and 36GB RAM options are pretty excessive and likely a waste of money for your typical student’s workload.

This Intel-powered variant has a battery life of around 7 hours with battery-saving settings enabled, which isn’t great and will require charging partway through a day of solid use, but is still manageable. The display's peak brightness reaches a commendable 300 nits, a notable feat for a more budget-friendly laptop, which should be fine for indoor use.

Weighing a mere 3.1lbs and boasting a slimline design, this laptop is remarkably lightweight and portable. The overall build quality of the device is surprisingly solid, considering how affordable it is. The array of ports is also good for a smaller device, and includes a HDMI port as well as a card reader. You also get a fingerprint scanner for added security. All-in-all, a solid pick from Lenovo.

Best budget laptop for kids of high school age (14-18 years old)

More affordable again is the Acer Aspire 5 Slim, specifically the 2023 version, which is of a larger 15.6-inch size, though it retains (as the name would suggest) a slender chassis. That being said you will want to make sure that the dimensions (14.3 x 9.9 x 0.71 inches) are small enough to fit in your child’s bag.

Assuming this is the case, you get the benefit of a 1TB SSD as standard for storage, a respectable array of I/O ports including an HDMI socket (plus fingerprint scanner), and 12GB of RAM - quite sufficient for your average high school kid’s needs.

Once again battery life is limited to around 7-8 hours, which is less than ideal but manageable. The 720p webcam is also pretty subpar, and the trackpad, whilst not bad, is a little on the small side (though if you’re using a mouse this isn’t a drawback).

The keyboard is of a decent standard though, the overall build quality is respectable, and it offers good value for money. All of this makes it our pick for best budget laptop for kids of high school age.

Best laptop for kids of middle school age (11-13 years old)

In our opinion, the best laptop for middle school students is a Chromebook, assuming that they’ll be in an environment with a decent internet connection. The majority of middle school kids won't be needing a device with much in the way of processing power - they’ll likely be browsing the web most of the time, and a lot of their school work can be completed using web-based applications like Google Workplace and Google Classroom, including apps such as Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides. If they need to access the Microsoft Office suite, they can easily sign up for Microsoft Office 365, which installs 'Progressive Web App' (PWA) versions of software like Word and Excel that can be used directly in the web browser.

The Acer Chromebook Spin 314 is our top pick, offering an affordable 2-in-1 design that allows it to transform between a conventional laptop form-factor and that of a tablet. This Chromebook comes with touchscreen functionality and a sturdy gorilla glass screen. Indeed the overall design is fairly robust, making it suitable for young users. 

The 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM should be sufficient for what a kid of this age is likely to be using it for and though the 128GB eMMC storage is pretty limited, most storing of files should be done via the cloud (e.g. Google Drive). At a 14-inch size it’s quite portable for your average middle school-aged human, yet still offers an adequate range of ports, including an HDMI port. Lastly, the battery life is impressive, providing around 11-13 hours on battery-saving settings, making it more than sufficient for a school day. The screen is below 1080p, making it lower resolution than the other picks on this list, plus isn’t the brightest in terms of peak volume, however it’s adequate for a child of this age using it for indoor use.

Best laptop for kids of grade school / elementary school age (5-10 years old)

If you're looking for a small, child-friendly device that resembles a traditional laptop, the 10.1-inch Lenovo IdeaPad Duet Chromebook is an excellent option. Obviously, the small size means a smaller screen, though for younger kids of this age group it should be fine. You’re limited also in terms of the number of ports and sockets, but again this is less of a concern for your children.

The IdeaPad Duet is a touch screen 2-in-1 laptop in the style of a Surface device, which means you can detach the keyboard and use it as a tablet or attach it to use it as a laptop, offering the versatility of two devices in one. Running on ChromeOS instead of Windows, this Chromebook requires a consistent internet connection, so if you don’t at your house then this might be a problem, however most schools in the US should be catered for in this area. ChromeOS is well-suited for tasks like web browsing, using web-based software like Google Workspace, and other online activities.

Overall, the Lenovo IdeaPad Duet Chromebook offers a portable and versatile computing solution for grade school students, providing the convenience of a tablet and the functionality of a traditional laptop in one device.

Things to consider when buying a laptop for kids

Which operating system is best for kids?

For older children, Windows is the operating system with the most versatility - being able to run by far the most software applications and being the most widely used. MacOS however offers a more user-friendly, streamlined experience, with a few unique applications that are compatible with it. Apple MacBook laptops however are quite pricey, and generally aren't suitable for school kids, though older gen Apple iPads (running iPadOS) can be bought for a more affordable price and are often nice alternatives for younger kids.

For younger children, Google Chrome OS, the operating system of Chromebooks, is in many ways the best option. Although they rely on a good internet connection for full functionality, they don't require the same hardware so can be bought more cheaply, plus are fairly streamlined and user-friendly.

Is touch screen functionality required?

For younger children in particular, having a touchscreen display can help for a more kid-friendly experience when using the device, as they can be more tactile with it and play the various interactive games designed for children that require a touchscreen device. High school kids using their machine for studies and watching YouTube will probably have less of a need for it, though if they have an interest in art or graphic design, then a convertible 2-in-1 laptop with a stylus for drawing/sketching could be useful for them in their creative pursuits. See our best touch screen laptop guide for some examples or alternatively, take a look at our best drawing tablet guide.

What's the ideal size for a child's laptop?

The standard size for a laptop is 15.6-inches, however, even for some adults, this is a bit too big to be convenient if you're looking for a portable, slimline device. 13" or 14" is probably the ideal size for most bigger kids, although some could prefer the 15." size for the greater screen immersion and screen real estate for manipulating different application windows. Smaller 10.5" to 12" devices will likely be more suitable for small children.

Laptop for kids FAQs

Best laptop for kids 2024: Final Word

We hope that the above guide has been somewhat illuminating, and has helped you find the best laptop for your kid(s), however old they may be. Do also take a look at our various tablet guides if you think this might suit your child's needs more, or take a look at our myriad best gaming laptop pages if you think you want something with a bit more power.

In terms of what makes a good laptop for nursing school, you won't need the most powerful machines with the latest Nvidia graphics cards or high-end processors to complete your assignments, but something with a good keyboard, that's portable, with good battery life, and sufficient RAM is the sort of thing you should be looking out for. If you want more information on this, skip ahead to our Things to consider when buying a laptop for nursing school section below. For picks to fit other courses, check out our best laptop for students guide.

Best laptop for Nursing School: products at a glance

Should you get a Windows laptop, MacBook, or Chromebook for nursing school?

Our selections below will include options from the three main types of laptops as far as operating systems are concerned: Windows laptops, MacBooks, and Chromebooks. Windows laptops work just like the classic Windows PC and are by far the most versatile in terms of software types they can run, and probably the pick that will suit the majority of users. MacBooks run a different operating system: Mac OS, which is a more streamlined and user-friendly interface, but has a smaller selection of compatible software it can run, though you can still install Microsoft Office and the like on it. Both would be good picks for a nursing student's needs, provided you are comfortable with the operating system and check with the school you'll be studying with to make sure there won't be any issues with using either. MacBooks tend to be pricier than Windows laptops, but do come with exceptional build quality, the best speakers, great peak brightness, and good battery life, whereas there's a lot of variation in quality between different Windows laptops in these areas.

Finally, Chromebooks are an affordable option that is well worth considering, though they do come with some drawbacks. Chrome OS is based heavily around the Google Chrome web browser, meaning it is fairly reliant upon a good internet connection for the full functioning of its various browser-based applications, however, offline functionality has improved on these devices over the last couple of years, so they're no longer completely redundant when you lose connection. The positives of this are that Chromebooks require much less powerful processors and less storage, as much of this is done via the cloud, so they are often substantially cheaper as a result. Read our Chromebook vs laptop and best Chromebook guides for more information.

Best laptop for Nursing Students 2024

Best MacOS laptop for Nursing School

As discussed above, if you’ve checked with your school about the technical requirements of the curriculum and using a MacOS device is fine and you’re comfortable using one, then Apple’s MacBook Air is the ideal premium device for the average nursing student. The latest variant of the 13-inch size is the 2022 version with M2 chipset, with the 15-inch M2 version having released not long ago in 2023. The M2 model has the most powerful processing power and best energy efficiency, however, it’s a bit overkill for your average nursing student. Older versions of the Air are available for cheaper on Amazon and elsewhere, and these are probably the best pick for most people.

All variants of the MacBook Air (as you’d expect from the name) are lightweight and portable, with the top-notch build quality typical of an Apple device. This extends to both the keyboard and the trackpad, which are a pleasure to use. Most models have an impressively long battery life, in particular, the latest M2 model usually ranges between 11 to 13 hours under general usage and web browsing conditions - certainly enough for your average day of studying on the move. The Liquid Retina IPS display presents a pleasingly vibrant, high-resolution image, with peak brightness (on the latest models at least) that scales up to 500nits, meaning you can comfortably use it outside as long as sunlight isn’t shining directly on the screen. The webcam on all models is pretty good too.

In terms of downsides the cheaper MacBook Airs are limited to 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD, with upgrades to either of these costing a considerable mark-up. Still, unless you’re prone to opening lots of tabs in your web browser 8GB of RAM can be sufficient, and the 256GB storage can be expanded with an external SSD if you need more space. In case you're wondering about the difference, the Apple MacBook Pro is the more high-end, but heavier and less slimline variant of the laptop range; these devices are more powerful with even better battery life and screen brightness, but are substantially more expensive and pretty much overkill for the needs of a trainee nurse.

Best Windows laptop for Nursing School

The Lenovo ThinkPad series are a long-established name in the world of professional business laptops, but these qualities also make them ideal for your average nursing student, as long as you don’t mind the rather uninspiring aesthetic design. Well known for their durability and toughness (built to a literal military-grade standard: MIL-STD 810G), you can sling most ThinkPads in your rucksack and not have to worry about your expensive device breaking if you accidentally knock your bag into something. They also come with heightened security measures, including not just your standard Kensington lock, fingerprint sensor and Windows Hello but also TPM 2.0 data encryption and ThinkShield software.

The keyboards on these devices are exceptional, and offer one of the best typing experiences of any laptop. They have a design that’s midway between a low-travel chiclet keyboard (akin to that of a MacBook) and a tactile mechanical keyboard. The ergonomic keys have the ideal design and spacing to minimize typing errors.

The laptops come with matte screens which reduce glare/reflections off your screen when the sun is shining, making squinting to focus on what your typing/reading less of a chore. You also get a good array of ports and sockets including a mix of USB-A and USB type-C ports and an HDMI port (for connecting to an external display). Some options also come with an RJ-45 ethernet port and card reader.

Although the latest versions are the Gen 11 models, which come with Intel 13th gen CPUs and DDR5 RAM, then the Gen 10 before this with Intel 12th gen and DDR5 RAM, the Gen 9 models are the best options in our opinion for nursing students, as they have the best battery life (a hugely impressive 13-15 hours on energy saving mode), and still manage plenty enough processing power for the sort of work you will be doing. All processors come with integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics which are all you really need for your studies.

Best 2-in-1 Windows tablet/laptop for Nursing School

2-in-1 laptops/convertible laptops are devices that can convert between the form-factors of a laptop and a tablet, offering some of the benefits of both. The Microsoft Surface Pro series are one of the most popular and highly regarded of any convertible device for office use and studying. They are closer to a tablet in design - coming with a detachable magnetized keyboard and a kickstand for propping up the device, however unlike most tablets have the advantage of coming with a Windows operating system.

The Surfaces are all touch screen and come with stylus pen support (although you will probably have to buy the stylus separately) which is great if you like to take notes the old-fashioned way, or sketch out designs and shapes as part of your notes.

We wouldn’t go with the latest Surface Pro 9th gen, as these are a bit pricey relative to what you’ll actually need as a nursing student, however the Microsoft Surface Pro 8 has a very similar design, only a less powerful CPU, but is available for significantly cheaper. Both iterations are endowed with two USB-C ports, a headphone jack, and a 13-inch, 2280 x 1920, 120Hz display. The display's resolution and pixel density (267ppi) is pretty high for a 13-inch device, presenting a nice sharp image. The peak brightness is limited to approximately 330 nits - not the greatest but sufficient for indoor use. The color gamut and especially accuracy (averaging around 1.24 deltaE*00) is great but this likely isn’t much of a factor for a nursing student to be honest.

The lack of a USB-A port is somewhat limiting, and something you should be aware of, though this can be mitigated by acquiring a separate USB hub that connects to the USB-C port.

Best budget Windows laptop for Nursing School

The IdeaPad 3 is a great affordable device from Lenovo. There are once again different iterations of this line of machines yearly, and different CPU loadouts available for each, but the one we most recommend for nursing students is the 14-inch 2021 model that comes with the AMD Ryzen 5 5500U chipset. You should be able to pick up this device for $500 or less if you opt for the 8GB RAM option, which should do you fine for your studies, as long as you don’t open a huge number of tabs on your web browser.

Battery life extends up to a good 9 hours on energy-saving mode and the peak screen brightness is 300nits, which is reasonable for indoor use. On the connectivity front, the laptop offers a selection of ports, encompassing two USB-A ports, one USB-C port, and an SD UHS card reader. While the USB-C port lacks the capacity for charging or display output, such limitations are reasonable when considering the budgetary constraints of this device.

Similarly, the build quality of this device can be deemed reasonably satisfactory given the price. While there is a modicum of flex evident in the screen, the overall chassis is decently built, particularly in the pivotal (if you’ll excuse the pun) hinge area. The keyboard is full-size, so you get a numpad (which is useful) but it is a bit on the stiff side, which might induce fatigue during prolonged typing sessions, though this might not be an issue depending on your personal preference. The 720p webcam and microphone aren’t of the best quality, but will do in a pinch.

Best value Chromebook for Nursing School

If you’re certain you can use a Chromebook for your studies without any issue, chances are you’re looking for an affordable option, albeit one which is still of a decent quality. The Acer Chromebook Spin 314 ticks these boxes and comes with a 2-in-1 convertible hinge plus touch screen, adding to its versatility. You can use it in the laptop form factor, in tablet mode, or position it in a "tent" formation, serving as a screen for group presentations or shared YouTube viewing.

The device has a robust Gorilla Glass screen, rendering it resistant to both scratches and cracks, and is solidly built overall, particularly notable for a convertible laptop. The 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM should do for job for most users, and though the 128GB eMMC storage doesn’t sound like a lot, you’ll mostly be using cloud storage anyway with a Chromebook.

Despite its compact dimensions, the Chromebook boasts a satisfactory assortment of ports and connectors, which includes an HDMI port for external displays. The battery life is a standout feature, with an impressive span of approximately 11 to 13 hours when operating under energy-saving settings - more than sufficient for the demands of a day at nursing school. You might not get full HD display resolution (1366 x 768 compared to 1920 x 1080 HD), but this isn't overly important for your studies.

Things to consider when buying a laptop for Nursing School

Do I need a laptop for nursing school?

In the modern day, it's highly advisable to buy a laptop for nursing school. Although you can possibly get by with using computer suites at your school or local library, it will be substantially more inconvenient for you than having your own portable device that you can bring into lectures and use to take notes.

Storage & memory

Most nursing students likely aren't going to need a lot of hard disk storage space, unless they intend to download a lot of video files (of recorded lectures perhaps) or install other software on their machines besides the standard word processing, calendar, and email tools they'll need for their course. You can always also supplement your laptop's storage with an external hard drive.

RAM aka memory is more of an important consideration. The minimum we'd recommend in a laptop for nursing students, or most other people, is 8GB of RAM, which will be sufficient for most web browsing and using Microsoft Office etc. If however you are likely to be multitasking with various programs open simultaneously, or are prone to opening a lot of tabs in your web browser, then you may want to consider 16GB to ensure a smooth experience. Anything above 16GB is probably overdoing it.

Battery life

Battery life is an important consideration for the student on the move, as it's not always convenient to plug in your machine, particularly in a lecture hall or a coffee shop. In all our selections above we give you an idea of how much battery duration you're likely to get, so make sure that whichever option you pick fits your requirements.

Best laptop for Nursing Students FAQs

Best laptop for Nursing Students 2024: Final Word

We trust that this best laptop for nursing students guide has helped you find the right pick ahead of your nursing school journey. If you didn't find what you're looking for here, do take a gander at our best laptop for working from home page or our best gaming laptop guide if you're looking for something a bit more spicy.

This guide will include Windows laptops, MacBooks, and Chromebooks, and we’ll be going into each model we pick, explaining its pros and cons, to help you decide if it’s the right option for you, as well as trying to provide the next best alternative if it’s not to your taste. Further down this page, we'll also be going over the different things to consider when buying the best laptop for your (or someone else's) studying, so consider skipping to that part before reading about our picks so you know what you're looking for. Now, without further ado, let’s get stuck in!

Best laptop for students: products at a glance

Student laptop deals 2024

We'll be updating you on all the best back-to-school laptop deals as they come out. In the meantime, why not check out our main laptop deals page, plus our laptop student discount guide for US students, to help them get the most for their money.

Best laptop for students 2024: reviews

Best laptop for college students

The Apple MacBook Air is an excellent choice for students who don’t mind using MacOS - which is probably the vast majority. It offers a thin and lightweight yet sturdy chassis, an exceptional keyboard and trackpad, great battery life, and a quality webcam. Apple has launched a 15" MacBook Air with similar specs but a larger display for those after a bit more screen real estate, but we think the 13" model is the right pick for most college students, easily fitting into a bag for when you're traveling around campus, and is now available for slightly cheaper.

Powered by the M2 chipset, this slim machine delivers impressive performance, with the integrated graphics processor capable of handling middling-demanding video editing tasks. Although powerful, the chip is very energy efficient, providing the laptop with a remarkable battery life of around 11-13 hours of web browsing, word processing, and general usage time. The Liquid Retina IPS display offers high resolution and contrast, with a peak brightness of 500 nits, making it suitable for outdoor use.

Despite being an Apple product, the MacBook Air isn’t actually extortionately priced given its quality if you buy the base loadout with 8GB of RAM and 256GB SSD, however, it's important to note that upgrading RAM and SSD storage can be costly and must be done at the time of purchase as post-purchase upgrades are not possible - this is basically the only real drawback of the machine.

Best laptop for college students doing high-end creative work

The latest MacBook Pro 16 is a powerhouse designed to cater to those using high-end creative software: demanding video editing/rendering, audio editing, 3D animation, graphic design, and graphical effects workflows for instance. It comes with two chipset variants: the more expensive M2 Max is geared towards handling strenuous workloads like CAD rendering, running multiple resource-intensive programs simultaneously, or just those professionals for whom shortening the rendering time means more money in their pocket. The M2 Pro is the chipset more suited to most consumers, being well-suited to editing tasks involving photo, video, or audio. Either option grants you a ridiculously long battery life of around 14-16 hours of general usage on energy-saving settings, which is the best you'll find in any laptop, Mac or Windows.

The MacBook Pro's Retina display features the impressive XDR variant, boasting an exceptionally high peak brightness of 1000 nits, and up to 1600 nits when viewing HDR content – a brightness level that surpasses any other laptop on the market. Additionally, the screen is equipped with ProMotion, allowing for a maximum refresh rate of 120Hz, making it advantageous for video editing and even a bit of gaming (on those titles that will run on MacOS). Moreover, the screen offers a higher pixel density per inch compared to the standard Retina display on the MacBook Air (254ppi vs. 224ppi).

Compared to the MacBook Air, the MacBook Pro offers additional benefits, including an extra Thunderbolt 4 / USB-C slot, an HDMI socket, and an SDXC card reader – features especially valuable for media professionals. Additionally, it comes with Wi-Fi 6E support, which provides better connection and data bandwidth compared to the Wi-Fi 6 support of the MacBook Air.

It's obviously a very expensive device which would put some people off, and doesn't quite have the flexibility of a Windows laptop (see our MacBook Pro alternatives page for some potential substitutes), however, it's a truly beautiful, powerful, and high-quality device.

Best budget laptop for college students

The 2021 model of the Lenovo IdeaPad 3, with a 14” display and an AMD Ryzen 5 5500U CPU, stands out as an excellent budget option for college students looking for a Windows laptop. Priced around $500, it offers great value for the money. Due to the affordable price, some compromises were made, particularly in the display quality. Color gamut coverage and contrast isn’t great, making it unsuitable for color-sensitive creative tasks, you do get a reasonable 300nits peak brightness though, which is good enough for general use indoors.

Aside from this, there are many plus points to this laptop: although the processor is an older mid-range Ryzen option, it’s still reasonably powerful with good energy efficiency. As a result, you’ll get up to 9 hours on battery saving mode - good enough to cover your average studying day. Additionally, the 8GB of memory can be partially upgraded to 12GB (4GB is soldered on and 4GB isn’t, so you can swap the latter for an 8GB stick), allowing a maximum of 12GB - not a common feature in most budget laptops (read our how to upgrade RAM on laptop devices to see just how easy this is to do).

Although there’s a bit more screen flex than we’d like, overall the build quality is respectable for a machine of this price. The keys of the keyboard are a bit stiff which can cause fatigue over lengthy typing sessions, though we prefer this to overly loose ones, and some people prefer this. The trackpad is a bit too small as well, particularly given that this is a fairly small laptop, though it’s still perfectly usable. You do get a full-size keyboard with numpad, which is great if you’re working with figures.

The laptop's webcam resolution is only 720p, but this is reasonable for its price range. The microphone audio is also pretty quiet but still usable, and this can be worked around with a headset mic or similar. In terms of ports, the laptop offers two USB-A ports, one USB-C port, and an SD UHS card reader, the latter of which is nice to see. Although the USB-C port does not support charging or display output, this is acceptable given the budget constraints.

Best laptop for college students that you can also game on

The ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 is easily one of the consistently best gaming laptops we see year on year. Since the 2001 variant this has been a great 14-inch gaming laptop, and ASUS keeps adding improvements with each new model. Given its portable size, 16:10 display, MicroSD slot, and fairly bright screen, it’s also great for a dual-use machine for any students looking to game alongside their studies.

The 2023 edition builds upon the strengths of its predecessor, the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022) which we reviewed and tested in-depth. The laptop now boasts a higher maximum refresh rate of 165Hz, upgraded Nvidia GeForce 40-series graphics cards, AMD Ryzen 7000 series processors, and various minor improvements. As before, it features a lively 16:10 display with a swift response time, reliable color reproduction, a satisfactory array of ports considering its compact size, and surprisingly impressive speakers—a rarity among gaming laptops.

The Ryzen 7 7735HS or 9 7940HS processor options can be paired with an RTX 4060 / 4070 / 4080 / 4090 GPU depending on what amount of power you’re looking for, plus the size of your budget. Whichever you go with, the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 stands out as an exceptional upper mid-range portable gaming laptop that also accommodates creative software workflows with ease.

Best Chromebook for college students

If you’re looking for an affordable solution to your college needs, then a Chromebook could be the best pick for you. Chromebooks use Chrome OS, which requires a good internet connection in order to function properly, lacking the offline versatility of a Windows or MacOS laptop (read our Chromebook vs laptop guide for more detail on the differences) however as long as this isn’t a problem they can be bought more cheaply as they don’t require the same power in their CPU etc.

The Lenovo ThinkPad C13 Yoga Chromebook has a very tough build for a Chromebook, whilst remaining compact and portable, it also comes with a fingerprint scanner for added security and a webcam shutter. The keyboard is very nice to type on, and the trackpad is pretty decent and responsive too, plus you also get an old-school red trackpoint in the middle of the keyboard if you want to use that.

The Ryzen CPU, whilst an older model, is also pretty a pretty decent performer for a Chromebook device. Memory and storage options are supposed to range between 4GB-16GB RAM and 32GB-128GB SSD sizes, which is quite sufficient, however, most of the versions we’ve found still online only have 4GB, which is a little low, so watch out for this if you’re prone to opening a good few tabs in your browser.

The ‘Yoga’ bit of the name refers to the bendability of the 360-degree hinge, which gives it a convertible 2-in-1 design that means you can also use it as you would a tablet, making use of the touchscreen and included stylus (plus a slot to store it in) - a nice doubling of functionality if you fancy taking notes with your stylus or having a doodle. Unfortunately by Chromebook standards, the 7-hour battery life is pretty lackluster, but it’s still manageable for a day of lectures.

Best laptop for high school students

Whilst high-school students are able to heft about larger laptops, something that won’t take up too much space in their bag is ideal. Additionally, high school students tend to be a bit rough and ready with their bags and whatever’s inside them, so portability and sturdiness are two of the major factors you want to be looking for in a laptop. Although 13-inch and 14-inch laptops are fairly easy to come by across a range of budgets, getting something with good build quality can be a bit harder if you’re working on a limited budget. Don’t worry though because we’ve got you covered!

The Dell XPS 13 is a sturdy yet slimline and portable series of Windows laptops that has been running for a good few years now, meaning you can pick up an older refurbished model for a steal and yet still enjoy the benefits of a quality machine, or if you’re willing to spend a bit more money, opt for a newer, full-priced option and benefit from the greater processing power.

All variants of the XPS look great, which could be important to style-conscious teenagers. Although they don’t match up to the peak brightness of MacBooks, they’re still well above average for Windows laptops of the same price, plus have a nice 16:10 aspect ratio to give you more vertical headroom. The keyboard and trackpad quality are both of good quality, and though the port coverage can be a bit lacking, it should suffice for a general-use high-school machine.

Alternatively, our Middle School pick below would work very well if a Chromebook will meet your child’s needs, rather than a Windows laptop.

Best laptop for middle school students

Our best laptop for middle school students in our opinion is actually a Chromebook. Ultimately most Middle School kids won’t be using any kind of demanding or advanced software; the likelihood is that they’ll be primarily browsing the internet and using web-based software like Google Workplace / Google Classroom (which includes apps like Google Docs, Google Sheets, Slides etc.). If they need to use the Microsoft Office suite of software, then they can always sign up to Microsoft Office 365 (for a fee) which installs ‘Progressive Web App’ (PWA) versions of software like Word and Excel that can be used in the web browser.

The Acer Chromebook Spin 314 we have picked is an affordable 2-in-1 Chromebook - utilizing a hinge mechanism that enables it to convert between a conventional laptop form-factor and that of a tablet, or you could stand it up in a ‘tent’ formation if you want to use it more like a screen for presenting your work to others / watching a YouTube video in a group.

It comes with touchscreen functionality but a tough gorilla glass screen, making it resistant to scratches and cracks, and overall has a pretty sturdy design for a convertible laptop. The 8GB of LPDDR4X RAM and 128GB eMMC storage should be quite sufficient for anything a middle schooler is likely to get up to. The 14-inch display size is just the right size for a kid who’s a bit older, and considering the modest size of the device, it has an adequate array of ports and sockets, including an HDMI port. Finally, the battery duration is terrific - you can expect around 11-13 hours of battery life on energy saving settings, depending on what it is you’re using it for - more than enough for a school day.

Best laptop for grade school students / elementary school students

The three key things you should look for in a device for grade school students is portability (smaller people need smaller devices), durability (it’s not wise to trust kids with expensive and delicate electronics), and safety (specifically safety against harmful and/or adult content when browsing the web). Powerful core components aren’t really a priority as most of their activities will likely be web-based or using non-demanding installed software.

The best device for grade school students which covers all these areas is actually the Amazon Fire HD 10 Kids Pro tablet, though this is obviously not a laptop. Still, if you don’t absolutely need to buy a device in the classic laptop form-factor with a keyboard then this offers a very tough and rugged build, portable size, and most importantly in-built safe web browsing features. The Pro variant offers a slightly more mature, less chunky aesthetic compared to the regular Kids version, which is more suitable for younger grade school children.

If you are after something that’s more of a ‘laptop proper’ then the 10.1-inch Lenovo IdeaPad Duet Chromebook is a 2-in-1 laptop - meaning you can detach the keyboard and use it like a tablet or attach it and use it like a laptop (two devices for one!). It uses the ChromeOS operating system rather than Windows, meaning you’ll need a consistent internet connection, but if the kids are at a school that lets them use laptops this should be just fine.

What budget do I need for a student laptop?

The required budget for a student laptop depends very much on the type of student: their age bracket, personal preferences, and the type of course they are studying. Kids in grade school and middle school neither need nor should be given particularly expensive devices (unless you're not concerned about the cost of having to replace them) - cheap but good quality, kid-friendly laptops are available from around $300 - $500. For high school students with slightly more demanding needs, we'd stick to around $500-$900.

For college students, the answer is a bit less clear - it very much depends on the nature of their studies. If all they're doing is typing, browsing the web, and taking notes then around $500 - $1,000 will cover them just fine, depending on the quality of the device they'd like. If however, they will be doing more high-end rendering tasks or other things that require more CPU and GPU processing, and/or a color-accurate screen, then $1,300 - $3,000 might be a more realistic range.

How much storage do I need for a student laptop?

If you're a student who'll only be using their laptop for web browsing, typing, spreadsheets etc., then you can often get by with only using say 64GB-128GB of SSD storage. For young children as low as 32GB might suffice, though you need to make sure in all cases that you have sufficient room after you've installed your Operating System of choice (e.g. Windows).

For your average college student who wants to play a game or two, then 256GB-512GB is a healthy amount. If your course involves the use of picture, audio, and video files which take up substantially more disk space, then you'll want to have more storage, though you can always supplement this with external hard drives if you wish.

How much RAM do I need for a student laptop?

We'd always try and aim for a minimum of 8GB of RAM where possible. The type of RAM (DDR4 or DDR5 etc.) isn't as important, but having 8GB is what you'll need to open more than a couple of tabs on your web browser without it slowing down dramatically. If you're planning on doing any gaming or running editing software etc, then you'll want 16GB or more. For young children that may not be opening lots of demanding tabs and programs, 4GB/6GB could suffice in a pinch.

How powerful does a student laptop need to be?

In terms of processing power and graphical processing power, most general student laptops don't have to be particularly powerful at all. Again though, if you're going to be using more demanding software than your web browser or Microsoft Office, then you should check the recommended requirements of that particular piece of software online and make sure that what you're thinking of buying is up to the task.

Best laptop for students 2024 FAQs

Best laptop for students 2024: Final Word

We hope that this guide has helped you find the best student laptop for your needs. If you didn't find what you're after here, do be sure to have a look at our many other laptop guides in the megamenu above, including the likes of best OLED laptop, best 4K laptop, best gaming laptop, and best laptop for working from home.

Refurbished laptops are another approach if you want to pick up a particular model cheaper, plus looking out for the best laptop deals currently available is also recommended - neither of these last two points are specific to students only, but a cheaper laptop is a cheaper laptop after all! If you're not sure what kind of laptop you might need, consider reading our best laptop for students guide to get a better idea.

General deals on laptops suitable for students

Whilst there are student-only laptop discounts (as we’ll list below), you might find the best deals are just conventional ones available to everyone. We regularly round up the finest weekly offers on our best laptop deals page. If you’re not sure which kind of laptop you’re looking for then do also have a read of our best laptop for working from home / remote work guide for some suitable devices. It may be that a Chromebook could be a better cheap option for you (read our Chromebook vs laptop page for a summary of the differences), in which case you should take a look at our best Chromebook guide.

What laptop student discounts are available?

Many big-name brands (listed below on this page) offer discounts on their online stores to students and frequently the parents of students, plus educators. Typically these require you to make an account with them and in the process prove your student/educator credentials, at which point the discount becomes available to you when shopping in the online store.

Be aware that in some cases the student discount is not stackable with other offers, meaning you could lose out on a bigger reduction if you apply the student offer, however, certain retailers allow you to combine discounts - always make sure you check you’re not losing out before pulling the trigger.

Besides just price reductions on specific items, you can also sometimes get other extras like free software installed on any device that you buy, or additional gift cards etc. Finally, students can also sign up to services like Amazon Prime Student membership (6 months for free, then $7.49 per month after that) which allows you to get free delivery on any laptop or other electronic device or peripheral (laptop bag etc.) you may wish to purchase and access to exclusive deals events like the Amazon Prime Day sale.

Retailers offering student discounts on laptops

The following retailers offer discounts on student laptops, either through enrollment in some sort of program ran by the brand/retailer that requires proof of student credentials, via enrollment with a third-party discount site, or just by listing laptop deals on models suitable for students that anybody can buy, regardless of student status.

Acer Store laptop student discount

You can get 10% off Acer laptops from the US Acer store if you register as a student with Student Beans. If you don’t have an account simply click the following link and you can sign up to Student Beans via the Acer site.

Apple Store laptop student discount

Apple gives educational discounts for either students or teachers (including for homeschooling) that typically take the form of a $150 Apple Store voucher when you purchase a product, though this can vary. You have to purchase an item to be eligible for the voucher, and then spend this on an additional product in the store, so just be aware of this. If you buy a MacBook or iPad for college you may also be eligible for a free pair of AirPods. 

You can read our dedicated Apple student discount page for more information.

Best Buy laptop student discount

The Best Buy discounts on student laptops don’t require any sign-up process or proof of identity and are basically just general deals open to anybody, but on laptops that Best Buy deems to be the best picks for students. They also do a wider range of back-to-school deals on a number of products.

You can often get sizable deals from the Best Buy store on a variety of laptops all year round, and they regularly make it onto our main laptop deals page.

Dell Store laptop student discount

Students and educators can save up to 10% on selected Dell products, including laptops, within the Education Discounts section on the Dell Store if they sign up to a membership. They can also get access to the Dell trade-in program and finance payments on products with 0% APR.

Grover student discount

Grover don’t sell laptops but if you’re a student you can get a 15% discount on renting laptops and other electronics.

HP student discount

If you head to the HP Student Discounts page you can join their Education Store program that has offers of up to 40% off for students, their parents/guardians, and teachers. You will be required to create an account and supply details confirming you qualify.

Lenovo student discount

The Lenovo Store offers an 8% discount across all products (including laptops and tablets) for students, their parents, and teacher. You have to create an account, verify that you are eligible, and then the discount will be applied when you reach the shopping cart. 

Logitech student discounts

If you verify and validate an account with Unidays you can use this to get up to 25% off on Logitech products, including laptops and desktop computers.

Microsoft student discounts

The Microsoft Store offers up to 10% off a variety of products, including laptops, 2-in-1 laptops, and tablets like the Surface Pro and Surface Go, plus free access to Microsoft Office 365. This is available for students, their parents, and educators. You will be required to have a Microsoft account, which you’ll need to log into to prove your eligibility - after you have done so you should have the discount automatically applied to whichever product you are viewing.

Razer laptop student discount

If you register with Razer’s Student Education program you can get up to 20% off an assortment of laptops (though these are still pricey items even with the reduction), plus peripherals (mice, mousemats, keyboards, headsets), the odd monitor, and other products.

Samsung laptop student discounts

As part of the Samsung Education Offer Program you can get an additional 15% discount on laptops, tablets, and more which can be applied on top of existing discounts.

Other ways students can get cheaper laptops

Besides the above retailer discounts, students can access a number of different organizations, including many charitable nonprofits, that can give them access to cheaper refurbished laptops. 

Refurbished laptops are essentially second-hand devices that have been repaired by the organization before being resold. Although on average they won’t quite have the lifespan of a brand-new machine and may have some minor aesthetic blemishes, they have to pass a certain standard of performance before they’re resold, so you know you will be getting a functional device that will usually operate just as well as if you bought it off the shelf.

Although anybody can pick up refurbished laptops from Amazon etc. many of the following organizations only extend their services to those who fit certain criteria - often you are required to come from a low-income family to be eligible, so make sure you read the terms and conditions in each case:

Alliance for Technology and Refurbishing and Reuse

The Alliance for Technology and Refurbishing and Reusing provides computers, laptops, and other equipment to those in need. Some of these laptops are available for free, others are offered at affordable prices. Check on the website to see if you are eligible and use the map locator to see if there are any devices near you.

ConnectAll

ConnectAll is an e-commerce platform with a noble mission to make refurbished laptops and desktops accessible and affordable for nonprofits and individuals with low incomes. The range of devices covers both Windows laptops and MacBooks and ranges from budgets of around $100-$1,000. You can view their entire inventory online and use various search criteria to narrow down what you’re looking for. Customers enjoy added benefits such as complimentary shipping, a 1-year extended warranty, and the convenience of pre-installed Windows and Microsoft Office software.

Dell Refurbished

Dell Refurbished specializes in selling a diverse range of refurbished Dell laptop models at reduced prices (starting at c.$400). With a strong commitment to quality, the company conducts thorough inspections and assigns ‘cosmetic grades’ to make sure customers enjoy a ‘like-new’ product.

Notebooks for Students

Notebooks for Students (NFS) has its roots in California but is now available in other locations across the country. Originally founded by students, the organization collaborates with tech brands to offer refurbished laptops at discounted prices

The models on offer include both Windows and MacOS laptops, ranging from budget machines as cheap as around $200 to more powerful laptops for those who need more processing power. You get an impressive 4-year warranty included for free with every device you buy, which includes tech support, free repairs, and file recovery.

PCs for People

PCs for People is another nonprofit that offers discounted desktop and laptop computers, as we as computer repair services and recycling. You probably won’t be eligible for any of this however unless you are from a low-income family or have a disability. You can purchase a range of laptops from different brands, starting around the $145 mark.

Laptop student discount FAQs

Laptop student discount offers: Final Word

We hope that this laptop student discount guide has proven illuminating and helped you find the offer you were looking for. We will hopefully be adding the best laptop student discount offers from other countries here soon, in addition to the US. Please also consider having a look at our myriad other laptop guides and gaming laptop guides in the megamenu above.

We’ve summarised the main ways students in the US can go about doing this, including a list of known universities that supply laptops and the specifics of when/how they do this.

The different ways to get a free laptop for college

Free laptop program: US universities that provide a free laptop for college students

Below is a list of some US colleges (accurate at the time of writing) that supply students, usually incoming freshmen / first-year students, with laptops - either to keep for the duration of their study, or in some cases to keep indefinitely, assuming the student successfully graduates. Besides your basic enrollment status, the requirements and terms for each university laptop program differ; usually the laptops are free but sometimes they are added on to your student fees, or are provided under an alternative arrangement. 

Note that this list is not necessarily exhaustive, so do be sure to check with any colleges/departments you had in mind:

Other US organizations that provide a free laptop for college students

Besides colleges/universities themselves there are other organizations in the US which may be able to provide you with a free laptop for college, assuming you meet the necessary criteria. These include educational non-profits and some well-known tech brands that provide scholarships.

Alternative options for affordable college laptops

If you can’t get a free laptop, the next best thing is a cheap laptop. Discounted and refurbished laptops are usually the best way to go, and you can pick these up from eBay, Facebook Marketplace, and Amazon, plus from brand-specific stores like Dell Refurbished.

We are putting together a dedicated laptop student discount page, but in the meantime do take a look at our best laptop deals page, for the latest hot discounts across a range of different low-cost laptops. Also have a read of our best laptop for working from home / remote work guide to get a better idea of the type of laptop you should buy to suit your needs.

Another option is Chromebooks, which can be a cheaper alternative to a Windows or MacOS laptop, as long as you have a sufficiently good internet connection and are fine with heavyily relying on the Google Drive. Read our Chromebook vs laptop page for more info, and take a gander at our best Chromebook page for some examples.

Free laptop for college students FAQs

Samsung Galaxy laptops are a long running series, and offer a great range of options across the generations, covering different price points, any one of which could be a contender for the best laptop for working from home for your needs.

Best Samsung laptop 2024: products at a glance

Samsung gaming laptops

Samsung specialise in laptops for general productivity use, less so for gaming. They did have a particular range dedicated to budget friendly gaming, known as the Samsung Odyssey, but in terms of laptop releases we haven't seen one of these released for a while. As we will discuss below, the Galaxy Book3 Ultra is a decent machine if you want to do some gaming on the side of your creative work, but there are superior dedicated gaming laptop options out there from other brands if this is what you’re after.

Best Samsung laptop: in-depth reviews

Best 2-in-1 Samsung laptop

The Samsung Galaxy Book3 Pro 360 is a 2-in-1 laptop that comes in either 13.3" display size (measure diagonally) or 15.6", giving you a couple of options depending on whether you want to prioritize portability or screen area, though both models are very lightweight, slimline, and easily portable.

The Book3 Pro 360 has versatile touchscreen 2-in-1 design that easily transforms into a tablet for tasks like drawing. If you prefer a traditional clamshell laptop without touchscreen capabilities, the non-touchscreen Galaxy Book3 Pro is also available (listed below), and it comes in a 14-inch display size option. The color gamut of the display extends to at least 100% in the sRGB, Adobe RGB, and DCI-P3 spaces, which is truly impressive. If you’re working in photo editing, design, or any other color-based workflows, you couldn’t ask for more. Contrast is great as you’d expect from an AMOLED screen, and it supports DisplayHDR 500. The maximum 400 nits of brightness is a bit disappointing, though it should do alright except for in bright outdoor settings.

The laptop boasts one of the Intel 13th gen laptop CPUs designed specifically with slimline notebooks in mind: the Intel Core i7-1360P processor and integrated Iris Xe graphics (low-powered like most integrated graphics, but fine for general use and light creative work). The roughly 9 hours of battery life you can with the Samsung Galaxy Book3 Pro 360 when doing general web browsing, is about an hour shorter than the previous model, but is respectable considering the power demands on the AMOLED display. The Samsung supplied power adapter is also capable of ‘Super Fast Charging’ meaning it can reportedly charge up to 8 hours of battery power in 30 minutes.

The included S-Pen stylus performs excellently, the touchpad is pretty large and of a decent quality, and the keyboard, whilst not the best out there, performs well enough. Overall build quality is good although there was a bit too much screen wobble for our liking on a 2-in-1 design - still, not enough to be a deal breaker. Overall, a top-notch machine for creatives on the move.

Best Samsung gaming laptop / premium creative laptop

The Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra is a recent addition to the Galaxy Book lineup and serves as a direct alternative to the MacBook for high-end creative work (read our best MacBook Pro alternatives guide if you're interested in seeing more devices like this), though obviously using the Windows operating system which means wider software compatibility. Compared to said Apple laptop it does better in some areas, and worse in other, but one notable edge it has is it's a lot better for gaming, particularly if you opt for the RTX 4070 graphics card option, although the performance won't be as good as a dedicated gaming laptop.

Although the 2,880 x 1,800 resolution of the display falls short compared to the MacBook Pro 16's 3,456 x 2,234 resolution, the Galaxy Book3 Ultra compensates with superior color gamut coverage and contrast, thanks to its AMOLED panel. Both laptops offer a maximum refresh rate of 120Hz, but the Book3 Ultra outperforms in terms of response time, again due to the AMOLED panel. However, it's important to note that while the peak brightness is respectable, it cannot match the ridiculously high peak brightness of the MacBook, which remains unmatched in the market.

Regarding performance, the Book3 Ultra equipped with an Intel Core i7-13700H processor and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 graphics performs on par with the M2 Pro variant of the MacBook Pro 16 in most creative and productivity software, with the Windows machine taking the lead in some scenarios and the Apple laptop excelling in others. However, when it comes to gaming, the Book3 Ultra comes out on top. Although it's not primarily designed as a gaming laptop, the Windows option provides a superior experience for light gaming alongside work. The comparison between the higher-spec Book3 Ultra with an i9-13900H processor and RTX 4070 graphics and the M2 Max MacBook Pro is yet to be seen, but a similar pattern wouldn't be surprising.

While its build quality may not be quite on par with a MacBook, it comes close, plus it's 0.8lbs lighter. In terms of looks we'd say it's not quite as good as Apple's finest, but it's not too far off. The laptop offers an excellent selection of ports including 2x Thunderbolt 4 / USB-C ports, fingerprint sensor, and a microsd card slot. you get a solid 10 hours of battery life duration in battery saving mode (with the refresh rate dropped to 60Hz). While it may not match the insanely long-lasting battery of the MacBook Pro 16 (approximately 18 hours), it remains a decent duration.

Best budget Samsung laptop

The Samsung Galaxy Book Flex2 Alpha is a good couple of years old now, but it offers a great budget choice for those looking for an affordable Samsung laptop for general use/light creative work, or indeed one from any brand.

1080p QLED display of the Flex2 Alpha doesn’t quite match up with the AMOLED ones in the Galaxy Book Pro and Pro 360 series in terms of colors and particularly contrast, but both are still very good and the difference will not be massive for most users. The QLED actually also has the edge in peak brightness over the more expensive AMOLED models, pushing out a solid 430 nits at max, but this can be boosted to around 600 nits in Outdoor+ mode. If you plan on using your device outside a lot, then this may make the Flex2 Alpha the choice for you.

In terms of color gamut, you can expect around 100% sRGB, and for Adobe and DCI-P3 to be in the high 95%+range, meaning it’s not quite as exceptional as the AMOLED in this regard, but still easily capable of color accurate work in all these spaces.

You can probably expect up to around 9 hours battery life, so fairly similar to the Book3 Pro 360, though it doesn’t come with the fast charging adapter, but still good for a display of this quality and power demand.

All told, the biggest reason we’d recommend the Samsung Galaxy Book Flex2 Alpha is that they can potentially offer great value if you pick one up on offer, considering that it’s quite common to see discounts on them on both the Samsung site, and from retailers such as Best Buy and Amazon of course. Even at full price, a touchscreen 2-in-1 laptop with a QLED screen of this quality and a good battery life is respectable value.

Best mid-range clamshell laptop from Samsung

Given the great similarity of this machine with the Samsung Galaxy Book3 Pro 360 we won’t waste your time with repeating its specifications ad nauseum. Suffice to say, the Samsung Galaxy Book3 Pro is similar to the 360 version detailed above, with the following exceptions: it comes with the conventional ‘clam shell’ laptop design without the 360-degree hinge that enables the 2-in-1 version to bend back on itself; it is not a touchscreen laptop, and so does not come with an included S pen; it's available in a 14-inch and 16-inch screen sizes; and it does not have optional 5G support.

You should be able to pick up the Samsung Galaxy Book3 Pro for around $150 more than the 360 option, depending on which loadout you go for, which may make it a bit less enticing considering you essentially get less functionality, although the 14" version is over a pound lighter than the 360 at 2.58lb (compared to 3.66lb), making it even more portable. The inclusion of the USB Type-A port is a bonus though, for those who don’t want to rely on an adapter to use peripherals/external storage compatible with this socket type.

This is a solid all round productivity laptop with a fantastic display for watching multimedia on, especially films, but we can’t help but think that some of its use-case as a laptop for creatives and designers is lost slightly with the lack of 2-in-1 and stylus pen touchscreen. Still, if its extra lightweight design tickles your fancy, it’s an undeniably quality product.

Things to consider when shopping for a Samsung galaxy laptop

What are 2-in-1 laptops?

2-in-1 laptops are convertible machines, that can be used in either the standard laptop form factor or hinge back on themselves to take the form of a tablet device. All 2-in-1 laptops are therefore touch screen, and usually can be used with a touchscreen pen/stylus. As a result, they are ideal for visual artists who wish to draw on their device. The Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360 and Flex2 Alpha are some of the best of these devices on the market.

Samsung laptop FAQs

Best Samsung laptop 2024: Final Word

We hope this guide has helped you make the choice as to which is the best Samsung laptop in 2024 for your needs. If you’re more interested in gaming laptops, do be sure to check out our best gaming laptop page, or alternatively have a look at some of our other gaming laptop guides based on different price points, under Custom Gaming PC > Gaming Laptop in the top menu bar.

This page will be focused around Windows laptop alternatives to the MacBook Pro, however, do be sure to have a look at our best Chromebook guide for some more affordable Chrome OS options, should this be something you’re considering. We'd also recommend a glance at our best laptop for students page if you're looking for a laptop for your studies.

Best MacBook Pro alternatives: products at a glance

MacBook Pro alternatives: our top picks

The Best MacBook Pro alternatives 2024: in-depth review

The best overall MacBook Pro alternative

The Samsung Galaxy Book3 Ultra is a new line for the Galaxy Book range, and is targeted directly at the MacBook as an alternative Windows device. The build quality isn't quite as good as the Apple device, but it's not far off, it looks fantastic, is 0.8lbs lighter, has a great selection of ports, and all the advantages that come with being a Windows 11 device.

Although the 2,880 x 1,800 display isn't as sharp in resolution terms as the 3,456 x 2,234 offered by the MacBook Pro 16, it has superior color gamut coverage and contrast thanks to the AMOLED panel. Both laptops have a 120Hz max refresh rate, but the response time on the Book3 Ultra is better, again thanks to the AMOLED panel. The peak brightness however, whilst respectable, is no way near as good as that on the MacBook, which has the most ridiculously high peak brightness on the market.

In terms of the power you get to play with, the Book3 Ultra with Intel Core i7-13700H and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 runs about on par with the M2 Pro variant of the MacBook Pro 16 in most creative/productivity software - with the Windows machine edging ahead in some scenarios, and the Apple laptop winning in others. When it comes to gaming though, the Book3 Ultra wins out - obviously this isn't designed to be a gaming laptop so this isn't the primary focus, however if you want to do some light gaming alongside your work, the Windows option is superior. We haven't yet seen how the higher-spec Book3 Ultra with i9-13900H and RTX 4070 compares to the M2 Max MacBook Pro, but we wouldn't be surprised if it's a similar story.

The battery life doesn't quite match up on the Book3 Ultra, though at around 10 hours on battery saving mode (plus 60Hz refresh rate engaged) it's not bad. You'll be lucky to find anything that will touch the c.18 hours on the MacBook Pro (though there are some other options on this guide that get closer). Everything considered though, the Book3 Ultra is a strong competitor.

A cheaper MacBook Pro alternative with OLED screen (clamshell)

Dell’s XPS 15 OLED from 2021 is an older gen laptop now but it still provides a nice, cheaper alternative to the MacBook Pro. The device challenging the Apple MacBook Air in terms of aesthetics, portability and processing power. With a traditional clamshell design, this isn’t intended to be a purpose-built gaming laptop, but is perfect for writers, creative professionals and office workers after a light and stylish workstation or general use portable computer. However, that’s not to say that this laptop is lacking in processing power - the Intel Core i7-11800H or i9-11900H CPU options both offer significant performance, and the XPS 15’s graphics card, the RTX 3050 Ti, is a substantial piece of kit fully capable of creative workloads and light gaming.

There’s a fair bit of extra vertical space provided by the ample 3456 x 2160 (that’s 3.5K) screen, which comes with a 16:10 aspect ratio, for you to utilise when web browsing, editing images or reading documents. The display is superb, hitting all areas of the sRGB and 100% DCI-P3 spectrum, which is combined with an illuminating 100,000:1 contrast ratio and the brightest screen at 500nits at max settings. Screen space is maximised by the ultra-thin bezels, making the display all the more impressive. The colour and vibrancy offered by this display means the Dell XPS 15 is perfect for graphic designers, photographers, video editors and other creative professionals keen to ensure their work is color-accurate.

The Dell XPS 15 comes with the high-end build quality we’ve come to expect from Dell. It feels super lightweight yet sturdy considering its thin frame, and its membrane keyboard is a joy to type with - despite not quite matching the HP Spectre x360 in terms of travel difference. The trackpad is super-responsive and accurate, and the noise emitted from fans is minimal, making this the perfect laptop for working on in a quiet study area or on the go. We were impressed with how quickly and efficiently the microSD card reader ran, and the speakers are very respectable too, although not quite up to the standard of the HP Spectre x360.

Battery life on the OLED version of the Dell XPS 15 lasts for 7-8 hours, which is decent for this kind of display, and with a CPU and GPU of this power, if not the best out there. The 1080p webcam does have InfraRed technology but is merely adequate in terms of quality, along with the internal mic.

Besides these points though, the only real downside of this OLED laptop is the price, which can be brought down a bit if you opt for the less powerful CPU, less RAM, and a smaller SSD size, but we’re still talking a significant price tag. Still compared to the MacBook it doesn’t seem so unreasonable, and you do get one of the nicest designed laptops on the market.

The best 2-in-1 MacBook Pro alternative with OLED screen

It is safe to say the HP Spectre x360 14, equipped with OLED, is the best all-rounder when it comes to 2-in-1 laptops currently available. Granted, it might not be cheap, but this is a seriously high-quality bit of tech, and we would definitely recommend it over some of the other models around. If you didn’t know, 2-in-1 laptops take the traditional form of a laptop and give it the ability to fold backward on itself, creating an effective tablet complete with touch-screen. The Spectre x360 is a key example of the best these models have to offer, with a super-responsive screen complete with a high-contrast 3K2K OLED display. This has an impressive peak brightness of 340 nits and a fantastic color range encompassing over 100% sRGB and 100% DCI-P3. This makes it a perfect choice for those relying on a color-accurate workflow, such as photographers, designers or video editors.

The Dell XPS 13 OLED is a very close contender for this spot, and if you really want a more traditional clamshell laptop, rather than a 2-in-1, then it may be the better option for you, however we like the additional functionality the 2-in-1 feature brings.

The OLED version of this laptop features an Intel Core i7-1195G7 CPU with either Intel Iris Xe onboard graphics or the Nvidia GeForce MX450 (2GB), which offers slightly more power. There’s not a lot of room for intense gaming sessions, but the 16GB of RAM makes it ideal for light work or study use. 

The aesthetics on this machine are nothing to sniff at. Metallic detailing around the joints and edges, along with razor-thin bezels around the screen itself, lend the laptop a high-end look, the kind we’ve come to expect from HP. The build quality is superb - we think the Spectre x360 is the best in show when it comes to 2-in-1 laptops where this is concerned. The hinge point feels especially sturdy, which is sometimes not the case for cheaper models, but arguably is one of the most essential features you’re looking for. Aluminum forms most of the body, so the frame feels pretty robust with little flexibility. However, it retains a lightweight feel, making it a super-portable device.

For such a thin and lightweight machine, the keyboard is especially impressive. With scissor switches and 1.5mm key travel, we’d argue this is one of the fastest, smoothest typing experiences you’ll find in a 2-in-1 laptop, with the keys nicely sized and arranged in a way that allows for superb responsiveness and a pleasingly tactile feel.

The port coverage of the HP Spectre x360 14 is also good despite its slimline design, with two USB-C ports that support Thunderbolt 4 and DisplayPort 1.4, a USB-A port, and a microSD card reader in addition to the usual headphone/mic jack. A nice selection for any content creator needs. The included stylus pen is of decent quality, has two programmable buttons, and is rechargeable via USB-C.

The speakers are solid (for a laptop), with respectable bass replication and sound quality, though not quite up there with the MacBook’s. The webcam is unfortunately not the best, and its image quality (not terrible but not great) is one of the few criticisms we can level at this machine, though it does at least have InfraRed functionality supporting Windows Hello.

Although the 14 in the name would indicate a 14-inch laptop, the actual diagonal screen size of the HP Spectre x360 is 13.5-inches (technically the same if you’re rounding up but still, a bit sly from HP).

Compared to the Galaxy Pro 360 it has better build quality, and more high-end upgrade options for its core components, though the Galaxy’s touchpad is larger. Compared to the Dell XPS 13 2-in-1 it has superior port coverage, better colors, and a slightly better keyboard. Ultimately though, any one of these three machines are great choices for a high-end 2-in-1 machine.

Best MacBook Pro alternative for gaming

One of the biggest drawbacks of MacBooks is their poor gaming performance. Many games won't even run on a Mac, and those that do suffer from substantially poorer performance, regardless of how powerful the core components of the MacBook in question are. This is because the Mac OS isn't as well optimized as Windows when it comes to running games.

The ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 is a great light and portable gaming laptop, with a nice 2560 x 1600 display that looks good whether you're web browsing, gaming, or doing creative work. It's the ideal MacBook replacement device for those who want to be able to game on their laptop.

We’ve done an in-depth review of the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 2022 version and rate it as the best 14-inch gaming laptop of the year. If you’re looking for a more affordable alternative, the 2021 version of the G14 is available for around $400 less: it might not come with a webcam or MUX Switch, has a lower 1080p resolution display, and not have quite so impressive a battery life, but it's a great mid-range gaming laptop for an affordable price.

The ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 is the best performance per $ 14-inch gaming laptop released in 2022 so far, with the overall title still going to the previous RTX 3060 equipped version. The RX 6800S version we tested performs about as well as last year’s Razer Blade 14 equipped with RTX 3070 in FPS terms on average in most titles (The Blade 14 having the edge in those that are more GPU focused, but the G14 winning in the more CPU-leaning ones), though is available for substantially less money. Although we didn’t get chance to test the RX 6700S equipped version, which is available for a couple of hundred dollars cheaper still, we’d be interested to see how this fares against RTX 3060 machines.The keyboard of the G14 may be a bit cheap and plasticky looking for our tastes (though it is still nice to type on), and lacking in backlighting, but the build quality as a whole on the plastic and metal chassis is decent, if not up there with the likes of the MacBook.

Besides this though there’s little to complain about in this laptop, and a lot to be impressed by. The Zephyrus G14 looks great, is light and portable, and the extra vertical screen space afforded by the 16:10 screen makes it ideal for web browsing/working/reading on the move. The screen’s 5ms response time (with Overdrive enabled) is the best you will find in a laptop of this size, and effectively removes all ghosting at this refresh rate. The high-resolution 1600p display looks superb, is nice and bright, and its color gamut covers 100% of the sRGB space – slightly better than the Razer Blade’s even – combine this with the powerful AMD Ryzen 9 6900HS CPU and it’s a great choice for creatives. The addition of the 720p webcam and MicroSD card reader in the 2022 model is a welcome update from ASUS and it’s good to see a brand that listens to its consumers.

Couple this with an excellent 10 hour battery life, well above average speakers (for a gaming laptop), and a good array of ports, and the ASUS Zephyrus G14 is a great portable gaming laptop.

Best MacBook Pro alternative for business

The ThinkPad X1 Carbon series is a line of Lenovo laptops that has been around for a long while now, and has built up a reputation as being a quality brand for those after a quality business laptop and who don’t mind paying a bit more for it. They offer a great alternative to the MacBook 14 for those after a reliable office/business device.

The keyboard of the ThinkPad X1 Carbon is the best out there - with great responsiveness and a tactile typing experience, along with helpful key placement (page up and page down being located either side of the arrow keys for example). The trackpad is sturdy, snappy and responsive, with three handy buttons (which is fairly unusual) and there is also the signature TrackPoint mini joystick in the low centre of the keyboard, which functions well should you wish to use it. 

Compared to a MacBook it isn’t much to look at, the design is very utilitarian, however the build quality is impeccable: the latest 10th gen version passes MIL-STD 810H endurance tests for environmental hazards like shock, vibration, and temperature extremes, meaning it’s the most durable business laptop you’re likely to see - perfect for travel. The whole device weighs 2.48lbs, making it slightly lighter than the MacBook Air, and is slimline despite being tough.

Display options are varied depending on your needs (more so than the MacBook Pro), which we like to see: a 1920 x 1200 non-touch screen, 2880 x 1800 OLED non-touch screen, or a 3840 x 2400 touch screen that (claims to) cover 100% of the DCI-P3 color gamut.

If the Intel 12th-gen laptop CPU is a bit more power than you need, consider picking up a ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 9 for less money, which comes with an Intel 11th gen processor. Although the RAM (DDR5 for the Gen 10, DDR4 for the Gen 9) isn’t upgradable past the point of purchase (being soldered on) the M.2 2080 SSD is.

Battery life is okay on the Gen 10 variant, though it doesn’t match up to the likes of competing devices like the MacBook Pro. Ultimately the battery life varies depending on your CPU option. The P-series i5 or i7 CPUs will be more powerful but drain your battery faster, the U-series Core i5-1235U however will last longer if you don’t need so much oomph. Expect about 9 hours with some of the P-series, but closer to 11 hours with the U-series - still long enough for a working day. The Gen 9 however can last up to 15 hours depending on which processors you spec it with, which surpasses the MacBook Pro and MacBook Air by a couple of hours.

All told this is arguably the best premium business laptop available on the market.

Macbook Pro alternatives deals

Things to Consider when shopping for MacBook Pro alternatives

Price of MacBooks vs Windows laptops

As mentioned above, Windows laptops generally offer better value than MacBooks. You can get a laptop with the same core specs as a MacBook for substantially cheaper, and it will usually be able to get more processing power out of its CPU & GPU to boot. Apple products usually have a substantial mark-up compared to a lot of competing brands, basically due to the power of the brand as well as their reputation for high-quality, nice-looking machines. Still - there are several MacBook alternatives that can compete with Apple in these areas.

Speaker quality

It’s an undeniable fact that MacBooks generally have the best laptop speakers on the market, so this is one area in which Windows devices often fail to compete. Nevertheless, there are some exceptions. If you’re after a gaming device then ASUS gaming laptops usually have the best, though they still don’t match up to the MacBook’s. Non-gaming Windows laptops get closer, like the Dell XPS series and also the HP Envy X360 and HP Spectre X360, the latter of which are just as good as the best Apple laptop in this area, and so are true MacBook Pro alternatives for audiophiles.

Retina Display vs OLED displays vs Liquid Retina XDR

‘Retina Display’ is a branded term used by Apple to describe displays they produce for their MacBooks that have a higher pixel density than you’d typically see - the intention being to make it impossible to see the individual pixels themselves from a normal viewing distance. The term can be used to describe either LCD or OLED displays that match this criteria as far as Apple are concerned.

OLED displays are defined by… See our best OLED laptop guide for more info and other buying suggestions.

Finally, Liquid Retina XDR displays are another Apple-branded categorization, which use a form of Mini LED technology with local dimming, plus the aforementioned ‘Retina’ pixel density. Like other Mini LED displays they have the advantage over most OLED screens in terms of a higher peak brightness for outdoor viewing, but can’t compete with OLED displays in terms of contrast ratio or response times.

Related guides

‘Best of’ brand & category guides

‘Best of’ price guides

MacBook Pro alternatives 2024 : Final Word

We hope that this Macbook Pro alternatives 2024 guide has proven to be of use and helped you decide which is the right purchase for you. Do be sure to take a look at our various other laptop guides listed above, from gaming laptops to regular general-use machines.

MacBook Pro alternatives 2024 FAQs

Chromebooks are essentially a subclass of laptops, rather than a completely separate thing, but there are important differences between how a Chromebook works compared to a Windows laptop and a MacOS laptop (i.e. MacBook Pro or MacBook Air), that you need to be aware of before you buy. Read on and prepare to be fully educated.

What can and can't you do with a Chromebook?

Chromebooks offer advantages and disadvantages compared to conventional Windows and MacOS laptops. We’ll be exploring the main differences in detail throughout this page, but in terms of what you can and can’t do on a Chromebook, below is a brief summary:

What can a Chromebook do?

What can’t a Chromebook do?

Chromebook vs laptop: price

Chromebooks are usually cheaper than Windows laptops by a substantial margin. You can either get yourself a Chromebook with a comparable display, trackpad, keyboard, portability, and overall build quality for less money, or spend the same amount and get a device that is superior in all these respects to the Windows laptop for an equivalent budget. Ultimately what you pay for in Windows laptops is a more powerful CPU, GPU, greater storage, and better offline functionality.

Chromebook vs laptop: operating system differences

The Chromebook operating system is ChromeOS, originally based on Linux, which is heavily integrated with the Google Chrome browser. It is designed so that you have to download very few applications/programs - instead relying on web-based software.

That being said the OS is expanding a bit in more recent updates as far as offline support goes: with Android app support via the Google Play Store (though it’s not completely seamless yet), a recycle bin, better notifications, and desktop themes, and a Chrome OS phone hub that allows you to transfer and view photos from your phone more easily (as long as they were taken on an Android phone). 

You can also set up Linux on a Chromebook, without too much effort (it’s sort of built-in, but requires enabling and installing), which has a wider range of supported software including Firefox, GIMP (a free Photoshop alternative), Audacity (for audio editing), OBS Studio (for streamers, YouTubers etc. who want to record their screen), Steam, VirtualBox (virtualization software), and more.

Windows laptops are better multitaskers: they can pretty much do everything a Chromebook can do in terms of functionality, plus substantially more due to the vast array of applications it supports. One exception to this is that the support of Android apps is comparatively limited, though it can use some via Amazon. That being said it is a more complex, arguably bloated operating system, that comes with certain disadvantages relative to the streamlined ChromeOS (more on this below).

MacOS laptops are more limited than Windows laptops in terms of the applications they support (particularly games), but still have substantially more functionality than ChromeOS does.

Can I run Windows apps on Chromebooks?

In the standard ChromeOS you cannot natively run Windows apps on Chromebooks, however, there are a couple of workarounds.

Parallels Desktop for ChromeOS is one method that allows you to use Windows apps offline on your Chromebook, but it requires the purchase of a license (though a free trial is available), plus is only compatible with specific enterprise ‘Enterprise’ Chromebooks at the time of writing, such as the HP Pro c640 Chromebook Enterprise, HP Elite c1030 Chromebook Enterprise, and HP Chromebox Enterprise G3.

Besides this the Chrome Remote Desktop application can be used to connect your Chromebook to a Windows PC via a web connection, thus allowing you to operate a Windows machine (plus its apps) with your Chromebook’s interface. This isn’t really running the apps on your Chromebook though, and requires you to have a separate Windows device you can connect to in order to work.

Finally, if you’re a business owner you can use Windows 365, which is Microsoft’s official cloud-based Windows solution - essentially you stream Windows via the web to your Chromebook. The main issue with this is that it’s not currently an option for regular consumers, although this is likely to change in the future.

Can you run Office on a Chromebook?

Microsoft Office is not available for Chromebooks in its conventional desktop form unless you follow one of the above steps in order to use Windows, you can, however, sign up to Microsoft Office 365 which installs ‘Progressive Web App’ (PWA) versions of the software (Word, Excel, Outlook, OneDrive etc.) into your Chrome web browser.

The PWA versions of these Microsoft Office apps work similarly to the mobile versions you might find on an Android phone, but with greater functionality: you can pin them to the taskbar, receive popups / push notifications, and most importantly, they can be used offline.

The most common alternative to Microsoft Office is the Google Workplace suite of apps (which includes Google Docs, Google Sheets etc.) that have compatible file formats with the Microsoft Office suite (e.g. you can save Google Docs as .docx files that can be opened by Microsoft Word). These will permit you to do most word processing and spreadsheets-based tasks, but it should be noted that Google Sheets in particular lacks the depth of functionality of Microsoft Excel.

Is a Chromebook or laptop better for office work?

The answer to this question depends on a couple of things: ‘does your workplace have a good internet connection and sufficient bandwidth?’ And ‘what software do you use in your work?’ In the case of the former, if the answer is no, then a laptop is superior, be it a Windows machine or a MacBook. In the case of the latter question, you’ll want to make sure that any software you use is supported by ChromeOS. As we discussed above, the conventional, desktop form of Microsoft Office is not natively supported, but there are alternatives. More demanding bits of software (image/video/audio editing applications in the Adobe suite for example) are harder to find workarounds for however, so creative professionals will be better suited to a Windows or MacOS machine.

Storage is also another important consideration: if you have a job/hobby that requires you to use a lot of local storage, then you need to be aware that Chromebooks typically come equipped with a lot less than conventional laptops, instead relying on cloud storage, in particular the Google Drive. Still, you can always supplement your local storage with an external hard drive plugged into one of the USB ports.

Ultimately a Windows laptop will always be more versatile for office work than a Chromebook, but you get more for your money with a Chromebook, which may sway your decision when looking for an office work device.

Laptop vs Chromebook: battery life

Chromebooks usually have superior battery life compared to laptops for the simple reason that they don't need as much power to run their core components, as the processors are invariably much less powerful, and they do not come with dedicated graphics cards. There are instances where this is not the case, but in these instances the Chromebook will require a less powerful and therefore sizable battery to achieve the same battery duration, so can be constructed in a thinner chassis.

Do laptops and Chromebooks look different?

Chromebooks and laptops look pretty much identical in most aspects though one way you can tell (besides the Google Chrome logo that often appears on Chromebooks) is that Chromebooks have a search key on their keyboard (with a magnifying glass symbol), usually on the left in place of a Caps Lock key. Windows laptops obviously have a Windows key, usually on the bottom left, which is lacking in a Chromebook.

As mentioned above, the lack of powerful CPU chips or graphics cards in Chromebooks, or the need for as big of a battery to power them, means they are frequently (though not always), thinner and more lightweight than Windows laptops.

Can a Chromebook play games as well as a Windows laptop?

In most circumstances, Chromebooks are completely inferior to Windows laptops when it comes to playing games. They do not have the GPU or CPU hardware to play games unless the laptop is particularly high-spec in this area, and the game is particularly non-demanding. There isn’t a Chromebook on the market that can play the latest AAA titles natively on anything other than the very lowest settings, and even this is a very unlikely prospect - it would simply defeat the point of it being a Chromebook in the first place. On top of this, the OS support to run games is no way near as good as on Windows machines, although Steam for ChromeOS is available in beta form allowing access to a few titles.

That being said, game streaming services are one option where you can play the latest AAA titles via the magic of the internet. Services such as NVIDIA GeForce NOW, Google Stadia, Xbox Cloud, Blade Shadow, and Amazon Luna are all compatible with Chromebooks. Cloud gaming Chromebooks have been launched that specifically target this market.

Web-based games are obviously totally fine to run on a Chromebook, and Android game support is an area where they actually have an advantage over Windows devices, although Windows machines can now run some of these since the Spring 2022 Windows 11 update.

Which lasts longer, a Chromebook or a PC?

Windows PCs and laptops claim victory in this particular field, as they have less of a cap imposed on them by OS and driver support. 

Usually, Windows machines can upgrade from the older version of the operating system to the new one for free, although the introduction of Windows 11 cut off many older laptops from the free upgrade that didn’t meet certain hardware requirements. You can still use Windows 10 laptops and PCs of course, but eventually, they will no longer get security updates or bug patches from Microsoft, rendering them vulnerable or susceptible to other errors.

Besides this though, theoretically, a Windows machine could last for decades, as long as the components don’t deteriorate to the point that they break (which they usually will after a good few years, though how many depends on how you treat them / the quality of the components/luck).

Chromebooks however all have a specific Auto Update Expiration date, after which point they will no longer receive updates. Typically this is around 6-8 years after the specific model hits the shelves, with later Chromebooks, fortunately, leaning towards the longer duration. The AUE isn’t always immediately apparent, but you’ll want to make sure you have a root for it in the specifications/small print before you buy. Given that Chromebooks are much more dependent upon online support, their functionality decreases substantially the longer after the AUE date you run them, as does their protection against cyber attacks.

Which is more secure, a Chromebook or a Windows PC?

In short, Chromebooks are the more secure of the two devices, but it depends on what form of security you mean exactly.

Security against malware/viruses on Chromebook vs laptop

The simplicity of the Chromebook OS, plus the smaller number of applications they support makes them more difficult to exploit and easier to defend than Windows PCs. It’s likely that this will change somewhat as ChromeOS becomes more developed and supports more applications, though it will likely still remain more secure than Windows for some time.

Besides this though, Google actively developed ChromeOS with security in-mind. Many different processes are separated or ‘sandboxed’ from each either, preventing cross-contamination, the boot process has inbuilt verification, and there’s greater Malware protection when browsing the web.

Windows computers by contrast require much more regular updates to keep them protected of Windows Defender (the in-built firewall and antivirus software) plus any third-party antivirus software you’ve installed, though these days much of this is done automatically. 

Login & authentication security on Chromebook vs laptop

Overall Chromebook and Windows laptop login and authentication security is about the same. 

For Chromebooks you need a Google account in order to login at all, which requires a password. For Windows laptops you do need a Microsoft account in order to access most features, but many offline features are still usable without one.

Authentication security on Chromebooks was slightly behind Windows, but now includes WebAuthn as an option - which permits you to use PIN and/or fingerprint authentication protection. Windows laptops have PIN and fingerprint authentication options (assuming your device has a fingerprint scanner that is), plus Windows Hello facial recognition via the webcam. Both have two-factor authentication options.

What is a good Chromebook?

The best way to learn about the finest Chromebook picks on the market is to take a gander at our best Chromebook guide. If time is of the essence and you want to by something right now though, we’ve listed some of the top picks below for you.

What is a good laptop?

If you want a good selection of Windows laptops for general use, take a gander at our best laptop for working from home guide. We’ve also listed some of the top picks from this guide below for you to peruse. If you’re looking for something a bit stronger, take a look at our main best gaming laptop guide.

Chromebook vs Laptop FAQ

Chromebook vs Laptop: which should you buy? The Final Word

So Chromebook vs laptop - what's the verdict? In summary, for most users, a traditional laptop is still likely the best option, as it offers more versatility and functionality, and crucially isn't as restricted by the need for a reliable internet connection. That being said, if you're just looking for a general productivity machine for the office, and maintaining web connection isn't a problem, then a Chromebook can offer you a lighter, thinner, and better value option with better battery duration than a Windows laptop or MacBook ever could.

In this guide we've selected a range of different laptops suitable for remote work, whether you are a business person, creative, or student (though for more info on the latter check out our best laptop for students guide). They cover a range of different budgets, use-cases, and sizes depending on your particular needs, and we will discuss the positives and negatives of each in turn to guide you in your choice. You can read our things to look for when buying a laptop for remote work section further down the page for what you should bear in mind before you buy, or just dive straight into our in-depth reviews of each.

Best laptop for working from home: first look

In addition to the picks on this page, do be sure to have a little look at our best laptop deals and best gaming laptop deals pages. We continually update these with the latest offers so it's a good idea to bookmark them and check back every month if you don't see something you like immediately. You may also want to consider a Chromebook, in which case have a read of our Chromebook vs laptop guide.

Best laptop for remote work: Top Picks

Best laptop for working from home: in-depth review

Best laptop for working from home with Mac OS

For the average home worker who is comfortable using MacOS, the Apple MacBook Air is a superb option for those after a portable but durable machine with an excellent keyboard and trackpad, a great battery life, and good quality webcam. Recently Apple launched the 15" MacBook Air, which has very similar specs but costs around $100 more for the larger display, but the 13" model remains the more popular choice for those on the mood (you can compare both in our 15 inch MacBook Air vs 13 inch MacBook Air guide). That being said, both sizes are very slim and light, and easily transported in a bag for workers on the move.

The M2 chipset (which comes with its own integrated graphics) is a pretty powerful performer for such a slimline machine and more than capable of dealing with non-demanding video editing workflows, plus a spot of light gaming. Despite its power, the chipset is also very energy efficient, meaning the MacBook Air has a fantastic battery life of around 11-13 hours of general usage and web browsing. The Liquid Retina IPS display has a nice high resolution and contrast, plus a peak brightness of 500 nits, which isn't as good as the frankly ridiculous MacBook Pro's peak brightness, but is still a goo, bright screen that you can use outdoors (as long as it's not in direct sunlight).

As ever, being an Apple machine, these laptops aren't exactly cheap, though we do think the MacBook Air is probably one of the better value models in their lineup. If you're content with 8GB of RAM and the starting 256GB SSD size (which you could always supplement with an external hard drive if you wanted) then you can get the starting model for a fairly good price now, although additional RAM and SSD storage costs a lot and you can't upgrade it after the point of purchase.

The best premium business laptop for remote work

The Lenovo ThinkPad series is the most well-respected range of business laptops on the market, and has a long running reputation for producing rugged laptops with additional file security and top-notch typing keyboards, plus matte screens that minimise glare in sunlight. Within this range there are various different sub-lines, with the most premium being the ThinkPad X1 Carbon series. The latest Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 11 comes with the most powerful CPU spec options (Intel 13th gen laptop CPUs specifically) plus the latest DDR5 RAM. Prior to this you had the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 10 with Intel 12th gen laptop CPUs and also DDR5 RAM. However, the option we think is probably the best remain the Gen 9, due to it being both more cost effective and also thanks to its superior battery life.

With the Gen 10 model you'll likely get between 8-10 hours of battery duration on energy saving mode, depending on your exact specifications, which is nothing to be sniffed at and will suffice for a day's work (depending on how long you work of course). This doesn't match up to the extremely impressive 13-15 hours of the Gen 9 though, which is ridiculously good.

The keyboard is a unique design that’s halfway between a low-travel chiclet keyboard (similar to a MacBook for instance) and a tactile mechanical keyboard, with ergonomically shaped keys of perfect size and spacing to reduce typing errors. It's arguably the best laptop keyboard for typing on the market. The trackpad is also solid, and the whole laptop is built to a literal military standard (with a MIL-STD 810G certified chassis) so can handle being dropped, shook around, and extreme changes of temperature for those with an itinerant lifestyle.

Security features include your standard Kensington lock, fingerprint sensor, and Windows Hello compatibility, in addition to TPM 2.0 data encryption for all your files, plus ThinkShield software – perfect for business people carrying sensitive documents. The laptop has a solid array of I/O ports coverage including an HDMI port and optional Nano SIM slot. Some options even come with an RJ-45 ethernet port.

Finally, if you think that the above price is a bit too steep for you, the ThinkPad E14 G3 is another 14-inch option that has inferior speakers and webcam compared to the X1 Carbon line, but still retains many of the benefits as far as the matte screen, rugged design, security features, and excellent keyboard go.

The best convertible laptop for working from home

The Microsoft Surface Pro line is one of the most popular 'convertible laptops' on the market - essentially devices which have the functionality of both a laptop and a tablet. Unlike most 2-in-1 laptop designs where the bottom section hinges back around to create the tablet form factor, the Surface Pro is much closer in design to a tablet, but which comes with a detachable keyboard that you magnetically clip onto the bottom, plus a kickstand to prop it up. It has the benefits of the Windows operating system and works just like a laptop, but also has touchscreen functionality, stylus/pen support, and the portability of a tablet.

The Microsoft Surface Pro 8 isn't the latest model of the Surface Pro line, that title goes to the Surface Pro 9, however the design between the two is very similar except for the CPU it comes with and we think that the older generation (released back in 2021) offers better value for those that don't necessarily need a powerful CPU for their daily work (RAM is generally a more important feature for web browsing).

The newer 9th gen comes with options for either Intel 12th gen CPUs, or Microsoft SQ3 processors, whereas the Pro 8 is equipped with Intel 11th gen CPUs. Both have two USB-C ports and a headphone jack, plus a 13-inch, 2280 x 1920, 120Hz display. The resolution and pixel density (267ppi) is pretty high for a 13" device which is nice, the brightness peaks at around 330nits which is adequate, but the color replication covers over 100% sRGB and it has a color accuracy of around 1.24 (average deltaE*00), which means it's capable of light, accurate color workflows. We would have liked to have seen a USB-A port, as the lack of this does hamper functionality slightly, but you can always by a separate USB hub and plug it into the USB-C port.

Not every retailer sells the device with the keyboard or stylus included, so you need to be aware of this, and these additional features can be a bit expensive, but given the Surface Pro 8 is a bit older now, the price of the device generally has reduced quite a bit.

The best MacOS laptop for creatives working from home

The 2023 MacBook Pro 16 is a very powerful machine that's ideal for high-end creatives workflows, including video editing and graphics design. This 16-inch MacBook Pro comes with options for either Apple M2 Pro or M2 Max, which are both have considerably more processing power (from the CPU, GPU, and neural-net cores) than the standard Apple M2 chip that you'll find in the MacBook Air. Indeed for a normal, general use office laptop they're pretty excessive, and you'd be better opting for the far cheaper (and 1.4lbs lighter) MacBook Air instead as this is an expensive device.

The M2 Pro chip is best for those with moderately demanding editing workloads (be they photo/video/audio) whereas the M2 Max is only for really strenuous workloads, such as heavy CAD rendering or the like, or multiple programs running simultaneously. Both chips are certainly powerful enough to play games, although the number of games you can play on Mac is still a bit limited.

The Retina display in the Apple MacBook Pro comes with the souped-up XDR variant that has a ridiculously high peak brightness of 1000nits, or up to 1600nits when viewing HDR content, which is the brightest we've seen in any laptop. Additionally the screen has a ProMotion features that increases the maximum refresh rate to 120Hz - useful for video editing as well as gaming. In terms of resolution, the screen also has a higher pixel per inch than the standard Retina on the MacBook Air (254ppi vs 224ppi).

Compared to the MacBook Air you get an additional Thunderbolt 4 / USB-C slot, plus an HDMI socket and SDXC card reader - all very useful for media professionals. Additionally it comes with Wi-Fi 6E, as opposed to the Wi-Fi 6 support of the MacBook Air, meaning better connection and data bandwidth.

The best Windows laptop for creatives working from home

This Dell XPS 15 released comes with a terrific OLED screen with fantastic color replication and an aesthetic design that rivals the best MacBooks. You get various CPU and GPU options, going all the way up to the RTX 3050 Ti dedicated graphics card, plus ample RAM and SSD storage options.

The 16:10 3456 x 2160 (aka 3.5K) screen is great for viewing either documents, web browsing, or watching creative media on. As with every OLED display, you get ludicrously high contrast ratio, plus in this case 100% sRGB and 100% DCI-P3 coverage, making it a great choice for color workflows using software in Windows OS. With a peak brightness of 500 nits, it doesn't quite match up to the exceedingly high MacBook Pro brightness, but is still up there with the MacBook Air.

It's thin, light, portable, well-made and has a good quality keyboard and trackpad. It comes with both USB-C/Thunderbolt 4 ports plus an SD card reader (ideal for creatives) however, the biggest downside of this laptop is the lack of USB-A ports. This can be got around with by purchasing a separate USB hub to plug into one of the USC-C slots, but it's a bit of an annoying drawback in our opinion.

Besides this though, the only real downside of this machine is the price, but you can often find models on sale (particularly renewed units) for a reasonable price. If you're looking for a Windows with a bit more power for those more demanding rendering tasks, then you may also want to consider the Gigabyte Aero 16 XE4 with 4K AMOLED display, Intel Core i7-12700H CPU and Nvidia RTX 3070 Ti graphics card.

Best budget laptop for working from home

The 14-inch Lenovo IdeaPad 3 comes in many different variants, but this 2021 model equipped with AMD Ryzen 5 5500U processor is a great budget offering for a remote working laptop, available at the time of writing for somewhere in the $400-$500 price range. Obviously if you're only paying this much you have to expect sacrifices in certain areas - the screen for instance has pretty poor color replication and contrast, meaning it's unsuitable for any color-based workflows, so creatives doing this sort of work will want to look elsewhere, however it does have a reasonable 300 cd/m² peak brightness for general use.

Besides this, there are a great many positives to this laptop: the CPU is decently powerful for an older mid-range Ryzen CPU, and means the energy efficiency of the laptop is pretty solid: you can expect up to 9 hours on battery saving mode for non-strenuous use, sufficient for the average working day. You can also partially upgrade the memory (which comes with 4GB soldered and another 4GB of upgradable RAM) to a maximum of 12GB, which is pretty unusual for a laptop this cheap.

For such a budget device, the build quality is fairly decent - there's a bit of screen flex but besides this it's well put together, including around the hinge section where it particularly matters. The keyboard is a bit on the stiff side and could cause fatigue after long typing sessions, which may put some people off, though this depends a bit on your subjective preference. The trackpad is a tad small as well, though at least both this and the keys feel sturdy and you get a full-size keyboard (with numpad included - good if you work with numbers).

Although the webcam is only 720p, and inferior to the other selections on this page, it's actually above what we'd expect for a laptop in this price range, though the microphone audio is pretty quiet. The selection of ports includes two USB-A ports, one USB-C port, and a SD UHS card reader, and though you don’t get charging or display output through the USB-C port, this is okay on this budget.

Things to consider when choosing the best laptop for remote work

Before you pull the trigger on a laptop purchase, make sure you consider the following factors. These should be at the forefront of your mind when shopping for a new laptop for a new laptop for working remotely.

Memory

The GB of RAM is generally more important for general use / office machines than the power of the processor and certainly of the GPU/integrated graphics. Web browsers are very RAM hungry and if you're a person that likes to open a lot of tabs or have multiple programs running simultaneously then you'll want a good amount. 8GB is the minimum we'd advise these days for most people and16GB would be the ideal amount for the vast majority of people. If you're interested in running demanding creative software: video editing, graphic design, animation and the like then we'd suggest 16GB as a minimum with 32GB being the ideal.

Battery duration

Although the chances are you'll likely be plugged into a power socket if you're sat at home, a long battery life is still a welcome feature to have in a remote work laptop, in particular if you'll be working away from home at times and out on the move. The minimum you'd want in a non-gaming laptop is probably around 7 hours on battery saving mode, but ideally you'd want a machine that could last the working day.

Wi-Fi & Ethernet connection

Maintaining a good internet connection is generally one of the most important things when it comes to working from home in most jobs, and the majority of people will be using Wi-Fi connection to do this. The latest Wi-Fi standard is 6e but you'll need a WiFi 6e card in your laptop in order to utilise the benefits of this. Wi-Fi 6e adds an additional '6-GHz band' to the frequencies outputted by Wi-Fi 6 which basically reduces congestion if multiple people are using the same network connection - improving reliability and meaning less lag for everyone on the connection.

The vast majority of WiFi cards are 6 or 6e, and though the odd WiFi 7 cards are popping up in newer laptops, it won't be until the Wi-Fi 7 release date when the new standard goes live (which could be as later as Q1 2025) until they actually perform better than a WiFi 6e card.

Ethernet connection remains the best way to maximise your bandwidth and connection reliability, however few laptops have an ethernet port; some do though - so make sure to check the specs!

Webcam

You're going to want a decent camera for all those Teams meetings and the like (assuming that's the type of work you do at home). We've tried to pick selections with at least a reasonable minimum standard of camera quality before including them in this list, though some are better than others. Just because a camera has 1080p resolution does not mean that it's of good quality, although in most cases 1080p is preferable. Alternatively, you can pick up a separate webcam.

Final Word

We trust that you now have all the info you need to find the best laptop for working from home for your needs. If you didn't find the remote work laptop you were looking for, do take a look at our various other laptop guides in the dropdown menu above, including our best gaming laptop, best OLED laptop, best 4K laptop and more.

Best laptop for working from home FAQs

Our team of experts are always checking the market to ensure the selections in our buyer's guides are up to date. If you're after some quick suggestions and don't have time to read through then go ahead an pick either the Acer Aspire 3 or Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 if you're after a 2-in-1 device. Read our Things to consider if you’re buying a laptop under 300 section at the foot of this page for some in-depth tips on what to look for when you're buying. Do be sure to also check out our Black Friday laptop deals hub for some savings, or read the top laptop deals shortlist below for what's currently available.

Best Windows Laptop under $300 vs best Chromebook under $300

One thing all shoppers should bear in mind is that a good number of laptops listed for under $300 will not be Windows machines but Chromebooks, running on Chrome OS. Whilst these certainly aren't bad machines (in fact we've listed one as a pick on this very page), they are very different beasts to Windows laptops, and you need to be aware of this.

Chrome OS (i.e. the Chrome Operating System) is based mostly around the Google Chrome web browser and cloud storage/processing in the way it functions. As a result, it is highly dependent on you having an internet connection to work properly, and so can't compete with Windows machines in offline scenarios, plus they aren't always compatible with the same software you'd get on a Windows laptop / desktop PC. The benefit however is that they do not need as powerful a CPU, as most of the processing work is done externally of the machine, meaning Chromebooks can be bother cheaper and lighter. Have a read of our best Chromebook guide for more info on these devices.

Best laptop under $300 2024: reviews

The most powerful CPU for the price

This particular Acer Aspire 3 (the A315-24P-R7VH) has a 15.6-inch screen and comes with the most powerful and newest-gen CPU on this page - the AMD Ryzen 3 7320U. As we go into more detail on our Ryzen 7000 series laptop page, the lower models on this range of processors still do use older microarchitecture (Zen 2 in this case) so aren't completely brand new, however it still has a performance edge over everything else you'll get in this price range.

On top of this, the latest Ryzen tech means a particularly good battery life: you can expect to get 10-12 hours of duration on power saving settings an low brightness. In terms of the other specs, you get 8 GB of RAM, specifically the latest LPDDR5, a moderately bright full HD 60Hz display with around 275nits at max settings (not enough to use outdoors, but that's typical at this price range), plus for a budget machine it looks pretty decent too. The I/O selection is solid, including a HDMI port (2.1), a USB-C socket with DisplayPort coverage, 2x USB-A ports, and a headphone audio combo jack, though sadly there is no ethernet (a bit much to expect at this price point).

Unfortunately you only get a mere 128GB of SSD storage on this particular unit (though you may be able to find other product listings elsewhere with greater SSD storage but for more money). You can always supplement this with an external SSD though.

The best 2-in-1 touchscreen laptop for the money

The Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 14 is the best 2-in-1 laptop you'll find at this price point. This 14-inch machine is capable of switching between laptop and tablet form-factors, thanks to the 360 degree hinge (the keyboard swings back, rather than the detachable keyboard method used by Microsoft Surface devices). The AMD Ryzen 3 4300U processor is decently powerful for the price, and once again brings with it solid battery life - up to a max of around 10 hours.

Although the webcam is only 720p, the quality of the image is above what you’d expect for this budget, and the same can be said for the microphone - even if it could ideally be a bit louder, the quality is good. The 60Hz full-HD display comes with a peak brightness of just over 300 nits, which is decent for the price, though again won't suffice for outdoor use. It's still quite capable of viewing video media indoors however.

The port selection is solid with two USB-A ports, one USB-C port, and a SD UHS card reader. Overall build quality is good and feels nice and sturdy, including the keyboard and touchpad, though arguably the keys are a bit too stiff on the keyboard.

The main downside of this machine unfortunately are that (at this price point at least) storage is limited to 128GB SSD space and RAM to 4GB, and the latter cannot be upgraded.

The best laptop under $300 in terms of RAM & SSD storage

This ASUS VivoBook 14 thin & light machine is another 14-inch laptop, but this particular model comes with the most storage and RAM you'll get in this price range. Specifically you'll get a very respectable 512GB PCIe SSD and 12GB of DDR4 RAM. The Intel 11th Gen Core i3-1115G4 is a respectable performer, and you get a USB-C port in addition to the usual USB-A.

You get solid build quality overall, a fairly nice looking laptop, and the laptop weighs in at a mere 3.10 lbs, making it one of the lightest selections on this page, and a very portable device. The keyboard is respectable and even comes with a fingerprint reader.

Unfortunately the battery duration is shorter than ideal at just over 7 hours of battery life. Though this isn’t terrible there are better out there. The peak display brightness tops out around 210 nits- making it dimmer than we'd like, even for indoor use. Still, overall this is a great value machine considering what else you get for your money.

The best Chromebook laptop under $300

The Lenovo Chromebook C340 15 is an affordable 15-inch option for those who are willing to consider a Chrome OS machine. As it's a Chromebook, you get a less powerful CPU and iGPU options, but these aren't required to deliver a comparable amount of performance (as long as you have a good internet connection - if not , stick to a Windows machine).

For similar reasons the storage is limited to 64GB (most of your storage should be via the cloud). We would have definitely liked to have seen more than 4GB of RAM though, considering this is a browser-based machine.

Again, as it's a Chromebook and its components less power-hungry, the battery life is the best of any of our picks here, coming in around 12 hours max.

You don’t get a SD card reader on this machine unfortunately, but you do get charging support and video output on the USB-C socket, as well as a Kensington lock. For a 15-inch machine it remains quite lightweight at 4.37 lbs - making it easily portable. The display is touch screen but lacks stylus support, which limits its utility in this area, nevertheless the keyboard is the nicest of any of the picks on this page - being both responsive and comfortable to use.

Things to consider if you’re buying a laptop under $300

Operating System

The vast majority of laptops under $300 will be Windows machines. You almost certainly won't see an Apple MacOS machine in this price range, unless it is very old and second hand, though Chromebooks with Chrome OS exist a-plenty. If you're looking to run Android apps you might be better off looking for a tablet rather than a laptop.

Memory

Most laptops under $300 will be limited to 8GB of RAM (though there may be a couple of exceptions to this with 12GB). You'll find some which will come with only 4GB, which is certainly less than ideal when web browsing if you're running background processes or like to have multiple tabs/windows open.

If your laptop is limited to 4GB we'd advise checking to see if it's upgradable (often the RAM is soldered on and so this is not the case), and trying to upgrade your laptop RAM yourself at a later date if you find that you need it.

Storage

Similarly with storage, you won't typically get a great deal in most laptops under $300. It's a bit easier to find a workaround for this though - you can always buy an external hard drive to keep larger files on, and plug it into your laptop when necessary, or alternatively make use of cloud storage.

Refresh rate

For $300 you'll basically be capped at a 60Hz refresh rate display, though for most users this is totally fine. The main reason anyone would want something higher is if they're looking to game on their laptop, but if this is the case you'll have to spend a fair bit more money: have a look at our best gaming laptop under 500 (USD) guide for some examples, though even these will most likely be capped at 60Hz. It’s usually only really when you get to gaming laptops under $600 and gaming laptops under $700 that you'll begin to see models with higher max refresh rates.

Best laptop under $300 FAQs

Final Word

This has been our guide to the best laptop under $300. If you didn't find what you're looking for here, make sure you have a gander at our many other laptop guides in the megamenu above, such as our best touch screen laptop, best OLED laptop, best laptop for working from home, and best gaming laptop guides.

Although we haven't yet had chance to test either of these two devices, based on what we do know we can give you a decent idea of how the two laptops compare to aid with your buying decision. As of the 14th June you can pre order the new Razer Blade 14 2023, with the full release date not too far away. The ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 2023 is currently available to buy.

Razer Blade 14 vs ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 specs comparison (2023)

The below are the official confirmed specifications taken from the spec sheets on the ASUS and Razer sites.

Display differences

Razer has chosen to prioritise refresh rate on its devices - clearly targeting competitive gamers, although the more limited GPU options don't really match up to this and the lack of G-Sync will disappoint some. The ASUS variants however do have G-Sync but are capped at only 165Hz, which is fine for most people but could be a bit low for those interested in competitive fast-paced shooters that want to squeeze out every advantage.

The Zephyrus G14 does however have one option the Blade 14 doesn't - a mini-LED display variant. Although we haven't yet tested this ourselves, ASUS claims that the mini-LED panel can reach 600nits peak brightness, whereas the IPS displays (on both laptops) cap out at 500nits. Both brands claim their displays cover 100% DCI-P3, but we'll have to see if that stands up to independent testing (plus the color accuracy).

CPU options

Both laptops come with the option for an AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS CPU (which comes with Radeon 780M integrated graphics). This is has 8x Zen 4 CPU cores (16x threads) with a boost speed of 5.2GHz, 24MB of cache, and a 35-54 W TDP.

The G14 differs however in that you can get a lower SKU CPU for less money: specifically the the Ryzen 7 7735HS. This offers all the same specs other than a lower boost clock speed of 4.7GHz.

GPU options

As you can see above, the range of graphics cards available for the ASUS Zephyrus G14 is much larger - in particular you get higher-powered options by way of the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 laptop GPU and RTX 4090 laptop GPU (in fact it's the only 14-inch laptop to offer the RTX 4090 that we're aware of).

On the face of it this means if you're looking for the most powerful gaming laptop experience then the Zephyrus G14 is your only option, however, the TGP values for the G14's GPUs are lower (by 15W), which may indicate that the RTX 4070 laptop GPU and RTX 4060 laptop GPU variants are more powerful in the Razer Blade 14.

Battery ratings

The ASUS Zephyrus G14 comes with a 76WHrs battery whereas the Blade 14 has a 68.1WHrs one.

We know from independent testing by some third party sites that the mini-LED screen version of the G14 equipped with RTX 4090 and Ryzen 9 7940HS lasts around 7-8 hours of general usage. We don't currently have data on the IPS variant with the more lower-powered GPU and CPU loadouts, though we can assume you'll be able to squeeze at least an additional hour out of them. According to their site, Razer claims that the Blade 14 could last up to 10 hours of video playback, which would be impressive indeed, though we're sceptical.

Ultimately we won't be able to say for sure how the two compare before we get our hands on these devices, or more reviews of both are released.

Razer Blade 14 (2023) vs ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 (2023) price

The Razer Blade 14 price options are listed below for the US:

A selection of the various ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 price points are listed below from Amazon listings (though there are a lot of other options for different SSD loadouts etc. for each GPU). We've also found them considerably cheaper on Best Buy:

Razer Blade 14 (2023) vs ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 (2023): Final word

You can definitely get the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 cheaper than the Razer Blade 14 2023 variant with ostensibly the same core components, which is pretty standard by how Razer price their laptops, though we know from experience that the build quality on Razer Blades is the best out there, and that whilst Zephyrus G14s tend to have decent build quality, they don't match up in this area.

Based on the differing TGP values, it would seem that and RTX 4060 / 4070 Razer Blade will probably outperform in FPS terms the ASUS laptops with the same graphics card and CPU, however the ASUS Zephyrus G14 does come with the two higher SKU options which are more powerful than anything you can equip the Blade 14 with.

If you're after more bang for your buck and are primarily interested in single player or non-competitive games where having the fastest refresh rate isn't paramount, then based on the above we'd be tempted by the Zephyrus G14. However if you need that higher refresh rate for your fast-paced shooters, an RTX 4070 equipped Blade 14 might be the pick for you.