Here are the best laptops on the market that give you the most value:
If you're looking for a high-end laptop but also love tablets, Microsoft's Surface Book is the perfect all-in-one.
Microsoft turned plenty of heads with the announcement of the Microsoft Surface Book, its first laptop.
What makes it so special? The screen actually detaches to become a powerful, lightweight tablet on its own. And some models of Microsoft Surface Book go so far as to include a dedicated graphics unit right in the keyboard base, making it a gaming and video-editing powerhouse. In fact, Microsoft says it's twice as powerful as an Apple MacBook Pro.
Price: Starts at $1,499
If you want a taste of the future, Apple's gorgeous new MacBook is the perfect choice.
Apple's newest MacBook is a departure for the company. It only has one port, for USB-C, meaning you'll need adapters and USB hubs to use most of your existing accessories. And its performance can't stack up against beefier laptops.
But it's also razor-thin, light, and fast — and gets amazing battery life. The new MacBook's trackpad also supports Apple's new "Force Touch" feature that detects how hard you're pushing down and reacts accordingly.
Most of all, it's gorgeous and actually thinner than a MacBook Air. It's a great, stylish choice for those who need it for basic everyday tasks like reading email, browsing the web, and watching video.
The company refreshed the line in April, adding sixth-generation Intel processors and a "Rose Gold" color option.
Price: Starts at $1,299
If you want the best business laptop, Lenovo's ThinkPad T460 is a reliable fan favorite among professionals.
The successor to Lenovo's fan-favorite T450 line are the T460s. These laptops are sturdy, fast, and reliable, and come with tons of ports that those using their laptop for business-oriented tasks will appreciate. The T460 (unlike the T460s), also comes with a swappable battery, which makes it easily serviceable. The T460 gets a reported 14 hours of battery lifefrom its dual battery setup, and is currently getting better reviews from users than the other laptops in the line.
Price: Starts at $809.10
If you want a modern MacBook but you're on a budget, buy the MacBook Air.
The MacBook Air is still one of the best laptops you can buy. Not only is it thin and light, it offers excellent performance and battery life, too. Last year, Apple updated its MacBook Air to add fifth-generation processors from Intel, which means the Air is capable of lasting even longer on a single charge than it was in the past.
In its review, PCMag wrote that it got more than 17 hours of battery life out of the MacBook Air, which is extremely impressive. It comes in 11- and 13-inch screen sizes, but if you plan on using it primarily for work, we'd suggest the larger option.
Price: Starts at $899
If you're looking for the best gaming design, and a little innovation, go for the Razer Blade Stealth.
The Razer Blade Stealth presents an interesting concept.
The actual laptop is meant to be an slim and portable "ultrabook," which you can use to do everyday tasks like watching a movie, surfing the web, or using applications like Photoshop. It has a lovely screen and slick design.
But it doesn't have a dedicated graphics card, so when you want to do some serious gaming, you connect it to the Razer Core, which is an "external graphics enclosure." This turns your portable laptop into a beefy machine capable of running the latest and greatest games.
If you're looking for the Apple laptop with high performance, go with the MacBook Pro with Retina display.
The MacBook Pro is as good as Apple laptops get, with high performance and good battery life in a svelte, attractive, 13- or 15-inch package. It also has a bigger and better screen than the Air, though the Macbook also has a gorgeous display.
This year, the MacBook Pro didn't get a huge change, with a little more power added under the hood and a new "Force Touch" trackpad that can detect how hard you're pushing. But if you like Apple, and need to do some serious tasks like video editing, this one is for you, and it won't force you to buy expensive adaptors like the new MacBook.
Price: Starts at $1,299
If you're looking for the best all-around Windows laptop, go with Dell's XPS 13.
If you're looking for a really portable high-end, super-thin laptop that isn't a MacBook Air, the updated Dell XPS 13 is one of your best bets. It has a sleek design, a high-resolution display that almost seems to float over the keyboard, and great performance. Higher-end models even have a touchscreen.
Price: Starts at $799
If you want the best gaming laptop, Asus' ROG G752VT-DH72 will let you play the most recent games with stunning graphics.
Asus' ROG G752VT-DH72 is a beast. The Wirecutter crowned it as the best gaming laptop, since it combines powerful hardware, premium build quality, and the ability to play most graphics-intensive games on high settings. It's also got a gorgeous screen and a deep, comfortable keyboard.
If you're looking to play the most recent games with stunning graphics and high frames per second, this is your best bet.
Price: Starts at $1,649
If you like the design of the MacBook Air but don't want to drain your wallet, the Asus ZenBook UX305 is an attractive and powerful alternative.
Asus' ZenBook UX305 is thinner and lighter and has a better screen than the MacBook Air.
There are a few areas where the UX305's more expensive rivals outshine it, but Asus has made sure all of the important features are spot on: storage, screen quality, and battery life.
It's good-looking and capable, making it a great in-betweener choice for those who don't use their laptops for anything too intensive, but also want something a little bit above the budget models (though you might want to wait until the Zenbook UX306 release, which is imminent).
Price: Starts at $750
If you secretly want a Surface Book but you're on a budget, the Lenovo Yoga 900 is an excellent laptop and tablet hybrid alternative.
The Lenovo Yoga 900 is the newest entry in a series of reliable laptops that actually fold back over on themselves to become perfectly functional tablets.
The Yoga 2 Pro was held back by the Windows 8 operating system. The new Windows 10 is much better-suited to laptops and tablets, owing to a streamlined look and a better touch interface. The Yoga 900 is bigger than the Yoga 3 Pro (which is another good option), but it has supercharged performance and battery life.
Price: Starts at $1,049.
If you just use your laptop for light work, watching Netflix, and browsing the web, Toshiba's Chromebook 2 is super cheap and has great battery life.
If you can find one online (which is getting hard), Toshiba's Chromebook 2 gives you the best value. It has a beautiful screen and great battery life, and it feels comfortable in your lap. The design is sturdy enough to withstand being tossed in your bag during commutes without getting scraped up.
Toshiba refreshed this last fall. You now get a superb 1080p IPS display, an Intel Celeron 3215U processor, 4GB of RAM, a 16GB solid-state drive, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and an excellent nine to 10 hours of battery life.
If you mostly use your laptop for doing light work and browsing the web, this is a great choice.
Price: $330
BONUS: If you are looking for the most ridiculously opulent laptop, go for the new HP Spectre.
HP has billed the Spectre as the "world's thinnest laptop," which is a tad debatable, but it's at least close at 10.4 millimeters. And beyond how thin it is, the Spectre's design screams a certain kind of intense luxury, and has a big screen and good battery life.
This is certainly, however, no performance powerhouse.
Price: $1,169.99
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