The best laptops you can get
Editor’s note: Black Friday doesn’t officially take place until Friday, November 28th; however, if you want to shop ahead of time, we’ve rounded up the best early Black Friday deals you can already get. Buying the right laptop can be stressful. It’s likely one of the bigger tech purchases you’ll make, and there are a…
Editor’s note: Black Friday doesn’t officially take place until Friday, November 28th; however, if you want to shop ahead of time, we’ve rounded up the best early Black Friday deals you can already get.
Buying the right laptop can be stressful. It’s likely one of the bigger tech purchases you’ll make, and there are a ludicrous number of models, sizes, form factors, and configurations to pick from. We review and test a wide swath of them here at The Verge, and we’re constantly considering what’s the best and who it’s best for.
Our overall pick for most people has been, and continues to be, the MacBook Air — particularly, as of March 2025, the M4 model. Unless you need to use Windows for specific software needs or you fancy yourself a hardcore gamer, the MacBook Air remains the best option for the average user who wants something portable with excellent battery life and great performance for productivity tasks.
Though the MacBook Air is the easy recommendation for most people, that doesn’t make it the answer for everyone. What if you need more power for video or photo editing, or crunching large datasets? What if you prefer to run Windows? What if you play lots of games and want to take them with you? Or what if you just want something unique — or even, gasp, repairable? We’ve got some recommendations, including a Chromebook or two, a laptop with two screens, the 16-inch MacBook Pro, and the Microsoft Surface Laptop with a Snapdragon X Elite chip.
What we’re looking for
Just like everything The Verge reviews, our laptop testing is primarily based on real-world use. We do run synthetic benchmarks like Geekbench, Cinebench, and 3DMark to get quantifiable comparisons between CPUs and GPUs. But, ultimately, the number-crunching is only part of it. The rest comes from actually using a laptop in our day-to-day routine, which can involve everything from Chrome tabs and Google Docs to photo and video editing and graphically-intense games — both on battery and plugged in.
All manufacturers offer configurations that cost a small fortune, but the best laptops are usually worthwhile even at their base level. Sometimes, we’ll recommend going beyond the base configuration for a little RAM, more storage, or a graphics card upgrade, but at a certain point the value proposition typically nosedives. Our goal is to find those sweet spots.If you’re buying new and spending $1,000 or more, you should be getting a machine with performance that meets your needs, and components like a trackpad, keyboard, screen, and speakers that are good to great. Remember, you’re likely to be using this device for many hours every day. And if any of a laptop’s core features are lacking, then something else — like a great price or excellence in another area — should make up for it.
How much performance you really need may be subjective, but the more headroom you have, the more a laptop can adapt to your evolving needs and the longer it can last before things feel sluggish. At the baseline, your laptop should be fast enough to do the things you use a laptop for, without feeling like it’s struggling on a daily basis. Any productivity laptop should be able to multitask with a bunch of browser tabs open while editing some spreadsheets or other documents. A content creation machine should be able to quickly churn through Photoshop files with lots of layers or a Premiere Pro timeline with plenty of post-processing. And a gaming laptop should be able to play the latest games with nice looking visuals and good frame rates (at least 60 fps, but ideally more on less graphically intensive games).
The keyboard and trackpad are the main interfaces you use with any laptop, and they should be good, even in a desktop replacement you mostly use with an external mouse and keyboard. The whole point of a laptop is you can bring your work and play with you, so you’re relying on these built-in components at some point. A laptop with a bad keyboard and trackpad might as well be a penalty box.What makes a good keyboard and trackpad? It’s slightly subjective, but a quality keyboard should have a logical and efficient layout, enough key travel to make typing feel good and lower the risk of double-presses, and ideally be backlit for easier use in the dark. Any worthwhile laptop should have a good trackpad that easily delivers accurate clicks and swipes, with gestures for better multitasking. Trackpads often come in two styles: hinged at the top (like a piano key) or haptic (where it doesn’t actually move, and the haptic vibration you feel emulates a physical click). Either can be great when well executed.
In a perfect world, every laptop would have a large and bright OLED screen capable of displaying true blacks, with a resolution of 2560 x 1600 or higher and refresh rate of 120Hz (or greater). But a panel like that comes with heavy costs, both in money and often in battery life. Not every laptop can have that ideal setup, but any good one should be sharp with accurate colors, enough brightness for some outdoor use (typically that means 400 nits or greater), and free of annoying anomalies like ghosting or bad off-angle viewing. Aside from OLED, Mini LEDs also make a great laptop panel that can be a big step up from the more typical IPS display, and an even bigger step up from the dim TN panels on truly cheap laptops.Unless a touchscreen is essential to a laptop’s design (like one that converts into a tablet), they’re usually a nice bonus, rather than a requirement. Ideally they’d work with a stylus for more flexibility. MacOS laptops never have touchscreens, but they’re fairly common on Windows machines, Chromebooks, and some Linux laptops.
Laptops are meant to be thrown in bags and taken out into the world, and they should be able to withstand some wear-and-tear. We expect a solid build that doesn’t feel creaky, cheap, or have lots of flex when picked up and handled. It should have a sturdy hinge that opens easily. A less refined design can be slightly forgiven if it’s made up for by a lower price or better-than-expected performance, but these should be devices that look and feel like they’re worth the money spent.We also take into account what a laptop is designed for, and if it meets those goals: an 18-inch desktop replacement is going to be heavy and less mobile; a 13-inch thin-and-light should be, well, thin and light.
We expect most laptops we test to last at least eight hours of web browsing and office work. The harder a laptop works, the more power it uses, so we don’t expect to play games all day without plugging in, or render video for eight hours straight. But if a laptop can’t last a standard work day there’d better be a good reason. We use a battery rundown test that cycles through a large number of Chrome tabs with the screen set to 200 nits that gives us a 1:1 comparison to take into account. More importantly, we record how long the battery lasts over multiple days of regular real-world use — complete with the occasional video call and some music / podcast listening. Even if your machine is tethered to an outlet most of the time, great battery life and standby times makes life with a laptop much more flexible.
We expect all laptops to have at least two USB4 / Thunderbolt 4 ports, preferably on separate sides for a little added convenience. They should be able to charge over USB-C, even if they also have a proprietary charge port capable of higher wattage. And while USB-A ports are a bit more nice-to-have than necessity, there’s absolutely no good reason not to have a 3.5mm headphone jack.More powerful, more expensive laptops (picture something over $1,000 and 14 inches or larger) should probably have an HDMI 2.1 port and card reader, or a good reason for not having them.
$749
The Good
- Easily lasts a full day on battery
- Excellent choice for most people’s everyday needs
- Nails the basics in a thin-and-light while feeling like a nice place to be
The Bad
- Still starts with just 256GB of storage
- Still has limited ports
- Still prone to throttling under heavy creative tasks
CPU: M4 (10-core) / GPU: M4 (8- or 10-core) / RAM: 16GB, 24GB, 32GB / Storage: 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, 2TB / Display: 13.6-inch or 15.3-inch Liquid Retina display, 2560 x 1664 or 2880 x 1864 , 60Hz, no touch option / Dimensions: 11.97 x 8.46 x 0.44 inches (13-inch) or 13.40 x 9.35 x 0.45 inches (15-inch) / Weight: 2.7 pounds (13-inch) or 3.3 pounds (15-inch)
Apple’s M4 MacBook Air is the best laptop for most people — Mac users, of course, but also the platform-agnostic or anyone who wants a no-fuss, straightforward machine that doesn’t bombard them with advertisements or bloatware. It’s a productivity laptop that can do a bit of everything. The 13-inch model starts with 16GB of RAM at $999 (it’s often cheaper than this), and it also comes in a 15-inch version for $1,199, for those who like their laptops a little larger. It’s hard to find another laptop that offers this kind of combination of performance and battery life in a thin and light chassis, especially at these prices.
Despite losing its way around the mid-2010s, Apple has a long history of sending quality MacBooks to market, and the Air M4 is no different. A smooth, almost ethereal trackpad, check. A chiclet-style keyboard that makes typing feel like a dance, check. Fast Wi-Fi adapter, color-rich display, and MagSafe charging, check. Those were also true on the previous models, but now with the M4 generation it also features the same 12-megapixel Center Stage webcam of the MacBook Pros, can use two external monitors with its lid open, and comes in a sky blue color (though it still looks silver in some light). And again, you get all this for less money than before.
The M4 Air is a great option for just about anyone who doesn’t need video editing, heavy gaming, or more than two USB-C ports. For those that do, look to the 14-inch MacBook Pro M5 — a great bang-for-your-buck laptop in its own right at $1,599, complete with the latest, fastest processor that Apple makes. Opting for a Pro over an Air is best for students in creative fields and content creators needing more headroom and features like a third USB-C port, an SD card slot, and an even better screen.
Now that the M4 Air is here, Apple has fully discontinued the M3 and M2 models. You might still be able to find them at retailers like Best Buy, but they’re not worth it over the M4 unless substantially discounted. If you can afford an additional $200 on top of either the 13- or 15-inch M4 Air’s starting prices, that’ll net you 512GB of storage instead of 256GB — as well as the 10-core GPU on the 13-inch. The paltry base storage is the only remaining weak point of the MacBook Air. It’s definitely worth getting more, as the roomier SSD will make your life a little easier on a laptop that should easily last you five to seven (or even more) years.
$950
The Good
- Easily lasts a full day on battery
- Excellent choice for most people’s everyday needs
- Nails the basics in a thin-and-light while feeling like a nice place to be
- Louder speakers over its smaller counterpart
The Bad
- Still starts with just 256GB of storage
- Still has limited ports
- Still prone to throttling under heavy creative tasks
Read our review of the Apple MacBook Air M4.
CPU: MediaTek Kompanio Ultra 910 / GPU: Immortalis G925 / RAM: 16GB LPDDR5X / Storage: 256GB UFS 4.0 / Display: Touch 14-inch FHD 1920 x 1200, 60Hz OLED, 400 nits / Dimensions: 12.37 x 8.63 x 0.62 inches / Weight: 2.78 pounds
Lenovo’s Chromebook Plus 14 is the best model we’ve tested so far in 2025 because of its impressive tech specs and long software support. It has a 14-inch FHD (1920 x 1200) 60Hz OLED touchscreen display that has excellent color and contrast, as well as 16GB of RAM, and a 256GB SSD. Its 8-core MediaTek Kompanio Ultra 910 processor was powerful enough that we could jump between Chrome tabs and Android apps spread across two desktops while uploading documents to NotebookLM to generate audio overviews without any problems.
Lenovo equipped this laptop with two USB-C ports, which can drive a couple of monitors simultaneously, and a USB-A port that’s convenient for connecting accessories without the need for a dongle. All three ports top out at 5Gbps each though, which might be slower than you need. We were impressed by the laptop’s speakers, which sounded great when listening to music or audiobooks, even at a high volume. Its keyboard was comfortable to type on, but the mechanical trackpad makes an annoying, loud click when pressed.
The Chromebook Plus 14 can run Android, Linux, and web apps. You should be able to easily find the right software across those platforms, but we still ran into trouble with Zoom, which ran poorly as a web app and as an Android app. Similarly, we had to run Slack in a browser window because the Linux app wasn’t compiled for Arm processors. The types of apps you use will also heavily impact battery life. We were able to run the laptop for around nine hours and only drained its battery by around 50 percent. We suspect you could use it for a couple of days without charging if your needs aren’t incredibly demanding.
Software support is an understandable concern when getting a new laptop, but Google has guaranteed Chromebooks released after 2021 will receive 10 years of automatic updates. The Lenovo Chromebook 14’s solid hardware and extended software support means you may be able to keep it running for a decade, even if later becomes a secondary machine or hand-me-down.
Read our review of the Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14
$750
The Good
- All-day battery life
- Great performance for most apps
- 16GB of RAM for the base model
The Bad
- Game support is limited
- AI features feel gimmicky
- Emulated apps can hit battery and performance
CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus X1P-64-100, Snapdragon X Elite X1E-80-100 / GPU: Qualcomm Adreno / RAM: 16GB, 32GB, 64GB LPDDR5X (soldered) / Storage: 256GB, 512GB, 1TB / Display: 13.8-inch touchscreen LCD, 2304 x 1536 120Hz, 600 nits / Dimensions: 11.85 x 8.67 x 0.69 inches / Weight: 2.96 pounds
Out of all the Snapdragon Copilot Plus PCs we’ve tested so far, the 13.8- and 15-inch Microsoft Surface Laptop 7th edition stood out for their balance of performance, exceptional battery life and standby time, and quality components (120Hz screen, keyboard, webcam, trackpad, etc.). Microsoft was obviously gunning for Apple’s MacBook Air, and the Surface Laptop mostly delivers that level of hardware experience for a Windows machine. It’s the full package if you want a thin-and-light productivity machine running Windows that easily lasts all day and into the night. And if your budget is slightly tighter, there’s a 13-inch model with pared-down features starting at $899 that’s still really good.
The greater concern with Snapdragon X-equipped laptops is whether Windows on Arm supports all the apps you need to get your work done. Most everyday apps work fine, via native Arm versions or emulation, but there can still be some outliers, especially in content creation apps. Also, if you like the idea of your productivity machine being able to pull light gaming duties (one of Windows’ advantages over Mac) then you’re likely better off with a laptop using Intel’s Lunar Lake or AMD’s Ryzen AI chips. Snapdragon X laptops can only run a fraction of the games you find on Steam, and Microsoft is just beginning to roll out the ability to install ARM64-compatible games from the Xbox app. In many cases you’ll only be able to stream games available in the PC Game Pass library.
Earlier this year, Microsoft launched Intel Lunar Lake- based versions of the Surface Laptop 7, but they’re a ridiculous $500 more expensive, and aimed solely at businesses. It’s a shame, because having this hardware with Lunar Lake’s compatibility might have been an appealing prospect.
Read our review of the 13.8-inch Microsoft Surface Laptop 7th Edition.
The best 16-inch Windows laptop
$1800
The Good
- It’s gorgeous
- Incredibly thin and light for a 16-inch laptop
- Great performance, especially the integrated graphics
The Bad
- Shorter battery life than major competitors
- StoryCube doesn’t work
- Couldn’t get a sense of how fast the NPU really is
CPU: AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 / GPU: Radeon 890M, Radeon 880M / RAM: 32GB, 24GB / Storage: 1TB / Display: touch 16-inch 2880 x 1800, 120Hz OLED with stylus support, 500 nits peak HDR / Dimensions: 13.92 x 9.57 x 0.47 ~ 0.51 inches / Weight: 3.21 pounds
The 16-inch Asus Zenbook S 16 is the best-looking, best-performing Windows laptop we’ve tested so far; it’s also so thin and lightweight you wouldn’t know it just by holding it! It can handle a little bit of everything, from emails to graphic design work, and it tackles gaming surprisingly well for a laptop without a separate graphics card. It’s a lovely, catch-all device.
There are only two Zenbook S 16 models as of now. The $1,800 one comes in gray with AMD’s flagship Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 chip and 32GB of memory, and the $1,400 model comes in white with the lower-tier AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 and 24GB of memory. Otherwise, they are identical. Both feature OLED touch displays with a native 2880 x 1800 (3K) resolution and 120Hz refresh rate, stylus support, 1TB of storage, and the same ports / Wi-Fi adapter. Everything but the Windows version. (The more expensive model gets Home; the cheaper one gets Pro.)
At just 11 hours, its battery life doesn’t last as long as similar laptops we’ve tested, such as the Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge and Dell XPS 14, but it’s a small tradeoff. There’s still no other Windows laptop that offers as much performance and versatility in a 16-inch chassis for the price.
Read our review of the Asus Zenbook S 16.
The best laptop for high-end gaming
$3200
The Good
- Great graphics performance in the latest high-end games
- Lots of ports and easy access to RAM / SSDs
- Animated lid and wraparound RGB are fun
- Very good QHD / 240Hz Mini LED screen
The Bad
- Typical gaming laptop issues (pricey, hefty, and not great battery life)
- Competition offers OLED screens
- Customizing lid animations is a pain
CPU: Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX / GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 / RAM: 32GB / Storage: 2TB / Display: 16-inch Mini LED 2560 x 1600, 240Hz display / Dimensions: 13.94 x 10.55 x 0.9 to 1.21 inches / Weight: 6.17 pounds
I’m still testing a handful of different gaming laptops, including the Lenovo Legion Pro 7i Gen 10 and HP Omen Max 16, but the frontrunner so far (by a nose) is the Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 with an Nvidia RTX 5080 GPU. From what I’ve seen so far, the 5080 is the sweet spot for high-end gaming laptops in this generation. The 5080 ROG Strix Scar is within earshot of the 5090 performance I saw in the Razer Blade 16, and it’s $1,200 cheaper. The Asus is chunky and heavy compared to Razer’s svelte Blade, but that gives its GPU the space it needs to stay cool. Thinner laptops often thermally constrain a high-end chip like the 5090.
The ROG Strix Scar doesn’t have an OLED display like its direct competitors, which is indeed a bummer, but its 2560 x 1600 240Hz Mini LED panel is still sharp and bright, with some punchy colors. The 16-inch version of the Strix Scar eschews a number pad, giving its large keycaps plenty of space so typing isn’t cramped at all. Its trackpad is massive, and it houses a hidden touch-sensitive numpad you can call up with a long-press in the top corner — though it’s more useful for data entry than gaming needs.
The Strix Scar’s boisterous RGB light show is kind of fun in its garishness. In addition to wraparound underglow, it has a dot-matrix array of LEDs on its lid to display animations — as Asus has done before. A more useful feature is the way you can open up the laptop’s bottom plate like the hood of a car for easy, tool-free access to its two RAM slots and SSDs.
The best MacBook for photo and video editing
$2190
The 16-inch MacBook Pro with M4 Pro starts with 24GB of RAM, 512GB SSD, and 14-core CPU / 20-core GPU. The M4 Max version offers 32GB of RAM, 1TB SSD, 14-core CPU / 32-core GPU, and can be configured to ridiculously high prices. Both models have Thunderbolt 5 ports, 12-megapixel Center Stage webcam, and options for anti-glare displays.
CPU: M4 Pro, M4 Max / GPU: M4 Pro, M4 Max / RAM: 24GB or 48GB (M4 Pro), 36GB – 128 GB (M4 Max) / Storage: 512GB, 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, 8TB / Display: 14.2 / 16.2-inch Liquid Retina XDR, 3024 x 1964 / 3456 x 2234, adaptive refresh up to 120Hz, no touch option / Dimensions: 12.31 x 8.71 x 0.61 (14-inch) / 14.01 x 9.77 x 0.66 inches (16-inch) / Weight: 3.5 / 4.7 pounds (M4 Pro), 3.6 / 4.8 pounds (M4 Max)
If you need power for intensive creative work — like 3D rendering and working with ultra-high-resolution photos and video — the MacBook Pro is your best bet. Both the 14- and 16-inch models are available with powerful M4 Pro or M4 Max processors. There’s also a 14-inch Pro with a standard M4 processor, and while it’s a formidable step up from the MacBook Air as an everyman’s “pro” laptop, the M4 Pro and Max processors still outclass it in performance.
Processors aside, the MacBook Pro has remained largely unchanged since 2021. It has a bright, beautiful, color-accurate, high-res screen with HDR and an adaptive refresh rate of up to 120Hz; amazing speakers, a comfortable keyboard and trackpad; and a good port loadout: three Thunderbolt 5 / USB-C ports, plus HDMI 2.1 and an SD card slot. The 14-inch MacBook Pro is a few hundred dollars cheaper than the 16-inch, but aside from the very lowest processor options, most configurations are available in either size, so pick whichever works for you.
In our benchmarks, which test a variety of creative tasks including encoding, playback, and export time, the MacBook Pro 16 did better than any laptop we’ve ever used — the only other machines that have come close to matching this thing in some of our benchmarks are high-end desktop PCs. The battery life is also record-shattering. The top-of-the-line 16-inch M4 Max model easily lasted all day in our most recent testing, with no battery-saving features enabled and even keeping the screen on full-time.
Most people who need much more power than a MacBook Air — including all but the most demanding pro photographers — will be fine with an M4 Pro model, which starts at $1,999 for the 14-inch with a 12-core CPU, 16-core GPU, 24GB of memory, and a 512GB SSD. The 16-inch starts at $2,499 for a 14-core CPU, 20-core GPU, 24GB of memory, and 512GB SSD. The M4 Pro chip can be configured with up to 48GB of memory and a 4TB SSD, at the usual absurd Apple markups, and it supports up to two external 6K displays.
If you absolutely need more GPU power — or more than two external monitors — you can step up to the M4 Max. The base M4 Max with 14 CPU cores and 32 GPU cores, plus 36GB of RAM and 1TB SSD, starts at $3,199 in the 14-inch and $3,499 in the 16-inch. There’s also an M4 Max with 16 CPU and 40 GPU cores, which starts at $3,699 and $3,999, respectively. The M4 Max models are configurable with up to 128GB of RAM and 8TB of storage and can support up to four external monitors. The vast majority of people don’t have workloads heavy enough to notice a significant difference between the M4 Pro and M4 Max; if you do, you probably know it.
$1444
The Good
- Everything good about the M4 model, with just a little more speed
- Still a very good value for an all-purpose creative workflow machine
- Best-in-class battery life
The Bad
- Just a snoozer of an update
- Space black finish can still be a little smudgy
- Apple’s price structure may still have you longing for M4 Pro / Max
Read our reviews of the MacBook Pro 16 M4 Pro / Max and MacBook Pro 14 M5.
The best 14-inch gaming laptop
$1300
The Good
- Balanced performance, battery life, and portability
- OLED display
- Programmable LED strip on the lid
- Great keyboard and smooth trackpad
The Bad
- Gets a bit hot and loud under load
- Soldered RAM
- Thermally throttles its GPUs
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 270, HX 370 / GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060, RTX 5070, RTX 5070 TI, RTX 5080 / RAM: 16GB, 32GB / Storage: 1TB / Display: 14-inch OLED, 2880 x 1800, 120Hz, 500 nits / Dimensions: 12.24 x 8.66 x 0.63 inches / Weight: 3.31 pounds
Asus recently introduced an updated ROG Zephyrus G14 for 2025, which replaces the previous model as our pick for the best 14-inch gaming laptop. It retains the sleek design Asus introduced last year and continues to strike a balance between power and portability; it also incorporates a handful of improvements, some of which have allowed it to earn the top spot in our best gaming laptops guide, despite a $100 price bump.
The updated Zephyrus G14 has an AMD 9-series processor and Nvidia RTX 50-series graphics chip, which provide modest performance gains. Every configuration features a handsome, high-res OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate, so smoother gameplay isn’t locked behind an optional upgrade. Conveniently, the 2025 G14 features USB-C ports on both sides for charging, although you’ll still achieve the maximum wattage by using Asus’ proprietary charger.
The G14 features a backlit, chiclet-style keyboard, and Asus has increased the keycap size by 12.24 percent to make them easier to press. The centered trackpad is also relatively wide, providing ample space for clicks, taps, and swipes without cramping your hand. These features are as useful for typing and productivity work as they are for playing games when you’re not connected to a gaming keyboard and mouse.
Speaking of games, the titles we played ran well, even on high settings, but the laptop felt hot to the touch due to its thin chassis. Its fans were audible under heavy load, and the laptop eventually thermally throttled its GPUs to prevent overheating. The tradeoffs aren’t surprising, though, especially given the G14’s thin, lightweight design.
The best dual-screen laptop
$2199
The Good
- Bold design
- Great speakers for their size
- Included stylus and mouse
The Bad
- Awkward to put away
- Few ports
CPU: Intel Core Ultra 7 155U / GPU: Intel UHD (integrated) / RAM: 16GB LPDDR5X / Storage: 1TB M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 SSD / Display: 13.3-inch (2880 x 1800) 60Hz OLED touchscreen w/ stylus support / Dimensions: 11.78 x 8.03 x 0.63 inches / Weight: 2.95 pounds
A dual-screen laptop is exactly what it sounds like: a laptop with a second screen where the keyboard normally goes.
The Lenovo Yoga Book 9i has a 360-degree hinge, which lets you use it as a regular laptop, a (large) tablet, and more. You can put it in clamshell mode and write or sketch on the bottom screen with a stylus or fold the keyboard folio into a stand to prop it up and take advantage of both screens. You can set it up at home with an external monitor as a three-screen desktop replacement, or take it on the go with the included Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. Its touchscreen gestures are super responsive but too responsive for the virtual keyboard and trackpad. It’s easy to mistype and accidentally minimize windows.
The Yoga Book’s only real competitor is Asus’ Zenbook Duo. The Duo’s physical keyboard includes a trackpad and makes it look a lot more like a traditional laptop. Its 14-inch OLED screens are a little bigger and brighter, it has a ton of port options, it’s more powerful, and it’s a little easier to fold up and put away. But it’s also heavier (at 3.64 pounds), its top lid doesn’t fold back far enough to use it as a tablet, and its touchscreen gestures aren’t as responsive.
Read our head-to-head review of the Lenovo Yoga Book 9i and the Asus Zenbook Duo.
The best repairable laptop
$899
The Good
- Still the repairability champ with excellent, modular port selection
- Faster CPU performance over both Intel and previous AMD models
- High-res 3:2 aspect ratio screen is great for productivity
- Thin, light, and an overall great package
The Bad
- Radeon 860M iGPU performance is a little lacking
- Trackpad still feels a little cheap
- Screen is a little lacking in contrast and color quality
- Less repairable laptops offer more for similar prices or less
CPU: AMD Ryzen AI 5 340, AI 7 350, AI 9 HX 370 / GPU: Radeon 860M / RAM: 8GB, 16GB, 32GB, 64GB, 48GB, 96GB / Storage: 500GB, 1TB, 2TB, 4TB, 8TB / Display: 13.5 inch IPS, 2256 x 1504 60Hz or 2880 x 1920 120Hz, no touch option / Dimensions: 11.68 x 9.01 x 0.62 inches / Weight: 2.87 pounds
There’s no other laptop offering the kind of nerdy fun today that a Framework is. The Framework Laptop 13 isn’t just the only game in town when it comes to a notebook that’s fully repairable and upgradeable, it’s also a great productivity machine for everyday use and has been for several years now. For 2025, the Laptop 13 gets a processor upgrade with AMD’s “Strix Point” Ryzen AI chips, giving it higher performance than the last-gen Intel and AMD offerings with serviceable battery life. Otherwise, it’s much the same chassis as the prior generation — they’re indistinguishable from one another.
But that’s part of what’s so cool about a Framework: a new model means a new chip you can even put into the old model, if you want an upgrade and don’t mind opening up the chassis yourself. It’s actually much easier to do than you may fear, as Framework designs its laptops to give you full access to everything inside with just a simple screwdriver; including its mainboard, storage, RAM, battery, and some fun see-through bezels for a touch of customization.
If you opt for one of Framework’s DIY Editions it only comes partially built, but this allows you to choose from many more configuration options than its pre-builts. Personally, I think the DIY route is the way to go if you’re up for it, because experiencing the assembly (which took me less than 30 minutes) gives you a better awareness of what’s in your laptop and how to change something if you ever need to repair or upgrade it. But even if you choose a pre-built, you can pick from a wide array of modular ports to outfit it with.
The Laptop 13 isn’t as sleek as a similarly priced MacBook or Surface, which offer no upgradeability or modularity (aside from the SSD on some Surface Laptops), but the Framework by no means feels cheap. It’s thin enough and light enough to be very portable, and it’s got a great keyboard with a fine trackpad. Its screen has a 3:2 aspect ratio that’s ideal for productivity since you can see a bit more than the more typical 16:10.
You probably have to be really into the whole repairability and modularity concept to spend the same or more on a Framework Laptop 13 compared to other options out there, but anyone can appreciate picking your ports and being able to swap them around whenever you want.
Read our Framework Laptop 13 (2025) review.
- We recently published our review of Acer’s Chromebook Plus Spin 514, which was announced at IFA 2025 and is now available starting at $699.99. The machine runs on a power-efficient MediaTek Kompanio Ultra processor paired with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of UFS 4.0 flash storage. Its 14-inch touchscreen has a resolution of 1920 x 1200 or 2880 x 1800 depending on your configuration. The screen can be flipped 360 degrees, so you can use the Chromebook as a tablet. You can also spec it with either a 1080p or 5-megapixel webcam. The laptop is equipped with a pair of 10Gbps USB-C ports with DisplayPort and Power Delivery, two USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 ports, and a 3.5mm audio jack. It has excellent battery life and speedy performance, but you might be disappointed by its speaker performance. Also, it’s a questionable value since Lenovo’s Chromebook Plus mentioned above in this guide is just $50 more but includes an OLED screen and more RAM.
- We were able to put Framework’s GPU upgrade claims to the test in our review of the Framework Laptop 16 (2025). Our review unit included an Nvidia’s RTX 5070, and as expected, the upgrade adds a lot of extra juice for gaming. The graphics card upgrade costs $699 and will be available in December. The company also introduced a 240W USB-C charger, which also ships in December and is available for preorder now.
- Apple’s 14-inch MacBook Pro with the new M5 processor debuted in October, starting at $1,599.99 for the model with 16GB RAM and 512GB of storage. It’s very much a chip bump of an upgrade, delivering minor improvements in benchmark testing. If you can find the M4 version at a reasonable discount, you won’t be missing out on much. Read our review.
Monica Chin and Nathan Edwards also contributed to previous versions of this buying guide.
Update, November 21st: Adjusted pricing and availability, and added more details regarding the Framework Laptop 16 that we recently reviewed. Brandt Ranj and Cameron Faulkner contributed to this article.
