The Top Laptops In 2023

Computer performance is the amount of useful work accomplished by a computer system. Outside of specific contexts, computer performance is estimated in terms of accuracy, efficiency and speed of executing computer program instructions. The processor, memory and videocard are the most important components when determining performance inside a computer.

Upgrading your RAM will instantly increase the speed, performance, and responsiveness of your system, making multitasking much more seamless. Follow these steps to see how much RAM is in your laptop: Press the Ctrl, Alt, and Delete keys simultaneously. Select Task Manager.

To check your PC hardware specs, click on the Windows Start button, then click on Settings (the gear icon). In the Settings menu, click on System. Scroll down and click on About. On this screen, you should see specs for your processor, Memory (RAM), and other system info, including Windows version.

The best tablets are more capable than ever, but sometimes, you just need a full computer. That’s why the laptop is still very much alive, versatile enough to serve needs from gaming to 3D modeling to simply having a convenient all-in-one experience.

Some even come with their own graphics cards and are strong enough to replace desktops. And even more, like 2-in-1s, stretch what the form factor is capable of, bringing in some tablet like convenience with touchscreens and the ability to fold the keyboard out-of-sight.

But that means it can be hard to tell the best laptops apart from each other. Let’s walk through which product is best for you.

How do I check my computer’s CPU performance?

Using the Task Manager: Open the Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc) and go to the “Performance” tab. The CPU usage will display as a graph; if the computer runs high CPU usage, the chart will be primarily red.

The Type of laptop you should buy?

Your laptop buying decision should really be defined by what you plan to do with the device, and how much money you have to spend. If it’s going to be your primary computer, sit on a desk, and never really move around or get packed in a bag, you don’t need to worry about size and weight.

If you want to play video games, you’re going to need a faster processor. If you’re a road warrior, you want something small and light and hard to break.

Keep in mind that one of the rules of consumer electronics is that as soon as you buy a new gadget, it will immediately be eclipsed by a newer, faster, better model.

We can say with confidence that chipmakers will continue to release powerful new processors in 2023, and laptop makers will roll out new products.

But generally speaking, the first few months of the year are when we see the most new products announced and released.

Best 2-in-1 Laptop — Lenovo Yoga 9i

Mid-range and premium two-in-one laptops are currently facing a bit of a shake-up across the industry, as detachables are becoming less common outside of budget price points. Convertibles, however, are still here to stay, and the Lenovo Yoga 9i is one of the best.

Boasting the same 12th Gen Intel chips you’d find in comparable laptops, this machine’s got OLED options up to 4K, a 14 inch screen, and a Bowers & Wilkins sound bar speaker built into its hinge, making it powerful both for design and entertainment.

Its rounded edges and a port-loaded metallic body make it both sleek and compatible, while its fingertip shaped keys and keyboard shortcuts make it convenient to use. The Precision Pen 2 doesn’t slide into the laptop, but that lets it be larger and more comfortable to use.

Starting at $1,229, the Yoga 9i can also be affordable, although options like the OLED screen will push it closer to the $1,729 price point our review model had.

Meanwhile, if 14 inches doesn’t sound like enough to you, consider the HP Spectre x360 16, which we called “a powerful work of art” thanks to its large display, beautiful design, and discrete GPU option.

Best Modular Laptop — Framework Laptop 13

Perhaps the biggest disadvantage to buying a laptop over a regular desktop is that, if you want to upgrade it, you’ll usually have to get a whole new device.

The only components that most laptops typically leave room to change are RAM and storage, but if your laptop has those soldered in, which is common on thinner models, you won’t be able to swap those, either.

Repairability is also difficult on laptops, as they’re usually so tightly packed that you can’t easily service them yourself. Framework wants to address both of these issues, with its Framework Laptop 13 offering your typical thin and light productivity features, and its newly revealed Framework Laptop 16 taking things a step beyond, for gamers and people with heavy workloads.

We’re going to stick to the 13 here, as the 16 still has yet to launch. While the promise of a laptop with a swappable GPU module is tempting, we also want to see how much support it gets before recommending it.

Best Budget Gaming Laptop — HP Victus 15

The HP Victus 15 isn’t free from compromise, but it’s got great value. Starting at $800, it’s far from the top-of-the-line, but still allows you to get in the PC (and portable) flexibility without paying significantly more than you might for, say, a PS5.

If ray tracing isn’t important to you, you might be able to make do with the cheaper models that use a GTX 1650.
Aside from the internals, what the Victus 15 gets you is the wide variety of I/O that gamers need, an unintrusive (if plasticky) design, and a 144Hz screen that allows for smoother gameplay and surprisingly deep blacks.

Best Budget Laptop — Microsoft Surface Laptop Go 2

Push up to $700, and you get reasonable specs, including 8GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD, which you really shouldn’t go below in 2023. For $800, you can get the same model that we reviewed, which bumps your SSD up to 256GB.

You aren’t going to do more than the basics on this laptop, but like our review pointed out, “the sub-$800 price point is something of a blind spot for PCs.” You could get a high-end Chromebook, but that comes saddled with its own limitations.

Best Gaming Laptop — Razer Blade 16

Over the past decade, Razer’s grown to be something of a gaming equivalent to Apple, for good and ill. That means its Razer Blade 16 laptop is a good, if expensive, bet.

This year’s model sees the Blade keeping its MacBook-like chassis, but upping its screen size to 16 inches. It also swapping out its components for the latest Intel 13th gen HX-series chips, with GPU options ranging up to the RTX 4090. Despite that impressive power, though, the machine remains thin and light (for a gaming laptop), weighing just 5.4 pounds and coming in at only 0867 inches thick.

Ports are plentiful, which is necessary for gaming peripherals, and display options range from 1,920 x 1,200 at 240Hz to 3,840 x 2,400 at 120Hz. The display is Mini LED, which makes it plenty bright even in direct sunlight.

The new Razer Blade’s also a bit easier to buy than some past models, as the “Advanced” model distinction that used to list certain configurations as a separate machine is now gone. That said, its price still ranges from $2,699 to over $4,200.

Best Windows Laptop — Asus Zenbook S 13 OLED

The XPS 13’s classic, tried-and-true chassis is now reserved only for lower-end models, and higher-end models now use a new chassis that we found hard to look at and almost as hard to use.

This year actually saw quite a few laptop lines typically regarded as budget contenders put out strong mid-to-high range entries. That featherweight point is important, though— it’s actually smaller than the new MacBook Air on every metric except thickness, where it is 0.2 inches larger, but it makes up for that by being half a pound lighter.

It’s also got a proper 16:10, 13.3 inch, 2880 x 1800 OLED display, which generally outclasses the (still good) 13.3 inch, 2560 x 1664 Liquid Retina display on the new MacBook Air. If you must go Windows, this is a tiny companion that can do a lot even on lower-end configurations, which currently start at around $1,299.

Best Premium Laptop — Apple MacBook Pro 14-Inch and 16-Inch

These start at $2,000, have a lot of screen real estate for their respective sizes (though still have a notch), have a 1,080p FaceTime camera, and feature a full function row.

It’s a proven design, which makes sense why it’s since moved over to the Air, and if you’re still using a Pro with a touchbar, it’s time to move on.

The M2 Pro and M2 Max chips debuting in this generation of MacBook Pros are also plenty powerful, though they’re not the same kind of game changer the M1 series of chips was.

If you’ve already got an M1 Mac, you can probably hold on to it a while longer, but the M2 Pro we tested in our unit was able to push through most of our time-centric benchmarks in two minutes, as opposed to four minutes on the M1 Max.

What’s maybe most impressive about this laptop is that it can actually be a capable gaming machine with the right support.

Apple’s been working on getting developers to port their games to Apple Silicon since it debuted, and while the selection of native titles is still smaller than what you’ll get on Windows, these ports run well when they happen.

Best Overall Laptop — MacBook Air with M2

The new Air’s not without its faults, coming out to generally positive reviews but also complaints from power users about throttling and faulty cooling hardware.

But for general purpose tasks and some light prosumer work, it’s slick, fast, and surprisingly competitively priced with its Windows competitors.

Thin bezels, a 1080p FaceTime camera, a new flat shape that’s thinner than ever, a full function row, and MagSafe 3 charging are all here to freshen up how you interact with the device, plus there’s some new colorways.

A starting price of $1,199 also doesn’t make it cheap, but puts it in the same ballpark as competitors like the Dell XPS 13 or our next entry, the Asus Zenbook S 13.