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The best Windows laptop
It’s hard to come up with a single complaint about the Specter x360 14. It’s a drop-dead gorgeous machine with a sturdy build and a premium look and feel.
But the Specter x360 14 isn’t just pretty to look at: it’s also a pleasure to use as a daily work driver. Intel’s latest 11th Gen processors and Iris Xe integrated graphics deliver snappy performance with no slowdown or freezes that we observed. And we got an average of 10 hours of battery life out of the device — one of the best results we’ve ever seen.
On the outside, the Specter includes a roomy 3:2 display, and if FHD resolution doesn’t suit your fancy, there are OLED and 1,000-nit options available. There’s even a packaged stylus, which attaches magnetically to the side of the Specter — handy if you’re using the device as a tablet. Pretty much every other aspect of this laptop, from its comfortable keyboard and smooth touchpad to its bass-heavy audio and practical port selection, rivals or exceeds the best convertibles on the market.
Such an exceptional package of features doesn’t come cheap, and many customers will find everything they need in a less expensive product. But the Specter x360 14 is the new gold standard of Windows convertibles. Overall, it’s the best Windows laptop you can buy.
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Asus Row Zephyrus G15
At just over four pounds, the Zephyrus G15 is one of the lightest 15-inch gaming laptops you can buy. But you’re not compromising performance for that portability. The G15 is powered by the top mobile chips AMD and Nvidia have to offer, and pairs this with a fast 165Hz QHD display. In our testing, the system was able to handle even the toughest AAA titles at QHD resolution.
Almost everything else about the G15 is great too: the audio sounds good, the keyboard and touchpad are some of the best on the market, the port selection has just about everything you’d need, and the battery can last over eight and a half hours to a charge. If you’re looking for a high-powered gaming machine that also works great as a daily driver, the Zephyrus G15 should be at the top of your list.
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LG gram 17
Even if you’ve used a light laptop before, it’s difficult to explain how light the LG Gram 17 is. It has a massive 17-inch display, but it’s somehow only three pounds. Picking it up messes with your mind; you feel like you’re not holding anything. But the Gram 17’s weight isn’t the only standout feature. It also has some of the best battery life you can get, lasting over 12 hours in our testing. Add a great keyboard, a solid port selection, quiet fans, and a fast processor, and there’s very little not to like about this device.
Not everyone needs a 17-inch display, and many folks who do are looking for a heavier-duty workstation that probably doesn’t get moved very often. But if you’d just really like a large screen for your daily office work and Netflixing, you’re the target demographic for this machine. It’s a niche, but truly impressive device without much real competition in today’s market.
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HP Envy x360
The best budget laptop in 2021
You don’t need to spend $1,000 to get a laptop that looks and feels premium. The HP Envy x360 2020 is the best budget laptop you can buy, thanks to its sturdy and compact build, chic convertible design, and excellent performance.
Part of what makes the Envy so great is that HP has ported over a number of elements from its excellent 2019 flagship, the Specter x360, including the thin-and-light chassis and nearly bezel-free display with an 88 percent screen-to-body ratio. The touchscreen (which supports HP’s MPP2.0 pen) is bright and looks great. (You can choose a 300-nit, 400-nit, or 1,000-nit panel). And HP has added a row of convenient hotkeys to the keyboard, including kill switches for the microphone and webcam. But the most exciting feature is inside: the new Envy x360 is powered by AMD’s Ry zen 4000 series. The Ry -zen 5-4500U in my model did an outstanding job with a fairly heavy load of multitasking. And AMD’s integrated Rad eon graphics delivered good gaming performance comparable to what you’d expect from a lower-powered discrete GPU.
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MacBook Pro 13
The best MacBook Pro for everyday users
If you’re looking to buy an M1 MacBook for heavier workloads, you’ll want to look at the late-2020 MacBook Pro. It starts at $1,299, which is $300 more than the late-2020 MacBook Air.
The MacBook Pro has a slightly different design and look than the Air, as well as a few additional features like the Touch Bar. But the two have the same processor. The main difference is that the Pro includes a fan (the Air is finless), which means it can sustain heavy workloads for a longer period of time without needing to throttle its performance. But you won’t notice much of a performance difference between the two MacBook unless you’re routinely pushing heavy tasks for long periods of time.
If that’s you, though, go for the Pro. We were able to run a number of hefty Premiere Pro exports and didn’t see a dip in times. The Pro also achieved a significantly higher score than the Air in a 30-minute loop of Cine bench R23; the scores were closer together after a single run.
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Dell XPS 13
The best laptop for college
The Dell XPS 13 is a compact and reliable laptop. Its beautiful chassis, excellent 16:10 display, and great performance make it an excellent choice for general-purpose users.
This late-2020 model comes with Intel’s new Tiger Lake processors, from a Core i3-1154G4 up to a Core i7-1165G7. It starts at $999, so it’s a bit cheaper than the 2-in-1.
My review unit (an i7 model) blew through the work tasks I needed it to do without any slowdown or heat. It did quite well, and handily beat its 10th Gen predecessor in both gaming and media work. It didn’t do as well as the XPS 13 2-in-1, which is why that model is ranked higher on this list. But if you like the look and feel of the XPS 13 and would prefer a clamshell model (or need a bouncier keyboard), this XPS is still a great option.
There’s an OLED model of the XPS 13 as well, which costs $300 more than the FHD model. This model has worse battery life, but does deliver a stunning picture.
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Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Nan
The best laptop for business travel
In many ways, the ThinkPad X1 Nan is a run-of-the-mill ThinkPad. It’s got a solid sturdy chassis, discrete clickers, a physical privacy shutter, a red tracking in the middle of the keyboard, and all kinds of business-specific security and management features. But the Nan is special because it’s the lightest ThinkPad Lenovo has ever made. It’s also one of the lightest laptops you can buy, at just 1.99 pounds. You’re not sacrificing performance to get that mind-blowing weight: The Nan kept up with our heavy testing workloads without any fan noise or noticeable heat. If you’re looking for a reliable business laptop that will feel like nothing in your briefcase, this is the one for you.
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Lenovo Chromebook Duet.
The best laptop for students
Lenovo’s Chromebook Duet is a great convertible laptop for kids, or anyone who wants a reliable secondary driver for browsing and games. It’s a nice-looking, well-made 10-inch device that comes with a detachable keyboard and kickstand. The Duet is tailor-made to be used around the house and on the go, weighing just 2.03 pounds and delivering over 11 hours of battery life. Its MediaTek processor isn’t designed to shoulder heavy loads, but it’s just fine for browsing in a couple tabs, watching Netflix, or playing Android games — it even handles photo editing pretty well. The Duet also features a new “tablet mode” for Chrome OS, which supports an Android-inspired gesture navigation system and a unique Chrome layout optimized for tablet use.
The Chromebook Duet is an absolute steal for its low price.
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Razed Book 13.
A stylish, powerful productivity laptop
Razed is best known for its gaming laptops, but the company is making a big splash in the business and productivity space with its new Razed Book 13. At 0.6 inches thick and 3.09 pounds, the Book 13 is a portable workstation with a gorgeous and sturdy aluminum build. It features a good port selection including Thunderbolt 4, USB-A, HDMI 2.0 and a micros slot, and it’s one of very few non-gaming laptops out there to come with a per-key RGB keyboard.
On the inside, this laptop is even more impressive. Its powerful chip did better than any other Windows laptop of its size on our Premiere Pro media export test. And while the Book 13 isn’t a gaming laptop, it delivers some of the best gaming performance I’ve ever seen from integrated graphics — it can even run Shadow of the Tomb Raider over 30fps. While the Razed Book 13’s high price means it won’t be ideal for everyone, it’s still an outstanding laptop all around, combining a high-quality chassis with powerful productivity performance.
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Acer Concept D 7 Eel
The best creator laptop
If you’re a creative professional and money is no object for you or your company, you can’t do better than the Acer Concept D 7 Eel. This model has a screen that can bend into six different positions, so you can use it as a clamshell, a tablet, a tent, and more. There’s a built-in stylus that never needs to charge, so you can draw away without worry.
In addition to the innovative design, the Concept D Eel HSA great build quality. The white chassis is attractive and not too heavy (at least, considering the hardware inside this thing). The hinge is also quite sturdy, and I never had to worry about the screen sliding around in my testing. Almost everything else about this device is good, including the touchpad, port selection, and fingerprint reader. There’s even an RGB keyboard, which is more subtle than those you’ll find on gaming rigs.
The Concept D 7 Eel is pricey, and there are cheaper laptops out there that will suit creators’ needs just fine. But if you’re looking for a truly innovative laptop.
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MacBook Air
The late-2020 MacBook Air, powered by Apple’s M1 processor, is the best laptop you can buy. The base model, which includes 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage, starts at $999.
Appearance-wise, this laptop has a lot in common with the Intel-powered MacBook Air that Apple released earlier this year, including the same 2560 x 1600 screen, Touch ID, 720p webcam, fingerprint sensor, and scissor-switch keyboard.
But the new processor is the star of the show here; it’s fast. In our testing, it handled intense photo- and video-editing workloads better than almost any Intel-powered laptop we’ve tried this year. It was also able to run Shadow of the Tomb Raider at close-to-playable frame rates, which is quite a feat for integrated graphics. At launch, these apps hadn’t yet been optimized for the M1 processor and were running through Apple’s Rosetta 2 translation layer — but they still worked fine.
And the processing power didn’t even weigh down the battery life: we got between eight and 10 hours of sustained work.
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