The best laptops in 2024

We have to include the MacBook Pro, and not just because MacBooks give you great street cred, but because this MacBook is a powerhouse.?

With the fast Apple M4 Pro chip — and with a 14?Core?CPU, 20?Core?GPU, 24GB RAM and 1TB SSD — the price makes sense. There's no question that the MacBook Pro is the best laptop money can buy for photo and video editing, featuring unbeatable import and export speeds (even with those tough 4K videos), insanely fast handling of hardcore apps like Adobe and Final Cut Pro, and a crisp 14.2-inch retina display to see your work just as clear as in real life.

While Apple hasn't gone totally touchscreen yet, this comes with fast-and-easy touch ID, which you can also use to make payments via Apple Pay.?Other bonuses include a large trackpad, around 22 hours of battery, and a nice selection of ports — 3 Thunderbolt 5 ports, HDMI, a memory card slot, and 3.5mm headphone jack. Not to mention the trusty MagSafe 3 port.

All in all, the ever-evolving MacBook Pro packs a punch with the strongest, fastest specs ever, making it a great choice for editing pros and regular folk.

Graphic design? Product development? Photography? And a Windows user? Meet your new righthand man.?Dell's traditional powerhouse laptop, the Dell XPS 15, continues to see improvements year after year, keeping it as a top choice for masses of advanced users and artists alike.

Beginners or casual laptop users may be happy with a 13-inch screen (for which a Dell XPS 13 will do the trick) but hardcore laptop users who have their entire lives or careers on their device need something bigger.?

The exterior is built with Dell's InfinityEdge technology, which is a fancy term for extra-thin bezels and a wide-as-possible, gorgeous screen. The 15.6-inch Full HD display isn't quite 3K level, but visuals are powered the Intel Arc CPU that will satisfy even the pickiest gamers or designers.

Inside sits an Intel Core i7 processor, solid memory, and storage options up to 1TB SSD. One drawback in the battery, which is a bit average. You'll get six, maybe seven hours at best —?which isn't great, but isn't terrible either. Keep the charger handy. Or go for the Dell XPS 13, which offers a bit more juice — but on a significantly smaller display.

Dell has also changed its webcam placement, so it's now above the screen (where it should be) rather than catching you from below with an unflattering up-the-nose shot, which was a problem on previous gen models.

If you’re looking for a convertible laptop, the HP Spectre x360 is one of the slickest machines around right now. As soon as it hit shelves it was being talked about by tech experts as a contender for the best 2-in-1 laptop ever produced.

When it comes to touchscreen technology, a dazzling display is a must-see. It has an eye-catching 14-inch OLED screen with 1920 x 1280-pixel IPS, plus 3K resolution and Intel Arc integrated graphics. And while its 3:2 aspect ratio isn’t unheard of in laptops but it’s not exactly standard either.

The colours are rich and vivid and the visuals are impressively sharp. In fact, the entire laptop has an elegant design — more stylish than the sometimes-generic design that you get with non-Apple devices. ?

It’s not all about looks, of course. The HP Spectre x360 is loaded with powerful, innovative features. It has an 1Intel Core Ultra 5, a 256GB solid-state drive, fingerprint sensor and facial recognition, and plenty of ports, including Thunderbolt 4 and USB Type-A — a feature that’s all-too-often missing.

It comes with a rechargeable stylus (with a bonus carrying sleeve for safekeeping) that clings magnetically to the side of the laptop.?Not only that, the action and response is zippy —just check out its instant wake-up feature — but long-lasting too, thanks to a decent battery life of up to 13 hours.?

Tech users are often divided by allegiance to a specific OS, but there’s always a Windows machine out there that can turn the heads of Apple devotees.?

One such machine is the Microsoft Surface Laptop 4, a 15-inch model with the brand’s PixelSense touchscreen display and plenty more top-of-the-line tech to entice you. Even at 15 inches it’s a sleek design — though alternative, lighter options are available if portability is a deal-breaker.

The Surface 4 continues a trend we've seen in previous models, with a spacious, comfortable keyboard. The Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 is an absolute breeze to type on, whether you’re banging out a quick email or composing a 15,000-word thesis. It's bolstered by a 4.5-inch touchpad and 1.3mm of key travel.

The HD display with PixelSense touchscreen technology really is topnotch. It has a resolution of 2496 x 1664 pixels and crisp, jerk-free visuals courtesy of FreeSync technology. Yes, this is a powerful piece of kit — especially for its price. An AMD Ryzen 7 chip puts this on the level of MacBook Pro performance. It's fast, smooth, and responsive. What more could you want?

It comes equipped with a headphone jack and USB A and C ports, plus a Surface Connect port which can be used for charging up other devices.

Gaming geeks have good reason to be particular over the specs of their purpose-bought laptop. They might call it gaming, but plugging in for a hi-def session is a serious business. And there’s nothing more frustrating than having the experience hampered by a pixelated display or irritating lag as you’re getting deep into the game.

Asus is a brand that knows what it’s doing when it comes to gaming laptops. And this year's upgraded Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 has scored rave reviews — an improvement on an already popular gaming machine.

It's equipped with up-to-date and powerful components — the latest AMD Ryzen 9 CPU and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 series graphics card. That makes this a robust game-player that’s capable of handling the complex and demanding games with relative ease.

If you’re all about appearances, then check out its 120Hz OLED display, which boasts a 3K resolution and Nvidia G-sync support. In short, it looks fantastic — though you may want play around with the settings to get the most out of it. It also comes with two USB Type-C ports, plus HDMI and audio connections. But note there's no Thunderbolt support. And while the battery will last up to 10 hours, it very much depends on what you're running at the time.

It’s not cheap, of course — especially if you’re new to gaming — but that's par for course with high quality gaming. Seasoned gamers know that you’ll pay a high price for any halfway decent gaming tech. ??

Don’t believe the marketing hype: Not every laptop has to cost a small fortune. In fact, you can find some very respectable options for a comparative steal.

Take the Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 3, which is part of a well-reviewed range of low-cost, 2-in-1 laptop/tablets. With its detachable keyboard, this device easily converts between the two, which means that it’s not only affordable — it’s highly portable too. Indeed, this is the kind of laptop you can take everywhere with you.

The screen is small, surrounded by overly chunky bezels, but the display — an 11-inch, 10-point touchscreen — is impressive. It’s bright and punchy and a pleasure to watch your favourite streaming platforms on. If you are streaming, it’s worth mentioning that this laptop doesn’t have a headphone jack — an increasingly common omission — but you can easily connect Bluetooth headphones, so it’s not a complete loss.

The Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 3 is actually a Chromebook, in case that’s a deciding factor for you. It’s actually a bonus if you like to keep things simple. Just use your Google login and you’re immediately synced and set up — you also have access to all the apps on the Google Play Store. In terms of keeping the cost down, this one's hard to beat.

If you need portability but you want as much hi-end technology as possible, there's really only one choice — the Apple MacBook Air. If you're a regular commuter, or you're used to working on-the-go and parking up in cafes, it's a no brainer. The 13-inch laptop weighs just 1.24kg and measures just 1.13 cm when closed.

Even at this size, the MacBook Air still packs plenty of processing power. This is Apple, after all. It's powered by the fast and muscular M3 chip, which handles everything you need from a top-end laptop — web browsing, streaming, and multi-tasking — and then some (minus gaming, of course, which is not Apple's forte). And if video editing is your thing, this can handle 4K editing no problem.

You'll get a solid set of spec, with 8GB RAM and 256 SSD, along with features such as Touch ID and a very competitive battery life of up to 18 hours — depending on the demands of your usage. Unless you want something for gaming, or have specific needs, this is pretty much the best laptop you'll find.

Another great thing about the MacBook Air, of course, is the price, which is under ?1,000. Though there is a slightly more expensive version available that doubles the SSD storage and RAM.