Our Favorite Laptops, From MacBooks to Chromebooks

Light as Air

Apple

MacBook Air (2019)

The MacBook Air remains the Mac to get. Apple upgraded the MacBook Air in July of 2019, adding the company’s True Tone tech to the Retina display and dropping the price to $1,099. It offers much of what you’ll find in the MacBook line: a sharp, 13-inch Retina display, a responsive trackpad, an improved butterfly keyboard (with a dust shield), surprisingly potent speakers, and up to 16 GB of RAM. Since it only has two USB-C ports, you may want to buy a multi-port adapter (we like this one). If you can afford it, it’s the sushi knife of laptops: well honed and precise. It’s usually $100 cheaper at Amazon.

Apple

A Formidable Competitor

Microsoft

Surface Laptop 2

Frills may be in short supply on the second-generation Surface Laptop, but if you’re looking for a full Windows 10 machine with the same clean lines and portability as a MacBook Air, it should top your list. (Plus, that Alcantara chassis is handsome.) The biggest update is the inclusion of an eighth-generation Intel Core processor; its battery life is also especially noteworthy, clocking over 10 hours in our test, which involved nonstop video playback. It starts at $999—and, unlike the MacBook Air, the Surface Laptop has a touchscreen. You can also buy it at the Microsoft Store.

Microsoft

Cutting-Edge Convertible

HP

Spectre x360 (2019)

We had the 2018 Spectre x360 in an earlier version of this guide. Now the 2019 model (9/10, WIRED Recommends) has taken its spot. This 2.9-pound, 13-inch laptop has a 360-degree hinge that allows it to be used as a laptop, slate tablet, or as “tented” computer. It has a sharp HD display that’s brighter than the previous model and an eighth-generation Intel Core processor. Plus, it now can get up to 14 hours of battery life on a charge, up from eight hours for the previous model. Our reviewer called it a “machine with universal appeal.”

HP

Total Lightweight

Acer

Swift 5

Acer boasts that the Swift 5 is, at 2.2 pounds, the “world’s lightest notebook with a 15-inch display.” It’s impressively thin and light, given its specs, which include a full HD screen, 8 gigs of RAM, and 256 gigs of SSD file storage. With USB-C, full-size USB-A ports, and even an HDMI port, it also won’t require as many dongles as some of its Mac-like competitors. The battery lasted about nine hours in our tests, which is pretty good given the low weight. On the downside, its screen does wobble. If you want a bigger display without the heft, this is a good choice.

Acer

Ultimate Ultrabook

Dell

XPS 13 (2019)

Dell’s XPS 13 has been kicking around since 2012 and remains one of the most popular thin and light laptops out there. Dell released an update in 2019, moving the webcam up to the top of the screen, which eliminates the dreaded “Nose cam,” our main complaint about this otherwise speedy, lightweight XPS 13. Battery life was improved as well. We managed 12.5 hours during normal use (web browsing, watching videos, editing documents). Other small changes like better cooling and a 4K screen that supports HDR video make it a compelling machine. The XPS 13 starts at $899, but if you want better performance, upgrade to a configuration that runs $1,200 or more.

Dell Inc.

Flex Spending

Lenovo

Yoga C930

Like several lighter options on the market, Lenovo’s Yoga line of laptops can be used in different modes: as a laptop, a tablet, a propped-up touch display. What’s different about the Yoga C930 is that Lenovo has put a speaker inside the signature hinge, ensuring the audio experience is good no matter which way you use the thing. It also ships with a stylus pen and has a physical privacy shutter that covers the webcam. Otherwise, this bendy laptop comes with all the things we’ve come to expect from laptops—updated internals, excellent battery life—making this a solid choice if you’re looking to spend more than $1,000 on a Windows laptop.

Lenovo

Game On

Razer

Blade

Razer’s Blade laptops changed the game for gaming PCs a few years ago, packing lots of power into relatively svelte machines. This year, Razer did it again. The Razer Blade has an aluminum enclosure, a full 15.6-inch display with minimal bezels, a precise keyboard, a lovely glass trackpad, and a revamped vapor chamber cooling system. More noteworthy are its internals: Its base model runs on a hexacore Intel i7 chip, 16 GB of RAM, Nvidia 1060 Max-Q graphics, and a hybrid SSD/HDD storage solution. That configuration, which starts at $1,600, also comes with a 1080p HD display; but if you want to live a little, you can splurge on upgraded internals and a UHD touchscreen display. If you want a smaller screen (and are OK with weaker performance), the 13-inch Razer Blade Stealth is a good option.

Razer

Going Chrome

Google

Pixelbook

The late-2017 Pixelbook is still the Chromebook to beat. It’s a good-looking, versatile, 2-pound machine. Its 12.5-inch screen rotates 360 degrees, so you can use it as either a laptop or tablet, and it works with an accessory stylus. Its internals are respectable: It runs on an Intel seventh generation processor and ships with 8 or 16 gigabytes of RAM and at least 128 GB of storage—plenty for a cloud-connected Chromebook. Despite the fact that Android apps still (still!) feel like a work in progress on Chrome OS, other features like the built-in Google Assistant make it more than just a laptop that’s running a web browser.

Google

Big Mac

Apple

MacBook Pro (2019)

The MacBook Pro has caused such angst. Over the past couple of years, it has lost the ports we’d all grown to love, been graced with a superfluous Touch Bar, and had some not-so-minor keyboard issues. But it’s also still the thing that every creative MacOS professional must have. The 2019 line up gives you two options, the six-core, ninth-generation Intel Core i9 processor with 16 GB RAM, or the even more powerful version, with an eight-core, ninth-generation Intel Core i9 processor, up to 32 GB RAM, and AMD Radeon graphics. The latter is the top of line, boasting the fastest internals and biggest, highest-resolution display of all the MacBooks. It’s a 4K video editing powerhouse, but it’ll cost you. It starts at a cool $2,799. At times, it is $200 or so cheaper on Amazon.

Apple

Not Quite a Laptop

Microsoft

Surface Go (with Type Cover)

Microsoft’s Surface Go stands out on this list for its diminutive size and its unique form factor: It’s a Surface tablet with a detachable keyboard and stylus pen (both often sold separately)—not your standard laptop. It has the same premium build as its more expensive Surface brethren, a colorful, sharp display, and even Windows Hello facial recognition. For those with less intense computing needs, the Surface Go might just be the only “laptop” they’ll need. The only downside is its short battery life—about four or five hours. You can also buy it at the Microsoft Store. Just know that you should get a model with 8 GB of RAM, and you’ll probably want a Type Cover.

Joseph Shin

Buying Tips

How to Choose the Right Laptop for You

If none of these laptops quite ring your bell, that’s okay. There are far more laptopsout there than even we have time to test. To make sure you buy something that will serve you well for years to come, we stick to these guidelines. Make sure you get at least 8 GB of RAM—16 GB would be even better. There are dozens of chips in the market, but we prefer 8th generation or higher Intel chips. We suggest going with at least an Intel Core i5, though an i7 will give you more power, which you’ll be glad you have if you’re editing video or even processing large batches of photos. Display size depends on the size of the laptop. A 1080p in a 12-inch laptop looks pretty good. A 1080p in 15-inch laptop does not. If you spend all day staring at your screen, a higher resolution screen, like a 4K screen can ease eyestrain. Finally, make sure it gets at least 10 hours of battery life.

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