Searching for one of the best laptops under $500 can feel like a monumental task. Even the best budget models lack the flashier features of pricier machines, and it’s hard to know if you’re buying something that will last. But affordable laptops that nail the essentials — and even throw in a bonus feature or two — do exist.

Setting realistic expectations is crucial in this price range. If your needs are basic—web browsing, writing papers, streaming, or using productivity apps—there are solid sub-$500 laptops that can handle the job. These machines are great for students, kids, or anyone looking for a reliable secondary device without breaking the bank. While you’ll find Windows options here, the best Chromebooks often offer better value.

Naturally, some tradeoffs come with the lower cost. Don’t expect top-tier specs, high-end graphics, or premium materials. You should expect slower processors, limited storage, and decent displays. Still, the best budget models make smart compromises, and every laptop on our list has one standout feature: long battery life. If you know what you need, a budget laptop can absolutely be worth it.

This page is regularly updated with our latest reviews to reflect Laptop Mag’s top picks for 2025.

Update log

5/5/2025: Added FAQs, testing charts, and Acer Chromebook Spin 312. Updated "how to choose" section.

The Quick List

Best overall

If you're looking for a modern laptop that won't break the bank, we cannot recommend the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook Plus enough. That's a mouthful, so I suggest it is a lot of work. But here it is, in all of its Intel Core i3 glory. Slap on 8GB of RAM and a 1080p display, and you have quite a decent laptop for just under $500.

While you might expect poor performance from a Chromebook, the IdeaPad Flex 5 averaged a Geekbench 6 multi-core score of 5,384, just above the 5,259 Chromebook average. It's also far above the performance of the Lenovo Duet 5 Chromebook's average of 1,727 and the Lenovo Flex 5 14 (Intel)'s average of 3,841.

To make that performance even more valuable, this is a Chromebook. That means you won't run into intensive tasks as often as you would with a Windows laptop. On top of that amazing AI-backed performance, it also offers close to 10 hours of battery life. That'll take you into overtime (paid, or else call me).

One of my favorite features about the IdeaPad Flex 5i is its design. You won’t get stuck with a clunky laptop that looks like it came straight out of battling Windows 95. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say this was a premium laptop by the looks of it. It comes in at 12.4 x 9.0 x 0.8 inches and 3.6 pounds. It’s not the lightest or the thinnest, but it makes up for it by being a sturdy shoulder to lean on.

Yeah, its 14-inch, 1080p display isn't colorful, but its 16:10 aspect ratio gives you more vertical space to work with.

See our full Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook Plus review.

Best under $300

The Lenovo Duet 5 Chromebook has been at the top of this list for years, and that's only recently changed because we want to make room for more up-to-date products. However, that doesn't change the fact that it is an absolute champion.

Regarding our synthetic benchmark tests, the Lenovo Duet 5 Chromebook has some of the most underwhelming performance on this list. The Duet 5 Chromebook's Geekbench 5 multi-core average of 1,727 is well below the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 14 (Intel)'s 3,841 average. It is above the Acer Chromebook 317's 1,137, though both laptops fall below the Chromebook average of 2,253.

This baby is packed with a 13.3-inch, 1920 x 1080 OLED display. It reproduced 85.2 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut and averaged 361 nits of brightness. Those numbers we’d see in premium laptops — and some of those more expensive items don’t get as bright or colorful. And an OLED panel is an impressive addition. You’d find those in gaming laptops, MacBook competitors, and big TVs.

Speaking of dissing premium laptops, this detachable will also get you 13 hours and 31 minutes of battery life. That’s almost enough battery life to land on our laptops with the best battery life page. That alone is an excellent package for under $300. But there's more! This is a detachable 2-in-1, meaning it can go from a tablet to a full laptop. And unlike some pricier detachables, this machine includes the keyboard and cover (I wish that weren't boast-worthy, but it is).

The only downsides to this machine are its relatively weak performance and lack of a stylus. But for the price, it's pretty damn good.

See our full Lenovo Duet 5 Chromebook review.

Best Windows laptop

It's a challenge to find a Windows laptop for under $500 that won't be DOA when it gets to your doorstep. That's where the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 14 (Intel) comes in. Another chunky name for another star on this list. It's got everything you need to make a laptop work at this price — strong performance, over 14 hours of battery life, and a comfortable keyboard. The battery life alone is enough to sell me on this machine, as we've seen plenty of budget and premium laptops die before they could get across the 8-hour mark.

The IdeaPad Flex 5 performed well in our lab, but it failed to blow us away. The Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 14 (Intel) averaged a score of 3,841 on Geekbench 5's multicore benchmark. This is above the Chromebook average of 2,253 and is also well ahead of the Lenovo Duet 5 Chromebook (1,727) and Acer Chromebook 713 (1,137). However, the Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook Plus does have far snappier performance.

How was the keyboard so comfortable? Each stroke was met with a tactile click at the end, encouraging our fingers to tap dance across the deck at top speed. It was a little more shallow than we would’ve liked, but the typing experience was pleasant overall.

When we first reviewed the IdeaPad Flex 5 it hovered around $500-$650 depending on the configuration, but you can now find it for under $500 or even $400 for the base model, making it an even better value and easily the best Windows laptop under $500.

However, it might be more difficult to find the Intel version, but if you see the AMD Ryzen 3 model, it’ll likely offer the same benefits just with slightly different performance and battery life. Since we didn’t test it, we can’t say for sure.

See our full Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5 14 review.

Best for students

The best under $500 laptop for students is a Chromebook I wish every student at my school had access to: the Acer Chromebook Spin 312. It'd be a major upgrade from the pre-pandemic Dell's that fill the laptop charging cart in my classroom.

Its silver-coated chassis makes it look more expensive that it actually is. It's not the thinnest laptop we've ever reviewed, but it is one of the lightest at just under 3 pounds. (I wouldn't want to carry anything heavier between classes all day!) The battery can last up to 10 hours and 33 minutes fully charged, too.

A couple small, unique features make this laptop standout; Acer's OceanGlass touchpad is the smoothest I’ve ever felt on a budget laptop — even compared to some expensive Windows laptops. The Corning Gorilla Glass coating on the Spin 312's 12.2-inch display makes colors appear more vivid than what the IPS panel can actually produce.

According to Laptop Mag's tests, it covers only 55% of the DCI-P3 color gamut. But the colors don't look desaturated, and the contrasts are more dramatic, compared to how they would look on an IPS panel with the same color coverage and no coating.

The keyboard isn't the worst I’ve ever tried, even if it does have a strange clicky-squishy feel that makes the thinness of the plastic keycaps really noticeable. But the Spin 312 is a 2-in-1 laptop, so if taking notes by hand is more your style you won't need to worry about that — not until its time to type that essay on George Orwell's 1984, at least.

See our full Acer Chromebook Spin 312 review.

Benchmark comparisons

Recently reviewed

Not every laptop can make the best laptops under $500 page; we review new laptops every week and over 100 laptops yearly. But here's a look at our most recently reviewed laptops that didn't make this page either due to a fault, price, battery life, display brightness, or something else.

How to choose one of the best laptops under $500

To make your shopping process a little easier, we put together some tried-and-true guidelines to help you choose the best laptop for under $500.

Budget: What you get for the money

You can find decent Windows laptops and great Chromebooks for under $500. But pay close attention to the specs — everything from internal hardware to keyboard quality. We thoroughly the good and bad of cheap laptops in our reviews, so you'll know what laptops offer more or less for their price.

If we haven't reviewed it, we recommend typing the laptop's name into your favorite search engine followed by "review." You should find what you need to make an informed decision.

Screen Size: 12 to 14 inches for portability

Screen size can tell you a lot about a laptop's overall portability. 12-, 13-, and 14-inch models are generally the lightest and thinnest, and most $500 and under laptops come in these sizes.

Form factor: Clamshell or convertible?

Clamshell (traditional) laptops often have better features for a lower price, but there are a decent number of convertible laptops with a 360-rotating display (2-in-1s) or detachable keyboard that are just as inexpensive. If you want to use your laptop as a notebook or drawing tablet, either of those forms could work for you!

Just keep in mind that a 2-in-1 in tablet mode will be thicker since the display folds back to meet the bottom of the keyboard — and that also means the keys face outward. Laptops with detachable keyboards don't suffer from the same awkwardness.

Battery Life: 10+ hours

Even a sub-$500 laptop should have enough battery life to last an entire workday before it needs a charge. We recommend buying one with at least 10 hours of battery life, according to our tests.

Specs: What's the best for $500 or less?

If you come across a cheap laptop with 16GB RAM, a 256GB storage drive, and an Intel 13th-gen processor or newer, then you might have found one of the few options out there with the best specs for the price.

What you'll come across more often are sub-$500 laptops with some combination of 8GB RAM, 128GB or less of storage space (the slower, eMMC kind), and a MediaTek Kompanio or Intel N-series processor. You'll get more mileage out of those specs with a Chromebook than with a Windows laptop, though.

FAQs

Q: Are budget laptops worth it?

A: If you don't use a laptop for anything more than checking email, watching videos, or doing homework in Google Docs, there's a good chance you'll be pleasantly surprised by the quality of today's cheap laptops. Some feature snappy processors, clicky keyboards, or colorful displays.

But as Laptop Mag reviews editor, Rami Tabari, points out, not all budget laptops are a great deal. Even on sale. It's crucial to keep the laptop's potential longevity in mind, especially when it comes to battery life.

Q: Are laptops getting cheaper?

A: There are lots of factors that ultimately determine laptop pricing (like tariffs), but the average price of a laptop has stayed relatively the same over the last several years while their overall quality has improved. If or when tariff hikes hit laptops, it's likely they'll be significantly more expensive — and it could become even harder to find a quality laptop under $500.

Q: When are laptops cheapest?

A: Black Friday and Cyber Monday are when you'll usually see the best deals on laptops, but many manufacturers and retailers have great deals throughout the year. (We keep track of the best laptop deals you can get right now, so check 'em out.)

How we test the best laptops under $500

We put each laptop through extensive benchmark testing — both synthetic and real-world — before they end up in the hands of our reviewers. We evaluate each aspect of the laptop, including its performance, battery life, display, speakers, and heat management.

In our benchmark testing, we use a Klein K10 colorimeter to detect the brightness and DCI-P3 color gamut of the laptop's display. For performance testing, we run the laptop through a gauntlet of benchmarks, including Geekbench 5 and 6 and 3DMark professional graphics tests.

To determine real-world performance, we task the laptop to convert a 4K video to 1080p resolution and to duplicate a 4.97GB multimedia file. Our real-world graphics test is the Sid Meier's Civilization 6 Gathering Storm benchmark with medium settings at 1080p resolution.

We also run heat tests by playing a 15-minute full-screen video and measuring temperatures in different areas of the laptop. Last but not least, our battery test consists of continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of brightness. For MacBooks and premium Windows 11 laptops, a runtime of over 9 hours is considered a good result, whereas gaming laptops and workstations that can stay powered for longer than 5 hours deserve praise.

After completing lab tests, each laptop heads to our expert reviewers for in-depth, hands-on evaluation. They spend several days using the laptop in their everyday workflows — writing, editing, video calling, streaming, and more — to get a feel for how it performs in the real world. This combination of technical analysis and lived-in experience helps us deliver a well-rounded, honest perspective on every laptop we review at Laptop Mag.

See this page on How We Test Laptops for more details on our benchmarking procedures.

Why trust Laptop Mag

Laptop Mag reviews over one hundred different laptops every year, from paperweight ultralights to everyday workhorses to lumbering gaming notebooks that scorch the frame rates of even the hottest AAA games. We're not just experts in the laptop field, as we go one step further by meticulously testing smartphones, tablets, headphones, PC accessories, software, and even the latest in gaming.

We are 100% independent and have decades of experience to help you buy with confidence. In fact, Laptop Mag has been testing and reviewing products for three decades, and we continue to deliver trustworthy reviews you can rely on.

Our experienced team of writers and editors scour the available information about the laptop and put it through its paces to determine which is best for you. But before they start, the testing team subjects each system to a rigorous regimen of synthetic and real-world tests to see how a system handles the type of work and games you’re most likely to throw at it.

Our editorial trustworthiness is enforced by one of the world's largest technology publishers, Future Publishing. As a company, we have unrivaled experience across every tech sector — and we're the group's specialist for all things mobile tech.

When I think of the best Dell laptops (and Dell in general), two memories come to mind: the "Dude, you're getting a Dell" commercial from the early 2000s, and my dad's first and only laptop — a 2012 Dell Inspiron.

My nostalgic feelings aside, Dell is a brand that sticks in many people's minds, particularly the iconic XPS series. The company has had a solid reputation since its first laptop was released in 1989, and you'll typically find a Dell among Laptop Mag's lists of best laptops, best budget laptops, best gaming laptops, and laptops with the best battery life. We've reviewed several of Dell's newest releases and expect to review more as 2025 marches on.

An important note: if you're considering buying a new 2025 Dell, I highly recommend reading my handy guide on how to find the right Dell laptop to understand the new product names. Dell laptops now have a naming convention closer to how Apple differentiates its MacBooks (XPS, Inspiron, Precision, and Latitude are no more, unfortunately), but my current recommendations still have those familiar, now-former names. It may also be a good time to find discounts on the old models among the best laptop deals.

Whether you've never owned a Dell or you've used Dell laptops for years and are ready to upgrade, this page is regularly updated with our latest reviews to reflect Laptop Mag’s top picks for 2025.

Update Log

5/30/25: Updated introduction, "recently reviewed," and FAQ sections.

Quick Menu

Best for most people

The Snapdragon-configured Dell Inspiron 14 Plus has many major qualities and features a modern laptop should have: incredible multitasking performance, seemingly endless battery life, a bright display — all packed into a reasonably light and thin chassis. It's a super-likable laptop.

The Inspiron's entry-level Snapdragon X Plus X1P-64-100 processor stands toe to toe (more like shin to knee, really) with higher-end chips from Intel and Apple of its generation. With a Geekbench 6 multicore benchmark score of 13,281, (22% faster than the average premium laptop score of 10,435) it did "well juggling a couple dozen Google Chrome tabs and a handful of YouTube videos," as Rami Tabari, Laptop Mag's editor, said in he review. He also recommends this laptop for remote workers.

It's also 9% faster than the MacBook Air M3 (12,087) and 5% faster than the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H (12,729) inside our pick for best budget Dell budget laptop — also an Inspiron 14 Plus!

The SSD is zippy, too. It can transfer a 25GB multimedia file at 1,510 megabytes per second, about 14% faster than the average laptop in its class (1,311 MBps.) It's 11% faster than the Asus Zenbook S14 (1,236 MBps) and 7% faster compared to one of its Snapdragon competitors, the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x (1,416 MBps).

Battery life and heat management are equally impressive. In our battery rundown test, it lasted a substantial 18 hours and 20 minutes — well beyond the average 13 hours and 23 minutes. I'd be comfortable putting this laptop on my bare skin, too, as it doesn't exceed 88 degrees on the underside.

PlusItsIt's display doesn't produce miracles, though. Covering just 69.1% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, everything on the screen looks drained of color. Some of this laptop's rivals, like the Zenbook 14 and MacBook Air M3, fare much better, 79.8% and 77.8%, respectively — and they're still below the 84.7% average. However, the Inspiron 14 Plus' display can get really bright, up to 470 nits.

See our full Dell Inspiron 14 Plus (7441) review.

Best budget

Even among laptops with Intel's new Lunar Lake chips, its last-gen chips are still nothing to brush off. This Dell Inspiron 14 Plus is a textbook example of why. It has just as much performance (especially for multitasking) and outstanding battery life, but its graphic capabilities are also far more powerful.

It scored 12,729 in the Geekbench 6 multicore benchmark, 9% faster than the average premium laptop (10,435). "The laptop easily kept up with my daily workload and task switching between email, text editing, and Photoshop," Laptop Mag's staff writer, Madeline Ricchiuto, wrote in her review. It's also 6% faster than the MacBook Pro M3 (11,968) and 3% faster than our favorite 2-in-1 laptop, the HP Spectre x360 14 (12,358), with the same chip.

When it comes to its graphics capabilities, this laptop also outshines its rivals, particularly the Snapdragon's Qualcomm Adreno iGPU. On Medium settings at 1080p, its Intel Arc integrated graphics averaged 34 frames per second in the Sid Meier’s Civilization VI: Gathering Storm benchmark. Our playability threshold is 30 fps, so it passed that — but the Snapdragon Inspiron 14 Plus mustered only 21 fps.

That difference is starker in 3DMark’s Fire Strike synthetic graphics benchmark: the Intel Inspiron scored 8082, where the Snapdragon Inspiron scored 5965 — a 27% difference.

This laptop doesn't get as much battery life compared to the Snapdragon Inspiron 14 Plus, but it still gets 15 hour and 6 minutes, a couple hours more than the average premium laptop. It does outlast both the Spectre (11:01) and the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED (15:52), and sneaks past the 15-inch MacBook Air M3 by 3 minutes, too.

Like the Snapdragon model, this laptop's display is dull, covering only 68.4% of the DCI-P3 color gamut. It doesn't get nearly as bright, either, topping out at 367 nits. However, that's on par or better than some of its other rivals, like the Spectre x360 14 (367 nits) and the Zenbook 14 OLED (339 nits).

The Inspiron 14 Plus' heat management isn't great, either, most likely because Intel mobile processors tend to run the hottest out of any Windows laptop chip — its surface warmed up to 108 degrees, well past our comfort threshold.

See our full Dell Inspiron 14 Plus (7440) review.

Best gaming

Budget gaming laptops have been steadily disappearing from the laptop market over the last few years — so when one that packs a ton of performance and costs less than $1,000 falls into our hands, it's a great day at Laptop Mag. Like our editor, Rami Tabari, said in his review: "For its current price of $949, the Dell G16 (7630) is an absolute stunner."

Graphically intensive games like Cyberpunk 2077 achieved 33 frames per second at 1080p on Ultra settings, slightly higher than the Asus TUF Gaming A14 (30 fps) and Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 (32 fps) with the same RTX 4060 graphics card. In Assassin’s Creed Mirage (Ultra, 1080p), the G16 did exceptionally well (88 fps), and remained on par with the A14 and Neo 16.

One feature that surprised us is the quality of its display. Its 2560 x 1600, 240Hz screen is a common feature in gaming laptops — but not the quality of the IPS panel itself. It covers a massive 114% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, soaring past the average budget gaming laptop (79.1%). Even the TUF Gaming A14 (81%) and Predator Helios Neo 16 (92%) fall far behind it.

Unfortunately, its display doesn't get all that bright. At a max 310 nits, its close to the overall average (317), but is much dimmer than the A14 (411 nits) and Neo 16 (370 nits).

But there is one more thing that the G16 has that its closest rivals don't: a Cherry MX tactile mechanical keyboard. Revered for their longevity, travel distance and actuation point, sound, and feel, these switches are more commonly found in desktop gaming keyboards —and there are gaming laptops twice the price of the G16 that don't have them!

Its battery life is decent, too. At 5 hours and 4 minutes, it outlasts the average budget gaming laptop and the Predator Helios Neo 16 by an hour It's no TUF Gaming A14 (10:04), but that laptop's battery life is an exception to the rule.

In that light, the gripes we have with this laptop seem relatively minor compared to the higher-end features it offers. If you already have a gaming headset you can easily avoid the speakers harsh, hallow sounds. And if you already have a gaming mouse, you'll never need to touch the tiny trackpad.

See our full Dell G16 (7630) review.

Best display

The Dell XPS 13 — a long-time Laptop Mag favorite. We've reviewed many configurations over the years, and each stood out for various reasons. Though I'd describe its new, minimalist design with a "touch bar" and "invisible" trackpad among reviewers as a love/hate relationship, we adore the OLED display on this iteration. There are plenty of other great things about the Dell XPS 13. From "solid performance and respectable integrated graphics to impressive battery life and impactful speakers," our staff writer, Madeline Ricchiuto, talks about this in her review.

We wouldn't recommend it for having the best display if it didn't stun us with a kaleidoscope of colors. The panel covers 144.60% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, way beyond this laptop's base, IPS panel (69.9%). Some of its closest competitors, like the 13-inch MacBook Air M3 (77.8%) and Asus Zenbook S 14 (82.0%), aren't on the same wavelength, either.

Though it was not the dimmest OLED display we've tested, we wish it was a bit brighter; an average peak brightness of 377 nits is enough to cut through most lighting glare, though not all of it. It's still brighter than its IPS counterpart (357 nits) and the Zenbook S 14 (342 nits), but the MacBook Air is the brightest out of all of them (476 nits).

Its chassis is as thin and light as ever, with the OLED model at 0.6 inches thick and weighing the same 2.6 pounds as the non-OLED. It's not as slim as the MacBook Air M3 (0.44 inches) or Asus Zenbook S 14 (0.47 ~ 0.51 inches), but it weighs the same amount.

One major sacrifice that comes with the XPS 13 OLED: its tandem display sucks up a lot of power, leaving the laptop with 8 hours and 40 minutes of battery life. That's 5 hours less than the average premium laptop (13:23), and way, way less than the non-OLED's outstanding 18 hours and 43 minutes.

At least you won't have to worry about this laptop's performance. In the Geekbench 6 single-core benchmark, it held its own (2,772) against the Snapdragon Dell XPS 13 (2,797) and Asus Zenbook S 14 (2,751). Paired with Intel's current-gen Arc integrated graphics, this laptop can function as a decent gaming laptop if you casually play games that don't push the graphics too hard.

In the Sid Mieier’s Civilization VI: Gathering Storm (1080p, Medium) benchmark, it averaged 53 fps — behind what the Asus Zenbook S 16 with an AMD Ryzen AI 9 chip can do (63 fps) but beyond the Snapdragon XPS 13 (22 fps), which didn't meet our minimum 30 fps playability threshold.

See our full Dell XPS 13 OLED (9350) review.

Best battery life

Having endured years of bartering with college classmates and random coffee shop patrons for a seat next to a wall outlet, long battery life is one of my must-have features in a laptop. It could have a horrible display but over 15 hours of battery life, and I'll still look at it like, "Yeah, but that battery life!" That's the Dell XPS 13 (9345) in a nutshell.

It had phenomenal battery life before we updated the BIOS during our testing, increasing it from 19 hours and 1 minute to 20 hours and 51 minutes. That's way beyond the average premium laptop average (13:23) and the MacBook Air M3 (15:13), Asus Zenbook S14 (13:51), and HP Spectre x360 14 (11:01) with an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H chip.

That also puts this laptop in the same league as the MacBook Pro 16 M4 Pro (20:46) and Lenovo ThinkBook 16 Gen 7 (21:02) — and none of them are direct competitors!

As a heavy multitasker, performance also matters a lot to me. I need my laptop to handle dozens of open browser tabs while Slack and Discord run in the foreground and Spotify loops through my favorite songs. This laptop's Snapdragon X Elite X1E-80-100 processor has some of the best multicore processing power to handle all that.

In the Geekbench 6 overall performance benchmark it scored 14,635, making it 29% faster than the average premium laptop (10,492). It's also 8% faster than the MacBook Air M3 (12,087), 14% faster than the Zenbook S14 (11,157), and 6% faster than the Spectre x360 14 (12,358).

Remember what I said about a horrible display? This XPS 13s' is a let-down. It covers just 66.9% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, which is 20% lower than the average premium laptop (86.8%) — and duller than its MacBook Air M3 (77.8%), Zenbook S14 (82.0%), and Spectre x360 (85.8%) rivals.

When our editor, Rami Tabari, watched the Borderlands trailer during his testing process, he noticed the "entire horizon beyond the crew was washed out due to the terrible contrast" and "deep orange-colored canyons were reduced to a pale yellow devoid of life."

But at least the display is bright! Its max 456 nits comes close to the average premium laptop (467 nits), and it's just a tad dimmer than the MacBook Air M3 (476 nits). It literally outshines both the Zenbook S 14 (342 nits) and Spectre x360 (366 nits), too.

See our full Dell XPS 13 (9345) review.

Benchmark comparisons

Recently reviewed

Not every laptop can make the best Dell laptops page. (We wouldn't be doing you that much good if that were the case!) We review new laptops every week and over 100 laptops yearly, so here's a look at our most recently reviewed laptops that didn't make this page either due to a fault, battery life, performance, price, or something else.

How to find the right Dell laptop

In January of 2025, Dell announced name changes impacting its entire lineup. We've already reviewed several models with the new names (with more to come), so we put together a table to help anyone shopping for a new Dell laptop understand how the old model names translate to the new ones.

It's important to note that while the names are changing, the basic product lines remain the same, and in most cases, the designs are unchanged for 2025.

The most affordable Dell laptops were the Inspiron and Inspiron Plus lines, starting for well under $1,000. In 2025, those will just be known as Dell and Dell Plus. If you are looking for an affordable laptop that can handle basic web browsing, productivity tasks, and entertainment, these laptops are typically a perfect fit.

The premium consumer laptop line was XPS, and it is now Dell Premium. These laptops go head-to-head with the best MacBooks and fall into similar pricing, starting just below $1,000 and ranging above $3,000 for the top configurations. These laptops are for people who want a more premium fit and finish to the laptop or those with more robust needs, whether that's more performance for massive multitasking or tasks like photo editing or video editing.

Those are Dell's consumer laptops. Now, we move into the business and workstation-class laptops, where things get a little more complicated with multiple tiers, but you also can see the benefit of Dell's new naming.

Dell's business laptops were known as Latitude. Starting at just above $500 and ranging up to around $2,500 for the top configurations, these catered to businesses of almost any size. Going forward, these are the Dell Pro models with three tiers: Dell Pro, Dell Pro Plus, and Dell Pro Premium. Performance and quality improve as you move up the line, so finding the best business laptop for you is just a matter of your budget.

Finally, we have the Dell Precision lineup, which are Dell's workstations, now known as Dell Pro Max. Again, there are three tiers to this lineup: Dell Pro Max, Dell Pro Max Plus, and Dell Pro Max Premium. Now, the names start to feel a little long, but it remains very simple to understand. You can spend as little as around $1,300 for the Dell Pro Max, and it scales up to $4,000 for a high-end Dell Pro Max Premium. The best workstations are designed for people with intensive performance needs, such as rendering 3D graphics, simulations, 4K or 8K video, etc.

FAQs

Q: Are Dell laptops good for gaming?

A: While Alienware is the dedicated gaming laptop brand that is a part of Dell, some Dell laptops cater to gamers. The Dell G16 (7630) is one of our selections for the best gaming laptops and the best cheap gaming laptops. If you are wondering if a specific Dell laptop is good for gaming, check out our review. We have a dedicated section on gaming in every review we publish.

Q: Do Dell laptops come with Microsoft Office?

A: No. You may receive a trial of Microsoft Office software through Microsoft 365, but the software is not free with a new Dell laptop.

Q: Are Dell laptops good for students?

A: It depends! Some Dell laptops are certainly candidates to be the best student laptops; it just depends on your course of study and budget. Most bachelor of arts students would likely be happy with an Inspiron or Inspiron Plus (Dell, Dell Plus) laptop. Students with more intensive needs, such as those in engineering, programming, or even film, should consider the XPS (Dell Premium) or even the Precision (Dell Pro Max).

Q: Where are Dell laptops are manufactured?

A: Dell manufactures its laptops in various cities across Europe, the Americas, and Asia-Pacific region. Its US-based facility is located in Austin, Texas, where the company was originally founded in 1984.

Its Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Chengdu (China) and Limerick, Ireland facilities are arguably the company's most important hubs for manufacturing and distributing laptops and other computing devices outside of the United States.

How we test laptops

We put each laptop through extensive benchmark testing — both synthetic and real-world — before they end up in the hands of our reviewers. We evaluate each aspect of the laptop, including its performance, battery life, display, speakers, and heat management.

In our benchmark testing, we use a Klein K10 colorimeter to detect the brightness and DCI-P3 color gamut of the laptop's display. For performance testing, we run the laptop through a gauntlet of benchmarks, including Geekbench 6 and 3DMark professional graphics tests.

To determine real-world performance, we convert a 4K video to 1080p resolution and duplicate a 25GB file. Our real-world graphics test is Cid Meier's Civilization V: Gathering Storm benchmark at 1080p resolution and Medium graphics. We also run heat tests by playing a 15-minute full-screen video and measuring temperatures in different areas of the laptop. For gaming laptops, we test Red Dead Redemption 2, Assassin's Creed Mirage, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Borderlands 3, Far Cry 6, and others.

For our battery test, we continuously web surfing over WiFi at 150 nits of brightness. For Windows 11 laptops, a runtime of over 10 hours is considered a good result, whereas gaming laptops and workstations that can stay powered longer than 5 hours deserve praise.

Following these tests, the laptop is given to our expert reviewers for extensive hands-on testing. Our reviewers will spend days using the laptop as part of their typical workflow to get a sense of the real-world performance and live with the laptop to come away with a thorough understanding of the hardware and software experience. This blended lab testing and hands-on approach allows us to offer you a clear and comprehensive view of every laptop that comes through Laptop Mag.

See this page on How We Test Laptops for more details on our benchmarking procedures.

Why trust Laptop Mag

Laptop Mag reviews over a hundred different laptops every year, from paperweight ultralights to everyday workhorses to lumbering gaming notebooks that scorch the frame rates of even the hottest AAA games. We're not just experts in the laptop field, as we go one step further by meticulously testing smartphones, tablets, headphones, PC accessories, software, and even the latest in gaming.

We are 100% independent and have decades of experience to help you buy with confidence. In fact, Laptop Mag has been testing and reviewing products for three decades, and we continue to deliver trustworthy reviews you can rely on.

Our experienced team of writers and editors scour the available information about the laptop and put it through its paces to determine which is best for you. But before they start, the testing team subjects each system to a rigorous regimen of synthetic and real-world tests to see how a system handles the type of work and games you’re most likely to throw at it.

Our editorial trustworthiness is enforced by one of the world's largest technology publishers, Future Publishing. As a company, we have unrivaled experience across every tech sector — and we're the group's specialist for all things mobile tech.

Unless you plan on conducting all of your virtual meetings at arm's length or from the end of a selfie stick, an excellent webcam is a home office essential nowadays — and a must-have accessory for your setup if you plan to stream or create content online.

While practically every laptop offers a built-in webcam, OEMs rarely deliver an impressive camera as standard. Sure, the 16-inch MacBook Pro M4 Pro's 12MP Center Stage camera proves there are exceptions. However, generally speaking, your default webcam likely isn't cutting it.

If you're tired of falling back on your grainy, dimly lit, and low-resolution stock webcam, then it's time to invest in an external webcam to look and sound your best with sharper, richer audio and visual flair.

From an affordable all-rounder like the Logitech HD Webcam C920, perfect for meetings and video calls, to the advanced flexibility of the Insta360 Link 2, ideal for content creation or hosting presentations, our roundup of the best webcams offers some genuinely fantastic options for laptops and desktop computers alike.

The quick list

Best overall

The $60 Logitech HD Webcam C920 was an easy favorite. Images we took with the 1080p camera were sharp, color-accurate, and crystal clear. The C920's 78-degree field of view could comfortably fit two people in the frame for a teleconference. The software with the C920 lets you implement filters, adjust the angle, use the webcam as a security camera, and take photos to save to your hard drive.

This is by far the best webcam out there, and there’s no way any reasonable person could return to the terrible webcams attached to a standard laptop. The Logitech HD Webcam C920 smashes the competition, and once you try it, you’ll unlikely regret it. Additionally, it’s excellent value. $60 for a webcam isn’t a steep price for a future of crisp and clear images.

See our Logitech HD Webcam C920 review.

Best premium webcam

While the webcam that tops our list is a great option suitable for everyday use, the Insta360 Link 2 goes above and beyond, cramming an impressive amount of features and configurability into its typical $199 price tag.

The most stand-out feature is the Link 2's unique dual-axis gimbal design, which allows the 4K webcam to turn and tilt, ensuring you're framed and in focus at all times with its AI tracking, even while moving.

It's ideal for content creation and presenting at a high standard, with the camera also able to snap focus and crop the image to capture whiteboards, or spin down to DeskView for more technical or hands-on demonstrations.

Thanks to an improved 1/2-inch sensor, the Link 2 works excellently in low-light conditions, but when paired with the right lighting setup, you'll capture richly detailed and crisp images that are comparable to DSLR alternatives.

See our full Insta360 Link 2 review.

Best travel webcam

Sure, your laptop's webcam is probably terrible, most are, but are you going to bring a big external webcam with you everywhere? As a remote worker, I've faced this decision many times, and I virtually never take one with me and make do with subpar image quality. The Opal Tadpole webcam is finally the solution to this issue that so frequent travelers have been waiting for.

The Opal Tadpole will remind you of the old clip-on iPod Shuffle, and it is as dead simple to use as the Shuffle, too, with plug-and-play using the built-in USB-C cable. Opal Camera sells a $25 "yoyo" travel case that can fully secure the Tadpole, but its cable can also be used to loop it on your bag. It's so tiny you will never notice it in your bag, but you'll be thrilled you have it when you see the crisp, clear image on your video call instead of the noisy, garbled mess of your built-in webcam.

If you don't ever travel, then by all means, go with another option on this list, like the Insta360 Link webcam above. Thanks to a larger sensor, you'll get more features and a better overall image, but when it comes to a travel-friendly go-anywhere webcam with quality that will blow your laptop webcam away, the Opal Tadpole is it.

See our full Opal Tadpole review

Best midrange webcam

Anker’s PowerConf C200 2k webcam is stylish, sturdy, and affordable ($69.99). It also has a physical shutter to keep the creeps out. What’s wonderfully disturbing about this Anker webcam is that it is on par with or superior to many of the far pricier webcams I have reviewed in the past two years.

The Anker PowerConf C200 is a bargain that delivers high-quality images and video for a fraction of the cost of many other webcams and conference cams. For $69.99, you get a webcam that provides crisp, color-accurate images in normal and low-light conditions with super-fast autofocus.

See our full Anker PowerConf C200 review

Best 4K webcam

If you're looking to prioritize a quality 4K image, the Logitech MX Brio 4K is the way to go. It'll cost you $200, but if you're willing to dish out the extra money, it's a level up from the more affordable options thanks to its 8.5MP Sony STARVIS CMOS sensor.

Not only will this yield a better image in good lighting, but if you don't always have perfect control of your lighting, it will hold up better than the competition in less-than-ideal lighting conditions.

While Logitech's AI tracking is not bad, we would still recommend something like the Insta360 Link 2 if tracking movement or more dynamic content is a high priority for you. The built-in mic could also be better, but it's a definite improvement over your laptop mic, and its 4K resolution offers incredibly sharp images that can track your face, body, whiteboards, and even your desk.

See our full Logitech MX Brio 4K webcam review.

Feature comparisons

Recent reviews

Not every webcam we review makes it to this list, but that's not to say they aren't worth looking into. While some of the following webcams may not be the best in their category, that's not to say they aren't fantastic options.

How to find the right webcam

Regardless of the specs, the most important focus (pardon the pun) for a webcam is the crispness of its image and video quality. Combine this with the product's price, and you have an essential checklist of webcam priorities. However, there are a few other things to consider.

Perhaps you want your webcam to be as portable as possible. The Opal Tadpole would be a perfect choice for that purpose. If you need something high-end with excellent features like a noise-canceling microphone and AI Tracking, the Insta360 Link is a great pick.

Alternatively, you might desire cheap and high-quality, so the Logitech HD Webcam C920 (~$60) could be worth it for those needing a solid camera on a budget. Don't mind spending up? You can invest in a Logitech Brio 4K Pro Webcam for around $200. Although expensive, its incredible image quality could more than compensate for it if you're interested in professional streaming.

FAQs

What webcam features do you need to look for?

If you're using your webcam for video calls, virtual presentations, or live streams, the key features will be resolution and frame rate. The higher the resolution, the better the image quality. Regarding frame rate, while 60 fps is ideal at max resolution, a 30 fps 4K webcam is more than adequate for most video calls and streams.

If you use your webcam in dimly lit spaces or while moving around, you may want to look for advanced features like HDR and AI face tracking.

What webcams are best for streaming?

While many of the top Twitch and YouTube content creators use mirrorless cameras for their streams, any of our top Webcams will work fine for casual streams. Unless you plan to make your reaction feed the highlight of your stream, you just need a decent FHD (1920 x 1080p) webcam for most streaming purposes.

How to set up a webcam?

Every webcam is different, but generally speaking, you'll connect it to your laptop or desktop and then make sure your operating system recognizes it. You may need to update or download drivers or specialized software to get the most out of your webcam's range of features.

Why trust Laptop Mag?

Laptop Mag reviews over one hundred different laptops every year, from paperweight ultralights to everyday workhorses to lumbering gaming notebooks that scorch the frame rates of even the hottest AAA games. We're not just experts in the laptop field, as we go one step further by meticulously testing smartphones, tablets, headphones, webcams, PC accessories, software, and even the latest in gaming. And yes, webcams, too!

We are 100% independent and have decades of experience to help you buy with confidence. In fact, Laptop Mag has been testing and reviewing products for three decades, and we continue to deliver trustworthy reviews you can rely on.

Our experienced team of writers and editors scour the available information about the laptop and put it through its paces to determine which is best for you. But before they start, the testing team subjects each system to a rigorous regimen of synthetic and real-world tests to see how a system handles the type of work and games you’re most likely to throw at it.

Our editorial trustworthiness is enforced by one of the world's largest technology publishers, Future Publishing. As a company, we have unrivaled experience across every tech sector — and we're the group's specialist for all things mobile tech.

The best gaming laptops in 2025 usher in a new generation of GPUs, led by Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 50 series. While we haven’t tested every model yet, some early standouts with these powerful GPUs are starting to join our top picks — alongside excellent RTX 40 series laptops that still deliver incredible performance.

Every laptop on this list runs the latest AAA games like a dream. Your budget will determine just how good those games look, but I’ll help you find a machine that plays your favorites smoothly and reliably.

I’ve reviewed laptops for Laptop Mag for over seven years, including more than 90 gaming laptops. I can spot the pros and cons of a gaming rig within hours, and after a week of hands-on time, I can confidently tell you if I'd buy it myself.

Of course, my expertise is just one part of the process. To find the best laptops, we put each one through a gauntlet of performance, graphics, display, and battery life benchmarks. Some games are poorly optimized (looking at you, Monster Hunter Wilds), while others are just brutal (Cyberpunk 2077), but the best laptops survive both.

After testing, the laptops spend real time with our reviewers—gaming, working, and everything in between. Lab scores matter, but how a laptop feels in daily use is just as important. We evaluate everything from the thermals and keyboard to the software and webcam.

If you're shopping for the best gaming laptops in any category — budget, premium, or somewhere in between — this is the list to trust. If you're looking for the cheapest RTX 50-series gaming laptops, you won't have to wait long, since the RTX 5060 and RTX 5050 might be launching soon.

Update Log

6/4/25: Added another entry: Alienware 16 Area-51 as the best looking gaming laptop.

The Quick List

The best gaming laptops of 2025

Each gaming laptop on this list has been painstakingly tested and received the hands-on time necessary to review it. You can rest assured that any choice you make will equip you to run the games you love the most.

Best overall

Looking for the best? The MSI Raider 18 HX AI with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 with 16GB VRAM is the answer. It not only supports epic performance but also a bright MiniLED display, a pleasant keyboard experience, and some bangin' audio.

Madeline Ricchiuto writes, "For a premium desktop replacement laptop like the Raider, the miniLED panel is more than just a utility feature; it’s a key selling point," in our review of the MSI Raider 18 HX AI.

Ready to watch an RTX 5080 do some work? Bouncing across rooftops in Assassin's Creed: Mirage (Ultra, 1080p), the Raider scored 153 fps, defeating the Razer Blade 16 (120 fps) and the Gigabyte Aorus Master 16 (145 fps). The Raider 18 spread chaos across Night City in Cyberpunk 2077 (Ultra, 1080p) at 64 fps, defeating the Aorus (62 fps) and falling shortly behind the Razer (66 fps).

Jumping in with an 18-inch, 4K, 120Hz, MiniLED display, the MSI Raider 18 HX AI covered 83.1% of the DCI-P3 color gamut and averaged 668 nits of brightness. That's some decent color and a hell of a lot of brightness. You'll have the best chance of survival when suffering poor lighting conditions in video games.

The full-size keyboard is bouncy. And thanks to the Raider's well-spaced keys on a large deck, typing is an overall pleasant experience. "Your fingers won’t bottom out while frantically typing directions in your raid chat."

It's no secret that gaming laptops get hot as the nine layers of hell (yes, this is a D&D reference). Despite its very loud fans, the Raider still outputs spicy levels of heat (so maybe avoid putting this in your lap).

Then there's the short battery life, coming in at a measly 2 hours and 33 minutes. Not to mention that the Raider costs more than most people's rent.

However, the MSI Raider 18 HX AI is a beast of a gaming laptop that shines in the era of Nvidia's new RTX 50-series GPUs.

See our full MSI Raider 18 HX AI review.

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Best budget

I haven't been able to champion a budget gaming laptop in quite some time. At the risk of sounding like an old man, they just don't make them the way they used to... until now. Let me introduce you to the Dell G16 (7630), a sub-$1,000 gaming laptop with $2K+ gaming features.

Rami Tabari writes, "If I wanted to jump into battle with my friends on a budget, this is the gaming laptop I’d take with me," in our review of the Dell G16 (7630).

The Dell G16 (7630)'s Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 8GB GPU puts in the strong effort you'd expect. Navigating Night City in Cyberpunk 2077 (Ultra, 1080p) was a breeze, with the G16 averaging 33 fps. That surpassed the Asus TUF Gaming A14 (30 fps) and Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 (32 fps) while just coming short of the Lenovo Legion Pro 5 (37 fps), which is natural due to its RTX 4070 GPU. The G16 then took a leap of faith in Assassin’s Creed Mirage (Ultra, 1080p) at 88 fps, matching the Helios Neo 16 (88 fps) and sliding past the TUF Gaming A14 (87 fps), but lagged behind the Legion Pro 5 (103 fps).

One of the premium features I'd mentioned is its 16-inch, 2560 x 1600, 240Hz display. First, its specs are high-quality but so are its benchmarks. It covered a stunning 114% of the DCI-P3 color gamut. While it is dim, at 310 nits of brightness, that's a problem solved by turning off the lights (I apologize to your eyes in advance).

Then there's the keyboard. There are $2K+ premium gaming laptops that don't even support a keyboard this good, our best overall gaming laptop included. The Dell G16 (7630) features a Cherry MX tactile mechanical keyboard. You won't find these punchy, clicky keys in any other budget gaming laptop.

The battery life is even decent. The Dell G16 (7630) clocked in 5 hours and 4 minutes on the Laptop Mag battery test. It's no TUF Gaming A14 (10:04), but its battery life outlasts the average budget gaming laptop by a whole hour.

This budget gaming laptop does come with caveats. There's the hollow, harsh speakers, which basically force you to buy a discrete gaming headset. Then there's the tiny touchpad. I mean, any gamer was going to use a gaming mouse anyway, but it makes general use frustrating.

Despite that, I wouldn't buy any other gaming laptop under $1,000.

See our full Dell G16 (7630) review.

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Best 40-series

The Lenovo Legion Pro 7i (Gen 9) ushered in the previous age of gaming laptops with its powerful Intel Core i9-14900HX processor and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 GPU with 12GB of VRAM. That performance isn't the only head-turning feature. Its vivid display, loud audio, and satisfying keyboard wrap this beauty in a bow.

Madeline Ricchiuto writes, "The Lenovo Legion Pro 7i is a gamer’s gaming laptop," in our review of the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i (Gen 9).

Let's start with performance. The Lenovo Legion Pro 7i averaged 105 frames per second on the Far Cry 6 (Ultra, 1080p) benchmark, keeping pace with the MSI Vector 16 HX (98 fps) while dominating the Alienware X16 R2 (88 fps) and its last-gen model (97 fps). The Legion and its competitors landed in similar positions on the Red Dead Redemption 2 (Medium, 1080p) benchmark, with the Pro 7i at 96 fps, the Vector 16 at 104 fps, the X16 R2 at 90 fps, and the Gen 8 at 69 fps.

Then there's the display. A gorgeous 16-inch, 2560 x 1600, 240Hz panel clocking in 108.7% of the DCI-P3 color gamut and 456 nits of brightness. Translation: it's vivid and vibrant enough to immerse you in your favorite games.

With widely spaced keys and an actuation force that feels crisp and springy, the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i's keyboard puts off the notion that you need a mechanical keyboard to get serious gaming done.

Same goes for sporting a gaming headset (outside of playing games online, of course), as the Legion Pro 7i supports the Harman Super Linear Speaker System. That equates to two woofers and two tweeters, which are supported by a smart amp. If you want big, immersive sound, this is it.

Unfortunately, the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i is on the heavier side for a gaming laptop. And the battery life falls short, at 4 hours and 29 minutes. Even for a gaming laptop, we expect more.

But overall, the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i is the champ of the RTX 40-series era.

See our full Lenovo Legion Pro 7i (Gen 9) review.

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Best lightweight

Razer is the Apple of gaming laptops, offering premium thin-and-light machines through its Razer Blade series, and the Razer Blade 16 now leads the charge with Nvidia's latest RTX 50-series GPUs. Spending over $4,000, even for a top-tier gaming laptop, is a tall order, but for that proverbial arm and a leg, you get an absolute powerhouse that shrugs off almost everything you can throw at it.

Madeline Ricchiuto writes, "The Blade 16 is a fantastic laptop, offering a gorgeous OLED display, impactful audio, over 7 hours of web surfing battery life, a bouncy keyboard, and plenty of ports while weighing just 4.6 pounds," in our review of the Razer Blade 16 (2025).

The Blade's Nvidia RTX 5090 with 24GB of VRAM cut through frame rates like a hot knife through butter, smoothly and immensely satisfying. It crushed most of its competitors in the battle for frame rates. On the Red Dead Redemption II benchmark, the Blade nailed 87 fps. With the RTX 4090 GPU, the previous Razer (61 fps) was no match. Meanwhile, the Alienware x16 R2's RTX 4080 GPU got only 44 fps.

The notebook breezed through our overall performance tests with its AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 CPU and 32GB of RAM. Its 2TB SSD configuration posted a blistering 1,730 megabytes per second in our file transfer test. However, it gets so hot it may singe a finger.

It even supports strong battery life, surviving 7 hours and 22 minutes on our battery test. That's unprecedented for a gaming laptop with a max-tier GPU. It even survived 2 hours and 28 minutes on the PCMark 10 gaming test. Again, this may not be the longest battery life, but it's hella impressive and adds to its portability quality.

Are you ready to hear about this monster's gorgeous 16-inch, 2560 x 1600 OLED display clocked in at 240Hz? This baby has a decent 372 nits of brightness and covers an intense 144.6% of the DCI-P3 color gamut. You will experience a level of immersion to rival a mini-LED display (and I don't say that lightly).

There's not much we can do about the price or heat, but if you stay tuned to our best gaming laptop deals, you might see the Razer Blade for a discounted price (eventually).

See our full Razer Blade 16 (2025) review.

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Best looking

Alienware rocked some slick designs in the past, but the Alienware 16 Area-51 is on another level. It's also among the new wave of Alienware gaming laptops to feature the latest RTX 50-series GPU. And it's also much cheaper than the $4K+ competition we've seen pop up. You can get the Alienware 16 Area-51 for around $3K depending on the deal.

Rami Tabari writes, "This thing looks like it’s about to blast the thrusters and head to outer space."

The best part about its spaceship aesthetic is the light bar on the hinge. It straight up looks like an aurora borealis. The curves and vents give off the thrusters vibe. And there's RGB lighting practically everywhere, including the touchpad and fans. There's also a glass window on the underside where you can get a look at the internals. Will you be seeing it much? No. Is it cool? Yes. The only issue with the design is one that comes with its power, and that's a 7.13-pound chassis.

The Area-51 pops off with the new Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 16GB GPU, sending even RTX 5090 gaming laptops quaking in their proverbial boots. It jumped to 149 fps in Assassin's Creed Mirage, flying past the HP Omen Max (137 fps, RTX 5090), Razer Blade 16 (120 fps, RTX 5090), and Aorus Master 16 (145 fps, RTX 5080). Then in scored 121 fps in Far Cry 6, surpassing the Omen (109 fps), Blade (97 fps), and Aorus (120 fps).

With an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX processor and 32GB of RAM, the Alienware 16 Area-51 also dominated its competition in overall performance. It's the only gaming laptop that broke the 20K bracket in Geekbench 6. Not by much, as the Omen Max (19,822) was nipping at its heels. Its 1TB SSD did make it over a 1-GBps transfer speed, but it wasn't nearly as fast as the Blade (1,730 MBps).

Now, the Area-51's 16-inch, 2560 x 1600, 240Hz, LED display is super bright, at 516 nits, but it's no where near as colorful as an OLED display. For comparison, it covered 81.6% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, whereas the Razer Blade's OLED display covered 144.6%. That's nearly double.

Also, since this is such a monster, you're not getting the best battery life, as it scored only 4 hours and 10 minutes. Around 5 hours is about average for modern day gaming laptops, so we hoped for something a little better. But when gaming you can nearly squeeze in 2 hours of play time (1:50). Although, I don't see why you'd ever have this immovable object unplugged.

The Area-51 is a great price already, but you can stay tuned to our best gaming laptop deals to see if it gets a deeper sale.

See our full Alienware 16 Area-51 review.

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Best battery life

I haven't seen a gaming laptop with double-digit battery life in years. The Asus TUF Gaming A14 is rocking an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 and it still hit 10 hours and 4 minutes on our battery test. The average time for gaming laptops is still around 5 hours, much to my own disappointment. However, with the TUF Gaming A14, you can go about your day normally until you get a break to plug in and game.

Claire Tabari writes, "The TUF Gaming A14 is a sturdy, lightweight miracle designed to withstand accidental drops and extreme conditions," in our review of the Asus TUF Gaming A14.

Loaded up with AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPU, the Asus TUF Gaming A14 tore through our benchmarks. It clocked in most titles at or over 60 fps, like Assassin's Creed Mirage (87 fps), Far Cry 6 (77 fps), and Red Dead Redemption 2 (61 fps). And despite how chunky Cyberpunk 2077 can be, it managed 30 fps, achieving the minimum for playability.

Again, shockingly, its display didn't hinder its battery life. Its 14-inch, 2560 x 1600, IPS, 165Hz panel performed quite well for the price, covering 82% of the DCI-P3 color gamut and averaging 411 nits of brightness. (I don't want to hear excuses again, manufacturers). With an RTX 4060 GPU, you can still experience immersive play thanks to this stunning display.

All that battery and performance is packed into a light and thin chassis. I'd argue the numbers were wrong if we didn't review it ourselves. The TUF A14 measures 3.2 pounds and 12.24 x 8.94 x 0.67~0.78 inches. Between its size and battery life, it makes for the optimal gaming laptop to be used on the go.

Despite that, we recommend using a gaming mouse most of the time, as the touchpad experience was less than ideal. It's The sluggish, offering too much resistance when in use.

Regardless, the Asus TUF Gaming A14 the champion of battery life in gaming laptops. We even included it in our laptops with best battery life ranking. And if you're wondering what the best gaming laptop for coding/programing would be, this is likely it due to its long battery life. It would also be the best gaming laptop for work for the same reason.

See our full Asus TUF Gaming A14 review.

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Benchmark comparisons

Recently reviewed

We deliberately make our best gaming laptops list short so you don't suffer from indecision. However, if you like having all of your options open to you, we have quite a few gaming laptops that we've also tested. Get ready to go swimming.

These can range from excellent to subpar, but each has its own pros and cons. Here's our list.

How to find the right gaming laptop

When shopping for a gaming laptop, there's a lot to consider. We wrote a detailed piece about the nine most important factors for buying a gaming laptop. But to simplify the process of choosing a system, here are seven key points to keep in mind.

Budget: How we split cost categories

Money is getting tight. There was a time when you could find a good gaming laptop for under $1,000, but those are few and far between. If you're looking for a quality gaming laptop and are trying to budget yourself, try aiming for at least $1,300. If you have a larger budget, you can push for a more powerful mainstream gaming laptop, which is often priced between $1,500 and $2,000.

Premium systems typically cost more than $2,000 and come stacked with many high-powered goodies such as high-powered specs and tricked-out software. Remember that the bigger the GPU, the bigger the gaps in price points. So, list the games you play and start checking the PC requirements. Almost any gaming laptop with a 40-series GPU can play an indie game, but if you're dabbling in AAA titles, you have to decide which settings you're comfortable playing on.

Screen Size: 14 and 16 inches are the go-to

You'll rarely find a 13-inch gaming laptop nowadays, and 15.6-inch laptops have taken a backseat to the hyped-up 14-inch and 16-inch laptops. Those 17-inch gaming laptops also feel like a thing of the past. Well, now we have 18-inch gaming laptops. Yeah, they're beasts, but what all these sizes have in common is that they're getting more compact.

If you're looking for a gaming laptop to take on the go and even use as a school or work laptop, 14-inch gaming laptops are the perfect fit. Smaller gaming laptops also tend to have longer battery life as well. 16-inch gaming laptops are more manageable in size than 17 or 18-inch machines without sacrificing any power. But if you're looking for true desktop replacements, you'll probably want to go all out with a larger size. They tend to be the most powerful but require you to always be near an outlet.

Screen Resolution: 1080p (high refresh rates), 4K (detail), 1440p (sweet spot)

Regarding gaming laptop displays, you want to balance frame rates and aesthetics. And if you're planning to get a truly mobile system, battery life also deserves consideration. A 1080p resolution is the bare minimum you'll find, which isn't great unless you're trading resolution for a high refresh rate. Panel makers now serve up screens with a 360Hz refresh rate and a three-millisecond response time. But I don't count out 4K screens yet, as many laptops with 4K displays are clocked at 120Hz. Remember that laptops with lower resolutions tend to have longer battery life overall.

Are you looking for a sweet spot between the two? More and more gaming laptops are shipping with 1440p displays, which provide high refresh rates and a sharp panel. This strikes an outstanding balance between the two without charging a premium price.

Refresh rate: 120Hz is a minimum

Depending on the kind of games you're playing, particularly first-person shooters and MOBAs, you'll take anything that enhances accuracy. Surprisingly, the higher a display's refresh rate is, the more accurate your shot becomes. We've experienced this firsthand during many demos. At this point, 60Hz is unacceptable for a gaming laptop, so we recommend investing in a panel with at least a 120Hz refresh rate.

You also have to balance graphics performance with resolution and refresh rate. Sometimes, a laptop is paired with a low-performing GPU and a high resolution and refresh rate. The math doesn't add up. If your gaming laptop cannot take advantage of the sharp screen or high refresh rate, then what's the point? Make sure you check the benchmarks.

Intel or AMD?

A couple of years ago, the answer to this question would have been undoubtedly Intel. However, AMD has made a furious comeback with its new Ryzen CPUs, which deliver outstanding overall performance and battery life. Thanks to the new Ryzen chips architecture, they're super power efficient without sacrificing productivity. The Ryzen 8000 series CPUs have consistently impressed with its performance versus battery life.

Not to be outdone, Intel's latest Lunar Lake and Arrow Lake chips are nothing to sneeze at. These powerful chips are catching up with AMD in their battery life game.

Gaming laptops have been balancing performance with battery life, changing the use case for these rigs for the better.

Battery Life: At least 5.5 hours

Unless it's plugged in, a gaming laptop's battery life tends to be very short, especially when gaming. However, the battery life of gaming laptops has increased over the years. So much so that anything under 5.5 hours is considered below average. We've reviewed several gaming laptops that last a whole workday and jump into the double digits. With results like that, we expect gaming laptops will match their non-gaming counterparts sooner rather than later. Our most recent power-efficient gaming laptop is right on this page (Asus TUF Gaming A14), lasting over 10 hours.

Specs: 1080p / Core i5 / 16GB are a minimum

You can spend a lot of time delving into specs, but here are the key components. If you want decent mainstream performance, go for a Core i5 CPU, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and a 1080p screen.

FAQs

Do I really need an RTX 4070 / RTX 4080 / RTX 4090?

That entirely depends on what you're looking to get out of a gaming laptop. If you just want to game, period, then you can get away with an RTX 4060 gaming laptop. It's a powerful GPU, and thanks to its 8GB of VRAM, there's no AAA game you cannot play on the lowest settings. But as you may have seen with our testing, an RTX 4060 can get you 60+ fps in select AAA games on Ultra, 1080p settings.

Now, the good and bad of gaming laptops nowadays is that they don't often feature 1080p displays anymore, so you're never really making full use of those panels. Meanwhile, an RTX 4070 could carry you to reliable frame rates at higher resolutions. It can also make use of high refresh rates and low resolutions.

Then there's the RTX 4080 and RTX 4090 GPUs, which elevate both aspects to their extremes. If you want to game in 4K at Ultra settings at high fps, these are the GPUs you need.

Should I get an RTX 50-series gaming laptop instead?

Great question! Yes and no. If you want the latest and greatest in tech, and want to experience all those slick new DLSS 4 features, then RTX 50-series gaming laptops are right for you.

Yes, RTX 50-series gaming laptops are stronger and better than some of the laptops currently on this list thanks to DLSS 4. However, the laptops on this list will eventually drop in price because of their siblings jumping into existence. These gaming laptops are amazing, so if you want to save money and get an excellent rig, be on the lookout for those best gaming laptop deals.

Gaming laptop vs. desktop

I wrote a whole article about the gaming laptop vs. gaming PC debate, which will give you a more in-depth explanation. However, in brief, it entirely depends on your circumstances.

Gaming desktops are cheaper and more powerful, while gaming laptops are more portable and offer everything you need in one clean package.

I prefer a gaming desktop experience, but that's because I have a dedicated desk and I am not traveling anywhere. However, it is nice to cuddle up in my bed with a gaming laptop at two in the morning.

Can I use a gaming laptop for school or work?

A gaming laptop can definitely work for school, the option we recommend in our best student laptops guide is the Asus TUF Gaming A14, which is the best battery life pick on this page. It lasted over 10 hours in our testing, an important feature for most students and the Achilles' heel for most gaming laptops. It's also not too heavy at 3.2 pounds, so you won't regret hauling it around campus if you're in college.

Whether a gaming laptop is right for your work is going to depend on a lot of factors. In all likelihood, it will be able to handle whatever your workload might be, but whether it is the right look for your work could differ. The Asus TUF Gaming A14 is again a potential candidate for the reasons above that make it a good student pick. Additionally, once you remove the stickers and turn off the RGB lighting on the keyboard, it's a fairly minimalist design that doesn't scream gaming laptop as you set it down at a meeting room table. However, depending on whether you regularly meet with clients or are in a very professional work setting, one of the best business laptops may be the better choice.

How we test gaming laptops

When we bring a laptop into our lab, we aim to see how it would work if you brought it into your home or office. While we use industry-standard benchmarks such as Geekbench and 3DMark, we focus heavily on real-world tests that we have developed in-house.

To test endurance, the Laptop Mag Battery test surfs the web at 150 nits of brightness until the system runs out of juice. We use a giant spreadsheet macro that matches 65,000 names with their addresses to judge pure processing power, a video transcoder that converts a 4K video to 1080p, and the Geekbench 5/6 synthetic test.

We ramp up our 3DMark testing to also include Fire Strike Ultra and Time Spy Extreme, which determine how well the laptop copes with DX11 and DX12 4K graphics workloads. If the laptop is equipped with a graphics card that supports DirectX ray-tracing, we also use the 2560 x 1440 Port Royal test. (We don’t bother with Night Raid here—who cares about integrated graphics on a gaming laptop?) For the best-equipped laptops on the market, we may also run Speed Way, which plies the deepest and most demanding features of DX12 Ultimate.

We run all of the gaming benchmarks in full-screen mode with vertical sync disabled, always at least at 1920 x 1080 (1080p) resolution, as well as the laptop's native resolution. Games include: Red Dead Redemption 2, Assassin's Creed Mirage, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Borderlands 3, Far Cry 6, and more.

When we're testing gaming laptops with the same GPU, sometimes there are only a handful of frames that decide a victory. Now, we're not saying you should pick your gaming laptop based on a couple of fps. However, there are some gaming laptops with the same GPU that perform much worse than others, so be sure to see our testing.

We use a colorimeter to measure screen brightness and color gamut, while other instruments help us determine a laptop's key travel and ambient heat.

Following these tests, the laptop is given to our expert reviewers for extensive hands-on testing. Our reviewers will spend days using the laptop as part of their typical workflow to get a sense of the real-world performance and live with the laptop to come away with a thorough understanding of the hardware and software experience. This blended lab testing and hands-on approach allows us to offer you a clear and comprehensive view of every laptop that comes through Laptop Mag.

See this page on How We Test Laptops for more details on our benchmarking procedures.

Why Trust Laptop Mag

Laptop Mag has been testing and reviewing laptops for over two decades. We test over 150 different models per year, subjecting each system to a series of rigorous benchmarks that provides a complete picture of performance, battery life and usability.

Our expert reviewers also use each product to see how it looks and feels in everyday situations. Because we see so many different notebooks, we can compare each to its direct competitors and give you an idea of how it stacks up to the average laptop in its price band.

The best laptops with CD-DVD drives — it's one of the hottest search topics around. While I'm exaggerating a bit there, it's true that many people just like you are searching for these laptops in 2025. Unfortunately, there are no brand-new mainstream laptops with CD-DVD drives, but I have scoured the internet to find the best options available for you to purchase today, and I have one alternative suggestion for you as well.

I highly recommend checking out the best external DVD drives rather than purchasing a laptop with a built-in drive. If you need a new laptop, buy one of the best laptops and pair it with an external drive instead.

Yes, I know it's convenient to have a built-in CD-DVD drive — especially if you want to access medical scans or physical media that isn't available digitally. However, these laptops are far older than we typically recommend, and you are giving up considerable performance and battery life, to name just a couple of critical features.

They are tough to find, but if you must have a laptop with a built-in CD-DVD drive, I'm here to help you. Here are the best laptops with CD-DVD drives available today.

The Quick List

The best laptops with CD/DVD drives in 2026

Best overall

The Dell Inspiron 15 5000 offers the best balance of specs and price you can find on a laptop with a CD/DVD drive. You may have to hunt for it, but if you are determined to track down a laptop with a built-in disk drive, this one will be the best value for your money. You can find it as low as $300 with an Intel Core i5 CPU, 8GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage. There is also a version with an Intel Core i7 CPU for around $500.

This laptop isn't without its flaws, though, especially compared to newer laptops. The 1TB of storage is on an HDD, which is a much slower type of storage than the SSDs modern laptops use. There is a version available with an SSD, but it only includes 256GB of storage, much less than most modern mainstream laptops. Additionally, the Core i5 or Core i7 processors available for this laptop may have once been fairly powerful but now pale in comparison to more recent chips.

So, you will be sacrificing processing power and speed, but if a built-in disk drive is a must-have, start your search with the Dell Inspiron 15 5000.

Read our full Dell Inspiron 15 5000 review.

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Best budget

If you're looking for a decent laptop with a CD drive that won't break the bank, the Lenovo ThinkPad E570 is an excellent choice. One of the best qualities of this laptop is that it's equipped with a wide variety of ports for all your peripheral needs.

It includes an Intel Core i3 CPU, 8GB of RAM, and 240GB of storage. It's important to note that these specs are far lower than what you would get on a modern laptop. While you can find this laptop for around $300, you'll be compromising power and storage. The Lenovo ThinkPad E570 will likely only be able to run basic, lightweight applications and won't have much space for storing files and photos due to its limited specs.

Of course, those drawbacks could be worth it for some users. With the Lenovo ThinkPad E570, you'll have a comfortable keyboard, a decent variety of ports, and a CD-DVD drive (that's rare today) — all for a low price.

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Best performance

HP knows that sometimes professionals need optical drives, too, so it still offers the premium-grade ZBook 17 G5.

The ZBook 17 G5 isn't just a plain old laptop with a CD-DVD drive, either: it's got a Blu-ray CD-DVD drive, even rarer than regular optical drives. This system also features military-grade durability and the blistering speed of an Intel Xeon processor. It includes 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD, offering much faster storage than the HDDs more often seen in laptops with CD/DVD drives.

Be warned, though, this 17-inch laptop weighs a hefty 7.05 pounds, so it might not be ideal for carrying around on a daily basis. It is also quite pricey given the aging specs it includes. You can find it for around $1000 to $1200. You can get a much more powerful laptop for that price today. However, the HP ZBook 17 G5 is still an option if a built-in optical drive is a must-have.

Read our full HP ZBook 17 G5 review.

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FAQs

Q: Do they still make laptops with built-in CD/DVD drives?
A: No, there are no traditional consumer laptops still in production with built-in CD/DVD drives in 2025.

Q: Should I buy a laptop with a built-in CD/DVD drive or an external drive?
A: At Laptop Mag, we want to ensure you get the best laptop possible for your money. That's why, in this case, we highly recommend you choose a laptop from our guide to the best laptops of the year, along with one of the best external CD/DVD drives, instead of one of the older laptops above.

While there are still a few laptops with built-in disk drives available, unless there is a highly specific reason that you require the CD/DVD drive to be built-in, these laptops include outdated specs that make them a poor overall value.

Choosing a modern laptop will maximize the value of your money since it will continue to function well for much longer than these outdated laptops with built-in disk drives. An external drive can even give you better image quality from your DVDs and Blu-Ray disks compared to the drives found in these older laptops!

If portability is a concern, there are external disk drives that are slim and lightweight enough to bring along to work with ease. Here are a few top-rated external disk drives to consider from our best external CD/DVD drives page.

External DVD drives

Why Trust Laptop Mag

Laptop Mag reviews over one hundred different laptops every year, from paperweight ultralights to everyday workhorses to lumbering gaming notebooks that scorch the frame rates of even the hottest AAA games. We're not just experts in the laptop field, as we go one step further by meticulously testing smartphones, tablets, headphones, PC accessories, software, and even the latest in gaming.

We are 100 percent independent and have decades of experience to help you buy with confidence. In fact, Laptop Mag has been testing and reviewing products for three decades and continues to deliver trustworthy reviews you can rely on.

Our experienced team of writers and editors scour the available information about the laptop and put it through its paces to determine which is best for you. But before they start, the testing team subjects each system to a rigorous regimen of synthetic and real-world tests to see how a system handles the type of work and games you’re most likely to throw at it.

One of the world's largest technology publishers, Future Publishing, enforces our editorial trustworthiness. As a company, we have unrivaled experience across every tech sector — and we're the group's specialist for all things mobile tech.

The best Chromebooks in 2025 are far more capable laptops than the basic machines that debuted in June of 2011. They started as simple, cheap laptops focusing on security and ease of use, but many have become some of the best laptops to buy. Competitively priced compared to the best Windows laptops and best MacBooks, it's now easy to find a Chromebook with an elegant, thin, and lightweight design and features like OLED displays.

Chromebooks boast a simple, user-friendly interface that integrates with the Google ecosystem, making them a solid choice for many people. Google announced the Chromebook Plus line in October 2023, which offers increased CPU performance from more powerful Intel chips from Intel's 13th Generation up through the Intel Core 100 series.

They also include several of Google's AI features, as well as the new Gemini AI assistant. Chromebook Plus devices receive additional features and access to the Advanced version of Gemini.

Whether you're looking for a budget-friendly Chromebook, a powerful Plus Series model, or even a Chromebook for gaming, we've got you covered. Keep reading to find the best Chromebook for you.

This page is regularly updated with our latest reviews to reflect Laptop Mag’s top picks for 2025.

Update Log

6/17/25: Added Acer Chromebook Spin 312 as best student Chromebook. Updated the following sections: recently reviewed, benchmark comparisons, intro, FAQs, and how to choose.

The Quick List

Best Overall

The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus is a premium Chromebook Plus built with Google's Gemini AI in mind. With an Intel Core 3 100U 14th gen processor, Intel integrated graphics, 8GB of memory, 256GB of SSD storage, and a 15.6-inch FHD AMOLED display, the Galaxy Chromebook Plus has plenty to recommend.

James Pero writes in our review, "While Samsung's Galaxy Chromebook Plus isn't the first premium Chromebook, it's probably the best."

While not the most powerful Chromebook ever, the Galaxy Book still has enough computing power to get the most out of the ChromeOS suite and Google Gemini AI. The Intel Core 3 100U CPU on the Galaxy Book can get more raw CPU power than most Chrome apps will ever need.

The gorgeous 15.6-inch AMOLED display is another high point for the Galaxy Chromebook. Measuring 108.5% on the DCI-P3 color gamut, the Galaxy Chromebook has a nicer display than some premium Windows laptops. With 377 nits of average peak brightness, you don't have to worry about screen glare on the glossy AMOLED panel, either.

The Galaxy Chromebook Plus also offers full-day battery life, lasting 11 hours and 12 minutes on the Laptop Mag web surfing battery test.

While $699 is a bit pricey for a Chromebook, the Galaxy Chromebook Plus earns its premium rating thanks to an unbeatable combination of performance, battery life, display quality, and portability.

See our full Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus review.

Best for students

The Acer Chromebook Spin 312 is a stand-out example of how much Chromebooks have improved in the last several years. From its design and portability to over 10 hours of battery life, it might be hard to believe this one costs just $450 — but it does, making this device one of the most well-rounded, budget-friendly Chromebooks for students.

With a silver colorway, a black keyboard, and a lightweight chassis, it also resembles a Windows laptop, but with a far better trackpad compared to most. It's the smoothest I’ve ever felt on a budget laptop. Its keyboard quality is slightly reminiscent of yesteryear's Chromebooks, with a clicky-squishy feel that highlights the thinness of the plastic keycaps. "It's a bit like gently pressing into Jello," as I wrote in my review, but it’s not the worst keyboard I’ve ever tried.

The IPS display produces vivid and clear images, likely due to its Corning Gorilla Glass coating, despite the low color gamut coverage Laptop Mag’s tests revealed. However, you'll definitely need to watch horror movies in the dark (as they are meant to be watched). The coating makes the IPS display more reflective than average, and the Spin 312’s max display brightness of 277 nits isn’t always enough to prevent bright ambient lighting from completely washing out dimly lit scenes.

For students who like or want to experiment with ChromeOS, its ample 128GB of storage space is enough to run Linux and then some. However, this laptop comes with only 8GB of RAM. That’s fine for a light workload (a dozen or fewer open browser tabs and one or two applications), but a minimum of 16GB is ideal for any laptop, especially if you are a heavy multitasker.

See our full Acer Chromebook Spin 312 review.

Best for kids

The Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9 offers high portability, solid battery life, slick stylus controls, an ultralight chassis, high-quality 5MP and 8MP cameras, and dependable performance all at an incredibly affordable price point. The Chromebook Duet 11 features a MediaTek Kompanio 838 processor, 4GB of memory, 128GB of SSD storage, and a 10.9-inch WUXGA (1920 x 1200) IPS touchscreen display.

"Chromebooks haven’t ever been my favorite laptops or tablets, as I’m exactly the type of person who needs the full application support of a Windows or macOS system. However, the Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9 may have changed my mind," Madeline Ricchiuto wrote in her review.

Because it features a lower-spec, MediaTek Kompanio processor, the Chromebook Duet lags behind other Chromebooks on CPU performance. However, it's a well-optimized machine that can keep up with multiple Chrome apps running at once.

The Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9 does have a quality display, covering 83% of the DCI-P3 color gamut. And the panel is bright, measuring 402 nits of average peak brightness.

The Duet 11 is a small tablet Chromebook, which makes its battery life even more impressive. The Duet 11 lasted 9 hours and 48 minutes on the Laptop Mag web surfing battery test.

Because of its affordable $359 starting price and solid touchscreen controls, the Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9 is a fantastic option if you need a tablet for your kids. It offers enough performance to run multiple applications and has the battery life to keep up with a busy schedule of school and playtime.

See our full Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11 Gen 9 review.

Best keyboard

The Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714 is one of the more powerful Chromebooks on this list, featuring an Intel Core Ultra 5 115U processor, 8GB of memory, a 256GB SSD, and a 14-inch WUXGA (1,920 x 1,200) IPS display. However, the true star of this laptop is the keyboard, with a satisfying and smooth typing experience.

Stevie Bonifield noted in our review, "The Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714 keyboard is very satisfying to type on, but it has its quirks... The typing experience on the Spin 714 is smooth and comfortable. On the Monkeytype typing test, I scored 92 wpm with 97 percent accuracy, higher than my desktop average of 84 wpm and 94.35 accuracy."

The Intel Core Ultra 5 115U processor on the Spin 714 offers strong performance, making the Spin 714 one of the most powerful Chromebooks. The 14-inch IPS display is also on the nicer side, measuring 78.7% for DCI-P3 color gamut coverage with an average peak brightness of 355 nits.

The Spin 714 is no slouch for longevity either, offering all-day battery life. The Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714 lasted 9 hours and 30 minutes on the Laptop Mag web surfing battery test.

Combined with the slick display and satisfying keyboard, the Spin 714 is nearly the whole package.

See our full Acer Chromebook Plus Spin 714 review.

Best for gaming

Gamers might scoff at Chromebooks, but for cloud gaming services like GeForce Now, the Acer Chromebook 516 GE can offer decent gaming performance and gaming style at a much lower price than your average gaming laptop.

The Acer Chromebook 516 GE features a powerful Intel Core i5-1240P processor, Intel Iris Xe graphics, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD, and a 16-inch 120Hz WQXGA (2560 x 1600) IPS display. So it can handle gaming and schoolwork without blowing your budget.

With an Intel Core i5 12th gen processor, the Chromebook 516 GE offers plenty of powerful performance to handle your day-to-day needs. Even with 8GB of RAM, "You shouldn’t find yourself dealing with any frustrating slowdowns — even if you drown it in tabs," as Kimberly Gedeon wrote in our review. But if you can afford to upgrade to the 16GB model, we recommend it.

The Chromebook 516 GE's 16-inch display is a solid choice, and measures 75.8% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, which is better than some Chromebooks on this list. It also hits a respectable 346 nits of average peak brightness to cut through glare so you don't need to worry about missing a shot in your next FPS match due to screen glare.

The one drawback to this gaming Chromebook is its battery life, as the Chromebook 516 GE lasted just 7 hours and 40 minutes on the Laptop Mag battery test.

While you can technically use cloud gaming services on any laptop or Chromebook, the Acer Chromebook 516 GE offers a 120Hz display for those who pay for the most expensive GeForce Now membership tier. So, it remains our best choice for gaming on a Chromebook.

Read our Acer Chromebook 516 GE review.

Benchmark comparisons

Recent reviews

We review dozens of laptops and Chromebooks annually, and while some simply don't have what it takes to make our buying guides, they're still strong options that came up short for one reason or another. Here are some of our most recently reviewed laptops that didn't make the cut for "Best Chromebooks", but could still be solid machines.

How to choose the best Chromebook for you

Finding the perfect Chromebook isn't a one-size-fits-all situation. Students, businesses, and schools all have different needs.

Students

For students who rely heavily on Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides, prioritizing a Chromebook with a long-lasting battery and a comfortable keyboard is crucial.

If you're a student who wants a gaming laptop that can also function as a great laptop for class (without spending a ton of money) there Chromebooks specfically designed for gaming in the cloud.

Professionals or businesses

Professionals or businesses seeking Chromebooks for their employees should focus on models with strong performance and features that make managing them easier, ensuring a smooth workflow.

Security is also important — Enterprise-edition Chromebooks have extra IT deployment features like real-time threat and data protection, endpoint security, and support integration with 3rd-party software like CrowdStrike.

Schools

If you're a school looking to equip students with Chromebooks, durability, affordability, and features that support a dynamic classroom environment should be top priorities.

You won't have to buy a bunch of expensive, business-focused Chromebooks to get the security you need, either. Education Chromebooks also support many of the same security features as business Chromebooks (via Google Workspace for Education), and won't display ads in core services like Drive, Classroom and Gmail.

FAQs

Q: Who are Chromebooks for?

A: Overall, the best way to tell if someone will enjoy owning a Chromebook is if you know they already spend most of their time in the Chrome browser. Those users will take to the notebook naturally.

If you're buying this Chromebook for someone else, you should take a few moments to consider how they're going to use the device. Chromebooks are especially good for younger students, as they are easy to use and are fairly secure. It's also quite easy to update your Chromebook manually, assuming you don't want to enable automatic updates.

Q: How well does a Chromebook perform?

A: Chromebooks are lightweight devices, meaning it doesn't take a lot of CPU performance to run ChromeOS. So, Chromebooks often feature lower-spec processors. Many perform better at lower specs than low-budget Windows laptops, too.

They also generally have less storage space, since many ChromeOS applications run in the cloud. This means more free space for your laptop and speedier performance.

If you don't need the full Windows or macOS experience to run all your favorite applications, there's no reason not to opt for a Chromebook.

Q: How are Chromebooks for offline use?

A: Chromebooks are designed to rely heavily on the Internet, which means that many apps simply won't work if you're out of Wi-Fi range. But there are more than 200 Chrome apps that can work without internet connectivity, including Gmail, Google Drive, and tons of Android apps like PlayerFM and Here WeGo.

Q: Can I use Android apps?

A: Yes! Most modern Chromebooks now have access to the Play Store. (If you're unsure if your Chromebook supports Android apps, check out this list.)

However, there are some caveats: many Android apps run via an emulator and may or may not run well. Also, not all apps are optimized for a larger screen (they were built for mobile-first), so you might encounter some scaling issues, especially with mobile games. (Check out our guide to the best Chromebook games for specific gaming app recommendations.)

There are often formatting issues when importing third-party documents into Drive, too. Fortunately, Google Drive allows you to save documents in Microsoft formats, so you'll still be able to share files with non-Chromebook users through Microsoft Word or other programs — though it may be best to stick with the Office Android apps or Office Online if you're bringing a lot of files over to your Chromebook.

Q: Do Chromebooks have good battery life?

A: Chromebooks are known for their impressive battery life. Our in-house Laptop Mag web surfing battery test shows that most Chromebooks can last an average of 10 hours on a single charge. This means you can comfortably power through a workday or school day without hunting for an outlet. This makes Chromebooks a great choice for those long stretches in class or meetings.

Q: Are Chromebooks secure?

A: Chromebooks are a great fit for businesses and institutions prioritizing security because their design makes them more resistant to malware, offering built-in protection for employees and students. Some Chromebooks go the extra mile with biometric authentication features like fingerprint scanners, adding another layer of security for sensitive data.

For businesses, the added security and IT deployment features of Chrome Enterprise can make Chromebooks a solid choice for kitting out an office. While enhanced features do require a subscription, Chrome Enterprise is available for free, which can make it a good solution for small businesses.

Q: Can you game on a Chromebook?

A: Chromebooks have access to Steam and can stream games from services like Nvidia GeForce Now. ChromeOS also works with some Android apps, but not every Android game will be available on a Chromebook. But for a game streaming device, Chromebooks work well as an affordable gaming option.

If you want to game without signing up for a streaming service, you may be better off with a gaming handheld or a dedicated gaming laptop.

Q: Are Chromebooks durable?

A: Similar to business notebooks made to survive drops and other minor disasters, Chromebooks are built to withstand falls, scrapes, and similar punishment.

We put the durability of top Chromebooks to the test by dropping 11 different models from heights of 2.5 feet and 4 feet, then scoring them on a scale of 0 to 10 based on how much damage was sustained. You can read our full report here.

How we test the best Chromebooks

We benchmark Chromebooks as thoroughly as we do any laptop, using synthetic and real-world benchmarks before they end up in the hands of our reviewers. We evaluate each aspect of the Chromebook, including its performance, battery life, display, speakers, keyboard, and heat management.

We rely on tests like Geekbench 6, JetStream 2, WebXPRT 4, and CrXPRT 2 to determine a Chromebook's CPU and web performance. We also test Chromebook displays using a Klein K10-A colorimeter to detect the brightness and DCI-P3 color gamut coverage.

We test heat management by playing a 15-minute full-screen video and measuring temperatures in different areas of the laptop. Last but not least, our battery test consists of continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of brightness. For premium MacBooks and Windows 11 laptops, a runtime of over 10 hours is considered a good result whereas dedicated workstations that can stay powered for longer than 5 hours deserve praise.

For more information on our testing process, check out our How We Test Laptops page for all the nitty-gritty details.

Why Trust Laptop Mag

Laptop Mag reviews over one hundred different laptops every year, from paperweight ultralights to everyday workhorses to lumbering gaming notebooks that scorch the frame rates of even the hottest AAA games. We're not just experts in the laptop field, as we go one step further by meticulously testing smartphones, tablets, headphones, PC accessories, software, and even the latest in gaming.

We are 100% independent and have decades of experience to help you buy with confidence. In fact, Laptop Mag has been testing and reviewing products for three decades, and we continue to deliver trustworthy reviews you can rely on.

Our experienced team of writers and editors scour the available information about the laptop and put it through its paces to determine which is best for you. But before they start, the testing team subjects each system to a rigorous regimen of synthetic and real-world tests to see how a system handles the type of work and games you’re most likely to throw at it.

Our editorial trustworthiness is enforced by one of the world's largest technology publishers, Future Publishing. As a company, we have unrivaled experience across every tech sector — and we're the group's specialist for all things mobile tech.

A lot of what makes the best laptops for Adobe Photoshop also makes the best laptops for video editing: a well-balanced combination of performance, battery life, and a bright and vivid display. Whether you're just learning the ins and outs of editing photos or can wield the lasso tool like a scalpel in the hand of a surgeon, there's no shortage of great options, whatever your skill level.

Laptops with Nvidia's RTX 50-series GPUs are now available for creators with demanding Photoshop needs, as well as all Intel's Core Ultra 200-series and AMD's Max Pro series of processors. Professional editors can benefit from the added performance of a discrete graphics card by enabling Photoshop's hardware acceleration features, which helps power through demanding tasks faster.

A high-resolution OLED display is also something to consider. You'll not only get to enjoy the rich hues and deep contrasts OLEDs are famous for, but some of them also have wide color gamut coverage — wide enough to find colors in between colors.

For beginners or anyone looking to save money, any laptop with last-gen hardware will still provide more than performance to move Photoshop edits along quickly. Even ones without a discrete graphics card. Check out our best laptop deals for the best discounts at various price points.

This page is regularly updated with our latest reviews to reflect Laptop Mag’s top picks for 2025.

Update Log

6/6/25: Updated intro, benchmark comparisons, recently reviewed, and FAQs; added the HP ZBook Ultra 14 G1a as the best workstation and the Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition as the best 2-in-1.

The Quick List

Best Overall

There's little not to love about the Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 9. It features a gorgeous display, powerful processor, solid discrete graphics, and enough memory and storage for creators of all skill levels. It even comes with decent battery life and a comfortable, bouncy keyboard.

Rami Tabari said in our review, "I love a display with a little kick. The Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i’s 16-inch, 3200 x 2000, 165Hz panel is gorgeous. It’s reasonably bright and offers a vivid wave of color."

The Yoga Pro 9i covers 105.7% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, which is well above the premium laptop average (91.2%). Its display is far better than similar laptops like the HP Spectre x360 16 (87.1%), Dell XPS 14 OLED (79.9%), and Apple MacBook Air (77.8%).

The Yoga Pro's powerful combination of an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H processor and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 graphics card provide enough power for even the most demanding projects. The Yoga Pro 9i also lasted a respectable 9 hours and 51 minutes on the Laptop Mag battery test, which is far more than many similarly packaged laptops.

The Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 9 base model costs just $1,482 for an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. The fully specced $2,043 version provides an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H processor with an RTX 4060 GPU and a 16-inch, 3.2K, Mini-LED display. Our preferred middle-of-the-road spec costs just $1,784.

See our full Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 9 review.

Best under $1,000

The Asus Zenbook 14 OLED (Q425) is a laptop that can do just about anything. It continuously amazes us how budget-friendly this absolute powerhouse is. With its power performance, solid graphics, and almost 16 hours of battery life, we have good reason to love the Zenbook 14 OLED as much as we do.

In my review, I note that "the display panel on the Zenbook 14 OLED (Q425M) looks incredible. The new trailer for Chris Pine's The Poolman showed crisp, vibrant colors, particularly in the scenes shot outdoors in LA during what appears to be a Lunar New Year celebration."

Starting at just $799, this laptop has a powerful Intel Core Ultra 5 135H processor with 8GB of DDR5 memory, 512GB of SSD storage, and a 14-inch FHD OLED panel. But if you can flex your budget just a bit more to the higher-end spec, at just $1,049, you get an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor with 16GB of DDR5 memory and 1TB of SSD storage.

The Zenbook 14 OLED's display could be brighter and more vibrant, but with a DCI-P3 rating of 79.8%, it is comparable to most other laptops in its category, such as the Apple MacBook Air 13 M3 (77.8%) and the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED UX3405M (81.7%).

But the Zenbook 14 OLED is more than its display panel. Surviving a shocking 15 hours and 52 minutes on the Laptop Mag battery test, it is one of the longest-lasting Intel laptops we've seen this year. Considering how budget-friendly this laptop is and how well it handles Photoshop, you can't go wrong with it.

See our full Asus Zenbook 14 OLED (Q425M) review.

Best under $1,500

The Acer Swift X 14 is a powerful, budget-friendly option for Photoshop users who need more 3D rendering capacity. The base model starts at just $1,099. The mid-range model combines a powerful Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor with a workhorse Nvidia RTX 4050 GPU, plus 16 GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD. It retails for just $1,299. This mid-range model offers similar performance at a lower cost without sacrificing the display.

In my review, I observe that "the glossy CineCrystal OLED display on the Acer Swift X 14 looks fantastic to the human eye. The colors are bright and vivid, though the display panel does suffer from glare, especially with overhead office lighting."

However, if you'd like more memory, storage, and a more powerful GPU, our preferred Swift X 14 configuration is available for just $1,699. It includes an Nvidia RTX 4070, 32GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage.

Acer rates the CineCrystal display on the Swift X 14 to 100% coverage on the DCI-P3 format. Our lab display test measures OLED panels a bit differently, so our testing indicated that the Swift X 14 covered 79.6% of the DCI-P3 color gamut. The Apple MacBook Pro 16 M4 Pro (81.4%) and HP Spectre x360 14 (85.8%) outperformed the Swift X 14 in our lab testing, but the Swift X 14's display looked incredible to the eye. In addition, the Swift X 14 offers a powerful Nvidia RTX 4050 to 4070 GPU, making it a better fit for more in-depth Photoshop work.

Based on the Laptop Mag battery test, the Swift X 14 with an RTX 4070 GPU can last for 7 hours and 33 minutes while surfing the web at 150 nits of brightness. While that isn't the best battery life for a laptop on this list, it's not bad for a laptop packing a discrete GPU and OLED display panel.

See our full Acer Swift X 14 review.

Best 2-in-1

Like some of the other Laptop Mag writers, I'm picky when it comes to convertible laptops — so it's a great day when a highly-rated review of one comes across my desk, and I get to give it a buying guide superlative. The Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition is without a doubt a laptop that deserves to be on this list.

This laptop's headlining feature is the display, a 14-inch OLED that's "far superior and even more colorful than most premium laptops overall," as Laptop Mag reviews editor Rami Tabari notes in his review. Covering 149.2% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, it produces vivid and richly saturated, drool-worthy colors. The display averages a maximum of 421 nits of brightness, higher than you'd see on many competing OLED laptops —all major reasons why this Yoga 9i 2-in-1 is also our current pick for the best touchscreen laptop with an OLED display.

When it comes to performance, this laptop takes a leisurely approach to finishing demanding tasks. Compared to the other laptops on this list, it was the slowest to convert a 4K video file to 1080p. Photoshop users may experience some lag when batch-processing dozens of images with numerous layers or working with filters and brush tools.

But if you're not a graphic designer or photographer who uses a lot of advanced features in Photoshop, the Yoga 9i 2-in-1 has a lot of other things going for it: a stellar and responsive keyboard; speakers that can actually handle a baseline; nearly 13 hours of battery life; and it weighs just under 3 pounds. (Other 2-in-1s are much more brick-like.) Also, I would feel comfortable putting it on my bare lap. At its hottest point, this laptop didn't reach 88.3 degrees, well below our 95-degree comfort threshold.

See our full Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition review.

Best MacBook

For Apple users and design enthusiasts, the 2024 MacBook Pro 16-inch with M4 Pro CPU reigns supreme for photo editing. While pricey (starting at $2,499), it offers powerful performance and a seamless experience within the Apple ecosystem. Opting for a 1TB SSD and 32GB RAM configuration delivers ample storage and smooth Photoshop performance, making it a compelling choice for creative professionals though upgrading the memory and storage capacity can get pricey.

Reviewer Sean Riley observes, "The 16-inch MacBook Pro M4 Pro is more laptop than most people need, but that likely won't stop you from wanting one, and after a week with it, I can't blame you."

With any configuration of the M4 chip, you’ll get a brilliant 14-core Apple M4 Pro CPU, a 20-core Apple GPU with a 16-core Neural Engine, and a gorgeous 16.2-inch 3456 x 2234 Liquid Retina XDR display. Our lab benchmarking rated the 16-inch Liquid Retina panel as covering 81.4% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, which is high for laptops on this list. The MacBook Pro also scored well on the brightness test, with an average of 565 nits, much brighter than the category average of 391.

The 16-inch MacBook Pro (2024) is a smart choice for Photoshop because of its beautiful, bright display and powerfully smooth internal specs. However, there’s another crucial spec to consider: battery life. MacBooks are known for having excellent battery life, which is a fantastic feature for those wanting to use Photoshop on the go. The 16-inch MacBook Pro lasted an amazing 20 hours and 46 minutes on the Laptop Mag battery test, significantly longer than its workstation laptop competitors.

See our full Apple MacBook Pro 16 M4 Pro review.

Best Workstation

At CES 2025, we were so blown away by the HP ZBook Ultra 14 G1a that we gave it our best laptop award — and after reviewing it, we're still blown away by it. At 0.71-inches thick and weighing 3.4 pounds, it could easily be mistaken for a productivity laptop. However, with the driving force of an AMD Ryzen AI Max+ Pro 395 chip, it's anything but.

The great news for Windows users is that it comes "very close to eclipsing the MacBook Pro" in terms of portability and raw CPU power, as Laptop Mag staff writer Madeline Ricchiuto candidly mentions in her review. In some of our real-world testing, it's evenly matched; the ZBook converted a 4K video to 1080p 4 seconds faster than the MacBook Pro 16 M4 Pro in our Handbrake transcoding test.

It's OLED display comes in an extremely close second to the Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition, covering 139% of the DCI-P3 color gamut. (Many OLED laptop displays don't break 100%!) Its max brightness in on par with other competitors, maxing out at an average 368 nits — but if you're searching for the perfect shade of Pantone-like purple, this could be the workstation you've been looking for.

Being as powerful as they are, Windows workstations usually come with a battery life caveat, and with a run time of 6 hours and 46 minutes, this ZBook is no exception. To be fair, that's typical for a workstation, but it's a key area where this laptop doesn't eclipse the MacBook Pro, as well as other creator-focused laptops like the Asus ProArt PX13.

Ultimately, the ZBook's price tag is where most potential buyers could draw the line. The model we reviewed costs an enormous $4,049, but the base configuration starts at a substantial $2,599. If you're not loyal to a specific operating system, that amount of money can get you a MacBook Pro M4 Pro with better battery life — but it's hard to ignore that the HP ZBook Ultra 14 G1a is a marvelous laptop for any creative work.

See our full HP ZBook Ultra 14 G1a review.

Benchmark Comparisons

Recent reviews

We review more than 100 laptops annually, and while some simply don't have what it takes to make our buying guides, others are still strong options that came up short for one reason or another. Here are some of our most recently reviewed laptops that didn't make the cut for "Best laptops for Photoshop" but could still be solid machines for your photo editing needs.

How to choose a laptop for Photoshop

CPU: You want a high-performance processor like an Intel Core Ultra 7 or 9, an AMD Ryzen 7 or 9, or an Apple M4 chipset to handle complex filters, large photo files, and multiple project layers.

GPU: For heavy-duty tasks like intricate filters, 3D effects, or AI generation, you may want to consider a laptop with a discrete graphics card like an Nvidia RTX or AMD Radeon RX card.

RAM: You need at least 16GB of memory, but depending on your budget, Photoshop users will certainly benefit from 32 or 64GB of RAM. I'd stress the latter in particular isn't something you need to consider unless money is no object or you are doing this professionally and every second counts.

Storage: 512 GB is the minimum I'd consider if I'm doing a lot of photo work, though splurging for 1TB or more is a good idea. Unlike the CPU, GPU, and RAM, you can always turn to external storage, so if your budget requires you to save somewhere, this is the place to do it. However, I'd still stress that you want 512GB at a minimum to handle at least one project at a time without turning to an external drive.

Display: You want to be picky about the display since photo editing is a visual medium. You'll want a crisp, high-resolution panel in the QHD to 4K range with accurate color reproduction. For the best combination of brightness and vibrancy, we recommend opting for an IPS, OLED, or Apple Liquid Retina XDR display to ensure a high level of color fidelity.

If you're looking to set up a full photo studio workstation and didn't select a laptop with the best display, you could also upgrade with one of our picks for the best monitors or best portable monitors for on-the-go editing.

FAQs

Q: What minimum specs do I need for Photoshop?

A: Lower than you might think! As of October 2024, the minimum system requirements for Adobe Photoshop running on Windows 11 are: an Intel or AMD processor with AVX2 and SSE 4.2 or higher support, or a WinARM processor; 8GB of RAM; 256GB total SSD storage space; and a graphics card that's newer than 7 years with at least 1.5GB of video RAM, and supports DirectX 12; and a 1080p monitor.

All that applies if you have a Mac, except the graphics card, but you'll want to make sure you have macOS v12 or higher.

If you a faster laptop to run Photoshop, we recommend at least: an Intel 13th-gen Core i7 processor or newer, an AMD Ryzen 7 7000 series or newer, or Apple Silicon M2 or newer; at least 16GB of RAM; 512GB or more of total SSD storage space (PCIe Gen 4 or newer); an Nvidia RTX 2050 or newer graphics card with at least 4GB of VRAM; and a 1080p display or higher.

Mac users should be running macOS Sonoma or newer.

Q: Is a laptop that's good for Photoshop also good for video editing?

A: Most laptops that are good for Photoshop will also work for video editing, but you'll also want to be aware of the audio quality of a laptop when choosing a video editing machine. So not all the laptops on this list will be ideal for editing video or audio files.

Video editing can often demand more RAM and GPU resources than photo editing, so you may want to opt for a laptop with a discrete GPU if video editing is going to be a large part of your workflow.

Q: Why don't we recommend a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite laptop for Photoshop?

A: On the hardware-side, a Snapdragon X Elite laptop is an excellent machine for running editing programs like Photoshop — but few native Windows on Arm versions of Adobe programs exist overall.

Currently, only Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom can run natively on Snapdragon X Elite laptops. This might not be an issue if you only use Photoshop, but if you also use Adobe Premiere Pro, InDesign, or Illustrator, those can only run via emulation.

It's a similar concept to running a virtual version of Windows 95 on a Windows 11 PC, but the computer will use more resources running both the emulator and program at the same time, which could slow down various editing tasks. If you don't have enough available RAM or video RAM, the entire program could crash.

How We Test Laptops for Photoshop

Every laptop we test undergoes countless lab tests before a review goes live. We look at how a laptop performs in terms of CPU and GPU-intensive tasks, battery life, speakers, heat management, and display. While each laptop on this list has gone through every test we could run on it; there are a few specific test results we paid close attention to when choosing the best laptops for Photoshop.

When you work with Photoshop, it’s important that the colors you’re working with will translate to other screens when your file is shared. To detect a laptop’s display brightness and DCI-P3 color gamut, we use a Klein K-10A colorimeter, Klein ChromaSurf, and DisplayCal to calculate a laptop's average brightness and color gamut volume. We also pay attention to each laptop’s Delta-E score, showing how accurate a display’s colors are.

Additionally, performance is important in a laptop running Adobe Photoshop. The Geekbench CPU benchmark tests a laptop’s overall performance. To test a laptop’s GPU, the 3DMark benchmarks determine how well a laptop can run graphic-intensive applications. Discrete graphics are ideal when selecting a laptop for Photoshop, but not essential, so you might forgo a discrete GPU for a more budget-friendly laptop.

Why Trust Laptop Mag

Laptop Mag reviews over a hundred different laptops every year, from paperweight ultralights to everyday workhorses to lumbering gaming notebooks that scorch the frame rates of even the hottest AAA games. We're not just experts in the laptop field, as we go one step further by meticulously testing smartphones, tablets, headphones, PC accessories, software, and even the latest in gaming.

We are 100% independent and have decades of experience to help you buy with confidence. In fact, Laptop Mag has been testing and reviewing products for three decades, and we continue to deliver trustworthy reviews you can rely on.

Our experienced team of writers and editors scour the available information about the laptop and put it through its paces to determine which is best for you. But before they start, the testing team subjects each system to a rigorous regimen of synthetic and real-world tests to see how a system handles the type of work and games you’re most likely to throw at it.

Our editorial trustworthiness is enforced by one of the world's largest technology publishers, Future Publishing. As a company, we have unrivaled experience across every tech sector — and we're the group's specialist for all things mobile tech.

The laptops with the best battery life often have other stellar features to write home about, from shining displays to satisfying keyboards and incredible performance.

No matter what laptop you opt for, there are plenty of ways to get the most out of your laptop's battery between charges. The speed at which it drains varies from laptop to laptop and user to user. If you're just web browsing, you'll get longer battery life. You'll see that percentage drop faster if you're video-editing or gaming. You can dim your screen, turn on battery-saver mode, or upgrade to a laptop with better battery life.

The Laptop Mag Battery Test 2.0 runs down our laptop review units with continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits (roughly 50% brightness). Our test is more realistic than the usual video rundown test companies like to use as a reference. For transparency, our tests may not align with your typical daily experience.

While your daily use may look different than our lab battery rundown routine, our tests have been consistent across each review, which means the following laptops have notched the best battery life of all the machines we've tested so far.

Update log

5/5/2025: Added MacBook Air 13-inch M4 and updated FAQs.

The Quick List

The laptops with best battery life in 2025

Best overall

Even with the latest 16-inch Apple MacBook Pro rocking the company's second most powerful CPU, the M4 Pro, the laptop blew us away with close to 21 hours of battery life. It just goes to show that high performance and a sharp display don't have to impact battery life the way that laptop makers like to use as an excuse. Battery life isn't the only remarkable thing about this laptop. That high performance wasn't a joke — it beat out all other MacBooks and every competitor we threw at it.

Reviewer Sean Riley observes, "If you're a power user, a content creator, or simply someone who never wants to see their laptop balk at any task, the Macbook Pro M4 Pro should at least be on your shortlist."

The M4 Pro destroyed the Geekbench 6 overall performance test with a score of 22,822. What does that number mean? Consider that the average premium laptop scores 10,492. That means the 16-inch Apple MacBook Pro offers over double the performance of any premium laptop on the market.

One of the things we love the most about the MacBook Pro (16-inch, M4 Pro) is that 3456 x 2234 Liquid Retina XDR display. It's stunning, gorgeous, vivid, vibrant — throw all the adjectives at it, and most will stick to the wall. The display covered 81.4% of the DCI-P3 color gamut on our tests and averaged 565 nits of brightness. You'll be able to see your screen even if you use this laptop outdoors.

After disappointing years with MacBook keyboards, we're back to large, bouncy keys with firm feedback. What about the audio? The MacBook reproduced incredible highs, mids, and lows with six speakers and force-cancelling woofers.

But let's not get it twisted: This machine is expensive. We're talking about $2,499 starting and $3,499 as reviewed. You must ask yourself, how much do you need that shiny new 20-core GPU? If you're a creator, it's a question worth asking.

See our full Apple MacBook Pro 16-inch (M4 Pro, 2024) review.

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Best budget

The Asus Zenbook 14 OLED (Q425M) is a killer laptop with incredible battery life that offers itself up for an affordable price. The Zenbook 14 banged out a stunning 15 hours and 52 minutes on the Laptop Mag battery test. Asus has been killing it with its laptops lately, and this is a perfect example of that. Battery life isn't the only thing this machine has going on.

In our review of the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED (Q425 M), Reviewer Madeline Ricchiuto notes, "The Zenbook 14 OLED boasts a Jasper Gray finish with a shiny Asus logo on the cover, for proper minimalist elegance."

Sporting Intel's latest Core Ultra 7 155H, the Asus Zenbook 14 has the power to get you through a modest number of tasks. We threw a couple dozen Chrome tabs, spreadsheets, and Photoshop editing sessions. The Zenbook 14 didn’t so much as flinch.

One of the biggest highlights of this affordable laptop is its 14-inch, 1080p OLED display. Covering 79.8% of the DCI-P3 color gamut and clocking in 339 nits of brightness, the Zenbook 14 will be there for you at the end of the day when you want to stream your favorite shows on a gorgeous window.

Meanwhile, the Zenbook 14’s comfortable keyboard will ensure you don't get exhausted throughout your day. Typing across the keyboard felt great, thanks to the 1.4mm key travel, which provided a pleasant click-to-pressure ratio.

Warning: Its quality audio will have you headbanging subconsciously. Packed with Harman Kardon and Dolby Atmos-certified super-linear speakers, the Zenbook 14 captures quality mids and highs with a wide bass.

The device is also incredibly portable. At 0.59 inches, it’s not the lightest machine on this list, but it’s remarkably thin. You might be able to fit it into a medium-sized purse. Another neat feature is its webcam privacy shutter. We don’t see that on many laptops at this price point, so it’s a nice bonus.

See our full Asus Zenbook 14 OLED (Q425M) review.

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Longest battery

The era of AI PCs has already reached a precipice, and the Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 leads the charge with a whopping 21 hours and 3 minutes of battery life. That's partly thanks to the Snapdragon X Elite XIE-78-100 chipset, but Lenovo didn't let Qualcomm do all the heavy lifting. The company offers several long-lasting laptops. But what makes the ThinkPad T14s so special?

In their review, Stevie Bonifield writes, "I was surprised when I picked it up for the first time. It weighs just 2.72 pounds, making it effortless to carry around this laptop in the office, on your commute, or on long treks through the airport."

Regarding performance, the ThinkPad T14s scored 14,486 on the Geekbench 6.3 overall performance test. It wiped the floor with the MacBook Air’s M3 (12,087), and the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H in the Zenbook 14 (12,707) and Spectre x360 (12,358). It performed just as well on the HandBrake test, transcoding a 4K video to 1080p in just 5 minutes and 34 seconds, crushing the MacBook Air (6:32), Zenbook 14 (6:36), and Spectre x360 (7:30).

The ThinkPad T14s’ 14-inch, 1920 x 1200 display is plenty bright. It won't miss a beat in settings with intense lighting, as the XPS averaged 452 nits of brightness. It outshines the Zenbook 14 (339 nits) and Spectre x360 (366 nits) but can't quite beat the MacBook Air (476 nits).

One of the ThinkPad T14s' alluring factors is its weight, comparable to the current MacBook Air. At 2.72 pounds and 12.35 x 8.64 x 0.67 inches, the ThinkPad T14s is just 0.2 pounds heavier than the MacBook Air, which weighs 2.7 pounds.

Now, not everything is sunshine and rainbows in paradise. The ThinkPad T14s laptop has a design that, while classic, might also feel dated. It also has poor graphics performance and a low color gamut (70.7% DCI-P3). But if you aren't a creative professional and don't need an eye-meltingly colorful display, the ThinkPad T14s is an excellent choice.

See our full Lenovo ThinkPad T14s Gen 6 review.

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Best MacBook value

The latest 13-inch MacBook Air iteration, fueled by Apple’s M4 silicon, is the best value we’ve seen in recent years. Apple dropped its starting price $100 compared to its M3-powered and M2-powered predecessors, so you can get this long-lasting, well-performing beauty for as little as $999.

On our battery life test, the Air M4 lasted a jaw-dropping 15 hours and 30 minutes. With a $999 starting price, a full workday of 8 hours worth of battery life would have been impressive. For Apple to deliver a laptop with battery life this great and not compromise on performance, we’re very happy campers.

The Air M4 is able to tackle a typical daily workload with ease. We tested its real-world performance by opening three windows with six tabs each, three of which were running 1080p YouTube videos, and it didn’t stutter.

Looking at more streamlined benchmarks, the Air M4 earned a Geekbench 6 multi-core score of 14,849 and transcoded a 4K video to 1080p in just 5 minutes and 40 seconds. Despite these wonderful performance results and its fanless design, the Air M4 managed to stay cool. At its hottest point, it only reached 85.2 degrees Fahrenheit, well below our comfort threshold of 95 degrees.

Apple packs this incredible battery life and performance into a travel-friendly design that’s both thin and lightweight. The Air M4 measures 12 x 8.5 x 0.4 inches and weighs just 2.7 pounds, making it the perfect companion for flights or coffee shop work dates.

Reviewer Sean Riley notes, “Apple hit the sweet spot with this laptop, delivering an affordable option that should check all the boxes for a swath of users.”

That doesn’t mean the Air M4 is without flaws, but its lack of ports and dated 60Hz display are easy to overlook when you get so many great features for a low price. Plus, you can add one of the best USB-C hubs to add more port variety and the display is still plenty bright and sharp, outweighing its less-than-optimal refresh rate.

See our full 13-inch MacBook Air M4 review.

Best business

Lenovo's ThinkPads are the few brands that excel at being business laptops — but the Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 is also great for high-performers focusing on graphics-intensive projects, such as video or photo-editing. Despite being an absolute powerhouse, the ThinkPad P1 lasted 17 hours and 23 minutes on a single charge.

Madeline Ricchiuto observes, "The keyboard has a nice mid-activation point with a decent bit of bounce to it, making for a satisfying typing experience."

Unfortunately, business laptops and those that double as workstations want more money than they have any logical reason to ask for. That's because laptop manufacturers want companies to buy in bulk and not ask questions. But finding the ThinkPad P1 on sale is a killer opportunity to get an excellent laptop with high performance and tough security.

Speaking of performance, the ThinkPad P1's Intel Core Ultra 7 165H transcoded a 4K video to 1080p in just 4 minutes and 22 seconds. It patiently waited at the finished line for the HP ZBook Studio 16 G10 (4:37) and HP ZBook Fury 16 G9 (4:29) to get across. Although, it could quite beat the ThinkPad P16 Gen 1 (3:44).

For a laptop with so much power, the ThinkPad P1 supports a thin and light design, coming in at 4.3 pounds and 13.95 x 9.49 x 0.67 inches. However, it also features a plethora of ports, including 1 x USB Type-A (5Gbps), 1 x USB Type-C (10Gbps), 2 x Thunderbolt 4 Type-C (40Gbps, DP Alt mode 2.1), 1 x HDMI 2.1 (up to 4K @ 60Hz), 1 x SD card reader (SD Express 7.0), and 1 x 3.5mm audio combo jack.

A business laptop is going to stand on business. You get all those neat security features, including a fingerprint reader, an IR webcam with facial recognition, a webcam privacy shutter, and a Discrete TPM security chip.

The caveat is that the display isn't as vibrant as we'd like. And the webcam produces lifeless and grainy images.

See our full Lenovo ThinkPad P1 Gen 7 review.

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Best gaming

The Asus TUF Gaming A14 is the first gaming laptop in recent history to break into the double digits regarding battery life. Despite featuring an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060, the TUF A14 hit 10 hours and 4 minutes on our battery test. For context, the average gaming laptop lasts around 5 hours. This is currently the best gaming laptop for battery life. Most folks can get through a whole workday before you plug it in. Naturally, battery life isn't the only feature we loved.

Reviewer Claire Tabari writes, "Elden Ring is gorgeous, but thanks to the TUF Gaming A14’s panel being appropriately colorful and bright, this world is vivid and beguiling."

With the mighty AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 GPU, the Asus TUF Gaming A14 cleaned house on our benchmarks. Assassin's Creed Mirage? 87 fps. Far Cry 6? 77 fps. Red Dead Redemption 2? 61 fps. It played most major titles at above 60 fps, which is excellent. It even managed to run Cyberpunk 2077 at a solid 30 fps.

For a gaming laptop that is this affordable, we were stunned by how well its 14-inch, 2560 x 1600, IPS, 165Hz display performed. It silences manufacturers' excuses about price versus quality. Its panel produced 411 nits of brightness and covered 82% of the DCI-P3 color gamut. That's enough to play your favorite games and enjoy a vivid experience.

Despite being a powerful gaming notebook with a big battery, the TUF A14 comes up light and thin, measuring 3.2 pounds and 12.24 x 8.94 x 0.67~0.78 inches. Long lasting and super portable? That's a recipe for success.

Unfortunately, if you're picky about their touchpad experience, we recommend steering clear. The trackpad is sluggish, offering too much resistance when in use.

Despite that, the Asus TUF Gaming A14 is a true champ of battery life and affordability.

See our full Asus TUF Gaming A14 review.

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Benchmark comparisons

Recently reviewed

Not every laptop can earn the title of a laptop with the best battery life, we wouldn't be doing you that much good if that were the case. We review new laptops every week and over 100 laptops yearly, so here's a look at our most recently reviewed laptops that didn't make this page either due to a fault or simply because it doesn't have as much battery life as the laptops that did land a spot here.

FAQs

Why doesn't my laptop battery last as long as your test?

The Laptop Mag battery test won't account for the way you use your laptop. It continuously surfs the web over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of brightness (that's less than 50% brightness on most laptops).

If you do anything else, your battery life will vary. Gaming or juggling a triple-digit number of tabs will most certainly decrease your battery life. Turning down the brightness or even turning on battery saver mode will greatly increase your laptop's battery life.

How do I check the battery life of my laptop?

As your laptop ages, its battery health will naturally deteriorate, meaning it's not able to hold a charge as well. Luckily, there are ways you can check on your laptop battery’s health over time and regularly assess how it’s doing.

Whether your laptop runs on Windows, macOS, or ChromeOS, we’ve got you covered with how to check its battery life:

• How to check laptop battery health in Windows 10 or 11
• How to check your MacBook’s battery health
• How to check your Chromebook's battery health

How do I take care of my laptop battery life?

All batteries deteriorate over time, but slowing that process down is crucial to keeping those excellent scores where they are. To maintain good battery life health, keep these tips in mind.

• How to preserve your laptop battery:
  • Don't let it charge above 100%
  • Don't let your battery completely die
  • Avoid extreme temperatures
  • Use the included charger

How we test laptops with the best battery life

We put each laptop through extensive benchmark testing — both synthetic and real-world — before they end up in the hands of our reviewers. We evaluate each aspect of the computer, including its performance, battery life, display, speakers, and heat management.

Battery life is critical for the average worker or student or frequent traveler. And especially so for gamers, as there aren't many gaming laptops out there that'll get you at least 8 hours of longevity.

To test endurance, the Laptop Mag Battery test surfs the web at 150 nits of brightness until the system runs out of juice. Before we do this, however, we run through a checklist. We set the screen to 150 nits of brightness (as determined using ChromaSurf) to have an even basis for comparison regardless of laptop manufacturer and display panel technology. We uninstall antivirus software. We shut down any programs running in the background. We deactivate Battery Saver mode, Bluetooth, and GPS/location services. We turn off keyboard backlighting and any gaming-specific features. We adjust Windows power settings so the screen stays on for the full duration of the test and battery life is maximized as much as possible. Finally, we run the test three times.

We judge processing power using the Geekbench 5/6 overall performance test and video transcoder software that converts a 4K video to 1080p. To determine the transfer rate, we copy 25GB of multimedia files for storage speed.

We use a colorimeter to measure screen brightness and color gamut, while other instruments help us determine a laptop's key travel and ambient heat. For more details on our benchmarking procedures, see this page on How We Test Laptops.

Why trust Laptop Mag

Laptop Mag reviews over one hundred different laptops every year, from paperweight ultralights to everyday workhorses to lumbering gaming notebooks that scorch the frame rates of even the hottest AAA games. We're not just experts in laptops; we go one step further by meticulously testing smartphones, tablets, headphones, PC accessories, software, and even the latest gaming technology.

We are 100% independent and have decades of experience to help you buy with confidence. In fact, Laptop Mag has been testing and reviewing products for three decades, and we continue to deliver trustworthy reviews you can rely on.

Our experienced team of writers and editors scour the available information about the laptop and put it through its paces to determine which is best for you. But before they start, the testing team subjects each system to a rigorous regimen of synthetic and real-world tests to see how a system handles the type of work and games you’re most likely to throw at it.

Our editorial trustworthiness is enforced by one of the world's largest technology publishers, Future Publishing. As a company, we have unrivaled experience across every tech sector — and we're the group's specialist for all things mobile tech.

Forget the myth that stellar laptops require exorbitant prices. I can find a fantastic laptop under $1,000 that doesn't sacrifice performance, battery life, or durability. In fact, some of these laptops also rank among the best laptops we’ve tested overall.

With modern processors, many of which are AI-powered, these sub-$1,000 laptops are well-rounded machines that offer great performance, solid battery life, and durable build quality. You don't have to sacrifice screen brightness or performance for battery life.

That said, there are multiple ways to narrow down your search and find the best laptop under $1,000 for your specific needs.

If you’re looking for the most affordable option and primarily use the web, consider one of the best Chromebooks or the best laptops under $500. If you want the best performance possible for gaming on your laptop, you may need to accept a lower-quality display. Alternatively, consider upping your budget slightly and take a look at the best gaming laptops under $1,500.

Whether you’re searching for a budget-friendly laptop that’ll last all day without charging, seamlessly handle your tendency to leave multiple tabs open, or help you unwind with AAA games in the evening, we’ve got you covered.

After thousands of hours testing and reviewing laptops this year, here are the best laptops under $1,000 in 2025.

Update log

6/16/2025: Moved the Acer Swift Go 14 from Best Overall to Best Windows; added the Apple MacBook Air 13-inch M4 as the Best Overall pick; added the Acer Nitro 17 as the Best Gaming pick; added the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus as the Best Chromebook pick; removed the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED (Q425M) as the Best Student pick

The Quick List

The best laptops under $1,000 you can buy today

After rigorous testing, we've compiled a list of the best laptops under $1,000. Our mini-reviews are linked to more extensive reviews, but you should get all of the information you need right here.

Best overall

Apple’s MacBook Air 13-inch M4 is more powerful and long-lasting than its predecessor, and yet it’s $100 cheaper. The latest M4-powered MacBook Air starts at just $999, and for that incredible price, you get a thin, lightweight laptop with fantastic performance, a gorgeous display, and over 15 hours of battery life.

Sean Riley writes, “Apple's MacBook Air 13-inch M4 is not a perfect laptop, but at its new starting price of $999, it is the perfect laptop for many people.”

Despite its affordable starting price (which often dips below $900 during sales), the MacBook Air 13 M4 is no slacker when it comes to performance. This laptop delivered a Geekbench 6 score of 14,849, which is a higher score than many of its more expensive competitors churned out. If your productive work days are full of so many Chrome tabs you lose count, this laptop can handle it with no issues and still manage to keep things cool.

What makes the MacBook Air M4 one of the best laptops in general, not just one of the best laptops under $1,000, is that it doesn’t ignore the finer details. Yes, this laptop offers incredible performance and battery life wrapped up in an easily portable chassis, but it also features an unmatched webcam, a bright, sharp display, decent speakers, and a lovely keyboard.

Touching on the display a bit more, it’s impressive to see a display on a sub-$1,000 laptop as premium as this one. This laptop features a 13.6-inch, 2560 x 1664 Liquid Retina LCD display that averaged 463 nits brightness in testing. It also covered 79.3% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, on par with other laptops in its category.

For all these reasons and then some, we’d recommend the MacBook Air 13 M4 to anyone sticking to a strict budget of $1,000 or less. The only downside worth mentioning is the laptop’s limited ports, but that can easily be fixed by adding one of the best USB-C hubs to your setup.

See our full Apple MacBook Air 13-inch M4 review.

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Best Windows

Acer's Swift Go 14 ushers in a new era with impressive AI capabilities. Gone are the days of lackluster integrated graphics — the Swift Go's Arc GPU tackles most tasks effortlessly while its NPU optimizes performance for a seamless user experience.

The GPU and NPU power results in smooth 4K video editing, even unplugged, making it a compelling alternative to the pricier MacBook Air M2. Even in our lab, the Acer Swift Go 14 achieved a multi-core average of 11,815 on the Geekbench 5.5 overall performance test. That put the Macbook Air M2 and Macbook Pro 13 M2 to shame, with the M2's score being 8,919.

The Swift Go 14 improved over last year’s entry, netting an additional 2 hours of battery life for 9 hours and 50 minutes. It’s not the best, but it lasts a whole work or school day. Its 14-inch, WUXGA (1920 x 1200) resolution touch display is no joke. It covered 79.1 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut and averaged 374 nits of brightness. That’s vibrant as hell for a laptop at this price.

You may or may not know this, but laptop webcams suck. Not this one, though. The Swift Go 14’s QHD (2560 x 1440) webcam is excellent. You get improved image quality thanks to the high resolution and Acer’s included AI tools.

All that is packed into a sturdy aluminum build, which weighs 2.9 pounds and measures 12.32 x 8.58 x 0.68 inches. Budget laptops can get a little chunky, so it’s refreshing to see a machine that looks good and is highly portable.

With its powerful performance, ample storage, affordability, and top-notch webcam, the Swift Go 14 emerges as a serious contender for budget-conscious students, creators, and professionals on the move.

See our full Acer Swift Go 14 review.

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Best Gaming Laptop

The Acer Nitro 17 is a wildly impressive gaming laptop at its price. With smooth gaming performance powered by a Nvidia RTX 4060 GPU, excellent overall performance thanks to an AMD Ryzen 7 CPU, a large and good-looking display, great audio quality, and a comfortable, RGB backlit keyboard, you’d expect this portable gaming machine to be much more expensive.

Stevie Bonifield writes, “for those who only want a desktop or a laptop for gaming, the Nitro 17 is a fantastic option and it may even be a worthy replacement for older or underpowered desktop gaming PCs.” This hefty gaming laptop may not necessarily have the most powerful specs and it may not be able to run your favorite AAA games at max settings, but for the price, the Nitro 17 can’t be beat.

Looking at overall performance first, the Nitro 17 earned a Geekbench 6 multi-core score of 12,358 and managed to transfer 25GB of files at 1,844 Mbps. When tackling daily tasks like web browsing and word processing, the laptop breezed through. At its hottest point under pressure, the max temperature reached on the laptop was only 91.5 degrees, below our comfort threshold of 95 degrees.

On the 3DMark FireStrike benchmark, the Acer Nitro 17 notched a score of 24,422. Then, in our Borderlands 3 benchmark at 1080p, the laptop averaged 84 frames per second. When playing less graphically intensive games, like Starfield and Roboquest, the Nitro 17 sailed on smoothly with no lag, glitches, or freezing.

With such excellent performance, the Nitro 17 does falter in the battery life category. On our web-surfing battery life test, this laptop only lasted 7 hours and 22 minutes, which is pretty decent for a gaming laptop, but not on par with non-gaming Windows laptops. Plus, its internals make the overall rig quite heavy at 6.8 pounds.

If you plan to have the Nitro 17 plugged in at all times in a fairly permanent spot in your home, then you won’t even have to worry about its poor battery life and hefty form factor.

See our full Acer Nitro 17 review.

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Best Chromebook

You can find cheaper Chromebooks out there, but you won’t find any that are quite as great a value as the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus. Many Chromebooks offer dull displays, middling performance, and poor battery life, but the Galaxy Chromebook Plus is a breath of fresh air, with a stellar, large display, impressive tab-hoarding capabilities, and a battery that lasted over 11 hours.

Perhaps the Galaxy Chromebook Plus’ most impressive feature is its display, which isn’t surprising seeing as it’s made by Samsung. James Pero says this laptop’s 15.6-inch, 1920 x 1080 AMOLED display is “fairly dynamic and plenty bright, especially if you're using it for what most people might use a Chromebook for — general web browsing and YouTube viewing or maybe the occasional movie.” It’s also worth noting this laptop covers a whopping 108.5% of the DCI-P3 color gamut.

Moving on to performance, the Galaxy Chromebook Plus earned a multi-core score of 6,016 on the Geekbench 6 benchmark, which is about half of what we typically see from a non-Chromebook laptop. With about a dozen tabs open, including YouTube, this laptop performed well, with no lag and fast page-loading times.

This laptop also has a surprisingly wide array of ports for how thin and lightweight it is. On the left side, there are two USB-C ports and an HDMI port. On the right, you’ll find a USB-A port, a microSD card slot, and an audio jack.

Despite this laptop’s larger-than-average, AMOLED display and great performance results, it lasted quite a while on our web-surfing battery life test. It’s not uncommon to see Chromebooks die before hitting the 10-hour mark, but the Galaxy Chromebook Plus lasted 11 hours and 12 minutes.

See our full Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus review.

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Best business

With people returning to the office and traveling for work, the Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 5 is perfectly positioned to take center stage in this new hybrid work landscape.

This portable workhorse is an ideal travel companion thanks to its MIL-STD 810H certification, which proved that it can withstand the average drops and tumbles on top of extreme temperatures, dust, shocks, and more. Its IR camera, webcam shutter, and fingerprint sensor make it less susceptible to security breaches.

On the performance side, the ThinkPad E14 is packing an Intel Core i7-1355U processor, which scored 8,000 on the Geekbench 6 overall performance test, beating the average laptop in its category at the time of the review. Its 512GB SSD is also quite speedy, clocking in at 1,258 megabytes per second.

I love it when a display brightens my day — the ThinkPad’s 14-inch, WUXGA (1920 x 1200) resolution touch display averaged 366 nits of brightness. However, there are a few clouds in the forecast, as the panel covered a measly 46.3 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut. That means the display is half as colorful as the average laptop in its category.

If you’re familiar with the ThinkPad brand, you’d know how famously comfortable its keyboards are. The ThinkPad E14 is no different, boasting a super responsive keyboard with excellent bounce. The spacing between the keys is great, and the pointing stick users will be satisfied knowing this machine has the nub.

However, a big drawback for business users is its battery life. The ThinkPad E14 lasted only 7 hours and 48 minutes on a single charge. That almost completes a workday but won’t get you over the finish line. As long as you’re okay with reaching for a charger at the end of the day, the Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 5 is a great business laptop.

See our full Lenovo ThinkPad E14 Gen 5 review.

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How to choose the best laptops under $1,000

There's a lot to consider when shopping for one of the best laptops under $1,000. Here's a good breakdown of how to find the best laptop for you.

What's your budget?

Sure, you can find some diamond-in-the-rough Windows laptops and Chromebooks among the best laptops under $500, but you may have to deal with a low-performing CPU or a poor multitasker. If you're a light laptop user, those will be OK, but if you need something more powerful, aim higher — the base model for some of the best mainstream laptops start between $800-$1,000, so you'll make some trade-offs, but there are outstanding options for most people in this range.

Do you want a 2-in-1 or a clamshell?

If you enjoy the awesomeness of converting your laptop into a tablet, the best 2-in-1 laptops are a good choice. Just keep in mind that a traditional laptop usually has a lower price and stronger-performing features.

How much battery life do you need?

If you're on the go, you'll need to snag a laptop that lasts more than 11 hours. But if you're a homebody or tied to your desk all day, perhaps you can sacrifice some battery life and save money. Check out our laptops with the best battery life list if this is your top priority.

What specs do you need?

If you want decent performance, aim for a Core Ultra 5, AMD Ryzen 5, Apple M4, or Qualcomm Snapdragon Elite CPU. For memory and storage, aim for 16GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. As far as display, don't get anything less than a 1080p screen—your eyes will thank you later.

Gamers and content creators will likely want a laptop with discrete graphics, but you'll likely be looking for a previous-generation GPU to stay under $1,000; otherwise, consider increasing your budget and look to our best gaming laptops under $1,500.

How we test the best laptops under $1,000

We put each laptop through extensive benchmark testing—both synthetic and real-world—before we send it to our reviewers. We evaluate each aspect of the laptop, including its performance, battery life, display, speakers, and heat management.

In our benchmark testing, we use a Klein K10 colorimeter to detect the laptop's display's brightness and DCI-P3 color gamut. For performance testing, we run the laptop through a gauntlet of benchmarks, including Geekbench 5 and 6 and 3DMark professional graphics tests.

To determine real-world performance, we task the laptop with converting a 4K video to 1080p resolution and duplicate a 4.97GB multimedia file. Our real-world graphics test is Sid Meier's Civilization 6 Gathering Storm benchmark with medium settings at 1080p resolution.

We also run heat tests by playing a 15-minute full-screen video and measuring temperatures in different areas of the laptop. Last but not least, our battery test consists of continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of brightness. For MacBooks and premium Windows 11 laptops, a runtime of over nine hours is considered a good result, whereas gaming laptops and workstations that can stay powered for more than five hours deserve praise.

We complement our lab tests with a full week of hands-on use, giving our reviewers time to evaluate how each laptop performs in real-world scenarios. Over that week, they critique everything from the durability of the materials to the responsiveness of the keyboard and touchpad.

See this page on How We Test Laptops for more details on our benchmarking procedures.

Why Trust Laptop Mag

Laptop Mag reviews over one hundred different laptops every year, from paperweight ultralights to everyday workhorses to lumbering gaming notebooks that scorch the frame rates of even the hottest AAA games. We're not just experts in the laptop field, as we go one step further by meticulously testing smartphones, tablets, headphones, PC accessories, software, and even the latest in gaming.

We are 100 percent independent and have decades of experience to help you buy with confidence. In fact, Laptop Mag has been testing and reviewing products for three decades and continues to deliver trustworthy reviews you can rely on.

Our experienced team of writers and editors scour the available information about the laptop and put it through its paces to determine which is best for you. But before they start, the testing team subjects each system to a rigorous regimen of synthetic and real-world tests to see how a system handles the type of work and games you’re most likely to throw at it.

One of the world's largest technology publishers, Future Publishing, enforces our editorial trustworthiness. As a company, we have unrivaled experience across every tech sector — and we're the group's specialist for all things mobile tech.

The best 4K laptops are designed with graphic designers, video editors, animators, and sticklers for color accuracy in mind. Laptop Mag spends hundreds of hours testing and reviewing 4K laptops that can produce the accurate and rich color palettes you crave.

These laptops have four times the number of pixels as a laptop with a 1080p (FHD) display, so they're much better at capturing the finer details of an image, making it appear clearer and more dramatic. The best 4K displays also have great color accuracy.

We measure the display's color reproduction along the DCI-P3 color gamut, the color space used in professional digital cinema. It's 25% wider than the more common sRGB color space, capturing more color variations. As a general guideline, almost anything on a 4K laptop display will appear colorful and vibrant if it covers at least 85% of the DCI-P3 gamut.

Many displays with 4K resolution also feature OLED technology, which delivers rich contrast and vivid colors. After reviewing my first 4K OLED laptop, I immediately added "4K OLED display" to my list of must-haves. My Lenovo Yoga 9i is still going strong with a beautiful 4K display.

Not sure if you need a 4K display? Check out Laptop Mag's guides for the best video editing laptops, best laptops for graphic design, or best gaming laptops.

This page is constantly updated based on our latest reviews to reflect Laptop Mag's current picks for the best 4K laptops in 2025.

Update log

6/3/2025: Swapped the MSI Titan 18 HX for the MSI Raider 18 HX AI and updated benchmark comparisons accordingly; updated FAQ section

The Quick List

Best overall

This is the best laptop with a 4K display: period. It's performance hasn't lost its luster, even compared to Intel's new Lunar Lake chips. It still has one of the most color-rich and sharpest 4K OLED displays we've ever tested. Its battery life still fares well against its rivals. It's still one of the lightest 16-inch laptops we've tested in the last year — and I've seen it go for a couple hundred dollars less than when it originally released.

And it's still a MacBook (M2 and M3) challenger "PC laptop enthusiasts have longed for," as Mark Anthony Ramirez wrote is his review for Laptop Mag.

Performance-wise, this laptop still earns high marks for its multicore performance. In our Geekbench 6 test, the Prestige 16 AI Evo scored 13,310, higher than the mainstream laptop average of 10,435. Even with a last-gen chip, its Intel Core Ultra 7 155H has much faster multicore performance than Intel's current-gen laptop chips, Lunar Lake. The Core Ultra 7 258V in the Acer Swift 14 AI (11,009) I recently reviewed is 18% slower by comparison. (Ouch!)

The Prestige 16 AI Evo's 4K OLED display produces sharp, vibrant images and deep, inky black contrasts. It's no wonder the display is one of the best you'll find in a laptop. Is covers 137.9% of the DCI-P3 color gamut, well beyond the average mainstream laptop (81.5%).

It gets great battery life, too: 13 hours and 4 minutes, about 2 hours longer than the average mainstream laptop. It's not the longest we've tested, but its battery lasts longer than other thin and light 16-inch laptops.

See our full MSI Prestige 16 AI Evo review.

Best gaming

A laptop that fits the requirements needed for smooth AAA gaming performance and has a gorgeous 4K display, unfortunately, isn’t going to be cheap. But once you experience this laptop’s sharp resolution and buttery smooth performance, you’ll realize that the MSI Raider 18 HX AI is basically a god-like, portable desktop tower.

With a mini-LED panel, this laptop’s display was able to reach an impressive average of 668 nits brightness, much higher than the average gaming laptop. This exceptional brightness, mixed with decent DCI-P3 color gamut coverage and crisp 4K resolution, delivered a display that didn’t disappoint. Laptop Mag’s Madeline Ricchiuto describes the corals in Avowed as “simply stunning in how bright and crisply detailed they appeared” on this laptop’s display.

Backing up those gorgeous visuals with smooth performance is what really makes the Raider 18 HX AI a favorite of ours. Equipped with an Intel Core Ultra 9 285HX processor, an Nvidia RTX 5080 GPU, and a whopping 64GB of RAM, this laptop had no problems delivering impressive performance results on all the benchmarks we threw at it.

On the Geekbench 6 overall performance test, the Raider 18 HX AI earned a score of 21,851, wildly outpacing its competitors. In our Handbrake video transcoding test, this laptop took a mere 2 minutes and 7 seconds to transcode a 4K video to 1080p.

With visuals that make your heart sing and performance results that leave your jaw on the floor, MSI’s Raider 18 HX AI understandably has lackluster battery life and gets pretty hot during use. This laptop lasted only 2 hours and 33 minutes on our web surfing battery life test and reached 104.3 degrees Fahrenheit at its hottest point. When gaming, the hottest point jumps even higher to 115.3 degrees Fahrenheit. That said if you plan to have this laptop plugged in and on a desk at all times, you may not even notice its two biggest faults.

See our full MSI Raider 18 HX AI review.

Best for creators