Laptops. They've become an essential part of our everyday lives, from professionals in need of a portable device to power through emails, spreadsheets, or creative work to gamers requiring peak performance to play the best PC games — all while on the move. And yes, laptops are even ideal for those looking for a simple machine to watch shows or scroll through websites.
After testing, reviewing, and, of course, shopping for the latest laptops on the market for the past decade, exploring the value of budget notebooks and witnessing the might of powerful gaming rigs, it puts me in a great position to know what laptops are worth your attention.
Now, many factors go into what makes a laptop a worthy recommendation, from how good the keyboard feels to the number of ports it offers. But when it comes down to it, the main details to look out for when buying a laptop can be broken down to five key aspects — and these are the things I look out for.
Whether you're looking for the best laptop or best gaming laptop for your needs, or want to save big during a major sales event (like Labor Day), here are five things to look for when buying a laptop.
Size matters
The key advantage of a laptop is its portability, and every single one of them has been made to be moved around. Well, for the most part.
I've been burned by owning a mega-sized 17-inch Asus ROG Strix Scar 17, lugging it around in my backpack during events abroad, and trying to use it on public transport. It's not ideal, and the disgruntled passenger next to me with minimal space on the train will agree.
While I adore 18-inch machines like the Asus TUF Gaming A18 I tested, these large-sized laptops fit more in the category of a desktop replacement. As in, they will find a permanent spot on your desk, only to be moved rarely. There's a time and place for them, especially for power users or gamers, but to take advantage of the true essence of a laptop, you'll want to look for the right size.
Fine examples of slim and lightweight laptops include the 13-inch MacBook Air M4 and Dell XPS 13, delivering exceptional performance in extremely portable machines. Having a MacBook Air myself, it's the laptop I use daily for both work and entertainment, and 13-inch laptops like these are supremely easy to carry around.
One thing to look out for is that they don't offer much display real estate, and keyboards are limited to essential keys — no number pad included. Despite how light they can be, like the 2.1-pound MSI Prestige 13 AI+ Evo, sometimes having the extra weight for a bigger size is worth it.
That's where laptops like the 15-inch MacBook Air M4 and 14.5-inch Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x shine. But you can also find gamer-ready notebooks such as the 14-inch Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 for a great balance of size and performance. In any case, knowing what you'll be using the laptop for is essential, as it will save you from having a screen that's far too small for your needs or too heavy to travel around with.
Performance is key
CPU, RAM and SSD. These are the three biggest components that power any laptop, and will always be a crucial part when testing laptops. If I can't at least open multiple Google Chrome tabs while watching a show, what's the point?
When it comes to CPUs (Central Processing Unit), you'll find many laptops come outfitted with the latest processors from Intel, AMD, Qualcomm and Apple. These chips come with more than enough performance to breeze through multitasking, demanding apps, and even some gaming, as seen with the AMD Ryzen AI Max 390 in the Asus ROG Flow Z13.
Whether it's an Intel Core Ultra 200 Series, AMD Ryzen AI 300 series, Snapdragon X series or Apple's M-series silicon (with this continuing to be the cream of the crop), I've found that it's not so much about whether these chips can handle the pressure anymore, it's about how much performance they deliver compared to their competition.
For example, Geekbench is a great way to test a CPU's performance on a device. Anything above a single-core score of 1,200 is considered good for everyday tasks, while a score above 4,000 in the multi-score benchmark means it can handle multiple or heavy apps at once. Now, here's a look at the performance of some of the latest laptops on the market.
Laptop | Geekbench 6 single-core | Geekbench 6 multi-core |
|---|---|---|
M4 MacBook Air 13-inch | 3751 | 14947 |
M3 MacBook Air 13-inch | 3082 | 12087 |
Dell XPS 13 (Snapdragon X Elite X1E-80-100) | 2797 | 14635 |
Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x (Snapdragon X Elite X1E-80-100) | 2448 | 13750 |
MSI Prestige 13 AI+ Evo (Intel Core Ultra 7 258V) | 2714 | 10392 |
Considering the general score, these are stunning results. This is to say that CPUs these days can generally handle the majority of modern tasks. Unless you're looking at the best Chromebooks, though. This is a different story, as since these machines are made for more online use rather than native apps, it isn't as much of a priority. Even the Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14 only comes with a MediaTek Kompanio Ultra 910, and it's still a breeze to use.
As for how much RAM is needed, personally, the general standard now is 16GB of DDR5 RAM (Random Access Memory), no question. This allows for usual multitasking without consequence, from opening multiple tabs in a browser while doing light work in programs like Adobe Photoshop or Premiere Pro to playing modern AAA titles; this amount of memory is standard for most.
8GB of RAM doesn't cut it as much these days, especially as AI-intensive apps become the norm. It's fine for a budget laptop that will only be used to browse the web, with a little multitasking on the side, and that's why Chromebooks are a good shout. But for a worthwhile machine that will last, it's 16GB you'll want to look out for. Anything over this, including 32GB of RAM, is best for large-scale video editing, creative work and game development. Although the more there is, the better the laptop.
The same can be said for an SSD (Solid State Drive). Now, the best external SSDs are always an option, but having 256GB for storage on your laptop, especially if it's just for files, documents and photos, is the bare minimum you should look for. For gaming laptops, though, you'll want to look for a 1TB size.
To put that into perspective, The Last of Us Part II Remastered is 150GB, Monster Hunter Wilds is 75GB, South of Midnight for 70GB, Cyberpunk 2077 with the Phantom Liberty expansion is around 100GB and Marvel Rivals is another 70GB. Storage can get quite tight pretty fast, so always look out for laptops with SSDs that have high storage.
Keep an eye on displays
Performance means zilch if you can't read text on screen comfortably, which is why a laptop's display can make or break a purchase. It isn't just about display size, as resolution, brightness, color accuracy and display type are all important factors when it comes to the simple clarity of text or vibrancy of images on show.
It all depends on your needs, as an FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS display with a 120Hz refresh rate can not only work wonders for casual use or even fast-paced multiplayer PC games, but it can also keep the price down. If it manages to have smooth, bright visuals and great color accuracy with these kinds of specs, like the Acer Swift 14 AI, then it's still doing a good job.
Here's a quick look at what good brightness and color gamut coverage in a range of laptops looks like, as per our display testing.
Laptop | Average brightness (nits) | sRGB color gamut | Delta-E color accuracy (smaller number is better) |
|---|---|---|---|
M4 MacBook Air 13-inch | 457.8 | 116.5% | 0.21 |
Dell XPS 13 (2024) | 455.8 | 84.4% | 0.21 |
Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x | 464 | 219% | 0.37 |
MSI Prestige 13 AI+ Evo | 357 | 202% | 0.31 |
M4 Pro MacBook Pro 16-inch | 564.8 | 115% | 0.27 |
Asus ProArt P16 | 356 | 120.8% | N/A |
Anything above 300 nits of brightness in a laptop's display is good, and you'd generally want sRGB color gamut coverage to be above 100% for a true breadth of colors. For Delta-E coverage, laptop screens usually nail this at under 0.5, but the lower, the better.
However, the goldilocks resolution is QHD (2560 x 1440), and even better if it can bump up to WQXGA (2560 x 1600) resolution. This is the sweet spot for clarity and higher detail when watching shows or playing games. This is only made better when refresh rates are high, with 120Hz being a solid standard for buttery smooth navigation around apps or websites, or when playing games.
Otherwise, if a laptop comes with an OLED panel, like the Asus ProArt P16 and HP Omen Max 16, I already know I'm in for a treat. This is a great shout for gaming and creative work, and you'll find OLED on many of the best touchscreen laptops, too, including the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i.
Simply put, if a laptop's display is bright, colorful, and offers the right kind of resolution for its use case, it has the makings of a fine notebook worth getting.
Battery that lasts
For many, long battery life is a non-negotiable. As it should be, as no one wants a laptop that can only run for an hour before it turns into a brick.
A good rule of thumb for me is a laptop that can last a full working day, like your typical nine-to-five. Having eight hours to use a laptop for work, study or browsing the web is a long enough time to do what I need to before reaching for a charger, but many laptops can struggle with this.
This is especially true when it comes to gaming laptops. Even some of our favorites, like the Asus TUF Gaming A14 or Acer Predator Helios 18 AI, will only last up to two hours at most, but this is due to the power they push out and, for the latter, size. But this has been a known fact about gaming laptops for a while.
Otherwise, laptops for everyday use should go well beyond this, and you'll find the best Windows laptops sporting Snapdragon X chips and MacBooks with the latest M-series silicon to raise the bar in battery life.
Right now, the 16-inch M4 MacBook Pro comes with nearly 21 hours of battery, while the Dell XPS 13 with a Snapdragon X Elite delivers nearly 20 hours. That's the top brass, but even laptops that come with over 10 hours of battery life, like the Framework Laptop 13 and Acer Aspire Go 15, are well worth considering as a machine for daily use.
Right for gaming
Not all laptops are made to game, but if they have the right specs to play anything from Counter-Strike all the way up to Cyberpunk 2077, then it's one for gamers to consider.
A laptop that can game will generally pack a discrete GPU (Graphics Processing Unit). Depending on the graphics card, which usually comes from Nvidia, AMD or Intel, you'll be able to play games with high frames per second (FPS) at 1080p or up to 4K resolution.
Many of today's gaming laptops are powerful enough to handle any modern title, but performance varies significantly with price. More expensive models generally offer superior power, allowing you to maximize in-game settings without melting the system.
Now, with Nvidia's GeForce RTX 50-series and the latest AMD GPUs, performance is pushed even further, using features like DLSS 4 and Multi Frame Generation to deliver higher frame rates at demanding resolutions (up to 4K).
Of course, this varies between systems. For example, an RTX 5060 gaming laptop is better for 1080p (or 1200p) gameplay with frame rates going as high as 200 FPS, especially in fast-paced multiplayer titles that don't require demanding graphics. Then there are laptops with an RTX 5070 Ti and higher, like the Asus ROG Strix Scar 18 with an RTX 5090, that can pump out over 200 FPS at max settings in games like Cyberpunk 2077 (that's all with DLSS 4 turned off, no less).
It all depends on the type of games you play and the amount you're willing to spend. However, despite the latest mobile GPUs being fitted on the latest gaming laptops, that doesn't mean previous-gen graphics cards aren't worth it. This is true of the Asus TUF Gaming A14, which sports an RTX 4060.
I've explored whether RTX 4050 gaming laptops are still worth it, and they are certainly capable if you set your expectations. Regardless, if a laptop delivers high refresh rates at 60 FPS and over for the right price, all without making the system explode, then it has the gaming chops you'll be looking for.
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