The best laptops of 2025: Compare the M4 MacBook Air, Microsoft Surface Laptop 7, and more

Read Mashable's full review of the 15-inch Apple MacBook Air (M4).

Apple didn't reinvent the wheel in its latest 15-inch MacBook Air, but a blazing-fast processor, a few fresh features, and a new lower price make it one of the best current-generation laptop deals — if not the best. It's a fantastic pick for students, professionals, and anyone else in need of a polished, relatively portable laptop, especially those ready to give up an Intel or M1-era MacBook. (It officially feels like a big-enough jump to justify an upgrade.) MacBook Pros are nice, but they're overkill for non-specialty users, realistically.

Same tried-and-true formula, new fixings. Let's start under its hood: Apple has refreshed its 2025 MacBook Air with an M4 processor, which notched a Geekbench 6 multi-core performance score of 14,992 in our testing. It's 24% faster than the M3 version and one of the speediest laptops in our testing database (after the high-octane M4 MacBook Pros and four Windows laptops that start at $1,199); Mashable Senior Editor Stan Schroeder called it "almost overkill" in his review. All that power means it does get a little hot when you work it hard, but it does stay whisper-quiet, at least.

Less exciting but still notable are the MacBook Air's new open-lid support of two 6K external displays and upgraded 12MP camera, which now has Apple's auto-framing Center Stage and top-down Desk View feature. It also comes in a new sky blue finish, which I've seen aptly described as "like looking at a gray MacBook and someone shouting 'blue' from a hundred yards away"... which is to say, it's subtle. Schroeder requested "real colors" from Apple the next time it revisits the MacBook Air. (A smoother 120Hz display would also be nice if we're making a wish list — we've wanted a refresh rate bump for the Air since the M2 era.)

The real game-changer here is the M4 MacBook Air's price. Our review unit with 1TB of storage costs $1,599, but the base model with 256GB of storage is only $1,199. You might recall that the 15-inch M3 MacBook Air started at $1,299. "Apple doesn't do this often, so enjoy it while you can," Schroeder wrote. It's a genuinely shocking move for any laptop manufacturer at a time when price hikes are way more common, and it's one of the big reasons why the MacBook Air has reclaimed its Mashable Choice Award-winner status.

Note that the M4 MacBook Air also comes in an even cheaper 13-inch size with a slightly lower resolution and two fewer speakers (four instead of six, sans force-cancelling woofers). We like it best for students and budget shoppers — it's often on sale for just $799.

Read Mashable's full review of the 13.8-inch Microsoft Surface Laptop 7.

The Mashable Choice Award-winning Microsoft Surface Laptop 7th Edition is an exceptional all-rounder — the ideal blend of performance, power efficiency, build quality, innovation, and overall value. We recommend it for nearly any Windows user who's due for an upgrade; the only reason you should pass on it is if your go-to apps aren't compatible with Windows on ARM. (An Intel-powered business edition is available, but it'll cost you: The base model is $300 more expensive than the starter Snapdragon version.)

Microsoft's Qualcomm-powered flagship laptop stunts on almost every other Windows PC we've gotten our hands on in recent years. Our Snapdragon X Elite testing unit went nearly 23 hours per charge, making it the second-longest-lasting laptop we've ever tried. It also nabbed one of the highest Geekbench scores in our database when in "Best Performance" mode, only just trailing the M4 MacBook Air. If all that feels like overkill, or its premium price tag gives you sticker shock, know that it starts at $999.99 with a lesser Snapdragon X Plus chip and 256GB of storage.

Design-wise, the Surface Laptop 7 has a modern aluminum chassis that comes in four colorways and doesn't cling to fingerprints. Its bright display can hit a refresh rate of up to 120Hz, and its snappy keyboard is paired with a haptic touchpad. You can take your pick from two sizes, too: 13.8- or 15-inch, the latter of which includes a microSD card reader.

As a Copilot+ PC, the Surface Laptop 7 has a Neural Processing Unit (NPU) to support a suite of AI features, including Cocreator, a generative art tool in Microsoft Paint, Live Captions, and Windows Studio Effects that can blur backgrounds and improve lighting on video calls. (There's also the sketchy history-saving Recall feature, which you'll have to personally enable. Maybe don't.) You shouldn't buy this laptop for these tools alone, but former Mashable Tech Editor Kim Gedeon found them to be "attention-stealing" fun when she tried them.

The Surface Laptop 7's Snapdragon CPU is both a blessing and a curse: As an ARM chip, as opposed to an x86 chip from Intel, it's not going to be compatible with certain specialty apps and programs. This might be a problem for students, as some Reddit users have pointed out. (The design app AutoCAD is a no-go, for example.) But if this is a non-issue for you, personally, move this machine to the top of your list.

The ultralight, long-lasting Asus Zenbook A14 is the ultimate laptop for on-the-go Windows users who want to spend less than $1,000. I do want to note that its speakers suck, so its ideal owner will also have a great pair of headphones on hand. It also has an ARM-based processor, so just be aware that the potential for app compatibility issues is present here, too.

The Zenbook A14 is made of a magnesium-aluminum alloy called "Ceraluminum" that's durable, scratch-resistant, and deceptively lightweight. The Zabriskie Beige base model that comes with a Snapdragon X Plus chip, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage weighs just 2.4 pounds, or 0.3 pounds less than the 13-inch M4 MacBook Air and 0.56 pounds less than the 13.8-inch Surface Laptop 7 (also $999 apiece). That doesn't sound like a huge difference, but I was shocked the first time I picked one up at CES 2025. It still feels super sturdy despite its featheriness, fortunately, so I'd have no qualms about toting it to an office, airport, or coffee shop.

In a performance test, the Zenbook A14 notched a Geekbench 6 multi-core score of 11,256. It's not quite as speedy as the M4 MacBook Air — it's about 25% slower, to be exact — but it has a better battery life, lasting almost 22 hours per charge. It also comes with a prettier OLED display, an HDMI port, and double the storage. If you wanted to upgrade the 13-inch MacBook Air or 13.8-inch Surface Laptop 7 to 512GB of storage, you'd spend $1,199 either way.

Read Mashable's full review of the Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition.

This luxe laptop/tablet hybrid is the primo pick for those who value battery life and processing power in that exact order. It's not cut out to handle demanding tasks like photo and video editing, but it outlasts every other laptop we've ever tried. It's also quite pretty to boot.

Calling all chronic charger-forgetters! Whenever I tell folks about the Lenovo Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition, I always lead with its battery life. It lasted 23 hours and 34 minutes in our benchmark, cruising past every other MacBook and Windows laptop in our database.

The Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition does lack comparatively in the performance department: Its Intel Core Ultra 7 258V processor got a Geekbench 6 score of 10,765. That makes it a tad faster than an M2 MacBook Air from 2022 (10,146) and a smidge slower than the aforementioned Zenbook A14's Snapdragon X Plus chip. Suffice to say, it's not built for turbocharged multitasking like similarly priced MacBook Pros. Still, reviewer Sarah Chaney said it was able to tackle her "typical daily workload with ease" (think web browsing and typing in documents).

The Yoga 9i 2-in-1 Aura Edition makes up for its middling CPU with other premium features, including a 2.8K OLED touchscreen with a 120Hz refresh rate. Per Chaney, "the colors popped off the screen and made my overall laptop experience better and brighter." It also supports a couple of unique "Aura Edition" software features that can check your posture and block distracting websites.

Read Mashable's full review of the Alienware M16 R2.

Dell's latest Alienware m16 R2 is a competent, fairly priced Triple-A machine for those who usually wear headphones while gaming and rarely play on the go. Maybe you need a new every day (non-gaming) laptop, too — know that it's also easily tone-down-able.

The m16 R2 might best be described as the Clark Kent of gaming laptops. Its 2024 redesign brings a smaller footprint (sans thermal shelf) and a "Stealth Mode" hotkey that ditches its RGB lighting, so it can be as subtle or showy as you'd like. It also includes an MUX switch that lets users switch between its integrated and dedicated GPUs for different tasks. (Nvidia's Advanced Optimus feature can do this automatically, too.) It's basically designed to lead a double life as an everyday workhorse and gaming champ.

Going deeper into the gaming front, our review unit "[output] impressive performance numbers on demanding games" for its mid-range specs, Gedeon said. (It packed an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H CPU and an RTX 4070 GPU.) While its 240Hz display felt a tad bit dim to her, it was otherwise smooth and punchy: "I was impressed with the contrast and vivid colors" while playing CyberPunk 2077 on it, she wrote. Its springy keyboard and responsive touchpad also got her seal of approval.

Some of the bigger bummers about the m16 R2 are its tinny speakers, shoddy webcam, and lousy battery life; it only lasted 51 minutes in our video rundown test. It also weighs in at a hefty 5.75 pounds, so forget about taking it on the go — whether you use it for work or play, it'll shackle you to an outlet. Yet none of these were dealbreakers in the eyes of Gedeon, who ultimately deemed the m16 R2 "the ultimate RTX 4070 beast of a gaming laptop you can get." It's a Mashable Choice Award winner.

Read Mashable's full review of the 16-inch Apple MacBook Pro (M4 Pro).

A majestic piece of modern machinery, Apple's jacked new 16-inch, M4 Pro-fueled MacBook Pro is a future-proofed investment for creative professionals who run intense multimedia-editing apps and software on a regular basis.

Put simply, this MacBook Pro is a beauteous behemoth. With a Geekbench 6 multi-core score of 22,758, it's the most powerful laptop we've ever tested by a not-close margin. (The runner-up, Lenovo's $4,485 Legion 9i, scored a 17,711.) It "can handle heavy workloads without a single stutter," said Gedeon. It's also incredibly long-lasting, surviving for nearly 21 hours in our battery life benchmark. Out of all the MacBooks we've ever tested, it has the absolute best battery life.

While it may look like a pretty standard MacBook on the outside — minimalist, relatively thin, made from aluminum — Apple's tacked on a few subtle but noteworthy design upgrades. For one, it now comes with three next-gen Thunderbolt 5 USB-C ports for zippy data transfer speeds. (These accompany an HDMI port, an SDXC card slot, a MagSafe 3 charging port, and a headphone jack.) Two, it can hit up to 1000 nits of SDR brightness, a bump from 600 nits in its M3 Pro predecessor. There's also a new option to add a glare-reducing "nano-texture" display finish, which wowed Gedeon when she took the laptop into her backyard: "I didn't have to squint, adjust angles, nor play hide-and-seek with shadows," she wrote. And three, the new MacBook Pro's camera is now a 12MP Center Stage shooter (up from 1080p) with support for Desk View, a new feature that produces an overhead view of the user's desk.

Its six-speaker setup is the same one you'll find in the M3-era Pros, but no complaints there. Gedeon likened its audio quality to a "gourmet apple pie ... piping hot, golden, and worth every sinful calorie."

And by calories, we mean dollars. It's tempting to recommend the M4 Pro MacBook Pro to anyone who values power efficiency in a laptop, but its price point keeps it firmly in "experts-only" territory. (Our upgraded testing unit with 48GB of RAM, 2TB of storage, and a nano-texture display came in at $3,649; the base configuration goes for $2,499.) Don't bother with the splurge unless you'll make full use of it on the daily. For what it's worth, though, we also like the new 14-inch M4 MacBook Pro for those with less strenuous workloads; that one starts at $1,599.