• Best laptop overall
• Best Apple laptop
• Best gaming laptop
• Best value laptop
• Most portable workstation
• Best Student Laptop
• Best 2-in-1 laptop
• Best OLED laptop
• Best gaming ultrabook
• Best dual screen device
If you're in the market for a new laptop, TechRadar's best laptops Australia is the definitive summary of the absolute best options available.
All devices on this list have been benchmarked and tested directly, to ensure you get consistent, first-hand picks of the best laptops in each category.
Whether it's Apple's freshest M3-powered MacBook Air, the latest in the Dell XPS range, or one of the new budget-friendly 16-inch OLED laptops, we've painstakingly compared and contrasted each one in order to give you a rundown on the laptop with the best value.
We've taken into account Ultrabooks, gaming laptops, 2-in-1s, and every other shape and size that laptops come in these days – so don't worry if you're in it for work or play, we've got you covered.
For those that aren't sure what type of laptop would suit their needs best, jump down to the How to Choose section at the bottom of the page.
Lindsay is a long-serving contributor to TechRadar, handling testing and reviews for a wide range of products. He especially loves to benchmark the latest laptops, but also can't resist testing power banks and all things charging related.
The quick list
Want to cut to the chase and find out what the best laptops are? Below, you’ll find a roundup of our choices, and you can jump to a more detailed review of every pick, along with our price comparison tool to help you find the best deals.
The best laptop overall
Move over Apple – the latest Microsoft Surface Laptop is our new favourite. Thanks to the just released Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU, the Surface Laptop has truly all-day battery life, plus plenty of performance for almost any task you can throw at it. It's not perfect, but does finally show what a great Windows laptop looks like.
The best Apple laptop
Apple’s MacBook Air M3 is a worthy successor to the much loved M2 powered Air. The new model retains the slim design of the last generation but with a cheaper price and more powerful hardware. It has a few flaws, but overall the new M3 Air is a great option for those in the Apple ecosystem.
The best gaming laptop
With a powerful mid-range RTX 4070 GPU paired up with a large 16-inch, 2560 x 1600, 165Hz screen, the Legion 5i offers great gaming performance. It's also surprisingly affordable when on sale, and is an is excellent buy for those looking for a mid-range laptop that can handle gaming or high-end productivity work.
The best value laptop
The Acer Swift Go 16 is a 16-inch Ultrabook offering a 3K OLED panel, a 13th Gen Intel i7 CPU and solid supporting specs for a surprisingly good price. A fast and generous SSD, powerful i7-13700H CPU and generous screen will have you questioning how Acer managed to put all this into a budget-friendly laptop.
The most portable workstation
If you need to edit video content on the fly in your day-to-day role then the great battery life during intensive workloads of the MacBook Pro 16 makes it a uniquely competent laptop for creative professionals.
The best laptop for students
The Surface Laptop Go 2 is an excellent lightweight laptop that is capable of doing all the essential web browsing, media consumption and document processing tasks you’re likely to be needing while studying and working. The thousand dollar-ish price point is a major drawcard for anyone who needs a professional device that won’t bankrupt you.
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The best 2-in-1
The Surface Studio Laptop introduces the drawing-table like drawing features of the Surface Studio to a device you can take anywhere. Add to this a discrete GPU and a powerful CPU and you have a powerful and versatile convertible for anyone that likes their laptop to also be a tablet.
The best OLED display laptop
If you’re happy to spend a little more for all the latest tech then the Dell XPS 13 Plus offers more powerful Intel 12th Gen. processors, an optional OLED display, a sleek glass palm rest with integrated touchpad and a capacitive touch bar.
The best gaming Ultrabook
With a powerful 13th Gen Intel i9 CPU, 32GB of RAM and a 140W Nvidia GeForce 4070 this is a fully-fledged gaming laptop that fits into a compact 2.2 cm thick Ultrabook package. Add to this a 240Hz, 2.5K screen with DCI-P3 professional colour and you have an exceptionally well equipped laptop for work and play.
The best dual screen laptop
The Yoga Book 9i is a laptop like (almost) no other, thanks to a pair of OLED screens and a versatile stand that includes a keyboard and mouse. The 9i has a fairly powerful Core Ultra 7 155U CPU and can be outfitted with 16GB or 32GB of RAM – giving it plenty of grunt for day-today work. And sure, it's expensive, but also very very cool.
The best laptops in 2024
Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.
Below you'll find full write-ups for each of the best laptops in our list. We've tested each one extensively, so you can be sure that our recommendations can be trusted.
The best laptop overall
Windows has plenty of faults as an operating system, but it's never been as smooth and fast as on the new Surface Laptop. From the outside it's a very normal looking laptop that might even be boring if not for the range of colours available. On the plus side, it uses a premium all-metal design that (finally!) favours robust repairability over being extra slim and light.
But the real magic of the new Surface Laptop is inside, thanks to the Snapdragon X Plus and X Elite CPUs from Qualcomm. These new Arm CPUs match the best Apple silicon, giving excellent performance yet remaining efficient enough for truly all-day battery life.
The Surface Laptop comes in two main variants – 13.8-inch, and 15-inch. The former can be bought with the slightly less powerful X Plus CPU, or the faster X Elite, whereas the 15-inch model only comes with the X Elite. Either size is available with up to 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD – the latter is user upgradeable. The 15-inch laptop has a 2496 x 1664 (201 PPI) display, while the 13.8-inch screen is 2304 x 1536 (201 PPI) – though both are IPS panels with a touchscreen, plus a high 400-nit brightness and excellent colour reproduction.
Some Windows software does not yet have a native Arm version and is run using emulation. This can cause a mild reduction in performance (and compatibility issues in some cases), but isn't a particular problem for mainstream apps. In light loads such as playing video, the 66Wh battery in the 15-inch Surface Laptop lasts over 25 hours. Even in heavier workloads, it has no problems lasting 10 to 15 hours on battery. The 13.8-inch Surface laptop has a slightly smaller 54Wh battery but almost as long run times unplugged.
The Surface Laptops have dual USB 4 Type-C ports that do video out and charging, plus a single USB-A connection. In a move we love, Microsoft has kept the magnetic Surface charging port (it also does data and video output), keeping your USB-C ports free and allowing the laptop to connect to existing accessories such as older Surface docks.
The Surface Laptops are not the cheapest (though are already attracting the occasional discount), and the 13.8-inch model starts from AU$1,899 with 16GB of RAM, while the most expensive 32GB option is AU$3,399. The 15-inch model starts at AU$2,399 for 16GB RAM, and ranges up to AU$3,699 for the 32GB machine.
Read the full review: Microsoft Surface Laptop 13.8-inch
The best MacBook overall
While not everyone wants a MacBook or to join the Apple ecosystem, there's no denying the M series CPUs are impressively good. While you do tend to pay a premium (especially in Australia), Apple laptops have high-end build quality and some of the best battery life going.
The new M3 powered Air looks just like the M2 model – which is a good thing, as the design is simple but effective. The MacBook Air is well known for its battery life and our tests show it can last almost 14.5 hours between charges. Of course the Air has a few limitations, such as only a pair of USB4 TypeC ports (no Thunderbolt 4) and can only run one external monitor – two if the laptop lid is closed. The base spec of 8GB of RAM is also questionable (upgrading to 16GB costs an extra AU$300) and the lack of fan means the CPU tends to throttle if under prolonged load.
The MacBook Air 13-inch (M3) starts at AU$1,799. This is slightly higher than the older M1 MacBook Air’s launch price of AU$1,599. but less than the M2 model's launch price of AU$1,899 in 2022. If you go all out and upgrade both the RAM to 24GB and the SSD to 2TB, the AU$1,799 price becomes a rather high AU$3,599.
Still, it's great to see launch prices for new models go down, rather than up. It's also worth noting that the M2 model is now sold by Apple for AU$1,599. Meaning if you want extra value for money, it's well worth taking a read of our M2 Macbook Air review.
Read the full review: Apple MacBook Air 13-inch (M3)
The best gaming laptop
The Lenovo Legion 5i has a long been a favoured gaming bang for buck laptop, and the latest 2024 (Gen 9) model continues the trend. Sure, it's not without a few minor annoyances, and you do need to buy it when (frequently) discounted rather than at RRP, if you want the best value.
The Legion 5i configuration tested (Core i7-14650HX / 32GB RAM) gives excellent gaming performance thanks to the RTX 4070 GPU paired up with a 16-inch, 1600p, 165Hz display. When not gaming, the 5i is also a very competent workstation and performs well on AC, USB-C or battery power. It doesn't last as long unplugged as expected (this should improve over time with updated drivers) and it's a shame no facial recognition webcam (or fingerprint reader) is included.
The Legion 5i is also available in various hardware configurations, including more powerful i9 CPUs, and RTX 4050, 4060 and 4070 GPUs. The 16-inch IPS display has a 2560 x 1600 resolution, a 100% sRGB, 350nit brightness, and a 165Hz (G-Sync supporting) refresh rate. There's also a 500nit, 240Hz version of the display but it's harder to find in Australia.
Gaming performance is great (as expected!) – in large part thanks to the powerful cooling system that allows the GPU to sustain full output for longer without overheating. The RTX 4070-equipped 5i (as tested) can run games such as Cyberpunk 2077 at very smooth frame rates at the 1600p native resolution. The laptop is also a powerful option for those who need a productivity laptop for work or Uni, and while chunkier than many laptops, the 5i is still able to be carried day to day without too much trouble.
The best pricing for the 5i is often direct from Lenovo Australia – but only when discounted. Typical discounts range from 30% to 40% off RRP. For example the i7, RTX 4070 variant of the 5i has been discounted under AU$2,700 (and the i9 variant under AU$2,799) while the RTX 4060 equipped 5i has been under AU$2,200. Other retailers often have different hardware configurations of the Legion 5i, but again they typically need a decent discount from RRP to be good value.
Read the full Lenovo Legion 5i (Gen 9) review