Hunting down the best laptop for you can be particularly difficult right now. A global chip shortage has led prices to rise virtually across the board, while new processors and devices are seemingly being announced all the time. If you just want to keep things simple, we've rounded up a few of our favorite notebooks for most people's needs, whether you prefer Macs, Windows machines or Chromebooks. If those don't suit you, we've also laid out a few helpful tips to keep in mind during your search. Just note that this guide includes both laptops we've tested ourselves, as well as like-minded successors to previous models we've reviewed in the same lineup.
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Laptop news: June 2026
Nvidia took the wraps off of its long-rumored PC chip during Computex 2026, announcing the RTX Spark as "a new era of PC."
(Nvidia (YouTube))There have been several noteworthy developments in the laptop world since we first published this guide. A wave of new budget-minded Windows notebooks were announced around this month's Computex expo , with devices like the Dell XPS 13 , Acer Swift Air 14 and Acer Aspire Go 15 aiming to give Apple 's MacBook Neo steadier competition. (Though how long they can stay affordable remains to be seen with the ongoing RAM crisis showing no signs of slowing down.) Several other lightweight laptops were shown at the event as well, such as the Acer TravelMate P6 14 AI , Acer Swift Spin 14 AI , ASUS Zenbook 14 and ASUS ExpertBook B5 Flip G2 , among others.
On the higher end, Microsoft announced the Surface Laptop Ultra , one of several notebooks that will run on NVIDIA's new RTX Spark SoC. This Arm-based chip combines a 20-core Arm CPU, a Blackwell RTX GPU and up to 128GB of unified memory. The idea, in a sense, is to give Windows its own take on Apple's integrated silicon. HP, Dell, ASUS, MSI and Lenovo have unveiled devices that'll use the "superchip" too, though we'd expect each to cost somewhere around $2,000 at minimum when they start rolling out this fall. They should be closer to the MacBook Pro than the MacBook Air.
Prior to Computex, Google announced an all-new series of laptops called Googlebooks . Exact details for what these devices will look like are still scarce, but Google is (unsurprisingly) positioning them around their AI abilities and integration with Android. They look to be a replacement to Chromebooks as a whole, though Google says it will continue to support existing Chromebooks for years to come. Some will be able to upgrade to the Googlebook platform too.
We stand by our current picks for those who need a laptop right now, but we aim to test many of the upcoming devices noted above and will update this guide whenever we find a new pick.
Best laptops for 2026
Valentina Palladino/Yahoo
Read our full guide to the best MacBooks .
The MacBook Neo has immediately become the best value for everyday laptop buyers since its March unveiling , and by some distance . This is an honest-to-goodness high-quality MacBook that starts at $599 ($499 for education users) and feels explicitly designed to correct the flaws that've been endemic to affordable Windows laptops for so many years.
The Neo's metal design, reliable trackpad, comfortable keyboard and 1080p webcam all belie its price. The 13-inch display is practically as sharp and just as bright as the screen on the $1,099 MacBook Air, with similar color accuracy. Battery life is a bit lower but still plenty long enough to get most people through a typical day. The whole thing is close to the same size as the 13-inch Air too, and it's just as light at 2.7 pounds. It's affordable, but it doesn't feel cheap.
The big trade-off is in the power department: The Neo runs on Apple's A18 Pro chip, which was originally used in the iPhone 16 Pro, and it's limited to 8GB of RAM. This combo results in much worse multi-core performance than the Air, so it's not ideal if you want something you can use all day, every day, for media editing, heavy multitasking, 3D rendering or other involved tasks. It may not hold up especially well 3-4 years down the road either.
That said, Apple can get more out of this little memory than most laptop makers, so the Neo is genuinely fast enough for the more common stuff. You can open up a dozen Chrome tabs, send out emails, stream Netflix, type up a Word doc or even play some lighter games without much issue. This is all that many people ever need from their laptop.
There are other little compromises to consider. The keyboard isn't backlit, you can only configure the device with 256GB or 512GB of storage and the SSD itself is slower than that of the Air. Only the 512GB model (which costs $699) includes a Touch ID fingerprint sensor. The trackpad uses a mechanical click instead of haptic feedback. The two USB-C ports aren't as fast for charging or transferring data. Things like this do add up — but for the most part, these are the right sacrifices for the price. For first-time buyers, many students, older folks or just anyone who only uses their notebook casually, the Neo is a true bargain.
- Offers full Mac experience for $599
- Excellent build quality and display for the price
- Only 8GB of RAM
- No backlit keyboard
The MacBook Air costs $500 more than the MacBook Neo to start, but it's a capital-b Better do-everything notebook if you can afford it. Its beefier M5 chip and 16GB of RAM can handle all but the most serious workloads and will hold up better years down the road. You get 512GB of faster storage by default, with the option to go up to 4TB. There's also a pair of speedier USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports and an always-useful MagSafe charging connector.
The 13.6-inch model is thinner than the Neo, while Apple sells a 15.3-inch version if you prefer a roomier display. Either way, the screen supports a wider color gamut and Apple's True Tone tech for auto-adapting to ambient light. The battery lasts a couple hours longer. The speakers sound fuller. You can connect to multiple external displays, not just one. All of the other little nitpicks we noted with the Neo aren't issues here either. And the whole thing is still wonderfully well-built. The Neo makes it feel more like overkill for casual buyers, but the Air simply has fewer friction points for those who use their laptop all day.
- Powerful M5 chip
- Superb keyboard, trackpad and overall build quality
- Expensive compared to MacBook Neo
It's a tricky time to buy a Windows laptop. The ongoing AI boom has caused the prices of RAM and storage components to skyrocket in recent months, as manufacturers are driving more of their resources towards high-profit data centers and enterprise customers. This has led to major price hikes for all sorts of consumer electronics, including many popular Windows laptops . (Apple has managed to weather the crunch a bit better so far, though it raised the starting price for various MacBooks earlier this year.) Pricing should continue to be volatile for the foreseeable future, so finding one Windows laptop that ticks all the boxes for most people at a half-decent price is tough.
With all that said, the HP OmniBook 5 14 is a decent buy for mainstream users right now. A configuration with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus chip, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD is available for $800 as of this writing, but we've seen similar models go on sale for less in recent months, at which point it's a better buy.
The Snapdragon X Plus isn't as powerful as the better chips from Intel, AMD or (especially) Apple, so you shouldn't push this config for gaming or video editing, but it's quick enough for the casual tasks most people do with their notebooks. More importantly, it allows for class-leading battery life: The OmniBook 5 can last around 30 hours with lighter use, which is even better than top MacBooks. And while you may still run into a few compatibility issues with certain apps due to this being an Arm-based chip, they're not so widespread that we'd expect them to be a major roadblock for this notebook's intended audience.
The device itself is mostly made of metal and looks clean. It's not as sturdy as the MacBook Neo — the keyboard deck is made of plastic, while the hinge has a little more wobble — but it measures about a half-inch thick and weighs just under three pounds, so it's portable. The keyboard is comfortable and there's a pair of USB-C ports alongside a USB-A port for older peripherals. The 14-inch, better-than-HD 1200p OLED display is impressively vivid for the price, though it's not a night-and-day upgrade over something like the Neo, which is still brighter, sharper and color-accurate. There are still tons of other Windows laptops that may better suit your needs, but given how turbulent prices are these days, the OmniBook 5 14 should be a good-enough value for most.
- Tremendous battery life
- Vivid OLED display
- Solid value for money
- Plastic keyboard deck
- Display could be brighter
- Snapdragon chip isn't the most powerful
Read our full guide to the best Chromebooks .
Chromebooks are far more stripped-down than Macs or Windows PCs, but that's the point. They essentially stretch Google's Chrome browser out to a full operating system called ChromeOS, so you wouldn't buy one to play games, edit videos or do anything intricate. But lots of people spend most of their laptop time in a browser anyway — or in Google apps like Docs, Gmail and YouTube — and most Chromebooks don't need powerful hardware to run ChromeOS well. As a result, they can work for students, casual users or anyone who wants something simple, secure and relatively affordable. Plus, since ChromeOS is so lightweight, a good Chromebook often feels quicker than similarly priced Windows machines.
The ASUS Chromebook Plus CX34 is our favorite buy here. You can get a configuration with an Intel Core i3-1315U chip, 8GB of RAM and 128GB of UFS storage for less than $400, and at that price it's a decent value. Its plastic chassis is clearly less premium than the MacBook Neo, but it's durable and comfortable enough, with a pleasing backlit keyboard and a smooth trackpad. It's not overly heavy at 3.22 pounds, plus it comes with a decent array of ports, including two USB-C and USB-A connectors alongside an HDMI out port.
The 14-inch 1080p display isn't anything special — if anything, it makes colors look a bit washed out, and its 16:9 aspect ratio makes it a little more cramped than some competitors – but it gets reasonably bright. There's a decent 1080p webcam beyond that, and this config as a whole is fast enough for the basics. (You can get an upgraded model with a Core i5 chip and a 128GB SSD for $599, though that one's harder to recommend in a post-Neo world.) The speakers are rough, though, and the battery won't last much longer than a typical work or school day. Still, Chromebooks make the most sense when they're cheap. Considering its price and intended market, the CX34 gets more right than wrong.
- Affordable
- Solid performance for ChromeOS
- Pleasant keyboard
- Battery life could be longer
- Basic 1080p display
- Middling speakers
What to look for in a good laptop
Here's some general info to keep in mind when you're shopping for a new laptop. They aren't hard-and-fast rules, but they should nudge you toward a device that won't become junk in a couple of years:
Operating system
For the most part, switching between macOS and Windows isn't overly complicated these days. Most major programs will work fine on either, as will any web-based apps. Still, there are a few key differentiators that could drive you one way or the other.
MacOS, unsurprisingly, plays nicer with other Apple services and devices. If you want to make FaceTime calls, send iMessages, edit video in Final Cut Pro or access iCloud storage, all of that is best done on a MacBook. Apple's laptop lineup also has a clear hierarchy: The MacBook Neo is the value model, the MacBook Air is the mainstream ultraportable, while the MacBook Pro is for power users. All of them have high-quality designs, and the company's forays into custom silicon over the past several years have provided them with impressively performant and power-efficient chips.
Windows, meanwhile, is all about flexibility. It has the widest variety of laptops on the market, from budget devices to slim ultrabooks to high-powered gaming machines. More than a few Windows devices let you upgrade components like memory or storage as well, which Apple forbids with MacBooks. That said, several Windows users have objected to the growing number of AI features Microsoft has injected into the OS in recent years, and many cheaper Windows laptops can feel particularly slow or poorly-made.
As noted above, there's also ChromeOS, which is mainly aimed toward kids, budget-conscious buyers and those who can live within the confines of a web browser. But since it can't run full desktop apps — think the non-web versions of Photoshop or Microsoft Excel, for instance — and since it loses much of its functionality whenever you go offline, it's a harder sell for most than Apple's and Microsoft's platforms.
Price
A laptop is a long-term investment, so you should try to buy the best model you can comfortably afford. Somewhere between $800 to $1,100 is a general sweet spot for a solid ultraportable. Gaming laptops and mobile workstations can run far over $1,000 depending on how far you want to spec them out. Notebooks in the $400 to $600 range are typically seen as budget models; they'll all come with more obvious sacrifices.
All of this is in a state of flux, however. A global memory and storage shortage driven by the AI boom has resulted in price hikes for tons of consumer electronics, laptops included. There's no clear sign that this trend will start to reverse course anytime soon, so don't be surprised if it becomes harder to find a decent value as the months roll on.
Size, weight and build quality
We'd consider a 13- or 14-inch notebook that's under or around three pounds to be a good, lightweight choice for ordinary people. But the bigger the display you want, the heavier your machine is likely to be. It's also worth considering how large the included power brick may be; with some gaming laptops, they can be quite hefty.
In any event, you want your notebook to feel as sturdy as possible, with minimal flexing around the keyboard or wobbling on the hinge. Naturally, the further you go down the price ladder, the more likely it is that you'll run into cheaper materials and build quality quirks.
Display
A 13- or 14-inch display should be a good mix of screen size and manageable weight for most people. If you're willing to take on more bulk for a more spacious panel, you can get a 15- or 16-inch model instead. With smaller screens, you want a 1080p resolution at minimum. Sharper is better, but you don't necessarily want to go up to 4K, as that'll chew up a ton of battery for minimal benefit.
Lots of new laptops come with a vivid OLED screen or an especially bright mini-LED panel, which is great, but a good IPS display can still be pleasing when done well. Screens with a 60Hz refresh rate will look smooth enough for the average user, though a faster 120Hz or 144Hz panel is better for gaming, especially if it supports variable refresh rates (VRR). Just keep in mind that'll hurt battery life.
Performance
For MacBooks, almost any model with an Apple-made M-series chip will at least be fast enough for ordinary tasks. We're up to the M5 with the latest MacBook Air, while the newest MacBook Pro uses beefier variants called the M5 Pro and M5 Max. The latter two are generally overkill for most people. As noted above, the MacBook Neo runs on a chip originally made for iPhones, the A18 Pro, but it's still plenty quick for basic use.
Other modern laptops use CPUs from Intel, AMD or Qualcomm. There's a ton of these out there, so we'll try to keep it simple. For Intel, a prior "5" processor like the Core Ultra 5 U-series or Core Ultra 5 200V-series should be enough for most people, but keep in mind that the company's promising new " Panther Lake " chips are just now rolling out.
For AMD, a prior Ryzen AI 300-series or Ryzen 5 8000-series chip should be sufficient, though new Ryzen AI 400-series models are also on the way.
Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Series chips aren't as powerful, but as we noted above, they can run quickly enough for everyday tasks and deliver top-notch battery life. Qualcomm recently launched a follow-up as well in the form of the new Snapdragon X2 series.
Whichever way you go, there's no single "best processor" here. You may want a higher-end chip or a lower-power model depending on your needs and budget. A Chromebook, for example, can typically get by fine without the absolute latest chipset.
As for memory, 16GB of RAM is a good target for smooth multiasking, especially with Windows devices. If you can afford to go higher, do so. But again, there are exceptions: The MacBook Neo generally does the job with just 8GB of RAM, as do most Chromebooks.
Likewise, getting 512GB of storage should strike a nice balance between price and capacity; you can live with 256GB on a tighter budget, but that will likely require relying on cloud storage for overflow. If you're looking to play lots of games, you'll want to start at 1TB. For Chromebooks, look for a model with UFS flash storage instead of the slower eMMC if you can't buy one with a traditional SSD.
We've mainly focused on mainstream general-purpose laptops with this guide, but if you want a full-on gaming machine, you'll also need to pick out a discrete graphics processor. NVIDIA's RTX 5070 GPU is a mid-range sweet spot there, with the RTX 5060 a cheaper option for 1080p and some 1440p gaming and the RTX 5080 a pricier step-up.
Battery life
Most of the battery life ratings posted by laptop manufacturers are broad estimates. In the real world, your notebook could last longer or shorter depending on what kind of tasks you're running, how high you've cranked the display's brightness and so on. It's on you to figure out what "typical use" actually looks like in your case, but in general, a laptop should be able to get you through a normal work day if it can last 10-12 hours on a charge. More is always better, though, since laptop batteries only degrade over time.
Keyboard and trackpad
If possible, it's worth going to a retail store and testing out a laptop's keyboard and trackpad before you make a purchase. These are the main ways you'll be interacting with your notebook, so you'll want to make sure they're sufficiently comfortable and accurate.
Ports
Port selection is another area where more is usually better, but it also depends on your priorities. A super-thin machine won't have as much room for ports as a husky mobile workstation. For the kind of ultraportables we've honed in on with this guide, you should look for a device with two USB-C ports at a bare minimum. Having a standard USB-A port or two isn't essential — you won't find one on a MacBook Air or Neo — but it's still nice to have for connecting older accessories without an adapter. Headphone jacks are still prevalent either way, and SD slots and HDMI ports are nice to have built-in (but easily added with a dongle).
Remember that not all USB-C ports are created equal. Those labeled as Thunderbolt ports, for instance, will get you much faster charging and data transfer speeds. The newest version of that standard is Thunderbolt 5, though it's not especially common on laptops today.
Webcam
You'll want a webcam with at least a 1080p resolution. If it has a built-in privacy shutter, even better. But keep in mind that two cameras with the same sharpness can still have vastly different video quality. This is another thing that'd be good to try out in a brick-and-mortar store — or at least look up online — before you make your purchase.
