The Best Windows Laptops For 2025

4 hours ago

If you’ve held connected to an aging Windows laptop for excessively long, it’s now a awesome clip to upgrade. With each nan hype astir AI PCs, machine makers are rushing to merchandise caller designs featuring businesslike caller chips from Intel and AMD. And acknowledgment to Microsoft’s Copilot+ initiative, which launched past year, we’re yet seeing decent notebooks powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips, which are starring to amended artillery life and lighter designs.

Whether you request a premium ultraportable, a powerful gaming rig aliases a versatile mobile workstation, our existent database of nan champion Windows laptops highlights our favorites that person been rigorously tested by our team. You whitethorn moreover find a Windows laptop that suits you amended than an Apple MacBook if you’re looking to make nan switch. For those connected a budget, cheque retired our database of nan best inexpensive Windows laptops to find awesome options that won't break nan bank.

Best Windows laptops for 2025

Read our afloat Dell 14 Premium review

For 2025, Dell rebranded nan XPS 14 into nan 14 Premium and gave it immoderate updated specs. And while its caller sanction is simply a shame, its pedigree remains unsullied (at slightest for now), which allows Dell's flagship 14-inch laptop to clasp its title arsenic 1 of nan champion Windows notebooks around. It features a slick, futuristic creation pinch a hidden touchpad and love-or-hate-it multimedia controls on pinch coagulated performance, bully capable artillery life and invited optional upgrades for illustration a 3.2K OLED show and a discrete RTX 4050 GPU. So if you're looking for a portable and well-rounded Windows PC, it's difficult to spell incorrect pinch nan Dell 14 Premium.

Pros

Sleek design
Vivid optional OLED display
Solid performance
Giant touchpad

Cons

Divisive capacitive touch buttons
Optional discrete GPU is 1 procreation old

$1,500 astatine Dell

Read our afloat ASUS Zenbook S14 review

The Zenbook S14 shows really acold ASUS has come. It’s a gorgeous premium notebook powered by Intel’s caller Lunar Lake chips, giving it a patient dose of powerfulness and artillery life. In our artillery testing, it lasted 16 hours and 8 minutes, putting it among nan champion Windows PCs we’ve seen. The Zenbook S14 is besides lighter than Apple’s MacBook Air, while besides offering much ports (two USB-C, 1 USB-A, HDMI and a headphone jack). Overall, though, we were conscionable won complete by everything ASUS did right. Its Ceraluminum lawsuit feels incredibly polished, and its OLED surface besides makes conscionable astir everything look great.

Pros

Attractive modern design
Incredible artillery life
Excellent OLED screen
Useful larboard selection
Responsive and ample trackpad

Cons

Keyboard could usage much feedback
Performance isn't overmuch amended than Intel's past gen
We’re still waiting for much AI fresh apps to appear

$1,400 astatine Best Buy

There’s a logic we selected nan Acer Aspire 5 arsenic our apical prime successful our best fund Windows laptop guide: It’s sturdy, accelerated capable and offers bully artillery life. It besides comes pinch a Windows 11 Home (S Mode) operating strategy pinch precocious information features. We typically don’t expect overmuch pinch laptops nether $500, but nan Aspire 5 has consistently been a coagulated performer. It’s an perfect laptop for students aliases kids, aliases for anyone who isn’t peculiarly demanding. We’re besides amazed by nan larboard action it offers, including HDMI and Ethernet. While we usually don’t urge laptops pinch conscionable 8GB of RAM and mini 128GB SSDs, those specs are much excusable successful nan Aspire 5 since it’s truthful darn cheap. Just deliberation of it arsenic a somewhat much tin Chromebook, but 1 that tin motorboat aggregate apps and do a spot much than conscionable web browsing.

Pros

Includes HDMI and Ethernet ports
Sturdy design
Decent capacity for nan price

$362 astatine Amazon

Read our afloat ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 review

One of our favourite gaming PCs for years, nan ROG Zephyrus G14 remains our prime arsenic the champion gaming laptop for astir users. It weighs conscionable 3.5 pounds, it sports AMD’s powerful caller Ryzen chips and it besides has nan company’s fastest Radeon RX 6000-series mobile graphics. The ROG Zephyrus G14 has a sleek retro-future aesthetic, a comfortable keyboard and a soft 144Hz, 14-inch screen. While you’d beryllium much immersed successful a 15-inch notebook, those typically costs much and are acold heavier than nan Zephyrus G14. If you’re looking for a equilibrium betwixt bully performance, style and value, nan G14 is an fantabulous option.

Pros

Powerful performance
Sleek design
Great 14-inch, 144Hz screen

Cons

A small connected nan dense side

$1,299 astatine ASUS

Read our afloat Microsoft Surface Pro Copilot+ review

The Surface Pro is everything we’ve wanted nan Surface tablet statement to beryllium for years. It’s incredibly accelerated and efficient, acknowledgment to Qualcomm’s caller Snapdragon X Elite and Plus chips. Its neural processing portion (NPU) besides enables perchance powerful AI features, though nan existent harvest won’t beryllium useful to everyone. We’re besides still waiting to spot Microsoft’s arguable Recall characteristic successful action, which has been delayed to reside its galore information concerns.

The caller OLED surface action looks wonderful: It makes colors popular disconnected nan surface and besides ensures inky acheronian achromatic levels. Coupled together pinch amazingly powerful speakers, nan Surface Pro is simply a coagulated action for watching video connected nan go.

When it’s paired together pinch nan caller Surface Pro Flex keyboard ($350), you tin type and rodent astir nan Surface wholly wirelessly, which opens up wholly caller ways of utilizing it. As agelong arsenic there’s a mini array nearby, aliases location to prop up nan tablet, you tin activity pinch conscionable a bladed and ray keyboard connected your lap. It’s besides bully to spot Microsoft battalion successful 16GB of RAM pinch nan guidelines Surface Pro model.

While we’d still for illustration to spot nan institution bundle successful a keyboard and refine its kickstand, nan Surface Pro remains 1 of nan astir innovative PCs disposable today.

Pros

Snapdragon X Elite and Plus chips are wonderfully fast
Solid artillery life
Excellent OLED surface option
NPU allows for powerful AI features
Flex keyboard makes it much versatile
Solid AI features

Cons

All keyboards sold separately
Still difficult to usage successful your lap
Gets costly quickly

$999 astatine Microsoft

Read our afloat Lenovo Yoga 9i review

Adaptability is nan biggest spot of a 2-in-1, pinch devices for illustration nan Yoga 9i tin of transforming into a number of different modes astatine a moment’s notice. And moreover though it’s sewage a comparatively portable 14-inch OLED display, Lenovo still recovered room connected nan Yoga 9i for 3 USB-C ports, a fingerprint scanner and a clever rotating soundbar to guarantee audio sounds bully successful immoderate position. Lenovo besides includes a free stylus successful nan container though, sadly, dissimilar erstwhile models location isn’t a dedicated retention slot for it connected nan instrumentality anymore. And while its wide creation hasn’t changed much, Lenovo has improved nan Yoga 9i’s capacity pinch updated 13th-gen Intel processors. There are besides various configurations to take from, including nan prime betwixt a Windows 11 Home aliases Pro operating system.

Pros

Gorgeous OLED display
Powerful speakers
Strong artillery life
Four USB-C ports
Physical webcam shutter
Included stylus and recreation sleeve

Cons

Whiny fans
Shallow keyboard
No built-in stylus storage

$1,400 astatine Lenovo

Read our afloat MSI Stealth 14 Studio review

Regardless of if you’re editing videos aliases playing games, MSI’s Stealth 14 Studio packs a batch of processing powerfulness successful a very portable package. The guidelines exemplary comes pinch a 1080p screen, but if you person nan money, you’ll want to see nan optional 2,560 x 1,600 display, which boasts a faster 240Hz refresh complaint and wider colour gamut (100% of DCI-P3). At conscionable 3.75 pounds, nan Stealth 14 Studio weighs half a lb little than likewise sized rivals while still supporting up to an NVIDIA RTX 4070 GPU. And nan redesigned exemplary has a stunning magnesium and aluminum chassis that’s besides disposable successful a larger 16-inch model.

Pros

Striking design
Lightweight and portable
Solid performance
Bright 240Hz display
Up-firing stereo speakers

Cons

Runs hot
No SD paper slot
Lower-res 720p webcam

$1,900 astatine Microcenter

Read our afloat Razer Blade 18 review

Razer’s revamped Blade 18 is simply a monster. It packs full-fat versions of nan astir powerful components you tin put successful a laptop including up to an Intel Core i9 13-980HX CPU and an NVIDIA RTX 4090 GPU that runs astatine up to 175 watts. You besides get a monolithic 18-inch QHD+ show pinch a 240Hz refresh, tons of ports (including an SD paper reader) and gorgeous per cardinal RGB lighting. Holding everything together is Razer’s unibody aluminum chassis, which offers immoderate of nan champion build value connected immoderate Windows laptop. The 1 large downside is price: Starting astatine $2,900 (or person to $5,000 for a afloat loaded model), nan Blade 18 is not for group pinch constricted budgets.

Pros

240Hz display
Premium aluminum chassis
Supports top-notch components
Great larboard selection

Cons

Extremely expensive
Very short artillery life
Big
No further show options

$3,844 astatine Amazon

Read our afloat Microsoft Surface Laptop 7th Edition review

After much than a decade of tests and tests for Arm-based Windows PCs, Microsoft’s Surface Laptop 7 feels for illustration a breakthrough. It’s fast, it’s quiet and acknowledgment to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite chip, it delivers good supra mean capacity and artillery life. Meanwhile, connected nan inside, Microsoft’s Prism emulator has almost wholly smashed nan obstruction betwixt Arm and x86, truthful speech from gaming, almost each of your favourite apps conscionable work. Tack connected a agleam 120Hz show and fantabulous build value and you get thing really adjacent to an perfect ultraportable PC.

Pros

Slick design
Excellent artillery life
Good performance
Bright display
Powerful Prism emulator
Responsive haptic touchpad

Cons

Some apps and games still don’t play nicely pinch Arm-based chips
No OLED show option

$1,300 astatine Microsoft

What to look for successful a Windows laptop

Performance

How overmuch powerfulness do you really need? That’s nan main mobility you request to inquire yourself erstwhile choosing a Windows laptop (or immoderate computing device, to beryllium honest). It’s easy to overspend and get acold much machine than you really need, aliases skimp excessively overmuch and find yourself pinch an under-powered processor and excessively small memory. We’ve surgery down our recommendations into a assortment of merchandise categories below, but mostly you’re looking to get a laptop pinch astatine slightest 16GB of RAM and a modern Intel Core Ultra aliases AMD Ryzen processor. If you’re a gamer, you’ll besides want to make judge you get a decent graphics card. (That’s each explained successful our guideline for champion gaming notebooks.)

What are AI PCs, Copilot+ and Arm-based laptops?

Any machine that includes an NPU (neural processing unit) is an “AI PC,” since that spot tin offload immoderate tasks from nan CPU and GPU. And since each chipmaker has rushed to subordinate nan AI bandwagon, astir systems released coming count arsenic AI PCs. The exceptions are immoderate higher-powered workstation and gaming laptops, which whitethorn person NPU-free chips, aliases highly inexpensive notebooks moving low-end chips.

To make it easier to find premium AI PCs, Microsoft unveiled its Copilot+ programme past year. It calls for notebooks pinch NPUs that support astatine slightest 40 TOPS of AI processing power, 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. The first batch of Copilot+ systems included nan caller Surface Pro and Surface Laptop.

To make things moreover much confusing, Copilot+ systems see PCs powered by Qualcomm’s caller Snapdragon Arm-based CPUs, which tin tally modern Windows apps but whitethorn person problem pinch older package and drivers.

Display and webcams

Regardless of whether a notebook has a touchscreen aliases a much accepted panel, we look for agleam displays (300 nits aliases more) that are easy to usage outdoors aliases successful sunny rooms, pinch meticulous colors and wide viewing angles. Screens pinch precocious refresh rates are awesome for competitory gamers (or anyone who wants smoother archive scrolling), while those pinch wider colour gamuts are important for contented creation and video editing. And moreover if you don’t scheme connected spending a ton of clip connected video calls, each laptop needs a decent webcam — 1080p aliases higher is preferred.

Ports and connectivity

Even pinch advancements successful cellular modems and Wi-Fi, dedicated ports for transferring information aliases connecting peripherals tin make aliases break a laptop. Ideally, each but nan thinnest and lightest systems travel pinch 3 USB-C ports, while things for illustration built-in SD paper readers tin beryllium highly useful erstwhile trying to import media from a camera. And if a notebook is saddled pinch a slow aliases outdated Wi-Fi modem (we’re looking for Wi-Fi 6 aliases later), that’s fundamentally an contiguous disqualification.

Battery life

It doesn’t matter really powerful a laptop is if it conks retired erstwhile you request it nan most. Typically we look for runtimes of astatine slightest 10 hours connected a charge, but erstwhile it comes to bully artillery life, longer is ever better. That said, connected gaming machines pinch thirsty graphics cards, you whitethorn person to settee for a spot less. And connected bigger machines, it’s besides important to see if nan strategy tin complaint via USB-C aliases if it needs a larger, proprietary powerfulness brick.

Windows laptop FAQs

What's nan quality betwixt a Windows laptop and a Chromebook?

The main quality betwixt a Windows laptop and a Chromebook lies successful their operating systems. Windows laptops tally connected Microsoft’s Windows OS, whereas Chromebooks usage Google’s Chrome OS.

Aside from utilizing different operating systems, capacity is 1 of nan awesome differences betwixt a Windows laptop and a Chromebook. Windows laptops tin beryllium equipped pinch powerful processors and discrete graphics, making them suitable for demanding tasks for illustration gaming aliases video editing. Chromebooks, connected nan different hand, are mostly optimized for velocity and simplicity, focusing connected lighter tasks for illustration connection processing and web browsing.

In position of software, Windows laptops support a scope of desktop programs, whereas Chromebooks chiefly usage web apps aliases Android apps from nan Google Play Store. Because of their differences, Chromebooks thin to beryllium much affordable since they are chiefly designed for basic, mundane tasks. Windows laptops tin scope successful value from fund to premium, pinch nan second suitable for gaming, professionals aliases creatives.

What's nan quality betwixt macOS and Windows?

When it comes to macOS and Windows, they’re fundamentally 2 different worlds successful nan realm of computers, each pinch its ain personality. MacOS is sleek, minimal and feels beautiful intuitive, particularly if you for illustration things that conscionable “work” retired of nan box. Apple designs macOS to activity successful tandem pinch its hardware, truthful if you person an iOS instrumentality for illustration an iPhone aliases an iPad, nan full ecosystem syncs up seamlessly.

Windows is much for illustration nan jack-of-all-trades. It's known for being ace elastic and customizable. Whether you want to tweak really things look aliases tally a wide assortment of software, Windows gives you that freedom. It's besides much wide utilized successful business settings, chiefly because it's been astir longer and is compatible pinch tons of different programs and hardware.