This year has been a rollercoaster for the computing industry, with undeniably awesome new products marred by the ongoing RAM crisis. If you're looking for your next powerful laptop, blazing-fast Wi-Fi 7 router or first pair of AR glasses, the landscape has changed. That's why our team of experts has been busy testing out the best computing and home office gear from the last twelve months.
We've seen laptops deliver twin OLED screens without missing a beat of battery, peripherals that genuinely make your work life easier and the explosion of AR glasses that are currently redefining what computing even means.
Below you'll find our picks for the Tom's Guide Awards 2026, with each and every one worthy of a permanent position on your desk.
Best laptop
Dell XPS 13
The Dell XPS 13 is the best answer to the MacBook Neo. Don’t let its $699 starting price fool you; it’s far from a shoddy budget laptop. The sturdy CNC aluminum chassis makes it feel like a premium notebook, while the sharp 13.4-inch 2.5K touchscreen display outshines the dim panels on most budget Windows laptops. The XPS 13 is also the lightest XPS laptop ever, and it can last nearly 14 and a half hours — both of which make it an ideal travel partner.
Thanks to all of that, along with its impressive Wildcat Lake performance for everyday work, this year’s Dell XPS 13 is hard to top (unless you’re married to the Apple ecosystem). As such, the XPS 13 is an easy choice for the best laptop.
— Tony Polanco, Senior Writer
Best AI laptop
Asus ProArt GoPro Edition PX13
There were many definitions of what makes a good AI laptop, but one is becoming clear: something with the raw GPU power and memory to do the work entirely locally on device. And out of everything I tested this year, the Asus ProArt GoPro Edition PX13 stood tall.
The laptop fundamentals are there — a gorgeous utilitarian aesthetic, beautiful OLED display, strong ergonomics and battery life. But with an AMD Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 chip in here and up to 128GB of RAM, you can run massive LLMs and agentic models with ease. Things like OpenAI’s GPT-OSS 120B, Google Gemma 3 27B Vision model or Stable Diffusion.
I’ve always said that the future of AI is local, not cloud-based. This machine proves it.
— Jason England, Managing Editor
Best keyboard
Epomaker Glyph
The Epomaker Glyph is easily the best mechanical keyboard I;ve tested this year, and it’s the deck for speed demons and hardcore typists. Its typewriter-like aesthetics, beautiful RGB lighting, dual screens that display useful keyboard and OS stats, a creamy sound profile, and a typing experience that’s nothing short of stunning — the Glyph does it all.
It makes a regular day at the office feel more fun, and its accompanying silicone and PVC palm rest ensures all-day comfort, too. I called the Glyph my “dream keyboard,” and after having tested nearly 100 keyboards, it’s my daily driver and one I haven’t stopped using since testing it.
— Nikita Achanta, Senior Reviews Writer
Best gaming laptop
Razer Blade 16 (2026)
The Razer Blade 16 is very expensive but worth every penny, delivering a superlative gaming laptop experience. Inside, it packs an Intel Core Ultra 9 CPU and up to an RTX 5090 for serious horsepower. It looks good doing it, thanks to its classy aluminum chassis, which is as comfortable in an office as it is in a gaming den. Games look as good as they perform, thanks to the gorgeous 16-inch 240Hz OLED panel.
At 4.7 pounds, you’ll definitely feel it in your bag when you’re traveling. This is offset by its exceptional battery life, which can last upwards of 13 hours for basic productivity tasks. However, it can run hot and loud when gaming or rendering videos—not to mention that it lasts less than two hours on a charge when gaming. Those quibbles aside, this is a brilliant gaming laptop, so long as you can afford it.
— Tony Polanco, Senior Writer
Best 2-in-1 laptop
Asus Zenbook Duo
I mean, this one was kind of expected! The Asus Zenbook Duo rewrote the rules on what to expect from a 2-in-1 a couple years ago, and now with this redesign and Intel Core Ultra Series 3 pumping through its veins, it’s the first real time that this dual-screen laptop form factor feels truly ready for prime time.
That monster chip keeps everything running oh so smoothly, while offering a beasty GPU to pull off some shockingly good gaming performance. And Asus has really paid attention to overhauling the design here with a sturdier hinge, a great-feeling keyboard and touchpad, and those dual 14-inch OLED touchscreens are a mesmerizing joy to use.
— Jason England, Managing Editor
Best mini PC
Minisforum G1 Pro
The days of dragging a big, old desktop computer over to your living room to play on your TV are over now that we have full-featured mini PCs built for gaming like the Minisforum G1 Pro. Although it’s smaller than a PS5 Pro, this mini PC still comes packed with powerful internals like an AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX processor and a discrete Nvidia RTX 5060 GPU.
Moving the G1 Pro from room to room is a breeze too thanks to the fact that it has a built-in, 350W power supply instead of a bulky power brick. Despite its small size, you can easily open the G1 Pro to upgrade its memory, storage and potentially even its graphics card down the line. Minisforum has been making excellent mini PCs for years but the G1 Pro is the closest we’ve come yet to a true console replacement, and it easily beats Valve’s Steam Machine when it comes to performance.
— Anthony Spadafora, Managing Editor
Best monitor
Alienware AW3926QW
Wait, why are we choosing a gaming monitor for “best monitor”? That’s because the Alienware AW3926QW is also ideal for everyday work. The curved 39-inch 21:9 tandem OLED panel is not only immersive but also bright and colorful for gaming and reading text documents. You can even switch between 165Hz at 5K for cinematic games and 330Hz at 1080p for competitive titles.
The expansive 21:9 aspect ratio lets you easily place two or three full-size windows side by side without stacking, boosting your productivity. Thanks to its relatively subdued design and dark color, it looks at home in both professional and casual environments. While the $1,099 asking price might be a tad steep and 39 inches won’t fit every setup, this is about as perfect as a monitor can get—so much so that I gave it a perfect 5 out of 5 score. The AW3926QW is definitely deserving of our best monitor award.
— Tony Polanco, Senior Writer
Best AR Glasses
Viture Beast
After an initially bumpy launch, Viture saved the Beast with solid firmware updates that turned an also-ran into the best AR glasses you can buy today. At $549, it’s a premium price, but you’re getting a pair of premium, well-built spectacles that outclass every other set. It starts with a sharp 1200p picture quality thanks to Sony Micro OLED lenses tuned with Viture’s color science.
These are vivid glasses with great fidelity, spatial anchoring, and a comfortable, adjustable design, meaning you can wear the Beast for longer sessions.
I like these glasses not just because of what they are, but because Viture took the time to make them better after a poor start. It’s hard to be patient, especially at these prices, but the Viture Beast was worth the wait.
— Scott Younker, News Writer
Best webcam
Insta360 Link 2 Pro
The Insta360 Link 2 Pro does everything you could possibly need, from being a helping hand with framing, making presenting a dream, to an impressive low-light performance, so looking good is never an issue.
It’s an outstanding 4K webcam that has superb autofocus and subject tracking to keep individuals and groups in frame. It uses a two-axis gimbal to follow you around the frame, zooming in so you’re always clear to the viewer. The gesture controls, desk view and whiteboard sharing features completely streamline presentations and make setting up for calls a breeze. It may be expensive and unnecessary for basic calls, but its smart features justify the cost.
— Ashley Thieme, Reviews Staff Writer
Best tablet
Lenovo Tab Plus Gen 2
The Lenovo Tab Plus Gen 2 wins Best Tablet because it does the impossible—delivering exceptional sound for a slate. That’s thanks to the giant JBL 9-unit speaker on its back, which not only gives the tablet a distinctive look but also pumps out rich, loud Dolby Atmos sound. Whether it’s movies, podcasts, or music, everything sounds incredible, a far cry from the thin, tinny mess you’d normally get from other Android tablets.
In addition to the exceptional sound, the Tab Plus Gen 2 features a 12.1-inch 2.5K 120Hz panel that is bright and sharp. The built-in 360-degree kickstand lets you orient the slate to better suit whatever you’re watching or reading, while the nearly 16-hour battery life ensures you can enjoy your content for as long as you want. While this isn’t a workhorse tablet due to its so-so performance, and it’s a bit cumbersome to hold because of that bulky speaker, it’s a steal of an entertainment-focused slate for $399.
— Tony Polanco, Senior Writer
Best router
Asus ROG Rapture GT-BE19000AI
Asus continues to push the limits of what’s possible with Wi-Fi 7 and its ROG Rapture GT-BE19000AI gaming router takes things a step further. In our real world testing, we reached speeds of over 2.5 Gbps at close range but even at 50 feet, we still saw gigabit speeds over Wi-Fi which is almost unheard of at that distance.
The ROG Rapture GT-BE19000AI comes packed with high-speed multi-gig ports but it’s the router’s built-in AI core and NPU that boost online game performance while securing data and blocking trackers. To top it all off, you get a clear window to see the device’s internals, customizable RGB lighting on top and eight repositionable antennas to guarantee a strong signal in any room.
— Anthony Spadafora, Managing Editor
Best mesh router
MSI Roami BE Pro
Still a relative newcomer in the world of home networking, MSI quickly went from releasing its first gaming router to making mesh Wi-Fi systems for whole home connectivity. The MSI Roamii BE Pro takes the design of its Roamii Be Lite mesh kit and gives it a full-featured Wi-Fi 7 upgrade for even faster speeds. In fact, in our real world testing, we saw speeds of up to 1.8 Gbps at close range.
The Roamii BE Pro features plenty of multi-gig Ethernet ports on the back of its triangular design and even a USB one for sharing data across your network. However, it’s the very affordable $300 price for a two-pack that really impressed us along with the inclusion of the 6 GHz band for full tri-band connectivity. The MSI Roamii BE Pro offers a quick and easy way to upgrade to Wi-Fi 7 with all the bells and whistles without putting a dent in your wallet.
—- Anthony Spadafora, Managing Editor
Best antivirus
Bitdefender
We’ve tested many antivirus suites, but Bitdefender comes out on top for several reasons. It offers extensive protection thanks to anti-theft and anti-scam features which are more important than ever in the age of sophisticated AI-powered scams. Bitdefender sports a clean interface that makes the numerous settings easy to understand, whether you’re on mobile or desktop.
The included VPN is fantastic, as is the comprehensive Identity Protection. What’s great about Bitdefender is that it doesn’t have a negative impact on system resources either, even when you’re playing intensive games like Cyberpunk 2077. If you prioritize peace of mind against evolving AI and malware threats, Bitdefender is simply exceptional.
— Nikita Achanta, Senior Reviews Writer
Best Silicon
Intel Arc G3 Extreme
All kinds of companies have been making impressive moves with new silicon in 2026, so to pick this, I asked one question: which chip made the biggest transformational impact? Through that lens, the answer is simple — Intel Arc G3 Extreme.
PC gaming handhelds have been going through this slow, iterative pace with AMD’s chips, and Team Blue just busted through the wall like the Kool-Aid man and brought that monster GPU from its Panther Lake silicon and all the XeSS optimizations that come with it like multi-frame generation.
The end result is a generational leapfrog moment for handheld gaming that this space has needed for the past few years. It’s highly performant, super power-efficient, and a joy to play on.
— Jason England, Managing Editor
Follow Tom's Guide on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds.
