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Time for a laptop upgrade? These are our top-rated devices from Dell, Apple, Microsoft and more
When looking for the best laptop to suit your needs, you’ve never had a wider selection to choose from. Fans of Apple have the easiest decision to make, but look past the MacBooks and you’ll find blisteringly fast Windows laptops alongside great budget options and versatile Chromebooks.
The latest laptops from the likes of Dell and Acer actually trounce Apple’s MacBook in one key area: OLED displays. The vibrant colours, sharpness and perfect contrast offered by an OLED screen make many Windows laptops the ideal choice for creatives, videographers, gamers, or anyone who wants to stream entertainment in the best possible quality.
If you want to spend next to nothing on a laptop you’ll use only occasionally then Chromebooks have you covered. Google’s range of Chrome OS laptops has come a long way since a decidedly underwhelming launch in 2011. We’ve included the Asus Chromebook plus CX34 in our list of the best laptops below.
So, which laptop should you buy? However much you want to spend, the breadth of options out there can be overwhelming, but we’re here to help, with our comprehensive reviews of the best laptops on the market.
We test each laptop by first running benchmarking software to accurately rank the performance of the device against every other laptop we’ve reviewed. Where possible, we stress-test each laptop’s performance using a selection of graphically demanding PC games. For our most recent round of testing, we ran Forza Horizon 5, Cyberpunk 2077 and Cities: Skylines II.
Even if you don’t plan on using your laptop for gaming, these kinds of performance tests tend to reveal any underlying problems with a laptop’s heat dissipation and thermal throttling – that’s when a CPU slows itself down to avoid damaging the components. It’s a common issue with fanless ultrabooks in particular.
To get the best idea of what they’re actually like to use on a daily basis, we swap out our regular laptop for our testing unit and put it through several weeks of our regular work schedule. That includes photo-editing, video-rendering, Zoom calls, extensive writing sessions, moving from home to the office and connecting to external monitors.
Most of the laptops featured here can be configured to have more RAM, a bigger hard drive or a faster processor. You can also find a bargain by searching for earlier models of the laptops we’ve picked, though, be aware some of the features we mention might not appear in previous generations.
The range of CPUs on offer can seem bewildering but don’t sweat it. Unless you really know what you’re doing, you don’t need to worry too much about the differences between the two main brands: AMD and Intel. They both make roughly similar versions of one another’s CPUs.
Intel’s most popular range is called the Core series. These include the affordable Core i3, the mid-range Core i5, the high-end Core i7, and the specialist Core i9. The bigger the number, the faster the processor. For most users, the Core i3 is more than enough power. For gaming and processor-intensive tasks, such as rendering large files and video editing, the Core i5 or Core i7 can be a useful upgrade.
Mirroring this, AMD has the Ryzen range. These include the Ryzen 3, Ryzen 5, Ryzen 7, and Ryzen 9 processors. They’ll offer similar levels of performance to their Intel counterparts. While the underlying hardware is different, you’ll notice no difference in how your laptop actually functions.
Apple MacBooks are another kettle of fish entirely. Until recently, Apple used Intel processors, before it upgraded its entire range to its proprietary M1, M2 and M3 CPUs. These are, at least, a little easier to think about: M3 is faster than M2.
As newer processors are always improving, these four simple tiers don’t change in number. They’ll always refer to the most and least powerful processors each CPU brand manufactures. What changes are the digits following the CPU name, with the first two digits usually referring to the CPU’s generation.
New generations of processor arrive each year. They’re faster, obviously enough, but they’re also designed to be more energy efficient or support new features such as artificial intelligence and raytracing.
There are other Intel CPUs on the market, such as the Celeron series. Celeron is designed to be super affordable and low-end, for users who really don’t need much processing power. You’ll find them in budget laptops.
Most users can get away with 8GB of RAM (or memory), though 16GB has lately become the standard. RAM is storage your laptop is constantly using to juggle data, so it’s essentially a measure of how many things your device can do at once before it starts to slow down. This gives you enough memory to load Windows smoothly, and run a few demanding apps.
As software becomes more complex, it starts to demand more memory – 16GB should future-proof your laptop against this for a few years to come.
MacBooks have less RAM on paper because they work a little differently. The M3 chip is handling a lot of the data-juggling itself, so the device needs less dedicated RAM, which means your 16GB goes a little further than it does on a Windows laptop.
Most laptops use Microsoft’s Windows operating system, while MacBooks use Apple’s macOS operating system.
Chromebooks are different. They run on Chrome OS, an operating system designed by Google. Anyone can license this operating system, so you’ll see Chromebooks manufactured by a wide range of brands (called OEMs) and available in various styles.
Google’s operating system doesn’t run traditional desktop programs. Instead, it behaves more like the Chrome web browser, using online apps such as Google Docs and some Android apps.
This sounds limiting – and, for most users, it is – but there are upsides. Because most of the processing is happening over the internet, Chromebooks don’t need to be so powerful. This means they generally have a longer battery life, are much cheaper, far more secure and boot up faster than regular laptops.
The Dell XPS 15 is our top pick of Windows laptops, thanks to its all round great performance, excellent screen (if you stump up extra) and unbeatable build quality. For gaming, we recommend the Razer blade 15. It will break the bank but it’s worth every penny.
Apple users have an easier choice, and the latest models of the MacBook pro and MacBook air are among our favourite laptops right now.
Want something even more portable? Here’s our guide to the best tablets