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If you’re shopping for a laptop, there are many factors to consider. The first consideration is usually price, with the second being specific features.. Let’s take a look at what we believe are some of the best options out there right now.
1. Lenovo Yoga Slim 7
Whether you’re creating or playing games, the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7 delivers a solid performance with great battery life. The premium aluminum chassis and comfortable keyboard deliver great value for the money. The 14″ display has startling clarity with FHD resolution and a 100% sRGB color gamut. It also features an advanced HDR inspired by cinema technology and Dolby Vision.
It’s engineered to streamline your day with smart, time-saving features such as motion-sensing auto logoff when you’re away and a face recognition login. And with Intel Core i7 and AMD Ryzen processor options, you can choose the power to match your work needs and play style.
This laptop uses a fairly recent AMD Zen 3+ processor which offers better performance in sustained loads and is more efficient than Intel’s Raptor Lake CPUs. Combined with its large battery capacity, this makes for a laptop that can easily get you through an entire working day without requiring a charger. Its trackpad is spacious and has a pleasant tactile feel, and its speakers are loud enough for videos and music.
2. HP Spectre x360 14
The Spectre x360 14 is an elegant and powerful 2-in-1 that stands above the crowd. Its design is pleasantly compact, and the hinges are robust enough to handle the laptop being folded into tablet mode with ease. The notebook has a beautiful OLED display and impressively loud speakers, making it ideal for media consumption. It also has a decently functional webcam and a fingerprint reader that provides biometric Windows login. However, it isn’t a workstation and lacks the performance needed by demanding creative users. The CPU bump makes it noticeably faster than last year’s model, but it’s not a knockout. Pre-installed apps and 16GB max RAM are also negatives, but those shouldn’t deter anyone from getting the Spectre x360 14.
The meticulous craftsmanship, classy aesthetic, and 3:2 screen put this model over the top. Its Intel Evo certification and battery life are top-notch as well. Other amenities like the bundled stylus, USB-A port, blue color, and OLED option are just icing on the cake. The screen’s 100 percent sRGB and DCI-P3 coverage are a big draw for creatives as well.
3. Razer Blade 14
Back in 2021, the Razer Blade 14 was a bold move for gaming laptops, offering a svelte chassis, smart cooling, and powerful components. It’s still a great option if you want a compact gaming machine that doesn’t sacrifice portability for performance.
The anodized aluminum chassis feels sturdy and premium in the hand, with tight tolerances around the display hinge that prevents any flex when opening or closing it. It’s also lighter than most 15-inch gaming laptops, though not so light that it becomes unwieldy in the lap.
The Blade 14 is powered by one of AMD’s fastest mobile CPUs and packs NVIDIA’s RTX 2070 graphics into a slim package. That gives it some serious clout in games, though we’ve found that 1440p requires more graphical horsepower than FHD, resulting in moderate framerate drops. The display is another standout, packing a super-smooth 240Hz refresh rate and AMD FreeSync Premium. That makes for an extremely fluid on-screen experience, although we’ve found that it doesn’t quite rival the Asus Zephyrus G14’s 165Hz in terms of responsiveness. It’s still an excellent screen, however.
4. Asus ROG Zephyrus G14
Asus’s Zephyrus series is back for 2023 with even more powerful hardware than the previous generation. This portable gaming powerhouse proves that you can have your cake and eat it too with the ability to play games and get work done in a compact and lightweight package.
This year’s model packs the latest AMD Ryzen processor and RTX 40-Series graphics into a remarkably thin and light chassis. Its 76Wh battery is good for four to seven hours of work and play. Its out-of-the-box color accuracy is excellent. There is some oversaturation in some colors, but the gamma curve follows sRGB closely, and Vari-Bright can keep brightness levels high without significantly impacting battery life.
The Asus Zephyrus G14 pips the Dell Alienware m18 (10/10, WIRED Recommends) for the best 14-inch laptop for creators thanks to its better CPU and GPU options that give it the edge in most tasks. Its superior cooling keeps it running cooler and quieter too.
5. Dell Inspiron 15 5000
The Dell Inspiron lineup is well-known for its budget laptops, and this year’s model bumped up the standards with Intel 11th generation Core CPUs. It’s also more attractive than previous models with a brushed metal finish on the lid and narrow bezel design. You can configure this laptop with different displays, CPUs, RAM, and storage.
The cheapest CPU is the Core i3-1115G4, which performs well in our Cinebench tests and is suitable for light productivity tasks like web browsing and video playback. The Core i5 and i7 options are faster but may throttle under load. The 720p IPS display has a lower pixel density than other budget laptops and only covers 56 percent of the sRGB color space.
The keyboard is comfortable and the touchpad is decent, although the click mechanism feels mushy. The battery lasts 3.5 hours on our work test, which is below the average for budget laptops. You can expect better performance from pricier laptops that have larger batteries and more power-efficient processors. This laptop isn’t a good choice for content creators because of its limited color accuracy and lack of dedicated graphics processing units.