The best laptops of 2025: Compare the M4 MacBook Air, Microsoft Surface Laptop 7, and more

Apple didn't reinvent the wheel in its latest 15-inch MacBook Air, but a blazing-fast processor, a few fresh features, and a new lower price make it one of the best current-generation laptop deals — if not the best. It's a fantastic pick for students, professionals, and anyone else in need of a polished, relatively portable laptop, especially those ready to give up an Intel or M1-era MacBook. (It officially feels like a big-enough jump to justify an upgrade.) MacBook Pros are nice, but they're overkill for non-specialty users, realistically.

Read Mashable's full review of the 15-inch Apple MacBook Air (M4).

Same tried-and-true formula, new fixings. Let's start under its hood: Apple has refreshed its 2025 MacBook Air with an M4 processor, which notched a Geekbench 6 multi-core performance score of 14,992 in our testing. It's 24% faster than the M3 version and one of the speediest laptops in our testing database (after the high-octane M4 MacBook Pros and four Windows laptops that start at $1,199); Mashable Senior Editor Stan Schroeder called it "almost overkill" in his review. All that power means it does get a little hot when you work it hard, but it does stay whisper-quiet, at least.

Less exciting but still notable are the MacBook Air's new open-lid support of two 6K external displays and upgraded 12MP camera, which now has Apple's auto-framing Center Stage and top-down Desk View feature. It also comes in a new sky blue finish, which I've seen aptly described as "like looking at a gray MacBook and someone shouting 'blue' from a hundred yards away"... which is to say, it's subtle. Schroeder requested "real colors" from Apple the next time it revisits the MacBook Air. (A smoother 120Hz display would also be nice if we're making a wish list — we've wanted a refresh rate bump for the Air since the M2 era.)

The real game-changer here is the M4 MacBook Air's price. Our review unit with 1TB of storage costs $1,599, but the base model with 256GB of storage is only $1,199. You might recall that the 15-inch M3 MacBook Air started at $1,299. "Apple doesn't do this often, so enjoy it while you can," Schroeder wrote. It's a genuinely shocking move for any laptop manufacturer at a time when price hikes are way more common, and it's one of the big reasons why the MacBook Air has reclaimed its Mashable Choice Award-winner status.

Note that the M4 MacBook Air also comes in an even cheaper 13-inch size with a slightly lower resolution and two fewer speakers (four instead of six, sans force-cancelling woofers). We like it best for students and budget shoppers — it's often on sale for just $799.

The Mashable Choice Award-winning Microsoft Surface Laptop 7th Edition is an exceptional all-rounder — the ideal blend of performance, power efficiency, build quality, innovation, and overall value. We recommend it for nearly any Windows user who's due for an upgrade; the only reason you should pass on it is if your go-to apps aren't compatible with Windows on ARM. (An Intel-powered business edition is available, but it'll cost you: The base model is $300 more expensive than the starter Snapdragon version.)

Read Mashable's full review of the 13.8-inch Microsoft Surface Laptop 7.

Microsoft's flagship machine ticks most of the boxes on our "best laptop" checklist. Our Snapdragon X Elite testing unit went nearly 23 hours per charge, making it the second-longest-lasting laptop we've ever tried. In a Geekbench 6 benchmark, our main performance test, it got a multi-core score of 11,875, making it speedier than 55 percent of the models in our laptop testing database. That's not half bad, but if you put it in Performance mode instead of Balanced, it gets as fast as an M4 MacBook Air (surpassing 83 percent of the competition).

If all that feels like overkill, or its premium price tag gives you sticker shock, know that it starts at $999.99 with a lesser Snapdragon X Plus chip and 256GB of storage.

The Surface Laptop 7's Snapdragon CPU is both a blessing and a curse: As an ARM chip, as opposed to an x86 chip from Intel, it's not going to be compatible with certain specialty apps and programs. This might be a problem for students, as some Reddit users have pointed out. (The design app AutoCAD is a no-go, for example.) But if this is a non-issue for you, personally, move this machine to the top of your list.

Design-wise, the Surface Laptop 7 has a modern aluminum chassis that comes in four colorways and doesn't cling to fingerprints. Its bright display can hit a refresh rate of up to 120Hz, and its snappy keyboard is paired with a haptic touchpad. You can take your pick from two sizes, too: 13.8- or 15-inch, the latter of which includes a microSD card reader.

Acer's Aspire 16 AI is the best laptop for folks who want a competent Windows laptop that doesn't break the bank. It's fast and long-lasting and doesn't make too many build quality compromises in order to cost $700.

"Cheap laptop" doesn't always equate to "crappy laptop" — not when the Aspire 16 AI exists. It's faster than all other laptops under $900 that we've tried, and it lasts over 17 hours on a single charge. (That's longer than some M4-era MacBooks.) Its fan ran almost constantly in my testing, but you'll hardly notice it. It's incredibly quiet.

Unlike the latest MacBook Airs and other pricier Windows laptops, the Aspire 16 AI also has an anti-reflective touchscreen with a silky-smooth 120Hz refresh rate. It's a premium spec I don't see on many budget laptops, aside from models that are meant for gaming. What's more, the display is vibrant and intense enough to use in direct sunlight if you crank its brightness all the way up.

The Aspire 16 AI's port selection is just as impressive. It comes with an HDMI port and a microSD card in addition to pairs of USB-C and USB-A ports. Surprisingly, it's still not super bulky: At 3.42 pounds and 0.63 inches thin, it's pretty portable for a 16-inch laptop.

The Aspire 16 AI's low-quality speakers and webcam feel more like afterthoughts. I also noticed that its hinge wiggled a bit whenever I tapped or adjusted the position of its screen.

The ultralight, long-lasting Asus Zenbook A14 is the ultimate laptop for on-the-go Windows users who want to spend less than $1,000. I do want to note that its speakers suck, so its ideal owner will also have a great pair of headphones on hand.

The Zenbook A14 is made of a magnesium-aluminum alloy called "Ceraluminum" that's durable, scratch-resistant, and deceptively lightweight. The Zabriskie Beige base model that comes with a Snapdragon X Plus chip, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage weighs just 2.4 pounds, or 0.3 pounds less than the 13-inch M4 MacBook Air and 0.56 pounds less than the 13.8-inch Surface Laptop 7 (also $999 apiece). That doesn't sound like a huge difference, but I was shocked the first time I picked one up at CES 2025. It still feels super sturdy despite its featheriness, fortunately, so I'd have no qualms about toting it to an office, airport, or coffee shop.

In a performance test, the Zenbook A14 notched a Geekbench 6 multi-core score of 11,256. It's not quite as speedy as the M4 MacBook Air — it's about 25% slower, to be exact — but it has a better battery life, lasting almost 22 hours per charge. It also comes with a prettier OLED display, an HDMI port, and double the storage. If you wanted to upgrade the 13-inch MacBook Air or 13.8-inch Surface Laptop 7 to 512GB of storage, you'd spend $1,199 either way.

We probably won't get an OLED MacBook until late 2026 at the earliest, so for now, Windows laptops run this category. I think the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x offers the best combination of sharpness, brightness, and smoothness for the money, making it my top pick for most people who want an OLED laptop.

The display on the Yoga Slim 7x dazzled me the first time I saw it. I stopped what I was doing to stare at it. It's simply that good. Compared to other OLED laptops I've tested, it has a higher 3K resolution and a higher peak brightness of 1,000 nits. Its refresh rate isn't as high as some of its peers', which hit 120Hz, but at 90Hz, it's above-average in the silkiness department. It also has touchscreen capabilities, if you prefer to interact with your laptop that way (though it's not a 2-in-1, so you won't be able to draw or take notes on it).

The Yoga Slim 7x feels like a premium laptop from top to bottom, for the most part — its extremely reasonable price covers a lot more than just a nice display. Its lightweight, thin design involves a sleek all-aluminum chassis, decent speakers, a satisfying, "thocky" island-style keyboard, and a crisp webcam (provided you take your video calls in good lighting). Its port selection is its only miss: It just has three USB-C ports. There's not even a headphone jack, so wireless headphones or earbuds are mandatory.

Like most Snapdragon X Elite-powered laptops I've tried, this one is just as peppy and long-lasting. It earned a Geekbench 6 multi-core score of 11,938, making it just as fast as the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7. (It runs incredibly cool, too. I couldn't get its fan to turn on or its base to heat up during an intensive stress test.) The Yoga Slim 7x didn't last quite as long as the Surface Laptop 7 in our battery life benchmark, but at 19 hours and 55 minutes, its stamina is still very admirable: It outlasts 89 percent of the laptops we've tried, even with that OLED display.

This luxe laptop/tablet hybrid is the primo pick for those who value battery life and processing power in that exact order. It's not cut out to handle demanding tasks like photo and video editing, but it outlasts every other laptop we've ever tried. It's also quite pretty.

Read Mashable's full review of the Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition.

Calling all chronic charger-forgetters! Whenever I tell folks about the Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition, I always lead with its battery life. It lasted 23 hours and 34 minutes in our benchmark, cruising past every other MacBook and Windows laptop in our database.

The Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition does lack comparatively in the performance department: Its Intel Core Ultra 7 258V processor got a Geekbench 6 score of 10,765. That makes it a tad faster than an M2 MacBook Air from 2022 (10,146) and a smidge slower than the aforementioned Zenbook A14's Snapdragon X Plus chip. Suffice to say, it's not built for turbocharged multitasking like similarly priced MacBook Pros. Still, reviewer Sarah Chaney said it was able to tackle her "typical daily workload with ease" (think web browsing and typing in documents).

The Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition makes up for its middling CPU with other premium features, including a 2.8K OLED touchscreen with a 120Hz refresh rate. Per Chaney, "the colors popped off the screen and made my overall laptop experience better and brighter." It also supports a couple of unique "Aura Edition" software features that can check your posture and block distracting websites.

Chromebooks have all the software you might need for a basic everyday workload, and many of them have better hardware than the cheapest Windows laptops. The Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook Plus is a well-made hybrid model that will serve most people well, and it's not too pricey.

Read Mashable's full review of the Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook Plus.

The build quality of the Flex 5i Chromebook Plus wowed Chaney, our reviewer. "The laptop feels solidly constructed, with practically no give when pushing on the chassis, sturdy hinges that don’t creak or stick, and a cool-to-the-touch aluminum lid that resists fingerprints well," she wrote. Its sharp screen flips 360 degrees, so it can sit in tent mode or be used like a tablet. For a $600 machine, it also has a nice, bouncy keyboard, well-rounded speakers, and plenty of ports (including a microSD card reader).

The Flex 5i Chromebook Plus got a Geekbench 6 multi-core score of 7,024, which means it's about 28 percent slower than the Acer Aspire 16 AI, my favorite cheap Windows laptop. Still, it's peppy for a Chromebook: Only three models we've tried are speedier, and the No. 1 fastest Chromebook only beat its score by nine percent. Also, all three models are $50 to $150 more expensive.

The Flex 5i Chromebook Plus tends to run its fan all the time, just like the Aspire 16 AI, but Chaney said the noise is "mild (and not noticeable at all with music playing)." Plus, it keeps the machine very cool.

The Alienware 16X Aurora with RTX 5070 graphics is my top pick for shoppers who want to upgrade to a current-gen gaming laptop. It's a very powerful mid-ranger with a stunning display and plenty of future-proofing.

The 16X Aurora can handle any AAA game you throw at it. Its Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX CPU got a stupidly good Geekbench 6 multi-core score of 19,774. It's only three percent slower than the fastest gaming laptop we've ever tried, the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i 16 OLED (Gen 10), which had the exact same elite CPU — yet the 16X Aurora costs $1,600 less. Compared to its predecessor, the Alienware m16 R2 with an RTX 4070 GPU, its graphical processing power is 15 percent better.

The tradeoff is that the 16X Aurora runs warm all the time. It also got quite loud when I plugged it in to run Cyberpunk 2077. You can always play games on battery, of course, but you'll have to be mindful of its limited stamina: In my testing, it only lasted about five and a half hours per charge (and that was with its dedicated GPU and RGB backlighting turned off). If you don't have a good pair of noise-cancelling headphones, you'll have to let its charging cycle dictate the frequency of your gaming sessions.

The 16X Aurora makes up for this with a slew of premium components, including a satisfying keyboard, a nice mix of ports (mostly located on its rear for easy cable management), and an absolutely amazing 2.5K display, which has a high-end 240Hz refresh rate and a comfy matte finish. The only thing on it that probably won't age well is its grainy 1080p camera, but I don't think crisp video calls are high priorities for most gamers. If you stream, get a fancy webcam.

The 16X Aurora is pretty clunky and heavy — it closes in on eight pounds when you factor in its 280W charger — but I'm not too phased. That's a powerful gaming laptop for you.

A majestic piece of modern machinery, Apple's jacked new 16-inch, M4 Pro-fueled MacBook Pro is a future-proofed investment for creative professionals who run intense multimedia-editing apps and software on a regular basis.

Read Mashable's full review of the 16-inch Apple MacBook Pro (M4 Pro).

Put simply, this MacBook Pro is a beauteous behemoth. With a Geekbench 6 multi-core score of 22,758, it's the fastest laptop we've ever tested by a not-close margin. (The runner-up, Lenovo's $3,599.99 Legion Pro 7i 16 OLED Gen 10, scored a 20,369.) It "can handle heavy workloads without a single stutter," said Gedeon. It's also incredibly long-lasting, surviving for nearly 21 hours in our battery life benchmark. Out of all the MacBooks we've ever tested, it has the second-best battery life. That's really impressive considering how powerful it is.

While it may look like a pretty standard MacBook on the outside — minimalist, relatively thin, made from aluminum — Apple's tacked on a few subtle but noteworthy design upgrades from the previous generation. For one, it now comes with three next-gen Thunderbolt 5 USB-C ports for zippy data transfer speeds. (These accompany an HDMI port, an SDXC card slot, a MagSafe 3 charging port, and a headphone jack.) Two, it can hit up to 1000 nits of SDR brightness, a bump from 600 nits in its M3 Pro predecessor. There's also an option to add a glare-reducing "nano-texture" display finish, which wowed Gedeon when she took the laptop into her backyard: "I didn't have to squint, adjust angles, nor play hide-and-seek with shadows," she wrote. And three, the new MacBook Pro's camera is now a 12MP Center Stage shooter (up from 1080p) with support for Desk View, a new feature that produces an overhead view of the user's desk.

Its six-speaker setup is the same one you'll find in the M3-era Pros, but no complaints there. Gedeon likened its audio quality to a "gourmet apple pie ... piping hot, golden, and worth every sinful calorie."

And by calories, we mean dollars. It's tempting to recommend the M4 Pro MacBook Pro to anyone who values power efficiency in a laptop, but its price point keeps it firmly in "experts-only" territory. (Our upgraded testing unit with 48GB of RAM, 2TB of storage, and a nano-texture display came in at $3,649; the base configuration goes for $2,499.) Don't bother with the splurge unless you'll make full use of it on the daily. For what it's worth, though, we also like the new 14-inch M5 MacBook Pro for those with less strenuous workloads; that one starts at $1,599.