Best Laptops of 2024: Our Top Picks and Awards
This year we tested well over 100 laptops. Well, the year is almost up, and it’s time for us to award the best laptops of 2024. Links to all our winners and Runner-Ups will be below this video and, of course, on our website In fact, our website is today’s video sponsor.
We scour the internet to find the best deals, and we post them there. You’ll find a helpful price tracker to ensure that you’re buying at the best time, and keep an eye out for our top recommendations for different types of buyers.
You can even compare recommendations together. Say you're looking for a laptop for school but you also want to game on the side. One of the key benefits of having a website like ours is that we can keep it up to date with our latest recommendations well after our videos are published. So, check it out—it’s quickly becoming the go-to place to shop for a new laptop. And with that said, let’s get on with the awards!
Best Budget Laptop
This year, we were on a mission to find super cheap laptops that were actually viable. We tested many, but either their performance was unbearably slow, or they had other material issues, such as a display that was dim and washed out that it was so difficult to actually see anything on it.
Pretty much, most that we tested were just e-waste. But one laptop stood out: the HP Pavilion Aero 13. This laptop can regularly be found on sale for around $500 to $600, and when it comes to HP laptops, their sales price is really their price.
They are frequently on sale, and when they aren’t, you shouldn’t buy one. The Aero 13 gives you a powerful enough AMD Ryzen 4 processor, and you won’t be held back by not having enough memory or storage, as it comes with ample of both. What makes it really stand out is its weight—it is insanely light and portable. Other than that, every other aspect of this laptop is good enough, which is exactly what you want for a budget machine.
Our runner-up for Budget Laptop of the Year is the MacBook Air with M2. The older 8GB of RAM model with 256GB of storage, with Apple putting more memory as standard in their MacBooks, their older ones are now a lot cheaper at $700 or less.
This version is a goodbye. It has a more premium build and better creature comforts than most other laptops at this price point. That includes better speakers, better webcam, better trackpad—you guys get the point. And, of course, it has Apple’s M2 processor that gives it snappy performance, decent battery life, and solid integrated graphics.
Its downsides are that you’re only getting 8GB of memory and 256GB of storage, as I said. Many people will say that this is a no-go, but if you stick to basic applications like web browsing, office work, and casual games, you’ll be fine. In fact, you will likely appreciate the more premium aspects of this laptop over similarly priced Windows ones that have more memory or storage but cheap out in other areas.
Best Laptop for Office, Home, and School
When it comes to the best laptops for light users, these buyers received a lot of love this year. We had Qualcomm's new Snapdragon laptops just burst onto the scene, as well as Intel’s Lunar Lake, both of which finally gave Windows laptops what MacBooks had for years—good performance with long battery life and no annoyances like fan noise or a warm-feeling laptop. That meant we got a lot of great devices this year, and a couple of them really stood out.
The Surface Laptop 713 is my personal favorite laptop for light use, which includes browsing the web, working on office documents, and managing this business. In fact, the script for this very video was mostly written on the Surface. Here’s why I love it: It’s the most premium-feeling Windows laptop I’ve ever owned, and it looks slick and stylish with its blue color.
It has a bright, fast-refresh-rate display, which makes it perfect for using out and about. It has a phenomenally comfortable keyboard, and its touchpad is the best of any Windows laptop. In fact, it’s the only one that I feel rivals a MacBook. Other than this, carrying it around is a joy due to its lightweight and compact form factor. All these things combined make me just want to take the Surface with me everywhere I go.
But its main downside is that it has a Snapdragon processor. That means it runs the ARM version of Windows, and several specialist applications and a ton of games do not run or do not run well on this hardware. In fact, for most of the other awards in today’s video, I’d outright disqualify a laptop with this processor. But in the case of this award, the applications casual users use all work very well. But it’s important that you are aware of its limitations. For example, when I play my favorite game, League of Legends, I have to put down the Surface and swap to a different laptop.
Other than this, the Surface’s battery is small, and its battery life is pretty mediocre. Keep in mind, my one does have the less powerful X+ chip—the version with the X lead chip has worse battery life. We did a post comparing these two, which I will link below.
Next up is the Zen Book S14. This laptop is very compact, well-built, and super lightweight. It has a nice OLED display and very long battery life. It’s also an Intel laptop, so all applications work, and you can even do some light gaming. The Intel Lunar Lake processor in this laptop has great integrated graphics, but its display doesn’t get that bright, and it is very glossy and reflective. I found using this laptop in coffee stores was just challenging. I had to try to angle the screen in a variety of ways to avoid reflections.
Next is the Slim 7x, another premium and stunning-looking Snapdragon laptop. It is incredibly thin and light, especially given its large 14.5-inch display. It is the best performing Snapdragon laptop we tested. It has very long battery life with its large battery, and it has the best OLED display of any laptop too. Most OLED displays in laptops have a max brightness of around 400 nits and a screen door effect—you see tiny colored dots peeking through light content.
The Slim 7x’s display is brighter at 500 nits, and it doesn’t have that screen door effect. And if that wasn’t enough, the Slim 7x is incredibly well-priced for what you get. But its downsides are that its trackpad is very slippery and annoyingly loud to click.
Its port selection is limited—USB-C only with no headphone jack—and it has a Snapdragon processor, which means there is a risk that applications or games won’t work. But as I said, since many people in this category are just sticking to office applications, web browsing, and that sort of thing, those applications all work well.
Next, we have the Slim 7i, or Edition. It’s basically a larger version of the Slim 7x that solves all three of that laptop’s issues. It uses an Intel Lunar Lake processor, so all applications work. It has better ports, and its trackpad is less slippery and isn’t as loud to click. The other main difference between it and the Slim 7x is the AO Edition has a 15.3-inch larger IPS display.
It doesn’t have an OLED panel, but don’t worry though, it’s still a great panel—bright, high resolution, fast refresh rate—and you won’t have to worry about OLED burn-in. Plus, just like the Slim 7x, it has a very comfortable keyboard. Overall, it has minimal drawbacks, but many people just won’t want a larger 15.3-inch laptop that just looks dull in comparison to these others.
Last, we have the MacBook Air with M3. It is the reliable choice. It’s a very premium laptop, and you get Apple’s efficient M3 processor. Everything just works really well—bright screen, good trackpad, decent speakers and webcam, etc. Plus, Apple just increased the RAM to 16GB. Its downsides are that it’s just kind of fallen behind these Windows laptops in several areas.
Its keyboard feels low travel and isn’t that comfortable. It doesn’t have a fast-refresh-rate display, nor a touchscreen. As you can see, each of these laptops has very distinct pros and cons that will be more or less important depending on who you are. For me personally, the Surface Laptop wins, as I said. But I want you to let me know which one of these laptops you think should win with a comment down below.
Best 2-in-1 Laptop
This year we got a lot more serious about testing 2-in-1s, and for most of the year, one laptop just stood out: the HP Spectre 14. Like all HP's, it was regularly on sale, normally for around $1,200. For this price, you got decent performance, ample memory and storage, and you got a lot of premium features—an accurate haptic trackpad, an OLED display—and since it is an Intel laptop, all software would run, even some light games.
This laptop was later replaced by the HP Omni Book Ultra Flip. It has Intel’s newer and better Lunar Lake processor, but this update was a case of two steps forward and a step back. The improvements are that the flip is smaller and more portable than the Specter (that laptop was pretty bulky for a 14-inch),
"Choosing the Right Laptop for Your Needs in 2024: A Summary of the Best Performers"
This conclusion topic ties together the overall theme of the which discusses different categories of laptops, from budget to premium,
highlighting the top choices based on performance and specific use cases. It emphasizes how important it is to consider individual needs—whether you're a gamer, a creator, or a casual user—when selecting the best laptop.
