I’m going to make it easy for you to find the perfect laptop for you. I’ll be breaking down the top 5 best laptops on the market and regardless of whether you’re a student, gamer, professional, or anything in between, I’ll have the perfect laptop for you in this video. So be sure to stay tuned till the very end so you don’t miss anything.
We are more than halfway through 2024, and that hits hard because I feel old—seriously. But that doesn't really affect your life, so let's get on with the review.
The point is, what does affect your life is a good laptop, and I've had the privilege of reviewing a ton of different laptops throughout 2024, so much so that I feel pretty comfortable making a best general productivity laptop list for Windows machines.
Now, keep in mind, this list is not comprehensive because it's physically impossible for me to review every single laptop out there in the market—there are just too many. However, I've had the chance to review some pretty good ones and narrow it down.
Always do your own research, but guides like this can help you set a foundation for what you might need in a good laptop across various pricing budgets or segments.
Now, without any more delays, let's get into it. Some quick caveats to keep in mind: Firstly, we're only covering general productivity laptops that primarily released in 2024 or at the very end of 2023 and have current-gen hardware at the time of this Article.
We're also not covering any Apple products, not because I hate Apple—I'm just joking—but because MacBook products compete in their own category, and I don’t think it makes sense to include them in this list. Finally, I’m only talking about laptops that I’ve personally reviewed or tested on this channel, so there will be full reviews for all these machines, and I’ll leave a link in the video description for you to check out.
Lenovo’s IdeaPad 3 Series.
It’s available in both Intel and AMD configurations, has a chunky but ultimately professional design that looks great in both professional and casual environments, which can’t always be said about budget laptops. You also get decent I/O port diversity with USB-A, HDMI, and Type-C configurations, along with a decent trackpad and a fantastic keyboard that often outclasses a lot of expensive laptops with finicky keyboards.
You get decent performance thanks to the latest Intel and AMD specs, so everything from general productivity like web surfing to programming and coding, and even up to full HD video editing, are all viable use cases with this laptop. It's been a great experience based on our tests, and I also appreciate the fact that this laptop frequently goes on sale for 30-40% off its normal retail price.
The only thing to watch out for is its poor screen colors with a 45% NTSC rating—I wouldn't recommend this for creative workflows, but for everyone else, it's a great budget productivity machine. Moving on to the best mid-range productivity segment, our hearts were stolen by HP’s Pavilion Plus 14 laptop. It has a semi-premium design, a top metallic exterior, and the liberty to choose between a 14- or 16-inch form factor, with the opportunity to choose between Intel’s Core Ultra or AMD’s Ryzen processors.
Features:
They give you a lot of spec options in general. You also get great I/O port diversity, including HDMI 2.1, Thunderbolt 4 on Intel models, and USB-A selections. Additionally, you’ve got one of the best keyboards in the mid-range segment—very tactile and super comfortable to type on. The laptop comes standard with a Quad HD+ display, but you can opt for a more expensive 2.8K OLED panel, which is super fluid and amazing to look at.
It also has great performance all around—for example, everything from general productivity to programming and coding, as well as even full HD video editing, was a total breeze with our Core i5 Ultra model. We also found that you can do some casual gaming with games like Fortnite running at a healthy 60+ FPS with medium settings despite having an integrated Intel Arc GPU. It has much better thermals compared to previous generations and decent battery life, ranging up to 9 hours of runtime, which isn’t too shabby for an x86 processor.
Generally speaking, we think this is a great laptop, and it frequently goes on sale as well, so make sure you check HP’s official website. In the premium general productivity segment, we had a bit of a hard time since there are plenty of great options, but ultimately we settled for the Asus Zen Book 14 OLED. Firstly, it’s got a very slim, sleek, and low-profile design that’s fully premium, thanks to a complete metallic exterior that puts most other premium laptops to shame when we compare its design elements. Additionally, it comes with powerful Intel Core Ultra configurations, and you get decent I/O selection for a small laptop, including HDMI as well as Thunderbolt 4 configurations.
You also have a high-quality glass trackpad with a built-in digital number pad, which is super cool, and a high-quality keyboard with great tactility and amazing key travel. You’ll also appreciate the fact that it comes standard with a 3K OLED 120Hz display with touch capability and a 100% DCI-P3 color gamut coverage, making it great for creative workflows.
It also has significantly improved thermals, good battery life, up to 11 hours on a single charge, and its performance is also great. We found that everything from general productivity like web surfing, programming, coding, and even up to 4K video editing was viable with this machine. You can even get away with casual gaming—similar to the HP Pavilion Plus 14, you can get up to 60 FPS with games like Fortnite in ultra settings.
In the ultra-premium productivity segment, the HP Spectre x360 was our go-to choice. Firstly, it has a crisp, clean design that looks super premium and absolutely stunning to just view. It also has a very slim profile, yet it has two-in-one functionality, so it can turn into a tablet despite its slim form factor. You also have the opportunity to get it in both 14- or 16-inch configurations with multiple Intel configurations, and also the ability to get discrete GPU settings all the way up to an RTX 4050 if you wish. The result, of course, is that you get great performance, whether it’s word crunching, web surfing, 3D-level studio animations, code compilation, or even 4K video editing on programs like da Vinci Resolve.
Performance:
You get great performance, and if you opt to get the discrete RTX 4050, you can run a lot of high-end games at some pretty decent settings with great frame rates as well. You get a standard 2.8K 120Hz OLED panel display with touch capability and HDR certification. Likewise, you also get almost up to 12 hours of battery runtime, which is perfect for an x86 processor, and a 9-megapixel camera that looks super crisp and clear, putting most other laptops to absolute shame.
The biggest downfall with this laptop, admittedly, is its lackluster I/O port selection—you get two Type-C Thunderbolt 4 ports and a USB-A port, and that's it. Also, it’s a very expensive laptop and doesn’t go on sale frequently, so if your budget is a little tight, you’re obviously going to want to steer clear. But other than that, this is a great ultra-premium flagship-level laptop. The best co-pilot plus PC in the general productivity segment we reviewed was the Asus Vivo Book S OLED 15. It has a very modern and unique design that really makes it stand out with a semi-premium finish, and it’s a laptop that tries to look as best as it can.
Additionally, you get some pretty good port diversity, including HDMI 2.1, USB4, as well as an SD card reader and even a USB-A slot. You also have a pretty good trackpad and a full RGB keyboard, which is exceptionally rare with most productivity laptops and usually reserved for gaming laptops. You also get a standard 3K 120Hz OLED screen here with HDR certification, as well as a 100% DCI-P3 color rating, making it visually stunning. You also get the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite processor, which means you get co-pilot plus and some phenomenal efficiency, including up to 14-12 hours of runtime on a single charge, great thermals that make this laptop run super cool, and great general productivity performance that can last all day long.
The one big flaw with this machine—and a lot of Qualcomm-based laptops I guess right now—is that performance with heavy activity is often 30-40% less when compared to similarly spec’d Intel and AMD processors.
This is not because they’re bad; it’s just that this is a Gen 1 product, and Snapdragon AXLE chipsets do have certain limitations that will get better over time. But other than that, if you’re looking for an all-day general productivity laptop with a great display, the Asus Viva Book S OLED is one of our personal favorites. And now for my personal favorite laptop in 2024 for general productivity—this one doesn’t really compete with any of the others. It’s a laptop that I enjoyed the most using as a daily driver, and that goes to the Lenovo Slim 7, also known as the Yoga Slim 7 in certain regions.
Conclusion:
The reason this laptop is so special is that it has the same form factor and design as Lenovo’s Yoga series of laptops, but it doesn’t have the two-in-one functionality—something that I don’t like having on most of my laptops—and it’s nice to have that option.
Additionally, you can spec this with AMD or Intel variants, depending on where you are in the world, or the name slightly changes, and you get cool ports like Thunderbolt 4, HDMI 2.1, and USB-A ports as well, despite such a slim body.
You’ll also appreciate the nice trackpad here, which is tactile, but the keyboard is the highlight. It’s the best keyboard I’ve reviewed on any laptop in 2024; it feels so nice to
