Whether you're making the switch from a desktop machine to something more portable, looking at an all-in-one gaming beast, or just after an upgrade on your existing laptop, now’s a great time to compare the best laptops around.
Here at TechRadar, we review all the latest and greatest notebooks, ultrabooks and 2-in-1s, so we have the benefit of being able to thoroughly weigh up their pros and cons.
Apple has really come out swinging with the M1, M2 and M3 chipset and, the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro have had key benefits over the competition running on Intel CPUs. That is until the new Qualcomm Snapdragon CPUs arrived, bringing performance and efficiency to Windows.
There's also some excellent ultra-affordable options in the Chromebook category if you're just after a machine for some casual browsing and document editing to take on the go.
If you're unsure where to start, at the foot of the page we've put together a quick buying guide to steer you in the right direction – are you a gamer or do you need something affordable and versatile?
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
Microsoft has come out swinging, and the latest Surface Laptop is one of the best laptops we have tested. It's in part thanks to the Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU, which gives it proper all-day battery life, plus oodles of performance when needed. There are of course a few minor downsides, but the Surface Laptop is a great example of what a Windows laptop should be.
The best value laptop
While the MacBook Air M2 is the best overall laptop, the MacBook Air M1 is powerful enough to hold up well today and maintains it’s excellent battery life for anyone who can live with a more traditional chassis.
The best Windows laptop
The XPS 15 misses some of the more experimental features you’ll see on the current XPS Plus range, but it trades this for more powerful components at a better price-point. With an i7 processor, discrete graphics, and OLED or 4K display options the XPS 15 has everything a premium Windows Ultrabook needs.
The best creative 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 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.
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The best gaming Ultrabook
With a powerful Intel i9 CPU, up to 32GB of RAM and a 120W Nvidia GeForce 3070 Ti this is a fully-fledged gaming laptop that fits into a compact sub 2cm thick Ultrabook package. Add to this a 165Hz, QHD-plus screen with DCI-P3 professional colour and you have an exceptionally well equipped laptop for work and play.
The no-frills Ultrabook
The MSI Prestige 14 EVO is lightweight, offers a slightly above average i7 processor and fast storage in a price range that is a little more affordable than other premium ultrabooks.
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.
The best large-screen laptop
Looking for a huge screen to boost your productivity? The Dell XPS 17 combines the slim design of other XPS laptops with a 17-inch screen.
Best laptops in New Zealand 2024
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The best laptop overall
Windows has plenty of faults as an operating system, but it's never felt quite so nice to use as on new Surface Laptop. It might look like a normal laptop if not for the range of colours available, but uses a premium all-metal design that (finally!) favours robust repairability over being extra slim and light.
The Surface Laptop secret sauce is the Snapdragon X Plus and X Elite processors from Qualcomm. These new Arm CPUs match the best Apple silicon, giving excellent performance yet remaining efficient enough for true all-day battery life.
The Surface Laptop comes in two main models with either 13.8-inch or 15-inch forms. The 13.8-inch can be equipped 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 can have up to 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD. The 15-inch laptop has a 2496 x 1664 (201 PPI) display, while the 13.8-inch screen is a 2304 x 1536 (201 PPI) resolution – though both are IPS panels with a touchscreen, plus a high 400-nit brightness and excellent colour reproduction.
The Snapdragon is an Arm CPU, so some Windows software without a native version can experience a slight reduction in performance (and compatibility issues in some cases), but isn't a concern for mainstream apps. For easy tasks such as playing video, the 66Wh battery in the 15-inch Surface Laptop lasts over 25 hours. Even in heavier workloads, the laptop lasts between 10 to 15 hours on battery and easily makes it through a day of work. The 13.8-inch Surface laptop has a slightly smaller 54Wh battery but almost as long run times away from the charger.
The Surface Laptops include 2x USB 4 Type-C ports that handle video out and 65W charging, plus a single USB-A connection. We appreciate that Microsoft has also kept the magnetic Surface charging port (it does data and video output), keeping your USB-C ports free for other accessories, and letting the laptop work with older Surface docks.
The Surface Laptops are premium devices with a price tag to match, and the 13.8-inch model starts from AU$1,899 with 16GB of RAM, while the 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 top spec 32GB machine.
Read the full review: Microsoft Surface Laptop 13.8-inch
The best value laptop
Apple’s late 2020 MacBook Air might seem a little dated in 2023, but the M1 silicon chip was powerful enough when it was released to hold up well today… especially when you factor in battery life and value. Thanks to the revolutionary ARM-based Apple M1 chip that powers the new MacBook Air (Apple has ditched Intel for these new laptops), this is a stunning achievement: a thin and light laptop that offers great performance, even with 4K video editing, while also offering incredible battery life. Easily managing over 11 hours on a single charge, this is a laptop you can easily carry around with you at work or school, and its price is decently competitive compared to Windows 10 rivals (for once). Running both new and old Mac apps, the new MacBook Air can now also run iOS apps for iPhone and iPads, giving it access to hundreds of brilliant mobile applications and games as well.
Even if you've only ever used Windows laptops before, the MacBook Air (M1, 2020) is well worth getting and making the jump to macOS. Yes, it really is that good.
Read the full review: Apple MacBook Air (M1, 2020) review
The best Windows laptop
While the Dell XPS 15 misses out on the developments you’ll see on the XPS 13 Plus, by using the existing XPS chassis Dell is able to pack in even more premium components while keeping the price down. This is by no means a compromise either since the cool carbon fibre clad chassis is sleek and functional.
One of the biggest perks is a 14-core i7-12700H CPU which outpaces Apple’s M1 Max processors in some benchmarks. This CPU is backed by a Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti GPU, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD and a 1080p screen in the entry level configuration. The RRP for this unit is AU$3,499, but interestingly we’ve seen solid discounts on equivalent models with a 3.5K OLED touch or 4K 500nit touchscreen displays that bring them down to around AU$3,000 direct form Dell, so it’s worth keeping an eye out for a discount.
While the M1 Pro has a lower wattage than the i7-12700H, the XPS 15 seems to be benefiting from Nvidia’s new Optimus GPU switching tech since its battery life has jumped from around 6 hours of 1080p movie playback on the last generation to over 10 hours on the new generation. And while this is a way off the MacBook Air M2’s 19 plus hours it actually manages to outlast the MacBook Pro 16 with a M1 Max processor.
While the i7 CPU is already one of the most powerful available you can up it to an i9 for an additional $400. Both will be able to handle any workload you’ll throw at it and when paired with the 40W 3050 Ti you’ll get playable 30fps plus framerates on modern titles with 1080p Ultra settings. With 32GB or 64GB of RAM this configuration will be one of the most powerful Ultrabooks you can get this year.
The two higher resolution screens are some of the best available offering either a 3.5K OLED at 400 nits or an UltraHD display at a brighter 500 nit peak brightness. Dell doesn’t advertise the colour specifications of these displays, but you can apparently opt for Adobe RGB calibration, so you’ve got the option for professional colour grading capabilities if you need it.
Read the full review: Dell XPS 15 (9520)
The best creative workstation
Like the MacBook Air range, the new M3 updates of the MacBook Pro 14 and 16-inch laptops aren’t massively different to their predecessors. Obviously the devices come with new M3 Pro or M3 Max processors, which will bring respectable upgrades to overall performance, but for example have the same design and spec in a lot of areas, such as the display, the Wi-Fi 6E networking capabilities and the Thunderbolt ports.
This isn’t a complaint as such, as the 14.2-inch or 16.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR displays are still top of their game with high 3K-plus pixel resolutions, bright 1000 nit sustained screen brightness, 120Hz dynamic refresh rates and full DCI-P3 colour reproduction capabilities.
This battery lasted over 24 hours in our 1080p movie playback benchmark. That’s well over what you’d really need for a day of work unplugged and should include enough overhead to actually do some demanding creative work while on the go, which isn’t offered by many other professional laptops on the market.
Of course, this is Apple, so you need to pay a premium price for the hardware – especially if you upgrade the RAM or SSD. The entry level 14-inch MacBook Pro starts at a reasonable AU$2,699, but only comes with a paltry 8GB of RAM, and the price ranges up to AU$5,599 for the highest spec variant. The 16-inch MacBook Pro starts at AU$4,299 but maxing out all the upgrades costs over AU$10,000.
Read the full review: Apple MacBook Pro 16 (M3 Pro, M3 Max)
