the-best-laptops-for-2022

The minutiae of your life can't be revolutionized by a laptop the way it can by a smartphone. If you want to capture a beautiful sunset, kill time in the elevator, or buy a coffee, you can't just whip one out. 

Over the years, laptops have honed their own skills since smartphones took over all these jobs. Batteries that last for days and screens that are breathtaking are now commonplace if you look in the right places. Full HD graphics are now affordable. The basic old-guard features you won't find on a mobile device, such as touchpads and full-size keyboards, tend to get better with each generation.

With great features, though, has come great fragmentation. Amazon, Newegg, and even your local electronics megamart have a dizzying array of cheap laptops, gaming laptops, 2-in-1 laptops, Chromebooks, and ultraportables. Here at PC Labs, we review as many laptops as we can—hundreds each year—so we’ve seen pretty much every remix of laptop you can buy. 

However, buying one based on specs and speed feeds alone can be confusing. Your budget and how you intend to use your laptop will determine which features are best for you. It's best to shop systematically. Read on for tips. 

Assess Your Budget: How Much Do I Need to Spend?

Not interested in cutting-edge design or powerful components? Cheap laptops are a good option. With list prices under $500, today's market offers a wide selection of basic, yet full-featured models. Black Friday and Prime Day, as well as actual holidays like Presidents' Day, bring frequent sales that further discount some of these models. Most of them will be able to handle word processing and email checking just fine, but they will struggle with other tasks, such as keeping several tabs open in a web browser at once. 

Increasing your budget to around $1,000 will enable you to access nearly all of the cutting-edge features of modern laptops. Slim, sturdy aluminum chassis, brilliant touch-enabled 4K displays, powerful processors and graphics chips, and long-lasting batteries are some of these features. At this price range, you'll have to pick and choose which features are most important. For this price, you're unlikely to find a laptop with both a 4K display and a terabyte of solid-state storage. 

When you have more than $2,000 in your piggybank, you can choose almost any combination of features. No laptop can escape physics. Heat is generated by hot hardware, and the cooling systems required to keep it cool occupy space. Thin, light laptops can't offer 17-inch displays and fast graphics processors that require bulky cooling pipes or fans. 

IT-managed business laptops, including those made by Dell, HP, and Lenovo, have their own pricing dynamics, and they often cost a bit more, all things being equal. This is due to their superior warranty or support plans, enterprise-specific silicon focused on manageability or security, fingerprint or face recognition login features, and more durable build quality.

Which Operating System to Get in My Laptop?

Most of the laptops you'll find at your local store or at your favorite online seller will run Windows 10 (unless the seller is named "Apple"), but Windows 10 isn't always the best operating system for everyone. Chrome OS has become a viable alternative to Windows on budget laptops in recent years. Laptops without Windows typically cost about $1,000. Above a grand, the only alternative to a Windows 10 machine is a MacBook; below that, a Chromebook.

At the moment, Chrome OS-based laptops are the most popular alternatives to budget-priced Windows 10 laptops. It is a good option for those who just need a laptop for watching movies, writing text documents, sending e-mails, and doing basic spreadsheets. Because cloud services like Google Drive can handle most of your storage and processing needs, Chromebooks really just need a good screen and a comfortable keyboard. You can also find midrange Chromebooks with full-HD (1080p) displays and comfortable keyboards as easily as you can find bargain-basement Chromebooks nowadays.

For those with similar needs but a larger budget, an Apple MacBook could be the answer, as long as you don't mind running macOS on a daily basis. MacBooks in the Apple family aren't cheap, but you'll find solid industrial design, excellent battery life, and tons of built-in apps to manage your multimedia collection and sync with other Apple devices. 

Macbooks with 16-inch Retina displays and CPUs up to Intel's Core i9 are also suitable for content creators. In Chrome OS and Windows 10, touch-screen support is available, but Mac laptops do not.  

Windows machines are able to run more software, including most AAA titles; Macs have a much smaller selection, and Chrome OS games are limited to what you can run in the browser or download as an Android app or from the Chrome Web Store. Windows machines also offer the most form-factor flexibility. Chromebooks have keyboards that can be detached or folded, allowing them to be used as tablets, but Windows offers a greater selection of these flexible physical designs. 

Windows 10 devices offer the most choices when it comes to laptops. Your remaining buying decisions will mostly apply to Windows machines, which we will address below. (We will let you know when Chromebooks and Macs offer this feature, however.)

What's an Ideal Size and Weight?

Typically, a general-purpose laptop should be about half an inch thick and weigh about 3 pounds or less. As far as we are concerned, this is the maximum size and weight a laptop can have for us to call it an ultraportable laptop, and portability is key to maximizing use and enjoyment for most users.

Most laptops have screens that are 13 or 14 inches in size to meet those requirements; however, some models now come with 15-inch screens or larger to qualify as ultraportables. There are usually two types of laptop shapes available: clamshell and 2-in-1 convertible. The screen of the latter can rotate 360 degrees, so it can be used as a makeshift tablet or propped up like a tent while watching movies. 

Chrome OS and Windows laptops often have smaller screens, such as 10 or 11 inches. Occasionally, these aren't really laptops in the purest sense, but rather tablets with detachable keyboards. Avoid these designs if you are looking for a lightweight laptop or a part-time tablet. Most are lighter than most 13-inch ultraportables, and can often weigh less than 2 pounds. However, they're not as good as tablets as the Apple iPad is, and their detachable keyboards mean they're not much good as laptops, either-typing is usually difficult.

17-inch behemoths are the opposite end of the size spectrum. Hardcore gamers prefer them, but if you need a bigger screen for any other reason, you can find an occasional 17-inch computer or workstation. 17-inch laptops are similar in size and weight to desktop computers. Some of these designs can weigh over 8 pounds and measure over an inch thick. If your gaming rig will remain at your desk and you seldom move it, a 17-inch monitor may be right for you. For most gamers, a 15-inch laptop will suffice.

What Kind of Laptop Screen Do I Need?

Screens on laptops have become denser over the past decade, cramming more pixels into the same space. The result is crisper text and sharper images onscreen, as well as, often, better-looking colors. Even though display density is sometimes expressed in pixels per inch (ppi), the main specification of a laptop screen is its native resolution, which is expressed in horizontal and vertical pixels. 

Laptops costing $500 or more usually have screens with a "full HD" resolution. Typically, they use LCD panels built on what's called in-plane switching (IPS) technology and have a resolution of 1,920 by 1,080 pixels (or in rare cases, 1,920 by 1,200 pixels). IPS screens keep their image quality high regardless of the angle from which the screen is viewed. The thin-film transistor (TFT) TV is the other major type of screen found in modern laptops (and often seen in gaming laptops), but it tends to fade colors if not viewed straight on. You should consider this if you often share the contents of your screen with others, such as during impromptu presentations.

Windows- and Chrome OS-based laptops typically have thin-film transistor (TFT) displays (1,280 by 720 pixels and 1,366 by 768 are common resolutions), so text will be fuzzy and colors won't be as saturated as they are on your smartphone or TV. Even if you don't care about image quality, you can save money.

If you want crisp text and vivid colors, you can go above full HD. As standard or optional extras, high-end laptops come with displays with 4K native resolution (generally 3,840 by 2,160 pixels). IPS technology is used in most of these screens, but some use OLED technology, just like cutting-edge smartphones. OLED screens are the best choice for movie buffs because of their inky blacks and rich colors.

Those who intend to use their laptops outdoors or in brightly lit rooms should ensure that the screen is at least 500 nits bright, regardless of whether the screen is OLED, IPS, or TFT.

Should I Get a Touch Screen?

Windows 10 and Chrome OS both support touch-screen functionality, but you'll need a touch-enabled laptop and a digital stylus to use them. Check the specifications carefully before buying a Windows 10 laptop. Glossy screens often include touch support, whereas matte screens designed to reduce ambient light usually do not.

Matte displays make gaming laptops harder to find with touch support.  However, gaming laptops above the budget level tend to have high-refresh-rate displays. In order to achieve silky-smooth visuals, gamers and esports enthusiasts will want to maximize the number of frames per second that their screen can display, which a 120Hz or higher refresh rate will allow them to do.

Before you spend a lot of money on a high-refresh screen, make sure your graphics card, or GPU, is powerful enough to run your game at a frame rate high enough to make a difference. Generally, laptop screens have 60Hz refresh rates, so if you plan to play games with 60 frames per second or less, you won't benefit much from a high-refresh screen.

Which Laptop CPU Do I Need?

The majority of $1,000 ultraportables have Intel's Core i5 or Core i7 processors, but a few use AMD's Ryzen 5 or Ryzen 7 CPUs. Even though all of these are powerful enough for everyday use, keep in mind that higher CPU model numbers usually indicate more processor cores, faster maximum clock speeds, and perhaps even multithreading. Multithreading allows each CPU core to run two sets of software instructions at the same time instead of just one. Nowadays, multithreaded chips are faster because they can take advantage of as many CPU cores as possible. 

AMD's A-series and Ryzen 3 processors, as well as Intel's Celeron, Core i3, and Pentium processors, are commonly used in budget laptops. These processors usually have two or four cores. A high-end laptop with Intel's Core i9 or Xeon CPUs has as many as eight cores.  

Regardless of the type of CPU a laptop has, it will consume less power and generate less heat than its desktop counterpart. Intel laptop CPUs consume 15 watts or less in the latest mainstream, lightweight laptops compared to their desktop equivalents. 

Games laptops typically have high-performance CPUs, identified by an "H" in the model name. The cooling hardware required and energy consumption are higher, but the performance is comparable to a desktop PC. Both AMD and Intel offer H-series processors.

You can read a great deal about laptop-processor details, but if you're looking for a good overview that doesn't overwhelm, read our guide to choosing a laptop CPU that fits your needs.

Do I Need Dedicated Graphics?

For most laptop users, an integrated graphics processor (also known as an IGP or integrated graphics processor) is perfectly adequate. If your laptop is Intel-based (or AMD-based), it will use Intel's HD Graphics, UHD Graphics, or Iris as the graphics solution. IGPs share the CPU's processors and memory. Since the amount of memory available to the graphics chip is fixed, increasing system memory will not improve its performance. 

Gamers should consider a GPU with its own dedicated computing resources. When it comes to playing 3D games, gaming GPUs will have an immense advantage over integrated graphics processors. (Note that some laptops will come with low-end dedicated graphics solutions, like the GeForce MX series, which are a step up from IGPs but not designed for serious gaming.) At the top end, gamers will want to check out Nvidia's RTX GPUs. 

With gaming laptops, the GPU level you need is determined by the frame rate you want at the laptop's native resolution, and the games you play. We have reviews that can help you determine what level you need. We test a laptop with several demanding gaming benchmarks in order to give you an idea of its performance. See our best budget gaming laptops and favorite late-model gaming machines for more information.

How Much Storage and Memory Do I Need?

In laptops above the entry-level level, solid-state drives (SSDs) are the new alternative to spinning platters for storing data. In general, SSDs allow faster access to information stored in cells, making them the best and most common drive configuration. As well, they are immune to jolts and bumps that can cause a spinning platter to crash.

*Some laptops, especially larger-chassis gaming laptops, come with two types of hard drives: a small SSD for the operating system, essential apps, and a few games, and a large spinning drive for the bulk of your game files. That's a perfectly fine option if you're looking to save some money or simply need the maximum amount of local storage, but you should always go for an SSD-only setup. 

Laptop SSDs aren't all the same. Rather than the older, somewhat slower SATA interface, SSDs that use the more modern, faster PCI Express NVMe standard are preferred. (PCI Express SSDs are slowly taking over the field.) Either of these, however, is better than a third option: the much slower eMMC, a type of flash storage drive used in budget PCs. It is probably using eMMC if your budget laptop has 32GB, 64GB, or even 128GB of local storage. They are all better than a traditional spinning hard drive, unless you just need a lot of capacity for the least amount of money. 

Laptop shoppers should consider 256GB as the minimum amount of storage. There will be enough room to accommodate operating system updates and large apps like Microsoft Office. If you have extensive images, videos, or music collections (or if you are a serious PC gamer at all), then you should get a minimum of 512GB. Laptops with 1TB or even larger SSDs are available at the high end, and these will sound great. You should also know that the highest capacities can cause a laptop's price to skyrocket-a 4TB SSD can add thousands of dollars to the overall price of a high-end laptop. If you need additional space, it's more cost-effective to buy a 512GB SSD and use an external drive. 

SSDs store data, while RAM (or system memory) is used by the CPU to run apps and determine the laptop's multitasking capacity. While basic productivity apps can run just fine with 8GB of memory, you'll want to configure a midrange laptop to have 16GB of memory so that tomorrow's more advanced apps will have sufficient memory. This is a good target amount for heavy multitaskers, PC gamers, and web surfers with many tabs open. Browsers that load multimedia-rich sites and web apps consume a large amount of memory. 

Memory amounts above 16GB won't add much to the experience of most people who aren't professional or prosumer content creators. On the other hand, a budget Windows 10 system with just 4GB of memory will tend to be sluggish when multitasking, and is generally indicative of a bare-bones configuration. Chromebooks are no different-even though Chrome OS is designed to demand fewer computing resources than Windows, if you frequently perform memory-intensive tasks, such as browsing with dozens of tabs open, 4GB may be insufficient. 

What Kind of Connectivity Do I Need?

You may never need to plug in anything other than the power cord if you use your laptop's touchpad, touch screen, and keyboard as the primary means of control. Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are the most common connections that most laptops provide.

The latest Wi-Fi standard is 802.11ax (also called "Wi-Fi 6"), which is a good feature to look for in a premium machine to ensure good Wi-Fi connectivity in the future. Even so, 802.11ac is just fine for mainstream and budget systems. If you can, avoid the older 802.11b/g/n standards that are still available on some budget machines, as these can result in lower throughput speeds and less reliable connections. 

Gaming enthusiasts may want to choose a machine with Killer Networks. This feature will allow you to give wired or wireless gaming traffic priority on your internet connection. Gamers and business users may also need a dedicated Ethernet port. There are usually one or more wired Ethernet ports on gaming machines, and some gamers still insist that wired Ethernet is the only way to play competitively online. The Ethernet port on some laptops is a full-size or fold-out jack, while others may feature an adapter that routes Ethernet through the USB port. Other models come with neither, leaving you free to add wired Ethernet via a dongle.

When it comes to other physical connections, you should count the edges of a laptop carefully. You'll want to take note of the number and type of USB ports if you have an external storage device like a thumb drive. Make sure your laptop has both USB Type-A and Type-C ports. The Type-A connector has been around for decades, whereas Type-C is a smaller, oval-shaped connector that can also be used to charge a laptop.

Budget laptops may only have Type-A ports, which is inconvenient in the era of Type-C. On the other hand, some ultra-thin designs lack Type-A ports, so you'll need dongles to connect Type-A peripherals.

When it comes to video output, try to find a laptop with a dedicated port like an HDMI connector, especially if you plan on connecting your laptop to a TV, a desktop monitor, or an audio-visual system in a lecture hall. On laptops, video outputs are sometimes implemented using micro HDMI or mini DisplayPort connectors to save space. The box may or may not include a special cable for using these.

A built-in SD or microSD card reader will make image uploading easier for photographers. A security notch for attaching a locking cable to your laptop is especially useful if you plan to use it in a public, unsecured location. Kensington-cable and Noble-lock styles fall into this category. Make sure the notch type matches the type of cable you plan to use to tether the machine to an immovable object.

How Much Battery Life Is Enough?

Despite demanding but common activities like streaming internet video, most laptops can operate for an entire day without a power outlet. A laptop with a 4K display and a powerful CPU is probably not going to last for more than 8 hours before it dies, and most gaming laptops die much sooner. Gaming laptops tend to run out of juice even more quickly when playing games that tax the GPU. But even powerful laptops have become adept at sensing when they aren't needed and reducing various components' power consumption.

We conduct battery tests at PC Labs to prove this. To evaluate battery life, we played a locally stored video file continuously with no wireless connections active, and we adjusted the screen brightness to 50 percent. Our tests found that the laptop is excellent at adapting its power use to the task at hand, and you can use the results to compare the power capabilities of the machines you are considering.

Battery life is notoriously difficult to measure because it depends on your usage pattern. It is likely that your usage pattern will differ from ours-or anyone else's. Thus, you should consider battery life in a relative, rather than absolute, sense.

Should I Consider a Refurbished Laptop?

Different manufacturers and resellers have different standards for refurbishing previously used laptops. A slight discount on a rigorously tested MacBook Pro that Apple sells with the same warranty as a new model might be worth it, while a laptop refurbished by a third party you've never heard of could be risky. Any refurbished machine should be purchased directly from the manufacturer's online store rather than from a reseller, especially one selling refurbs from marketplace sellers or third parties.

These resellers and their third parties may grade their refurbished stock. We have seen refurbished laptops being sold and rated with grades of A, B+, B, C, and so on, to reflect the relative amount of wear and tear on the machine. However, refurbished PCs do not have a uniform grading system. Grades are generally determined by resellers, so they may differ from one seller to another. In the case of machines graded in this manner, we strongly recommend an ironclad return policy in the case of purchases like these, if you decide to go for it. You might be pleasantly surprised, but refurbished-laptop deals that look too good to be true usually are. 

It is almost universally true that with a little tech know-how, you can make use of your own used laptops. In the market for new laptops for you and your kids, you might consider tuning up your current PC to give to your children while buying a new one for yourself.

Should I Get a Longer Laptop Warranty?

Most laptop manufacturers offer one-year warranties on parts and labor. Since these plans are limited, they won't cover accidents caused by spilling a drink on the keyboard or dropping the system. Your credit-card issuer is likely to cover such mishaps for a short period of time after you buy a new product, and it may also extend the manufacturer's warranty. You may find that Mastercard accounts double the standard warranty period up to one year, for example. Check your account benefits guide for details.

Some laptop makers will gladly sell you extended warranties if your credit card company won't cover you. All Apple, Dell, HP, and Lenovo products come with extended warranties and accidental damage coverage. Prices for these options range from $100 to $300. We recommend purchasing a backup drive or service that minimizes downtime instead of a warranty that costs more than 15 percent of the laptop's purchase price.

Peace of mind cannot be priced. A logic board or the display-two of the most expensive components of a laptop-can fail, and while rare, such a catastrophe can cost you half what the laptop is worth in repair costs.

Where to Go From Here?

Buying a laptop requires patience. Even if you have specific requirements, you will almost certainly find a few excellent models that match them, and a few perfectly serviceable but average models that will, too. Now that you know what specifications to look for, we hope that separating the good from the bad will become much simpler. Below are our current favorite laptops, which we update frequently.