The 11 best Windows laptops of 2025, tested by us
Right now, I think the best Windows laptop for most people is the 13.8-inch. Microsoft Surface 7 Laptop powered by the Snapdragon X Elite chip. It’s a sleek workhorse with enough power to handle demanding workloads and has a premium build as well as incredible all-day battery life (surpassed by only two other models). Even M4 MacBooks can’t keep up. Beyond that, I have other choices for users with different budgets, use cases, and design preferences.
I chose my picks based on hands-on testing conducted by myself and other Mashable staff and contributors. We’ve reviewed dozens of PCs based on their performance, build quality, lifespan, and value over the years, and the ones I recommend are the cream of the recent generation crops. Most of them scored high enough to win a Mashable Choice Award, the highest honor we give to the gadgets we review.
Why now is a good time to buy a new Windows laptop
AI data centers have been gobbling up DDR5 RAM and SSDs in recent months, leading to a shortage of these components for consumer devices, including laptops. Experts predict that PCs will become more expensive in the coming months or ship with lower specs, as reported by Mashable’s Alex Perry. Remember the dark days when mid-range laptops started with just 8GB of RAM? This seems like a possibility again. (Yeah, it’s bad there.)
All of this is to say that I recommend buying a new Windows laptop as soon as possible and considering a storage or memory upgrade if you can afford it. You’ll add additional protection for the future while avoiding looming price hikes amid the continuing AI boom.
On a more positive note, now is the time of year when I usually see many current generation laptops going on sale at heavily discounted prices. They’re about to be refreshed at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), a huge tech industry trade show that takes place in early January, so retailers are pricing them in for the move. Act quickly and you can get a great laptop at a great price before the RAM and SSD shortage (probably) makes everything less good.
What’s new
As of December 2025, I’ve added a few new choices based on our latest round of testing. THE Lenovo Yoga 7 2-in-1 14 (Gen 10) is our new favorite Windows laptop for students, and the HP OmniBook 5 14 is our new battery life champion. Both are new categories for this guide.
I also deleted the Acer Swift X14 (2024) as our first choice for photo and video editing, as it becomes difficult to find in stock. The newer Acer Swift 14 AI isn’t a good replacement because it doesn’t have a powerful dedicated GPU, has an ARM processor that might have software compatibility issues, and doesn’t have a microSD card slot or HDMI port. I am currently looking for a new winner in this category.
What was not retained?
We’ve tested other very good but not great Windows laptops so far this year. They may meet the needs of some users or have a few standout features, but our top picks outperform them in their respective categories.
THE Acer Predator Helios 16 is a powerhouse with a stellar thermal design and matte display, but its obnoxious, gamer look is a drag.
THE Alienware 16 Zone-51 (RTX 5080) is another super-fast gaming laptop. It has fun, customizable RGB lighting, tons of ports, and a great keyboard, but it’s hot, noisy, and clunky.
THE Dell XPS 13 (9530) features a fantastic tandem OLED display and a sleek edge-to-edge design – it’s such a striking laptop, and very portable too. Unfortunately, its keyboard is cramped, its touchpad is faulty, and it lacks ports.
THE Dell 14 Plus 2-in-1 (AMD) is an impressive device for the price, but it has mediocre speakers, a rudimentary webcam, and a cheap feel.
THE Dell 16 Plus 2-in-1 is configurable with a gorgeous mini-LED touchscreen, but it has poor battery life and a creaky build.
THE Dell 14 Premium is a powerful, well-made laptop with such a sexy design, but it’s heavy for a 14-inch laptop, its battery life isn’t great, and it has a row of frustrating capacitive touch features.
In the same way, Dell 16 Premium (RTX 5070) is beastly and beautiful, but it’s too heavy, too expensive, and has to give up that row of capacitive features. Plus, we’ve gotten better graphics performance from cheaper last-gen gaming laptops.
THE HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 is a handsome convertible with a velvety touchpad, springy keyboard, and rich 3K OLED touchscreen, but it underperforms for the price and has odd port placements in its corners.
THE HP OmniBook X Flip 14 is another nice 2-in-1. Its slim, travel-friendly design includes a vibrant 2.8K OLED touchscreen with a 120Hz refresh rate and an aluminum chassis that won’t snag fingerprints, and it comes with a stylus. However, its battery life is disappointing and its lattice-shaped keyboard takes some getting used to. It’s a runner-up to the Lenovo Yoga 7 2-in-1 14 as a good choice for students.
THE HP Omnibook X Flip 16 is an oversized hybrid laptop with a vibrant 3K OLED touchscreen, a solid hinge, and above-average battery life. But it’s weighed down by a no-lattice keyboard, poor performance for the price, and heavy construction. If you really want a 16-inch hybrid laptop, I’d go for this one before the other two on this list.
THE Lenovo IdeaPad 5i 2-in-1 16 (Gen 10) has solid battery life, but most other convertibles we’ve tried offer better build quality, better performance, and better durability.
THE Lenovo Legion Pro 7i 16 OLED (Gen 10, RTX 5080) is the fastest Windows laptop we’ve ever tested. Its 240Hz OLED display, RGB keyboard, and port selection are all wonderful, but they’re really expensive and overkill for the average PC gamer.
THE MSI Prestige 13 AI+ Evo is extremely light and compact, and it has a nice (although too bright) 2.8K OLED display. But otherwise, it felt cheap and doesn’t perform very well compared to cheaper models. It doesn’t take much for its fan to turn on, and you can feel it spinning through the keys.
