Finding the best laptop for you can be tricky because you’ve never had more choices. You can get a compact, speedy 13-inch ultraportable for not a lot of money, and those who can afford to spend a bit more have access to a smorgasbord of the best laptops from the likes of Apple, Dell, HP and more. That’s why we test and review dozens of laptops from the top manufacturers every year, then gather the very best (4 stars or higher) together here in one easy-to-read list to help you make a smarter buying decision. Whether you’re shopping for a new Windows 11 ultraportable, a Chromebook, a MacBook or a gaming laptop, you’ll find something great here!
The quick list
In a hurry? Here’s a quick overview of the laptops on this list, along with quick links that let you jump down the page directly to a review of whichever laptop catches your eye.
The full list: Best laptops in detail
What you need to know The MacBook Air M2 feels truly worthy of the Air name. Yes, the MacBook Air M1 was good — after all, it helped introduce the world to the power of Apple silicon. It’s just that cramming revolutionary performance in the same old chassis didn’t feel (or look) like a leap forward. The best laptop for most people The MacBook Air M2 is the best laptop for the money. You get fantastic performance from the new M2 chip, a brighter and bigger display and more than 14 hours of battery life, according to our testing. Read more below The best Windows laptop for most The Dell XPS 15 is our current pick for best Windows laptop overall. It’s svelte and powerful enough for day-to-day work, with thin bezels that help the display shine. It’s even better if you shell out extra for the OLED upgrade. Read more below The best value laptop The AMD-equipped Asus Zenbook 13 OLED is currently our top recommendation for a great budget laptop, offering an eye-catching 1080p OLED display and exceptional battery life in a slim, lightweight package for less than a grand. Read more below The best Chrome tablet Lenovo’s Duet 3 Chrome tablet delivers a great display, a decent port selection and the power of a beefy Qualcomm Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 chip. It’s one of the best Chrome tablets you can buy, and the fact that Lenovo includes the keyboard cover at no extra cost helps it double as a surprisingly effective 2-in-1 Chromebook. Read more below The best laptop for DIYers The Framework Laptop is a truly unique ultraportable that’s remarkably repairable and upgradeable. It’s the anti-MacBook, delivering style and performance without compromise. Read more below The best gaming laptop for most We’ve long been fans of the Zephyrus G14 because it has the chops to run most games at solid framerates, the efficiency to be used as a work laptop in a pinch, and a slim, compact chassis that’s more portable than most gaming laptops. Read more below The longest-lasting laptop Apple’s MacBook Pro 2022 delivers speedy performance thanks to its M2 processor, along with class-leading battery life. The design feels behind the times, but nothing on this last lasts longer. Read more below The best 1600p laptop Stylish, lightweight, and powerful, the Acer Swift 5 is a truly impressive Windows 11 laptop with a gorgeous 14-inch 1440p screen. The latest model is competitive with the MacBook Air and Dell XPS 13, yet costs less. Read more below The best 2-in-1 for most people The Samsung Galaxy Book2 Pro 360 has a ridiculous name but a gorgeous 15.6-inch AMOLED display. It’s a fantastic 2-in-1 ultraportable, and the included stylus works great on the touchscreen. Read more below The MacBook Air 2022 (from $1,199, tested at $1,899) is a breath of fresh you-know-what, and that’s because Apple paired an even faster M2 chip with a design that’s markedly thinner and lighter. Design: The MacBook Air M2 is so thin it could easily be mistaken for an iPad when closed (especially if the Apple logo is facing out). That’s how slim this notebook is. Measuring just 0.44 inches thick with the lid open, an everyday Bic pen looks chunky next to this machine. Overall, the Air M2 is 20% smaller than the previous Air in terms of volume, and yet you get a bigger 13.6-inch display, replete with a notch along the top bezel. Performance: On Geekbench 5.4, which measures overall performance, the MacBook Air M2 hit 1,932 on the single-core CPU test and 8,919 on multi-core. That’s faster than its predecessor, though the MacBook Pro M2 was on a par with the Air M2, reaching 1,898 and 8,911. The Air is also nearly as fast as the Pro in our video editing and Photoshop tests, demonstrating the power of the M2 chip. For more details, check out our in-depth MacBook Air M2 benchmark results (opens in new tab)! Battery life: The MacBook Air M2 is one of the longest-lasting laptops for the money. On the Tom’s Guide battery test, which involves continuous web surfing at 150 nits of screen brightness, the new Air averaged 14 hours and 6 minutes. That’s a bit behind the previous Air M1 (14:41), but this is still superb endurance. Read the full review: MacBook Air (M2, 2022)
^ Back to the top
The best Windows laptop
What you need to know The Dell XPS 15 (starting at $1,449, $2,299 as tested) isn’t an innovative or revolutionary laptop. Aside from its updated internals, it’s virtually identical to the Dell XPS 15 OLED 2021. But while this machine isn’t shaking things up, it’s still one of the best Windows laptops you can buy. Not only is this a stellar laptop for everyday use, but it’s also a competent gaming machine. Though it’s admittedly pricey, it’s hard to argue against its impressive performance. It can handle almost anything you throw at it, assuming you can afford to upgrade it the way you want. Design: At 13.6 x 9.1 x 0.73 inches, the Dell XPS 15 is the definition of an ultrabook. Its machined aluminum chassis feels smooth and sturdy. It looks great at home, at a cafe or at the office. Save for the iconic Dell logo on its silver lid, the laptop is free of adornments. It’s somewhat heavy at 4.2 pounds but it’s still light enough to comfortably carry around. The all-black interior features large keycaps and a spacious touchpad. Front-facing speakers flank the keyboard. The thin bezels surrounding the InfinityEdge display give the laptop another layer of elegance. Performance: Thanks to its 12th gen Intel Core CPU, 16GB of RAM and 512GB SSD, our XPS 15 review unit was more than capable of handling heavy workloads. This is a multi-tasking beast, and if you pay to upgrade it with better components (including a discrete Nvidia GPU) it’s a pretty decent gaming laptop. Battery life: On the Tom’s Guide battery test, which involves continuous web surfing at 150 nits of screen brightness, the XPS 15 lasted for 10 hours and 5 minutes. That’s a significant improvement over last year’s Dell XPS 15 OLED 2021, which lasted under 8 hours in the same test. Read the full review: Dell XPS 15 OLED
^ Back to the top
The best value laptop
What you need to know The Asus Zenbook 13 OLED delivers excellent value, offering great performance, remarkable battery life, and a beautiful OLED screen for under $1k. There’s not much in the way of ports (no headphone jack here) and the webcam’s not great, but you can’t beat the value. Design: The Asus Zenbook 13 OLED we reviewed reviewed is easy to carry and looks good on a desk, weighing in at a trim 2.5 pounds and measuring just 11.98 x 7.99 x 0.55 inches. Its grey and matte all over except the lid, which sports a fingerprint-attracting spun-metal finish replete with offset Asus logo. Performance: In addition to being quite power-efficient (as you’ll see below when we start talking about battery life) the AMD Ryzen 7 CPU driving our Zenbook 13 review unit proved more than powerful enough to tackle daily computing tasks without breaking a sweat. Battery life: It’s always exciting to find a laptop with better battery life than advertised. The OLED-equipped Asus Zenbook 13 is one such machine: Asus says it lasts up to 13 hours on a single battery charge, but in our battery test — which tasks the laptop with continuously browsing the web over Wi-Fi with its brightness set to 150 nits — it lasted a remarkable 15 hours. Read the full review: Asus Zenbook 13 OLED
The best Chromebook
What you need to know Lenovo’s Chromebook Duet 3 is bigger, brighter and more powerful than the original Duet. While it’s more expensive and can’t last quite as long on a single charge, it occupies the same sweet spot: A cheap, performant Chrome tablet with a packed-in keyboard that makes it a surprisingly versatile 2-in-1. Design: The Duet 3 is slightly larger than its predecessor the Duet, with an 11-inch 2K (2,000 x 1,200 pixels) screen housed in a thin black aluminum chassis. At 10.16 x 6.48 x 0.31 inches with a weight starting at 1.14 pounds, the Duet 3 isn’t quite as light or thin as the base iPad 2021 (0.29 inches, 1.09 pounds), but it’s pretty close, and in my hands it feels both sturdy and light enough to carry around the house all day. Battery life: After spending a few weeks with our Duet 3 review unit, I can tell you that it doesn’t exactly burn through battery. I never had to worry about it running out of charge during the day, and when I plugged it in it was able to recharge up to about 80% in an hour. In our battery test — web surfing via Wi-Fi with the screen at 150 nits of brightness — the Duet 3 lasted an average of 10 hours and 30 minutes, which is pretty good and enough that you can carry it to a day of classes without having to worry about plugging in. Read the full review: Lenovo Duet 3
The best laptop for DIYers
What you need to know The Framework Laptop is the anti-MacBook, the laptop that promises to let you customize, repair, and upgrade it to an unprecedented degree, all while remaining affordable and ultraportable. When Framework revealed the laptop in 2021, I was excited about those promises but dubious the company could deliver on them without some glaring sacrifices. Now that I’ve used one myself, I’m pleased to report that Framework appears to have stuck the landing. With its remarkably easy-to-repair design and hot-swappable Expansion Card system, the Framework Laptop ($749 to start, $1,399 as reviewed) is versatile, well-made, and one of the best laptops you can buy — especially if you care about your right to repair and tinker with your devices. Design: The Framework sports a slim, unassuming aluminum chassis that blends right in with all the other laptops in the coffee shop. Measuring in at 11.67 x 9 x 0.62 inches and just 2.8 pounds, this DIY ultraportable is as thin and just a hair lighter than Apple’s MacBook Air with M1. That’s an even more impressive feat when you consider that the Framework team achieved that 0.62-inch thinness while still ensuring the major components of the laptop are modular and user-replaceable, rather than soldered to the board the way they are in the MacBook Air. Performance: The Framework configuration we tested performed well under pressure, handling the gauntlet that is my unorganized work process without any noticeable stutter or heat issues. However, the laptop’s cooling fans occasionally kicked in during basic daily use, and they’re awfully loud. It also underperformed a bit in our performance benchmarks compared to a lot of its contemporaries. While the Framework’s lack of a discrete GPU makes it a poor choice for playing graphically demanding games, the Core i7 CPU gives it enough muscle to play older and less demanding games well. Battery life: The Framework’s battery doesn’t break any records, but it’s good enough to get you through a day of work without needing to pack a charger. In our battery test, which sets the laptop’s screen brightness to 150 nits and tasks it with endlessly browsing the web via Wi-Fi, the Framework lasted 10 hours and 17 minutes. Read the full review: Framework Laptop
The best gaming laptop for most people
What you need to know The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022) ($1,649 to start) is the latest iteration of one of the highest-rated gaming laptops we’ve ever reviewed, and one of the best gaming laptops on the market for most people. The 2022 Zephyrus G14 we reviewed has a better, brighter screen than its predecessor, with good speakers and an AMD CPU/GPU combo that delivers solid gaming performance. It also sports a built-in webcam, something earlier models lacked. But despite these upgrades, the new Zephyrus G14 is in some ways weaker than its predecessor. It can’t last quite as long on a single charge, the gaming performance is good but not always better than what you’d get from similarly-priced competitors, and the webcam is bad. Design: Our Zephyrus G14 (2022) review unit measures 12.28 x 8.94 x 0.77 inches, weighs 3.79 pounds and is decked out in Asus’ bright Moonlight White color scheme. It’s especially eye-catching if you enable the optional AniMe Matrix mini-LED display on the back of the lid (a $600 cosmetic upgrade). But even if you don’t, the Zephyrus G14 looks slick, with rounded corners and tapered edges balancing out the sharp diagonal vents scattered across the chassis. Performance: Gaming performance is what matters most in a laptop like this, and the 2022 Zephyrus G14 delivers — if you configure it right. Plugged in, with all extraneous apps closed and all power and fan management settings cranked to max, this laptop managed to hit 30-40 frames per second (fps) in Cyberpunk 2077 on max settings. However, that was with AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution upscaler running; in general, this laptop can run most games on the market quite well, and it has no trouble with simple productivity tasks. Battery life: The Asus Zephyrus G14 (2022) lasted roughly 10 hours and 14 minutes in our Tom’s Guide battery test. That’s over an hour less than its predecessor, which is disappointing. Obviously, it lasts far less time when gaming without the power cord plugged in. When we ran the PCMark 10 battery test on it, which is a decent approximation of running a graphically demanding modern game, the 2022 Zephyrus G14 barely lasted an hour before powering off. This is definitely not a great laptop for gaming unplugged, but it is possible, and it does last awhile when you keep the screen dim and the action sedate. Read the full review: Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 (2022)
The longest-lasting laptop
^ Back to the top
What you need to know The Apple MacBook Pro 2022 delivers mind-blowing performance (thanks to its M2 processor) along with class-leading battery life. But the design feels behind the times. You get the same form factor, same ports, same display and same webcam as the old 13-inch MacBook Pro. Meanwhile, the new MacBook Air 2022 offers a larger display with thinner bezels, a 1080p webcam and a thinner, lighter design. Design: The MacBook Pro 2022 features the same unibody aluminum MacBook design that has been around for the better part of a decade. The laptop isn’t unattractive, but the thick bezels and the infamous Touch Bar make this new laptop appear dated when compared to the MacBook Pro 14-inch, MacBook Pro 16-inch and MacBook Air 2022. Performance: Apple promised better performance from the M2 chip powering the new MacBook Pro and MacBook Air. Though the new processor isn’t powerful as the M1 Pro and M1 Max chip, it’s a huge improvement over the original M1 chip. As things stand, this is the most powerful baseline 13-inch MacBook Pro the company has ever released. Battery life: In our Tom’s Guide battery test, which involves continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of screen brightness, the MacBook Pro 2022 lasted for 18 hours and 20 minutes. This isn’t quite the 20 hours of battery life Apple promised, but it’s still extremely impressive. In contrast, the new Pro outstrips its M1 predecessor (16:25) and the MacBook Pro 14-inch (14:08). Put simply, the MacBook Pro can last for an entire work day and beyond. Read the full review: MacBook Pro 13-inch (M2, 2022)
The best 1600p laptop
What you need to know The Acer Swift 5 (2022) packs a lavish new design with golden trim plus a powerful 12th-gen Intel Core i7 chip, a gorgeous 1600p display, and a startlingly swift 1TB SSD onboard. It’s also cheaper than its notable rivals when comparably equipped. There are a couple of caveats to consider, but the latest Acer Swift 5 is a very strong overall pick given its $1,499 price tag. Design: The Acer Swift 5 sports a number of luxurious tweaks that convey a premium allure. Whereas earlier Swift 5 designs were fairly generic, the latest version has beautiful edges with a double-anodized gold treatment. At 12.2 x 8.4 x 0.59 inches and a mere 2.65 pounds, it’s a little thicker and wider than Apple’s new M2 MacBook Air model, but it’s a smidge lighter than that 2.7-pound rival. Despite the light weight, the Acer Swift 5 has a hearty, sturdy-feeling build, thanks to its aerospace-grade aluminum chassis. Performance: The Acer Swift 5 packs plenty of speed thanks to the latest Intel Core i7 CPU. With 16GB RAM alongside, you’ll find ample power for everyday use and multitasking galore. While the Acer Swift 5 is well equipped for productivity and creative needs, it’s not designed to handle high-end gaming. The integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics can put up solid performance with popular free-to-play games like Fortnite, Rocket League, and League of Legends, but isn’t built for visually rich AAA games like Cyberpunk 2077. Battery life: A laptop this powerful needs a serious battery to match, but the Acer Swift 5 left us wanting. On our battery rundown test, in which the laptop continuously surfs the web with the display brightness set to just 150 nits, the Swift 5 lasted for about 11:25. But during everyday usage, with the screen at max brightness, the Acer Swift 5 barely lasted five full hours. That’s with pretty modest demands too—little more than browsing the web, typing up documents, and streaming YouTube or Spotify. Read the full review: Acer Swift 5 (2022)
The best 2-in-1 laptop
What you need to know The Samsung Galaxy Book2 Pro 360 (starting at $1,299) is an ultra-thin 2-in-1 laptop that’s tailor-made for people who are always on the go. Like last year’s Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 360, this iteration features a gorgeous AMOLED screen that’s perfect for media consumption. It’s also ideal for work thanks to its speedy performance. Though a Windows 11 laptop at its core, the Samsung Galaxy Book2 Pro 360 comes loaded with a slew of Samsung software. This could be good or bad, depending on how invested you are in the Samsung ecosystem. If you are, then you’ll find that this 2-in-1 pairs nicely with your Samsung tablets and phones. Otherwise, all of these applications are effectively bloatware. Design: At 13.97 x 8.98 x 0.47 inches, the Galaxy Book2 Pro 360 is one of the thinnest laptops we’ve ever reviewed. Though a tad heavy at 3.11 pounds, it’s still light enough to carry with you wherever you go, and the hinged display is easy to move. Like its predecessor, this 2-in-1 has a pair of USB-C ports and a USB-C/Thunderbolt 4 port. It also offers a microSD card reader and a headphone jack. Performance: The Galaxy Book2 Pro is thin in design but not in performance. Thanks to its Core i7 processor and 16 GB of RAM, the laptop is powerful enough for your everyday computing needs – whether that’s work, content consumption or both. While a solid work laptop, the Galaxy Book2 Pro 360 comes up short in the gaming department and can’t play many demanding games. As such, you’re better off playing such games on streaming services like GeForce Now and Xbox Game Pass. Battery life: The Galaxy Book2 Pro 360 lasted for 11 hours and 59 minutes on the Tom’s Guide battery life test, which is good but less than the previous iteration’s impressive 13 and a half hours of tested battery life. Read the full review: Samsung Galaxy Book2 Pro 360
Battery benchmarks: comparison
How to choose the best laptop for you
What kind of power do you need? If you only need something basic for surfing the web, consider a Chromebook or a cheap Windows laptop with an Intel Core i3 processor and 4GB of RAM. If you plan on getting more intensive work done, consider starting specs such as a Core i5 CPU, 8 to 16GB of RAM and a 256GB to 512GB SSD. What kind of games do you want to play? Most mainstream laptops feature integrated graphics, which can handle lightweight titles such as Minecraft and Fortnite but aren’t ideal for graphically-demanding games or heavy visual work. For that, you’ll want a laptop with a discrete graphics card, such as an Nvidia GTX 3000-series on the higher end. How big of a laptop do you want? Consider how mobile you want your laptop to be. Machines such as the Dell XPS 13 and HP Elite Dragonfly are feather light with slim designs, but their 13-inch screens are on the small side. You can get a larger 15-inch display on a premium ultraportable like the XPS 15 and still not have to worry about weight too much, but once you start getting up into the realm of 17-inch screens, expect your laptop to weigh at least a few pounds. Gaming laptops such as the Alienware m15 R4 have more heft to them, than thin-and-light ultraportables, but offer big power in exchange. Do you want Chrome, macOS, or Windows? mainstream PCs), macOS (MacBooks) and Chrome OS (Chromebooks). Windows is the most common operating system, while macOS is more ideal for folks already tied into Apple’s ecosystem. Chrome OS is a lightweight operating system built to allow for cheap, fast systems, though it has gotten a bit more robust over the years with support for full Android apps. Whichever system you decide on, you may also want to consider investing in the best mouse and best keyboard for your needs so you can have some more ergonomic options for working on your new laptop.
How we tested these laptops
How we test the best laptops
To find the best laptop, we run every machine through a rigorous suite of benchmarks and real-world tests to gauge how it will perform during everyday use. We measure the average brightness and color quality of each laptop’s display using our in-house light meter and colorimeter. For general performance, we run our machines through tests that include Geekbench 5 (CPU performance), as well as various 3DMark tests to measure graphics capabilities. We also run a file transfer test to measure how fast a machine’s hard drive is, and a custom battery test that has the machine browse the internet over Wi-Fi until it runs out of juice. When testing dedicated gaming laptops, we run benchmarks for popular games such as Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Far Cry 6 and Red Dead Redemption 2. For more information on our testing process, check out our guide to how we test.
