The Best Laptops: Power, Productivity, Portability, and Budget Choices
It's been an eventful year for laptops, and our fully refreshed guide features all-new models, whether you're looking for power, portability, or a budget-friendly choice.
It's been an eventful year for laptops, and our fully refreshed guide features all-new models, whether you're looking for power, portability, or a budget-friendly choice.
As we wrap up the year and welcome 2024, it's not a bad time to buy a new laptop to start the New Year fresh. The market is brimming with options, and there are plenty of deals to be had.
The Asus ZenBook brand is the byword for accessible luxury, and the UX425 is the latest model to emerge with the brushed metal and sleek design associated with these machines, plus the appearance of Intel's Tiger Lake CPUs.
Today we're reviewing another 10th-generation Intel CPU, and like the last one we tested, the 4-core/8-thread Core i5-10210U is much more interesting than it appears at face value. You'd think that with these 14nm+++ CPUs Intel has basically nothing left in the tank, but even with the quad-core we're reviewing today, that's surprisingly far from the truth.
To say there are a ton of laptops out there is an understatement. As is the case with smartphones, within a given segment or budget often there isn't much that differentiates them---other than components and small design changes. But with Asus' latest ZenBook Pro, there's one element that really makes it stand out from the crowd: a touchpad that's also a touchscreen.
Of all the ultrathin laptops I've reviewed, the ZenBook 3 is most like Apple's MacBook from a design perspective. It packs a 12.5" display, an edge-to-edge keyboard, and a single USB-C port for charging and all connectivity. Where the ZenBook pulls away from the MacBook is on the inside, packing a lot more processing punch.
When choosing the right laptop it all comes down to what you are willing to spend and what you plan to use it for. After looking at several of the best devices this year and analyzing dozens of professional reviews, we bring you the best of the best in a handful of popular categories: budget, ultraportables, gaming, workstations and Chromebooks.