The best laptops of 2026: tested and reviewed by experts

Laptops come in a variety of different form factors these days, with manufacturers playing on different categories to develop an intended use case. For example, lightweight laptops are made to be carried around and trade some raw power for portability. 2-in-1 laptops have touchscreens that allow them to be used as tablets. The best form factor for you reflects how you think you will use the device.

Lightweight/ultraportable laptops

Laptops are made to be mobile, so the lighter the better. Whether you’re a student, a hybrid worker, or a professional, ultraportables have exploded in recent years, becoming thinner and lighter than ever. Some good examples are the Asus Zenbook A14the Apple MacBook Air M5and the Steel Swift 16 AI — all the devices we’ve tested and love for their ultraportable forms relative to power and battery life.

Even laptops that didn’t look particularly light before, like the Dell XPS 14they have joined the club with lighter frames that get smaller every year. Still, to be considered “ultraportable,” the laptop should weigh less than three pounds.

Business laptops

Designed for the office, these laptops usually come with more RAM and local storage, but with less powerful GPUs. Their physical designs are usually sleek, neutral, and corporate, and feature plenty of ports for compatibility purposes. Premium work laptops can have extra touches like OLED displays (like the Dell XPS 14) or haptic trackpads (from Lenovo ThinkPad X9 Aura Edition) to match high-end hardware.

2-in-1 laptops

Also called convertibles, these laptops allow the screen to fold back so it can act as a tablet or be used in “tent mode” to display media. Some 2-in-1 laptops we’re big fans of are the Lenovo Yoga 7i 2 in 1 16 and the Dell 16 Plus 2 in 1.

Gaming laptops

As the name suggests, these are laptops made to run games and as such they come with the hardware to support it. We’re talking high-end GPUs, large, vivid displays, and often, RGB lighting and other physical design effects that set them apart from business laptops.

Although they are designed to run the latest titles, they can also serve as good machines for creatives thanks to their high-end hardware, and therefore tend to be more expensive. Some gaming laptops we love are the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i and the Alienware Area-51 m18.

MacBooks

The Apple line MacBooks they are premium devices with a number of features that integrate into the Apple ecosystem. The hardware in MacBooks is without a doubt some of the best in the industry, with things like gorgeous Liquid Retina displays, sharp and clear webcams, and Apple’s line of silicon processors boasting some of the most impressive performance on the market.

The trade-off used to be the cost, which starts around $1,000 and goes up from there. All that changed, however, with the MacBook Neowhich brings the MacBook experience to a much more affordable device, starting at just $599.

Chromebooks

Google’s Chromebook line uses its own operating system, ChromeOS, to power its line of affordable, lightweight laptops. By putting a streamlined, limited operating system on a laptop with modest hardware, you can forget about the extensive memory demands of Windows and use 8GB of RAM smoothly and efficiently.

Our favorite Chromebook is the Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14a strong competitor to the MacBook Neo for its gorgeous screen, nice speakers, fast performance and marathon battery life.

Other solid options include Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plusand the Acer Chromebook Plus 516 GE — a good selection of cloud games.