The buyer's guide
Laptops
Reviewed by
Eran Yorkovsky · Founder, PickGrade
Almost every laptop is good now — so the real question isn't which is best, it's which is right for you. We match the machine to what you run.
The hard part of buying a laptop now is that almost all of them are good — so the question isn't which is best, it's which is right for you. Four things decide it: what you actually run (browsing and docs ask far less than video editing or gaming), whether your software pulls you toward macOS or Windows, how much you carry it, and how much you'll spend — prices here run nearly ten to one, from a ~$399 Chromebook to a $3,700 gaming machine.
For most people the MacBook Air (M5) is the safe answer: silent, light, all-day battery, and fast enough for everyday work and light creative tasks. Need Windows? The Dell XPS 13 is the mainstream ultraportable and the ThinkPad X1 Carbon has the best keyboard in the business. Creators who outgrow the Air step up to the MacBook Pro 14; gamers want the ROG Zephyrus G16; and on a budget, the MacBook Neo or Acer Aspire 5 each covers a different buyer.
Not sure where you land? Take the 60-second quiz. To go deeper, weigh the flagships in MacBook Air vs Dell XPS 13 and MacBook Air vs MacBook Pro, or jump to your situation — college students, under $700, or remote work.
6 questions · about a minute
