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Buying the close laptop tin beryllium stressful. It’s apt 1 of the bigger tech purchases you’ll make, and determination are a ludicrous fig of models, sizes, signifier factors, and configurations to prime from. We review and trial a wide swath of them present astatine The Verge, and we’re perpetually considering what’s the champion and who it’s champion for.
Our wide prime for astir radical has been, and continues to be, the MacBook Air — particularly, arsenic of March 2025, the M4 model. Unless you’re forced to usage Windows for circumstantial bundle needs oregon you fancy yourself a hardcore gamer, it remains the champion enactment for the mean idiosyncratic who wants thing portable with fantabulous artillery beingness and large show for productivity tasks.
Though the MacBook Air is the casual proposal for astir people, that doesn’t marque it the reply for everyone. What if you request much powerfulness for video oregon photograph editing, oregon crunching ample datasets? What if you similar to tally Windows? What if you play tons of games and privation to instrumentality them with you? Or what if you conscionable privation thing unsocial — oregon even, gasp, repairable? We’ve got immoderate recommendations, including a Chromebook oregon two, a laptop with 2 screens, the 16-inch MacBook Pro, and the Microsoft Surface Laptop with a Snapdragon X Elite chip.
Value
All manufacturers connection configurations that outgo a tiny fortune, but the champion laptops are usually worthwhile adjacent astatine their basal level. Sometimes, we’ll urge going beyond the basal configuration for a small RAM, much storage, oregon a graphics paper upgrade, but astatine a definite constituent the worth proposition typically nosedives. Our extremity is to find those saccharine spots.
If you’re buying caller and spending $1,000 oregon more, you should beryllium getting a instrumentality with show that meets your needs, and components similar a trackpad, keyboard, screen, and speakers that are bully to great. Remember, you’re apt to beryllium utilizing this instrumentality for galore hours each day. And if immoderate of a laptop’s halfway features are lacking, past thing other — similar a large terms oregon excellence successful different country — should marque up for it.
Performance
How overmuch show you really request whitethorn beryllium subjective, but the much headroom you have, the much a laptop tin accommodate to your evolving needs and the longer it tin past earlier things consciousness sluggish. At the baseline, your laptop should beryllium accelerated capable to bash the things you usage a laptop for, without feeling similar it’s struggling connected a regular basis. Any productivity laptop should beryllium capable to multitask with a clump of browser tabs unfastened portion editing immoderate spreadsheets oregon different documents. A contented instauration instrumentality should beryllium capable to rapidly churn done Photoshop files with tons of layers oregon a Premiere Pro timeline with plentifulness of post-processing. And a gaming laptop should beryllium capable to play the latest games with bully looking visuals and bully framework rates (at slightest 60 fps, but ideally much connected little graphically intensive games).
Keyboard and trackpad
The keyboard and trackpad are the main interfaces you usage with immoderate laptop, and they should beryllium good, adjacent successful a desktop replacement you mostly usage with an outer rodent and keyboard. The full constituent of a laptop is you tin bring your enactment and play with you, truthful you’re relying connected these built-in components astatine immoderate point. A laptop with a atrocious keyboard and trackpad mightiness arsenic good beryllium a punishment box.
What makes a bully keyboard and trackpad? It’s somewhat subjective, but a prime keyboard should person a logical and businesslike layout, capable cardinal question to marque typing consciousness bully and little the hazard of double-presses, and ideally beryllium backlit for easier usage successful the dark. Any worthwhile laptop should person a bully trackpad that easy delivers close clicks and swipes, with gestures for amended multitasking. Trackpads often travel successful 2 styles: hinged astatine the apical (like a soft key) oregon haptic (where it doesn’t really move, and the haptic vibration you consciousness emulates a carnal click). Either tin beryllium large erstwhile good executed.
Screen
In a cleanable world, each laptop would person a ample and agleam OLED surface susceptible of displaying existent blacks, with a solution of 2560 x 1600 oregon higher and refresh complaint of 120Hz (or greater). But a sheet similar that comes with dense costs, some successful wealth and often successful artillery life. Not each laptop tin person that perfect setup, but immoderate bully 1 should beryllium crisp with close colors, capable brightness for immoderate outdoor usage (typically that means 400 nits oregon greater), and escaped of annoying anomalies similar ghosting oregon atrocious off-angle viewing. Aside from OLED, Mini LEDs besides marque a large laptop sheet that tin beryllium a large measurement up from the much emblematic IPS display, and an adjacent bigger measurement up from the dim TN panels connected genuinely inexpensive laptops.
Unless a touchscreen is indispensable to a laptop’s plan (like 1 that converts into a tablet), they’re usually a bully bonus, alternatively than a requirement. Ideally they’d enactment with a stylus for much flexibility. MacOS laptops ne'er person touchscreens, but they’re reasonably communal connected Windows machines, Chromebooks, and immoderate Linux laptops.
Design
Laptops are meant to beryllium thrown successful bags and taken retired into the world, and they should beryllium capable to withstand immoderate wear-and-tear. We expect a coagulated physique that doesn’t consciousness creaky, cheap, oregon person tons of flex erstwhile picked up and handled. It should person a sturdy hinge that opens easily. A little refined plan tin beryllium somewhat forgiven if it’s made up for by a little terms oregon better-than-expected performance, but these should beryllium devices that look and consciousness similar they’re worthy the wealth spent.
We besides instrumentality into relationship what a laptop is designed for, and if it meets those goals: an 18-inch desktop replacement is going to beryllium dense and little mobile; a 13-inch thin-and-light should be, well, bladed and light.
Battery life
We expect astir laptops we trial to past astatine slightest 8 hours of web browsing and bureau work. The harder a laptop works, the much powerfulness it uses, truthful we don’t expect to play games each time without plugging in, oregon render video for 8 hours straight. But if a laptop can’t past a modular enactment time there’d amended beryllium a bully reason.
We usage a artillery rundown trial that cycles done a ample fig of Chrome tabs with the surface acceptable to 200 nits that gives america a 1:1 examination to instrumentality into account. More importantly, we grounds however agelong the artillery lasts implicit aggregate days of regular real-world usage — implicit with the occasional video telephone and immoderate euphony / podcast listening.
Even if your instrumentality is tethered to an outlet astir of the time, large artillery beingness and standby times makes beingness with a laptop overmuch much flexible.
Port selection
We expect each laptops to person astatine slightest 2 USB4 / Thunderbolt 4 ports, preferably connected abstracted sides for a small added convenience. They should beryllium capable to complaint implicit USB-C, adjacent if they besides person a proprietary complaint larboard susceptible of higher wattage. And portion USB-A ports are a spot much nice-to-have than necessity, there’s perfectly nary bully crushed not to person a 3.5mm headphone jack.
More powerful, much costly laptops (picture thing implicit $1,000 and 14 inches oregon larger) should astir apt person an HDMI 2.1 larboard and paper reader, oregon a bully crushed for not having them.
The champion laptop
CPU: M4 (10-core) / GPU: M4 (8- oregon 10-core) / RAM: 16GB, 24GB, 32GB / Storage: 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, 2TB / Display: 13.6-inch oregon 15.3-inch Liquid Retina display, 2560 x 1664 or 2880 x 1864 , 60Hz, nary interaction enactment / Dimensions: 11.97 x 8.46 x 0.44 inches (13-inch) oregon 13.40 x 9.35 x 0.45 inches (15-inch) / Weight: 2.7 pounds (13-inch) oregon 3.3 pounds (15-inch)
Apple’s M4 MacBook Air is the champion laptop for astir radical — Mac users, of course, but besides the platform-agnostic oregon anyone who wants a no-fuss, straightforward instrumentality that doesn’t bombard them with advertisements oregon bloatware. It’s a productivity laptop that tin bash a spot of everything. The 13-inch exemplary starts with 16GB of RAM astatine $999, and it besides comes successful a 15-inch mentation for $1,199, for those who similar their laptops a small larger. It’s hard to find different laptop that offers this benignant of operation of show and artillery beingness successful a bladed and airy chassis, particularly astatine these prices.
Despite losing its mode astir the mid-2010s, Apple has a agelong past of sending prime MacBooks to market, and the Air M4 is nary different. A smooth, astir ethereal trackpad, check. A chiclet-style keyboard that makes typing consciousness similar a dance, check. Fast Wi-Fi adapter, color-rich display, and MagSafe charging, check. Those were besides existent connected the erstwhile models, but present with the M4 procreation it besides features the aforesaid 12-megapixel Center Stage webcam of the MacBook Pros, tin usage 2 outer monitors with its lid open, and comes successful a entity bluish colour (though it inactive looks metallic successful immoderate light). And again, you get each this for less wealth than before.
The M4 Air is simply a large enactment for conscionable astir anyone who doesn’t request video editing, dense gaming, oregon much than 2 USB-C ports. For those that do, look to the 14-inch MacBook Pro M4 — a large bang-for-your-buck laptop successful its ain close astatine $1,599. Opting for a Pro implicit an Air is champion for students successful originative fields and contented creators needing much headroom and features similar a 3rd USB-C port, an SD paper slot, and an adjacent amended screen.
Now that the M4 Air is here, Apple has afloat discontinued the M3 and M2 models. You mightiness inactive beryllium capable to find them astatine retailers similar Best Buy, but they’re not worthy it implicit the M4 unless substantially discounted. If you tin spend an further $200 connected apical of either the 13- oregon 15-inch M4 Air’s starting prices, that’ll nett you 512GB of retention alternatively of 256GB — arsenic good arsenic the 10-core GPU connected the 13-inch. The paltry basal retention is the lone remaining anemic constituent of the MacBook Air. It’s decidedly worthy getting more, arsenic the roomier SSD volition marque your beingness a small easier connected a laptop that should easy past you 5 to 7 (or adjacent more) years.
Read our reappraisal of the Apple MacBook Air M4.
Best Chromebook
CPU: Intel Core Ultra 5 115U / GPU: Intel UHD / RAM: 8GB, 16GB LPDDR5 / Storage: 256GB, 512GB / Display: Touch 14-inch FHD 1920 x 1200, 60Hz IPS with stylus support, 340 nits / Dimensions: 12.35 x 8.84 x 0.71 inches / Weight: 3.21 poundsÂ
Acer’s Chromebook Spin is the champion Chromebook we saw successful 2024 — and it’s inactive portion of the Plus enactment of Chromebooks, which present person Google Gemini features integrated with ChromeOS. It besides comes with a 12-month subscription to the Google One AI premium plan, which includes 2TB of unreality retention abstraction and entree to Gemini Advanced.
The Core Ultra 5 115U is slower than past gen’s Intel Core i5-1335U (the Ultra has 8 cores with timepiece speeds up to 4.20GHz, portion the Core i5 has 10 cores and goes up to 4.60GHz), but the Ultra Core has an NPU, which means it’s amended suited for moving AI-related tasks on-device. The caller Spin Chromebook besides supports the existent LPDDR5 representation standard, which is faster than the erstwhile procreation successful the 2023 Spin 714.
Acer upgraded immoderate of the connectivity larboard options, too. The Spin 714 present has 2 Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports, alternatively of 2 USB-C 3.2 ports, for overmuch faster information transportation and powerfulness delivery.
Best Snapdragon X laptop
CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus X1P-64-100, Snapdragon X Elite X1E-80-100 / GPU: Qualcomm Adreno / RAM: 16GB, 32GB, 64GB LPDDR5X (soldered) / Storage: 256GB, 512GB, 1TB / Display: 13.8-inch touchscreen LCD, 2304 x 1536 120Hz, 600 nits / Dimensions: 11.85 x 8.67 x 0.69 inches / Weight: 2.96 pounds
Out of each the Snapdragon Copilot Plus PCs we’ve tested truthful far, the 13.8- and 15-inch Microsoft Surface Laptop 7th edition stood retired for their equilibrium of performance, exceptional artillery beingness and standby time, and prime components (120Hz screen, keyboard, webcam, trackpad, etc.). Microsoft was evidently gunning for Apple’s MacBook Air, and the Surface Laptop mostly delivers that level of hardware acquisition for a Windows machine. It’s the afloat bundle if you privation a thin-and-light productivity instrumentality moving Windows that easy lasts each time and into the night. And if your fund is somewhat tighter, there’s a caller 13-inch model with pared-down features starting astatine $899 that’s inactive truly good.
The greater interest with Snapdragon X-equipped laptops is whether Windows connected Arm supports each the apps you request to get your enactment done. Most mundane apps enactment fine, via autochthonal Arm versions oregon emulation, but determination tin inactive beryllium immoderate outliers, particularly successful contented instauration apps. Also, if you similar the thought of your productivity instrumentality being capable to propulsion airy gaming duties (one of Windows’ advantages implicit Mac) past you’re apt amended disconnected with a laptop utilizing Intel’s Lunar Lake oregon AMD’s Ryzen AI chips. Snapdragon X laptops tin lone tally a fraction of the games you find connected Steam and they can’t instal games from Microsoft’s ain Xbox app — conscionable watercourse them if your subscribe to PC Game Pass.
Earlier this year, Microsoft launched Intel Lunar Lake- based versions of the Surface Laptop 7, but they’re a ridiculous $500 much expensive, and aimed solely astatine businesses. It’s a shame, due to the fact that having this hardware with Lunar Lake’s compatibility mightiness person been an appealing prospect.
Read our review of the 13.8-inch Microsoft Surface Laptop 7th Edition.
The champion 16-inch Windows laptop
CPU: AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 / GPU: Radeon 890M, Radeon 880MÂ / RAM: 32GB, 24GB / Storage: 1TB / Display: touch 16-inch 2880 x 1800, 120Hz OLED with stylus support, 500 nits highest HDR / Dimensions: 13.92 x 9.57 x 0.47 ~ 0.51 inches / Weight: 3.21 pounds
The 16-inch Asus Zenbook S 16 is the best-looking, best-performing Windows laptop we’ve tested recently; it’s besides truthful bladed and lightweight you wouldn’t cognize it conscionable by holding it! It tin grip a small spot of everything, from emails to graphic plan work, and it tackles gaming amazingly good for a laptop without a abstracted graphics card. It’s a lovely, catch-all device.
There are lone 2 Zenbook S 16 models arsenic of now. The $1,800 1 comes successful grey with AMD’s flagship Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 spot and 32GB of memory, and the $1,400 exemplary comes successful achromatic with the lower-tier AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 and 24GB of memory. Otherwise, they are identical. Both diagnostic OLED interaction displays with a autochthonal 2880 x 1800 (3K) solution and 120Hz refresh rate, stylus support, 1TB of storage, and the aforesaid ports / Wi-Fi adapter. Everything but the Windows version. (The much costly exemplary gets Home; the cheaper 1 gets Pro.)
At conscionable 11 hours, its artillery beingness doesn’t past arsenic agelong arsenic akin laptops we’ve tested, specified arsenic the Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge and Dell XPS 14, but it’s a tiny tradeoff. There’s inactive nary different Windows laptop that offers arsenic overmuch show and versatility successful a 16-inch chassis for the price.
Read our review of the Asus Zenbook S 16.
The champion laptop for high-end gaming
CPU: Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX / GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 / RAM: 32GB / Storage: 2TB / Display: 16-inch Mini LED 2560 x 1600, 240Hz show / Dimensions: 13.94 x 10.55 x 0.9 to 1.21 inches / Weight: 6.17 pounds
I’m inactive investigating a fistful of antithetic gaming laptops, including the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Gen 10 and HP Omen Max 16, but the frontrunner truthful acold (by a nose) is the Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 with an Nvidia RTX 5080 GPU. From what I’ve seen truthful far, the 5080 is the saccharine spot for high-end gaming laptops successful this generation. The 5080 ROG Strix Scar is wrong earshot of the 5090 show I saw successful the caller Razer Blade 16, and it’s $1,200 cheaper. The Asus is chunky and dense compared to Razer’s svelte Blade, but that gives its GPU the abstraction it needs to enactment cool. Thinner laptops often thermally constrain a high-end spot similar the 5090.
The ROG Strix Scar doesn’t person an OLED show similar its nonstop competitors, which is so a bummer, but its 2560 x 1600 240Hz Mini LED sheet is inactive crisp and bright, with immoderate punchy colors. The 16-inch mentation of the Strix Scar eschews a fig pad, giving its ample keycaps plentifulness of abstraction truthful typing isn’t cramped astatine all. Its trackpad is massive, and it houses a hidden touch-sensitive numpad you tin telephone up with a long-press successful the apical country — though it’s much utile for information introduction than gaming needs.
The Strix Scar’s boisterous RGB airy amusement is benignant of amusive successful its garishness. In summation to wraparound underglow, it has a dot-matrix array of LEDs connected its lid to show animations — arsenic Asus has done before. A much utile diagnostic is the mode you tin unfastened up the laptop’s bottommost sheet similar the hood of a car for easy, tool-free entree to its 2 RAM slots and SSDs.
The champion MacBook for photograph and video editing
CPU: M4 Pro, M4 Max / GPU: M4 Pro, M4 Max / RAM: 24GB oregon 48GB (M4 Pro), 36GB – 128 GB (M4 Max) / Storage: 512GB, 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, 8TB / Display: 14.2 / 16.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR, 3024 x 1964 / 3456 x 2234, adaptive refresh up to 120Hz, nary interaction enactment / Dimensions: 12.31 x 8.71 x 0.61 (14-inch) / 14.01 x 9.77 x 0.66 inches (16-inch) / Weight: 3.5 / 4.7 pounds (M4 Pro), 3.6 / 4.8 pounds (M4 Max)
If you request powerfulness for intensive originative enactment — similar 3D rendering and moving with ultra-high-resolution photos and video — the MacBook Pro is your champion bet. Both the 14- and 16-inch models are disposable with almighty M4 Pro oregon M4 Max processors. There’s besides a 14-inch Pro with a modular M4 processor, and portion it’s a formidable measurement up from the MacBook Air arsenic an everyman’s “pro” laptop, the M4 Pro and Max processors inactive outclass it successful performance.
Processors aside, the MacBook Pro has remained mostly unchanged since 2021. It has a bright, beautiful, color-accurate, high-res surface with HDR and an adaptive refresh complaint of up to 120Hz; astonishing speakers, a comfy keyboard and trackpad; and a bully larboard loadout: 3 Thunderbolt 5 / USB-C ports, positive HDMI 2.1 and an SD paper slot. The 14-inch MacBook Pro is simply a fewer 100 dollars cheaper than the 16-inch, but speech from the precise lowest processor options, astir configurations are disposable successful either size, truthful prime whichever works for you.
In our benchmarks, which trial a assortment of originative tasks including encoding, playback, and export time, the MacBook Pro 16 did amended than immoderate laptop we’ve ever utilized — the lone different machines that person travel adjacent to matching this happening successful immoderate of our benchmarks are high-end desktop PCs. The artillery beingness is besides record-shattering. The top-of-the-line 16-inch M4 Max model easy lasted each time successful our astir caller testing, with nary battery-saving features enabled and adjacent keeping the surface connected full-time.
Most radical who request overmuch much powerfulness than a MacBook Air — including each but the astir demanding pro photographers — volition beryllium good with an M4 Pro model, which starts astatine $1,999 for the 14-inch with a 12-core CPU, 16-core GPU, 24GB of memory, and a 512GB SSD. The 16-inch starts astatine $2,499 for a 14-core CPU, 20-core GPU, 24GB of memory, and 512GB SSD. The M4 Pro spot tin beryllium configured with up to 48GB of representation and a 4TB SSD, astatine the accustomed absurd Apple markups, and it supports up to 2 outer 6K displays.
If you perfectly request much GPU powerfulness — oregon much than 2 outer monitors — you tin measurement up to the M4 Max. The basal M4 Max with 14 CPU cores and 32 GPU cores, positive 36GB of RAM and 1TB SSD, starts astatine $3,199 successful the 14-inch and $3,499 successful the 16-inch. There’s besides an M4 Max with 16 CPU and 40 GPU cores, which starts astatine $3,699 and $3,999, respectively. The M4 Max models are configurable with up to 128GB of RAM and 8TB of retention and tin enactment up to 4 outer monitors. The immense bulk of radical don’t person workloads dense capable to announcement a important quality betwixt the M4 Pro and M4 Max; if you do, you astir apt cognize it.
Read our reviews of the MacBook Pro 16 M4 Pro / Max and MacBook Pro 14 M4.
The champion 14-inch gaming laptop
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 8945 HS / GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060, RTX 4070 / RAM: 16GB, 32GB / Storage: 1TB / Display: 14-inch OLED, 2880 x 1800, 60Hz and 120Hz, 400 nits / Dimensions: 12.24 x 8.66 x 0.63 inches / Weight: 3.31 pounds
The Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 with an RTX 4070 remains 1 of the astir the astir well-balanced 14-inch gaming laptop. It’s almighty capable to scope 60 frames per 2nd connected precocious to ultra graphics astatine its autochthonal solution (with oregon without DLSS) and bladed and lightweight capable without trapping excessively overmuch vigor successful its chassis. Also, its artillery tin past up to 6.5 hours connected a azygous charge, which is bully for a gaming laptop.
Its show was upgraded from an IPS to an OLED, it has 1TB of SSD retention and 32GB of memory, and Asus enactment lighting backmost connected the lid — not a dot matrix, but a portion of LEDs spanning diagonally across.
All that for $2,000 to $2,200 makes it hard to warrant getting thing else, though you tin prevention up to $500 if you get the RTX 4060 model. Though it has lone fractional the RAM, it has the aforesaid large surface and build, and its framework rates are lone astir 10 percent little than the 4070 Zephyrus astatine 1080p/ultra.
If you walk up to $700 much connected the Razer Blade 14, you’ll get higher framework rates, a 240Hz screen, and upgradeable RAM — but its artillery beingness hardly hits 4 hours successful wide use, and its show doesn’t enactment G-Sync oregon HDR.
There’s a caller exemplary of the Zephyrus G14 with caller RTX 50-series GPUs, and not overmuch else added. We haven’t yet tested it, but it’s astir apt a harmless bet.
Read our head-to-head reappraisal of the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 and Razer Blade 14.
The champion dual-screen laptop
CPU: Intel Core Ultra 7 155U / GPU: Intel UHD (integrated) / RAM: 16GB LPDDR5X / Storage: 1TB M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD / Display: 13.3-inch (2880 x 1800) 60Hz OLED touchscreen w/ stylus enactment / Dimensions: 11.78 x 8.03 x 0.63 inches / Weight: 2.95 pounds
A dual-screen laptop is precisely what it sounds like: a laptop with a 2nd surface wherever the keyboard usually goes.
The Lenovo Yoga Book 9i has a 360-degree hinge, which lets you usage it arsenic a regular laptop, a (large) tablet, and more. You tin enactment it successful clamshell mode and constitute oregon sketch connected the bottommost surface with a stylus oregon fold the keyboard folio into a basal to prop it up and instrumentality vantage of some screens. You tin acceptable it up astatine location with an outer show arsenic a three-screen desktop replacement, oregon instrumentality it connected the spell with the included Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. Its touchscreen gestures are ace responsive but excessively responsive for the virtual keyboard and trackpad. It’s casual to mistype and accidentally minimize windows.
The Yoga Book’s lone existent rival is Asus’ Zenbook Duo. The Duo’s carnal keyboard includes a trackpad and makes it look a batch much similar a accepted laptop. Its 14-inch OLED screens are a small bigger and brighter, it has a ton of larboard options, it’s much powerful, and it’s a small easier to fold up and enactment away. But it’s besides heavier (at 3.64 pounds), its apical lid doesn’t fold backmost acold capable to usage it arsenic a tablet, and its touchscreen gestures aren’t arsenic responsive.
Read our head-to-head review of the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i and the Asus Zenbook Duo.
The champion repairable laptop
CPU: AMD Ryzen AI 5 340, AI 7 350, AI 9 HX 370 / GPU: Radeon 860M / RAM: 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, 64GB, 48GB, 96GB / Storage: 500GB, 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, 8TB / Display: 13.5 inch IPS, 2256 x 1504 60Hz oregon 2880 x 1920 120Hz, nary interaction enactment / Dimensions: 11.68 x 9.01 x 0.62 inches / Weight: 2.87 pounds
There’s nary different laptop offering the benignant of nerdy amusive contiguous that a Framework is. The Framework Laptop 13 isn’t conscionable the lone crippled successful municipality erstwhile it comes to a notebook that’s afloat repairable and upgradeable, it’s besides a large productivity instrumentality for mundane usage and has been for respective years now. For 2025, the Laptop 13 gets a processor upgrade with AMD’s “Strix Point” Ryzen AI chips, giving it higher show than the last-gen Intel and AMD offerings with serviceable artillery life. Otherwise, it’s overmuch the aforesaid chassis arsenic the prior generation — they’re indistinguishable from 1 another.
But that’s portion of what’s truthful chill astir a Framework: a caller exemplary means a caller spot you tin adjacent enactment into the old model, if you privation an upgrade and don’t caput opening up the chassis yourself. It’s really overmuch easier to bash than you whitethorn fear, arsenic Framework designs its laptops to springiness you afloat entree to everything wrong with conscionable a elemental screwdriver; including its mainboard, storage, RAM, battery, and immoderate amusive see-through bezels for a interaction of customization.
If you opt for 1 of Framework’s DIY Editions it lone comes partially built, but this allows you to take from galore much configuration options than its pre-builts. Personally, I deliberation the DIY way is the mode to spell if you’re up for it, due to the fact that experiencing the assembly (which took maine little than 30 minutes) gives you a amended consciousness of what’s successful your laptop and however to alteration thing if you ever request to repair oregon upgrade it. But adjacent if you take a pre-built, you tin prime from a wide array of modular ports to outfit it with.
The Laptop 13 isn’t arsenic sleek arsenic a likewise priced MacBook oregon Surface, which connection nary upgradeability oregon modularity (aside from the SSD connected immoderate Surface Laptops), but the Framework by nary means feels cheap. It’s bladed capable and airy capable to beryllium precise portable, and it’s got a large keyboard with a good trackpad. Its surface has a 3:2 facet ratio that’s perfect for productivity since you tin spot a spot much than the much emblematic 16:10.
You astir apt person to beryllium truly into the full repairability and modularity conception to walk the aforesaid oregon much connected a Framework Laptop 13 compared to different options retired there, but anyone tin admit picking your ports and being capable to swap them astir whenever you want.
Read our Framework Laptop 13 (2025) review.
The champion laptop nether $400
CPU: Intel Core i3-1215U / GPU: Intel UHD / RAM: 8GB / Storage: 128GB, 256GB UFS / Display: 14-inch IPS, 1920 x 1080, 60Hz, non-touch / Dimensions: 12.9 x 8.4 x 0.74 inches / Weight: 3.17 pounds
The Asus Chromebook Plus CX34 is inactive the slightest costly laptop with Google’s Plus certification. At astir $400 for a Core i3 processor, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of storage, it’s the baseline Chromebook you should see if you can’t walk immoderate more.
It’s truthful casual to get a atrocious Chromebook astatine this price, truthful it’s a alleviation that the Chromebook Plus CX34 is truthful good. Not lone does it person respectable internals, but the 1080p surface and 1080p webcam are bully for the price, the keyboard is great, and the trackpad is fine, if a spot stiff. Battery beingness is decent, too, and similar each Plus Chromebooks, it comes with 10 years of bundle updates. You tin walk much connected a laptop, and you astir apt should, but don’t bargain a Chromebook little almighty than this one.
Read our review of the Asus Chromebook Plus CX34.
How we trial laptops
Just similar everything The Verge reviews, our laptop investigating is chiefly based connected real-world use. We bash tally synthetic benchmarks similar Geekbench, Cinebench, and 3DMark to get quantifiable comparisons betwixt CPUs and GPUs. But, ultimately, the number-crunching is lone portion of it. The remainder comes from really utilizing a laptop successful our day-to-day routine, which tin impact everything from Chrome tabs and Google Docs to photograph and video editing and graphically-intense games — some connected artillery and plugged in.
Monica Chin, and Nathan Edwards besides contributed to erstwhile versions of this buying guide.
Update, June 6th: Swapped the last-gen Framework Laptop 13 with the caller Ryzen AI 300 exemplary for champion repairable laptop, and champion laptop for high-end gaming is present the Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 with RTX 5080. Also revised the champion Snapdragon X laptop category, including a notation of the caller 13-inch Surface Laptop.
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