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The Best Laptops for 2022

Looking at specs is only the showtime: Whether you desire a simple budget PC, a productivity workhorse, or a screamer of a gaming notebook, our deep-dive guide has the advice you need to find the all-time laptop for you.

Updated December 22, 2021

A laptop won't revolutionize the minutiae of your life the way a smartphone can. You lot tin can't easily whip one out to kill time in the elevator, capture a scenic sunset, or pay for a cup of coffee.

Simply in the years since smartphones took on all these jobs, laptops have honed their ain talents. Amazing battery life and scenic screens are now common, if y'all look in the right identify for them. The graphics musculus to play games at full HD is affordable. And those basic old-baby-sit features that you won't discover on any mobile device, such equally touchpads and full-size keyboards, tend to get better with almost every generation.

With great features, though, has come up swell fragmentation. Amazon, Newegg, and even your local electronics megamart take a dizzying array of cheap laptops, gaming laptops, two-in-i laptops, Chromebooks, and ultraportables. Here at PC Labs, nosotros review as many laptops as we can—hundreds each year—so we've seen pretty much every remix of laptop yous can buy.

Our Experts Have Tested 145 Products in the Laptops Category in the Past Yr

Since 1982, PCMag has tested and rated thousands of products to help you make ameliorate buying decisions. (See how we test.)

(Photo: Zlata Ivleva)

Buying ane by looking at specs and speed feeds alone tin be maddening, though. Which specific features, and which laptop grade, are best for y'all depends on your upkeep and how you plan to use your laptop. It's better to accept a systematic approach when shopping. Let's run through how to make a smart pick.

Appraise Your Budget: How Much Do I Need to Spend?

Don't intendance nearly cutting-edge blueprint and powerful components? You might be satisfied with a cheap laptop. Today'southward market place is flooded with bones but full-featured models with list prices under $500. Shopping holidays like Prime 24-hour interval and Black Friday, and actual holidays like Presidents' Day, bring frequent sales, discounting some of these models even farther. Most of them will handle give-and-take processing and email checking simply fine, only they'll struggle with other tasks, such every bit keeping many web browser tabs open up at once.

Increasing your budget to effectually $1,000 will unlock admission to nearly all of the cutting-border features modern laptops offer. These include slim, sturdy aluminum chassis, brilliant touch-enabled 4K displays, powerful processors and graphics chips, and batteries that will last all twenty-four hours and well into the dark. The major caveat in this price range is that you lot'll take to pick and choose which features are almost of import. Yous might exist able to state a laptop with a cute 4K brandish or a cavernous terabyte of solid-state storage at this price, but probably not i with both.

If your piggybank has $ii,000 or more, you can cull almost whatever combination of features you desire. Even the near powerful laptop that money can buy, though, must still obey the laws of physics. Powerful hardware generates heat, and the cooling mechanisms that such components require have up infinite. Hardcore gamers who want a 17-inch brandish and a screaming-fast graphics processor that requires bulky cooling pipes and fans tin't look to find it in a thin, lite laptop.

laptops open showing keyboards and touchpads

(Photograph: Zlata Ivleva)

IT-manageable, security-conscious business laptops—models fabricated primarily past Dell, HP, and Lenovo—have their own pricing dynamic, and they tend to cost a bit more, all else being equal. That's considering of their premium warranty or support plans, enterprise-specific silicon focused on manageability or security, fingerprint or face-recognition login features, and more rugged build quality.

Which Operating System to Make it My Laptop?

Nigh laptops you'll see in-shop or at your favorite online seller will run Windows ten (unless the seller is named "Apple"), but Microsoft'due south best-known production isn't necessarily the best operating system for everyone. Thank you to the ascendance in recent years of Google's Chrome OS up the ranks of budget laptops, there'due south now an alternative to Windows at every price level. The tipping point for not-Windows laptops is around $1,000; higher up a m, your main alternative to a Windows 10 machine is a MacBook; below information technology, it's a Chromebook.

Today, laptops based on Chrome Os are the main alternatives to upkeep-priced Windows 10 laptops. A Chromebook could be a fine, value-minded choice for someone who needs a laptop only to watch movies, create text documents, write emails, and putter around in basic spreadsheets. With a Chromebook, the master features you will really demand from your laptop are a decent screen and a comfortable keyboard, since deject services like Google Drive can handle most of your storage and processing needs. And, if yous still insist on key brute comforts, you can detect midrange Chromebooks with total-Hd (1080p) displays and comfortable keyboards just equally easily as you can discover bargain-basement ones these days.

For people with similar needs but larger budgets, an Apple tree MacBook might be the way to go, assuming y'all're cool with running your day-to-twenty-four hour period computing life on macOS. You won't find a "cheap" MacBook anywhere in the Apple tree family unit, merely you lot volition find solid industrial design, universally excellent battery life, and a ton of built-in apps to manage your multimedia drove and sync with your iCloud account and the residue of your Apple devices.

Higher-finish MacBook Pros also suit content creators, with the option for a 16-inch Retina brandish and for CPUs upwardly to Intel'south Core i9. I of the most significant Mac-laptop drawbacks is a full lack of affect-screen back up, which is an option in diverse Chrome OS and Windows 10 machines.

(Photo: Zlata Ivleva)

A Windows-based machine affords access to the widest range of software, including nearly AAA games; the subset of popular, first-rank game titles is much smaller on macOS, and games on Chrome OS are limited to what runs in a browser, or that yous tin download as an Android app or from the Chrome Web Store. A Windows motorcar as well offers the well-nigh form-factor flexibility. A few Chromebooks take designs built around detachable or foldable keyboards, letting you use them as tablets, just Windows offers a far greater selection of these flexible concrete designs.

In fact, the vast number of Windows 10 devices ways Microsoft'south Os gives you the most flexibility in choosing a laptop, period. Most of the residual of your buying decisions, which nosotros'll accost below, are therefore relevant mainly to Windows machines. (Nosotros'll exist sure to notation when Macs or Chromebooks offer a certain feature as well, however.)

What's an Ideal Size and Weight?

Almost people searching for a general-purpose laptop should choose one that measures about one-half an inch thick and weighs 3 pounds or less. In general, these are the maximum dimensions and heft a laptop tin can accept for the states to consider it an ultraportable, and for most users, portability is the central to maximizing use and enjoyment.

Aiming for that weight and thickness, in well-nigh cases, volition limit the laptop'southward screen size to 13 or 14 inches, although a few models with xv-inch or larger screens now fit into the ultraportable category. At nigh of these screen sizes, you can find models in either the conventional "clamshell" laptop shape or a 2-in-ane convertible design. The latter has a hinge that rotates the screen 360 degrees so you can utilise it every bit a makeshift tablet or prop information technology up like a tent for watching movies.

(Photograph: Zlata Ivleva)

Some Windows and Chrome Bone laptops do have smaller displays, such as x or xi inches. Some of these are not technically laptops in the pure sense, but rather tablets with detachable keyboards. Unless you lot're specifically looking for a office-fourth dimension tablet or the lightest possible laptop, avoid these designs. They're lighter than virtually 13-inch ultraportables, oft less than 2 pounds, but they're non as good at being tablets equally the Apple tree iPad is, and their detachable keyboards hateful they're not much adept at being laptops, either—typing on most of them tends to be subpar.

At the other end of the size spectrum are 17-inch behemoths. They by and large appeal to hardcore gamers, but you can notice the occasional 17-inch productivity car or workstation if you happen to similar a larger screen for other reasons. A 17-inch laptop can closely mimic the experience of a desktop, at the expense of size and weight. Some of these designs can exceed eight pounds and measure more than than an inch thick. If you program to park your gaming rig on your desk and seldom movement it, a 17-incher is a possibility. Otherwise, most gamers should stick with a 15-inch laptop.

What Kind of Laptop Screen Do I Need?

Laptop screens have grown denser over the past decade, packing more pixels into the aforementioned expanse. That enables crisper text, sharper onscreen images, and, often, better-looking colors. Display density is sometimes measured in pixels per inch (ppi), merely the main specification that defines a laptop screen is its native resolution, which is expressed in horizontal by vertical pixels.

Most laptops that cost $500 or more have screens with at least "full Hard disk" resolutions. Also known equally "1080p" displays, they sport a resolution of 1,920 by 1,080 pixels (or in a few cases, 1,920 by 1,200) and typically utilize LCD panels built on what's known as in-plane switching (IPS) technology. IPS screens' quality can vary, but they are best known for keeping the quality of the image loftier if you expect at the screen from an oblique, or off-side, angle. Thin-pic transistor (TFT), the other major screen type in modernistic laptops (and the kind often found in gaming-geared models), tends to shift colors or look faded if non viewed straight-on. That matters if yous often share the contents of your screen with others—say, when giving impromptu presentations.

(Photo: Zlata Ivleva)

Cheap Windows- and Chrome OS-based laptops will usually have lower-resolution thin-film transistor (TFT) displays (1,280 by 720 pixels and 1,366 by 768 are the mutual numbers at that place), which means text won't appear as crisp and colors might not be equally vivid as you've come to expect from your smartphone or TV. If you're not picky most image quality, though, a lower-resolution brandish might be an acceptable sacrifice in the quest to save money.

For the crispest text and most brilliant colors, you tin can go higher than total Hard disk. Many loftier-end laptops now have displays with 4K native resolution (more often than not iii,840 by 2,160 pixels) as standard or optional extras. These screens mostly utilise the same IPS technology as full Hd panels, but a few apply OLED technology, similar to what you'll find in cutting-edge smartphones. OLED screens control a premium, and their inky blacks and luxurious colors are best suited for motion picture buffs.

Whether the screen is OLED, IPS, or TFT, people who plan to use their laptops in brightly lit rooms or outdoors will want to brand sure that the panel has a maximum effulgence level of at least 500 nits.

Should I Get a Touch on Screen?

To take advantage of the touch-screen support nowadays throughout Windows 10 and Chrome OS, y'all'll want to seek out a touch-enabled laptop, and perhaps even a digital stylus to write or draw on it. Some Windows 10 laptops come up in both touch- and not-affect versions, so cheque the specifications on what you're buying carefully. Glossy screens typically feature touch support, while nigh matte screens designed to filter out glare from ambience lighting practice not.

(Photo: Zlata Ivleva)

Since many gaming laptops have matte displays, touch support is much harder to find amidst their ranks. Many gaming laptops above budget-level do offer high-refresh-charge per unit screens, though. Hardcore gamers or esports hounds who are looking for silky-shine visuals to give them a competitive edge volition want to maximize the number of frames per second that their screen can display, and tin do and so by opting for a screen with a 120Hz or greater refresh rate.

However, before you pay a major premium for a high-refresh screen, yous'll want to be sure that the graphics fleck, or GPU, is muscular enough to button the kinds of games yous play at a high plenty frame rate to brand a deviation. Standard laptop screens have 60Hz refresh rates, and if y'all'll be playing games at threescore frames per second or lower, in almost cases a high-refresh screen won't confer much benefit.

Which Laptop CPU Practise I Demand?

Most $1,000 ultraportables utilize Intel's Core i5 or Core i7 CPUs, or, less commonly, AMD's Ryzen 5 or Ryzen seven CPUs. All of these offer plenty of power for everyday calculating tasks, simply keep in mind that college CPU model numbers typically signal more processor cores, higher maximum clock speeds, and sometimes even multithreading. With multithreading, each CPU core can run two sets of software instructions simultaneously, instead of just ane. Modern software is designed to take advantage of as many CPU cores as possible, so information technology can run faster on multithreaded chips.

Meanwhile, budget laptops typically use AMD'south A-series or Ryzen 3 processors, or Intel'southward Celeron, Core i3, or Pentium silicon. These typically have only 2 or iv individual cores. At the other finish of the spectrum, high-stop powerhouse laptops accept Intel's Core i9 or workstation-class Xeon CPUs, with as many every bit 8 cores.

(Photograph: Zlata Ivleva)

Regardless of which CPU a laptop has, it's typically designed to utilise less power and generate less estrus than its desktop counterpart. Intel laptop CPUs in the latest mainstream, lightweight laptops typically consume xv watts of ability or less, compared with 45 watts or more for their desktop equivalents.

Gaming laptops typically feature higher-powered CPUs, usually denoted by an "H" in the CPU'due south model proper noun. These crave more than cooling hardware and eat more than energy, but they offer performance that's closer to that of a desktop PC. You'll find H-series CPUs from both AMD and Intel.

Getting into laptop-processor specifics can go you pretty deep in the weeds, only for a practiced overview that doesn't overwhelm, check out our guide to choosing a laptop CPU that fits what you do.

Do I Need Dedicated Graphics?

A graphics processor that's built into the CPU (also known equally an "integrated graphics processor," or IGP) is perfectly acceptable for most everyday laptop use. You'll know you're looking at an IGP if yous see a reference to Intel's Hd Graphics, UHD Graphics, or Iris as the graphics solution on an Intel-CPU laptop (or Radeon Graphics on an AMD-based laptop). An IGP shares the CPU's processor cores, memory, or both. The amount of retention bachelor to the integrated graphics chip is usually fixed, so increasing the amount of system memory won't upshot in better graphics performance.

Near gamers volition desire to consider a detached GPU with its own dedicated calculating resources. Even a budget gaming GPU volition offer an immense reward over an integrated graphics processor when it comes to playing 3D games. (Note that some laptops will come up with low-finish defended graphics solutions like the the GeForce MX series that are a notch up from IGPs but not meant for serious gaming.) At the high end, hardcore gamers should await for Nvidia's latest GeForce RTX GPUs.

With gaming laptops, the level of GPU yous need is very much tied to the frame rate you lot want to run at the laptop's native screen resolution, and the kind of games you play. That's where our reviews come in handy. We test with several demanding gaming and industry-standard benchmarks to give you a relative sense of a laptop's graphics operation. Check out our roundup of favorite late-model gaming machines and best upkeep gaming laptops for much more.

How Much Storage and Retentivity Exercise I Demand?

Most laptops above entry-level come with solid-state drives (SSDs), which utilize memory cells instead of a spinning platter (the archetype difficult drive) to store information. Since data stored in cells is much faster to access, SSDs are the all-time and most common bulldoze configuration. They're also immune to jolts and bumps that might crash a spinning platter's heads.

Some laptops‚ especially larger-chassis ones designed for gaming, come with both kinds of drive: a small SSD to agree the operating organisation, essential apps, and a few games, and a larger spinning one to store the bulk of your game files or other space-consuming media. That'southward a perfectly fine option if you lot're looking to save some money or simply need the maximum possible local storage amount, but you should stick with an SSD-simply setup whenever possible.

Annotation that non all laptop SSDs are created equal. SSDs that utilise the more mod, generally faster PCI Express NVMe standard, as opposed to the older, slightly slower SATA interface, are preferable. (PCI Express SSDs are slowly taking over the field, in whatever case.) Either of these, still, are far meliorate than a third type, which is a not-quite-SSD: the much slower eMMC, a kind of wink storage bulldoze found in budget machines. (If your upkeep laptop has 32GB, 64GB, or perchance 128GB of local storage, it is probably using eMMC.) All of them are better than a traditional spinning hard drive unless you simply need sheer capacity for the least coin.

The minimum amount of storage space most laptop shoppers should consider is 256GB. This will accommodate the considerable requirements of operating system updates and large apps like Microsoft Function with room left over. People who have sizable collections of videos, photos, or music (or any but the most casual of PC gamers) should seek out a minimum of 512GB. At the loftier cease, you'll notice laptops configurable with 1TB or even roomier SSDs, and these will audio bully. But beware that the very highest capacities can cause a laptop'due south cost to skyrocket—a 4TB SSD can add thousands of dollars to the overall cost of a high-end laptop. Information technology'due south more cost-effective to get a 512GB SSD and add an external bulldoze if you need boosted space.

(Photo: Zlata Ivleva)

While a laptop'due south SSD stores your information, its system memory (or RAM) works with the CPU to run apps and helps define its chapters to multitask. Bones productivity apps volition run simply fine with 8GB of retentivity, but you'll want to configure a midrange laptop with 16GB to ensure that tomorrow'due south more than advanced apps volition take admission to enough memory. That's as well a good target corporeality for heavy multitaskers, PC gamers, and people who surf the web with many tabs open. Mod web browsers loading multimedia-rich sites and web apps are voracious consumers of memory.

Few people who aren't professional or prosumer content creators will encounter much condiment benefit from retentivity amounts to a higher place 16GB. On the flip side of that, a budget Windows 10 organisation with just 4GB of retentivity will be sluggish with multitasking and is mostly indicative of a blank-bones configuration. The same is true of Chromebooks—although Chrome Os is designed to demand fewer computing resources than Windows does, if you're prone to performing retentiveness-intensive tasks similar browsing with dozens of tabs open at once, 4GB can be limiting.

What Kind of Connectivity Do I Need?

If you plan to use your laptop's touchpad, touch screen, and keyboard as the primary means of control, most of the time you lot may never need to plug in anything other than the ability cord. In this instance, y'all'll rely on the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connections that most every laptop offers.

The latest Wi-Fi standard is 802.11ax (besides dubbed "Wi-Fi 6"), and is a good feature to look for in a premium machine to ensure the fastest Wi-Fi connectivity in the future. The older 802.11ac, though, is only fine for mainstream and budget systems. Steer articulate of the older 802.11b/g/n standards that are still available on some budget machines, if y'all tin, every bit those can result in lower throughput speeds and less reliable connections.

(Photograph: Zlata Ivleva)

Serious gamers might desire to opt for a automobile with a Killer Networks setup. It will let for more granular control over giving wired or wireless gaming traffic priority on your net connectedness. Business users and gamers may as well want a dedicated Ethernet jack. Most gaming machines will have one, and some gamers insist wired Ethernet is still the only way to go for competitive online gaming. Some laptops implement Ethernet equally a full-size or fold-out jack; others may come with an adapter in the box that routes Ethernet through a USB port. And yet others come with neither, leaving wired Ethernet upwardly to you to add via a dongle if you want it.

(Photo: Zlata Ivleva)

As for other physical connections, you'll want to examine the edges of a given laptop advisedly and take count. If y'all accept an external storage device like a thumb drive, you lot'll desire to pay attention to the type and quantity of USB ports. Look for laptops that take both USB Type-A and Blazon-C ports. Type-A is the familiar rectangular connector that has been effectually for decades, while Type-C is smaller, oval-shaped, and sometimes doubles every bit a receptacle for the laptop's charging cable.

Budget laptops may only have Type-A ports, which is a disadvantage in an increasingly Type-C world. On the other hand, some ultra-thin designs just accept Type-C ports, which means you'll need dongles to connect whatever Type-A peripherals you might already own.

If video output matters to you, bank check for a dedicated port like an HDMI connector, especially if you program to connect your laptop to your TV, desktop monitor, or a lecture hall A/5 organization. Sometimes video outputs are implemented on laptops every bit micro HDMI or mini DisplayPort connectors to save infinite. You'll need a special cable to use these, which may or may not be included in the box.

Photographers will do good from a born SD or microSD carte reader for more convenient image uploading. And if you plan to employ your laptop in a public, unsecured location, a security notch for fastening a physical locking cable is very useful. These fall into two types, the Kensington-cablevision style and the Noble-lock way. Make sure the notch type matches the kind of cable y'all intend to apply to tether the machine to an immovable object.

How Much Bombardment Life Is Enough?

Many laptops can last an entire day away from the power outlet, even when you're using them for demanding only common activities similar streaming internet video. At that place are exceptions; a laptop with a 4K display and a powerful CPU probably will not final for more 8 hours or so earlier its bombardment dies, and virtually gaming laptops dice far sooner. When you're playing demanding games that tax the GPU, gaming laptops tend to run out of juice even more speedily off the plug than they commonly do. You'll observe more than a few exceptions, though, and even powerful laptops have become adept at sensing when their maximum power isn't required and reducing various components' consumption.

This is where PC Labs' bombardment testing comes in. We evaluate bombardment life past playing a locally stored video file nonstop with no wireless connections active and l percent screen effulgence. An excellent result on our examination suggests that the laptop is adept at adapting its power use to the chore at hand, and you can use the results to compare the potential of machines you lot are considering.

Measuring battery life is notoriously tricky, though, since information technology's entirely dependent on how you utilise your laptop. Your usage profile probably doesn't match our examination—or anyone else's—to a T. So yous'll desire to look at tested bombardment life in a relative, rather than accented, sense.

Should I Consider a Refurbished Laptop?

Every manufacturer and reseller has different standards for refurbishing previously used laptops. A slight disbelieve on a rigorously tested MacBook Pro that Apple sells with the aforementioned warranty equally a new i might be worth the cost savings, while a laptop refurbished by a 3rd political party you've never heard could be chancy. It's best to buy whatever refurbished motorcar directly from the manufacturer'south online store as opposed to from a reseller, especially a reseller that may exist hawking refurbs from "market" sellers or tertiary parties on its platform.

Some of these resellers or their third parties will charge per unit their refurbished stock with a grade. (It pays to ask who has done the refurbishing—the manufacturer itself, or the reseller.) We've seen refurbished laptops being sold and rated with grades of A, B+, B, C, and so on, to reflect the relative corporeality of clothing and tear on the machine. There is no universal grading system for refurbished PCs, still. Information technology's generally upwards to the reseller what the grade means, and thus it tin can vary from seller to seller. Nosotros're wary of machines graded this way and strongly recommend insisting on an ironclad return policy in the case of purchases similar these, if you decide to roll the dice. Yous could end up pleasantly surprised, but commonly, a refurbished-laptop deal that looks too good to exist true...is.

What is nearly universally true is that with a bit of tech know-how, y'all can use your own pre-owned laptops to your reward. If you're in the market place for new laptops for both yourself and your kids, you might consider tuning up your current PC to give to your children and ownership a new ane for yourself.

Should I Go a Longer Laptop Warranty?

Most laptop makers offer i-year warranties on parts and labor. These standard plans are express, so they won't cover accidents that stalk from spilling a drink on the keyboard or dropping the organization on the sidewalk. Fortunately, your credit-card issuer likely covers such mishaps for a short period of fourth dimension later on you buy a new product, and it also may extend the manufacturer'south warranty. (Many Mastercard accounts include a doubling of the standard warranty period up to one year, for example.) Cheque your account benefits guide for details.

If your credit-card issuer doesn't cover you, some laptop makers volition happily sell yous extended warranties. Apple, Dell, HP, and Lenovo all offer wide ranges of extended warranties and coverage for accidental impairment. Expect to spend $100 to $300 for these options. Our dominion of pollex is that if a warranty costs more xv percentage of the laptop's purchase price, you lot're meliorate off spending the money on backup drives or services that minimize downtime.

Of course, you tin can't put a cost tag on peace of listen. There are instances when the logic board or the display—the most expensive parts of a laptop—fail, and while rare, such a catastrophe can cost you half of what the laptop is worth in repair costs.

Where to Go From Hither?

Shopping for a laptop is an exercise in patience. An ultra-competitive market ways that even if you've got specific requirements, y'all tin can well-nigh certainly discover a handful of excellent models that will run into them, and another handful of perfectly serviceable but ho-hum models that volition, also. At present that you know which specifications to look for, we hope that parsing the adept from the bad will exist much easier. Nosotros update our top picks frequently, and y'all can find our electric current favorite laptops below.

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