The best laptops in 2024 based on our testing and reviews
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The best laptop in 2024 for most people is the 13-inch MacBook Air M3. For an affordable price, this
laptop delivers enough computing power for most users, and it has a durable
build and a long-lasting battery. Prefer Windows? The Asus ZenBook 14 OLED checks the same boxes at a
similar price, while the Acer Swift Go 14is an even more affordable option. If
you have more specialized needs, like a gaming laptop, business laptop, or
2-in-1 laptop, don't worry; I've got recommendations for you, too.
Reflecting on the best laptops in 2024, I saw a massive leap
forward in two critical categories: performance and battery life, so even if
you're upgrading after just a few years, you can expect a dramatic boost from
any of the laptops in this guide. As the managing editor of Laptop Mag, I
oversee our expert testing and reviews of over one hundred laptops annually.
These days, the market is more complex than ever before, but I can help make
your search easy.
Our two-pronged review strategy gives a complete picture of
each laptop. The Laptop Mag testing team runs a series of
rigorous tests on every laptop: Geek bench (synthetic CPU test), Handbrake
(video encoding CPU test), 3DMark (graphics tests), display tests (brightness,
color gamut), battery tests (custom battery rundown), and more. Laptops are
then turned over to our reviewers to use in real-world situations. Dozens of
hours go into every review produced for Laptop Mag.
This page is constantly updated based on our latest reviews
to reflect Laptop Mag's current picks for the best laptops in 2024.
Weighing a mere 2.7 pounds, Apple’s smallest laptop
features the M3 chip, which delivers a power and efficiency boost over its
predecessor. This makes it my pick as the best laptop for most people.
The MacBook Air's 13.6-inch
display is one of the brightest laptops around, and True Tone ensures excellent
color accuracy, but its vibrancy falls short of some of the OLED competition.
Rumors of Apple moving to OLED in the future abound, but not yet.
Like the M2 Air, the MacBook Air M3 is one of the thinnest
laptops at only 0.4 inches. However, unlike many ultraportable laptops, it can
keep up with an impressive workload thanks to the M3 chip. Whether it was our
benchmarks or real-world usage, the Air M3 was up for any task.
Looking at the benchmarks, the MacBook Air M3 scored 12,087
on Geek bench 6.2, well above the category average. Our Handbrake video
transcoding test took 7 minutes and 54 seconds to transcode a 4K video to
1080p. Again, this beats the average, but it's worth noting that some of
its Intel Core
Ultra-powered competition is passing the MacBook here. Apple also addressed the
slightly slower SSD read/write performance of the Air M2, jumping from
2,800.1/2,210.6MBps on the M2 to 3,030.7/3,058.8MBps with the M3.
All that performance prowess doesn't hurt its battery life,
either. If finding an outlet can be a challenge during your day, never fear.
The Air M3 powered through over 15 hours of battery life testing in our lab.
If that’s not enough, you also get a 1080p webcam with
Apple's latest software tricks helping to boost the hardware to higher heights.
So what are the downsides? If you have a lot of peripherals, the pair of
Thunderbolt/USB-C ports may be challenging, but at least you have MagSafe 3 to
keep both ports free while charging.
Starting at $1,099, the 13-inch MacBook Air M3 isn't cheap
but remains a solid value, and Apple
made it an even better value on October 30 by bumping up the base RAM
to 16GB, previously a $200 upgrade that we recommended most people buy.
If you want to save money, the 13-inch MacBook
Air M2 sticks around at a new $999 starting price, and I expect to see
it regularly discounted to $899 or less, so look at the best MacBook deals before
picking one up.
Need more screen real estate? Look no further than the 15-inch
MacBook Air M3. It mirrors all of the strengths of its smaller sibling but
with a larger 15.3-inch display. The new MacBook Pro 14-inch
M4 and MacBook Pro 16-inch M4 Pro may sway Apple fans with more
high-performance needs, but rest assured the Air remains the right choice for
most people.
MacBook Air 13 M3 benchmark test results
The MacBook Air 13 M3 dominates the competition in display brightness, Handbrake performance, and battery life, however it can't match their vibrancy. Click the drop-down menu below to explore the rest of our test results.
Acer's Swift Go 14 is the easy choice for the best budget laptop. Starting at
$749, the Go 14 isn't the cheapest laptop, but its value is incredible.
We reviewed the slightly upgraded $999 configuration, but the main
trade-off is moving from an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H to a Core Ultra 5
125H. The performance difference will be negligible if you stick to
productivity work, browsing, and other general computing.
The design remains the same at either price, with the Go 14 coming in
at just 2.9 pounds. The metallic all-aluminum chassis gives off a faint
sparkle that looks and feels far more premium than its price.
Popping it open, the contrasting black chiclet-style backlit keyboard
looks and feels excellent. Acer also gives you ports aplenty on this
portable laptop with two Thunderbolt 4 ports, two USB Type-A ports,
an HDMI port, a microSD card slot, a 3.5mm audio jack, and a
Kensington lock slot.
The display lands just below the mainstream average for color at
79.1 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut (85.2 percent is average),
but it beats the category average in brightness at 374 nits
(354 is average). Again, factoring in the price, these are strong results.
You could also opt for the 2.8K display configuration if you value
a sharper image.
Performance with our review model was everything we've come to
expect from the latest Intel Core Ultra. Our Geek bench 6.2 overall
performance test scored 12,434, overtaking more expensive options
like the MacBook Air M3 (12,087). It also scorched the competition
for our Handbrake video encoding test at 5 minutes and 18 seconds,
almost four full minutes under the category average (9:07), again
besting the MacBook Air M3 (7:54).
So, what are the drawbacks? The battery life isn't bad, at 9 hours and
50 minutes in our testing, but it is well below top options like the
MacBook Air M3 (15:21) or the Asus ZenBook 14 OLED (15:52).
If you frequently travel or otherwise have difficulty plugging in,
this could impact your decision. The built-in speakers are also
less than stellar, so plan on some wireless headphones or earbuds.
However, these are minor concerns for most users, so if you are
looking for the best laptop value, look no further than the Acer Swift Go 14.
Acer Swift Go 14 (Intel Core Ultra)
The Acer Swift Go 14 blows away Geek Bench and Handbrake performance in its class and price range. Display vibrancy and brightness along with battery life deliver close to the premium laptop average, which is impressive at this price. Click the drop-down menu below to explore the rest of our test results.
Best laptop for students
3. Asus ZenBook 14 OLED (Q425)
Stop studying this list, you've found the best laptop for students.
Specifications cpu: Intel core 7 155h gpu: Intel ARGRAPHICS STORAGE: 1 TB SSDDISPLAY: 14-INCH, 1080P SIZE: 12.3 x 8.7 x 0.6 INCH WEIGHTS: 3 POUNDS
Reasons to buy
+
Almost 16 hours of battery life!
+
Snappy performance
+
Quality audio
+
Smooth, comfortable keyboard
+
Secure webcam privacy shutter
Reasons to avoid
-
Display could be brighter
-
Runs a little hot
Asus has been on a roll with the Zenbook 14 OLED line for a few years, so
while it is no longer a surprise, this early 2024 Zenbook takes yet another
significant leap forward.
This is in no small part due to the new Intel Core Ultra chipset inside, which
puts the Zenbook 14 OLED on par with any productivity and light content
creation laptops on the market. It also absolutely blew the roof off our
battery life test, with 15 hours and 52 minutes in our test. That's the
longest a traditional Windows laptop has lasted in recent memory.
Divining into some of the specifics on performance, it overtook the
13-inch MacBook Air M3 in multi-core Geekbench 6.2
(12,707 vs. 12,087). That wasn't its only win against the
much-vaunted MacBook. The Zenbook also beat it in our Handbrake
1.6 test by converting a 4K video to 1080p in 6:36, over a minute
faster than the Air M3's 7:54.
The OLED display looks excellent in person, but the benchmarking
put it in the middle of the road when it comes to the DCI-P3 color
gamut at 79.8 percent, that's below the mainstream average of
85.2 percent and just slightly ahead of the MacBook Air M3
(77.8 percent). It is extremely color accurate with a Delta-E of 0.21,
relevant for content creators. Display brightness is a weak point
against its competition at 339 nits, which is not a terrible result,
but it's something we want to see Asus address for the next model.
The Zenbook weighs 3 pounds, not exactly an ultralight, but not
something that will weigh you down too much going from class
to class or while commuting. Overall, the Zenbook 14 OLED ticks
just about every box we like to see for a student laptop while
going above and beyond with its performance and battery life.
This laptop should comfortably hold up through four years of
college or for a high school student preparing to head to
We haven't had the opportunity to test an M4 Max
configuration of the MacBook Pro yet, but the M4 Pro proves that few would need
to look beyond it. Our mid-tier configuration of the 16-inch MacBook Pro M4 Pro
delivered performance and battery life results beyond the 16-inch MacBook Pro
M3 Max that we reviewed last year, offering 7% better overall performance and
almost 3 extra hours of battery life! All of that in a configuration that with
matching storage would cost $900 less.
Our $3,499 review configuration of the MacBook Pro 16 M4 Pro
featured the base 14-core CPU and 20-core GPU, paired with 48GB of RAM and a
2TB SSD, but you can max those out with the M4 Max at up to a 16-core CPU, a
40-core GPU, up to 128GB of RAM and an 8TB SSD. Maxing out all of the options
would put you at $7,349, so you'll want to consider your upgrades wisely.
In almost every performance metric, the MacBook Pro 16 M4
Pro is at the top of the charts. It's Geekbench 6 score of 22,822 is more than
double the premium laptop average. Turning to our Handbrake test which has the
laptop transcode a 4K video to 1080p, the MacBook Pro finished in 2 minutes and
38 seconds. That's more than twice as fast as the premium laptop average and
over 30 seconds faster than the creator-focused Asus ProArt PX 16 2024. If you
do creative work professionally and value your time, the MacBook Pro M4 Pro or
M4 Max is the way to go.
Battery life remains the most mystifying trick that this
powerhouse of a laptop has up its sleeve. Achieving 20 hours and 46 minutes in
the Laptop Mag battery test, that's over 7 hours longer than
the premium laptop average and more than double its Windows content creation
rivals like the Lenovo
Yoga Pro 9i 16 Gen 9 (9:51) or the Asus ProArt PX16 2024 (9:32). If
you need are regularly working away from an outlet, this should make for an
easy choice.
Is there any reason to avoid the 16-inch MacBook Pro M4 Pro
or M4 Max? Price and macOS are the two big reasons. The M4 Pro configurations
start at $2,499 and the M4 Max configurations start at $3,499. That's at the
upper end of premium for anything other than a workstation or gaming laptop,
but considering the performance, efficiency, and build quality it's not
outlandish. As for macOS, it's a smooth and well-supported operating system,
but if you need Windows-only apps or your work just doesn't support macOS,
you'll either is a great operating system, but if you have Windows-only apps
that you need to use or you're business doesn't support macOS, it could be a
dealbreaker. Finally, Apple continues to improve its gaming support, but it
remains distantly behind Windows for gamers. As long as none of these concerns
spoil things for you, the 16-inch MacBook Pro M4 Pro or M4 Max is in a class by
itself when it comes to a mainstream high-performance laptop.
gamer’s gaming laptop," which nicely sums up this outstanding, but not
overpriced choice for gamers. Let's dig into the details and our extensive testing of this laptop a bit. The Lenovo
Legion Pro 7i averaged 105 frames per second on the Far Cry 6 (Ultra, 1080p)
benchmark, which was enough to inch past the MSI Vector 16 HX (98 fps) and
its own previous gen (97 fps), but blew past the Alienware X16 R2 (88 fps).
The Red Dead Redemption 2 (Medium, 1080p) benchmark kept things closer, with
the Pro 7i at 96 fps, the Vector 16 at 104 fps, the X16 R2 at 90 fps, and the Pro 7i
Gen 8 at 69 fps. Don't ignore the display when buying a gaming laptop, it's almost as much of
the experience as the performance. Lenovo certainly heeded our guidance there
with the glorious 16-inch, 2560 x 1600, 240Hz panel delivering an amazing
108.7% of the DCI-P3 color gamut and 456 nits of brightness. This is as
immersive as it gets without putting on a VR headset. If you are regularly gaming on the go then a good keyboard is crucial as well,
and the widely spaced keys combined with a crisp and springy actuation
force will allow you to avoid packing a cumbersome gaming keyboard. While the best gaming headset is still worth purchasing for online gaming,
if you are strictly worried about audio output, the Legion Pro 7i offers
the Harman Super Linear Speaker System. Packed with two woofers, two tweeters, and a smart amp, it's a strong standalone acoustic experience. At nearly 6 pounds the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Gen 9 is a little heavier than we'd
like and the 4 hours and 29 minutes of battery life aren't going to win any
awards either, but if you want maximum performance you'll need to keep
it plugged in anyway.
But overall, the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i is the champ.
The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus
gives you a premium laptop experience at
a more affordable price than a
comparable Windows laptop. It features better
specs than the typical Chromebook
with an Intel Core 3 100U 14th gen processor,
Intel integrated graphics, 8GB of
memory, 256GB of SSD storage, and a 15.6-inch
FHD AMOLED display.
In our review, James Pero said, "While Samsung's Galaxy Chromebook Plus
isn't
the first premium Chromebook, it's probably the best." The Galaxy Book boasts enough
computing power to get the most out of Chrome
OS and Google Gemini AI, without
unnecessarily weighing the laptop down or
adding to its cost. You can run
Android apps or juggle Chrome tabs without any
slowdowns.
As we would expect from a Samsung
device, the display is one of the highlights,
with a 15.6-inch AMOLED that puts
most other Chromebooks to shame. Measuring
108.5% on the DCI-P3 color gamut,
the Galaxy Chromebook plus outperforms
many Windows laptops and MacBooks.
Brightness again dramatically outperforms
its category at 377 nits of average
peak brightness, which is enough to overpower
lighting in most environments. Lasting 11 hours and 12 minutes on
the Laptop Mag web surfing battery test,
the Galaxy Chromebook
Plus isn't among our longest-lasting laptops, but it beats most modern
Chromebooks and is enough for all-day usage. The $699 price may feel expensive
for a Chromebook, this is superior hardware
to the typical Chromebook, and
still more affordable than a comparable Windows
laptop. If you want an
affordable and easy-to-use laptop a Chromebook is an
excellent choice, and
Samsung gives you the best Chromebook experience
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