The 7 absolute best laptops for 2026

Looking for a great value laptop for work, school, or gaming? Start here.

on June 19, 2026

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the m5 apple macbook air

Credit: Joe Maldonado / Mashable

The best laptops are fast enough for their primary use cases, well-made, and priced fairly for their specs. Ideally, they also have enough stamina to last a full workday (but often much longer). Whether your preferred daily driver is a sleek Apple MacBook, a versatile Windows laptop, or a simple Chromebook, a reliable PC is a solid investment that feels worth it for years to come.

Overview

These are the tech, tools, and products — from laptops to e-readers, from earbuds to robovacs, and more — that Mashable ranks best in class.

Mashable has been testing laptops for over 10 years, and I took the category's helm in 2023. Over the past year and a half alone, the team and I have researched dozens of models and tried more than 50 of the most promising configurations available. We use a meticulous testing procedure to score our contenders on the basis of performance, battery life, design/build quality, and value.

The following guide serves as our laptop trophy case, highlighting the best-in-class models across different subcategories. For even more recommendations, check out my dedicated guides to the best MacBooks, the best Windows laptops, the best cheap laptops, and the best Chromebooks.

Our Pick

the 15-inch m5 apple macbook air

The Good & The Bad

Amazing value
M5 chip is incredibly powerful
Sleek all-aluminum design with a pretty display
Excellent webcam, speakers, and keyboard
Premium haptic trackpad

Battery life is slightly worse than the previous generation (but still good)

Who it's for

Apple's latest MacBook Air is a fantastic pick for the everyday macOS user, including most professionals and college students. Anyone needing a polished, relatively portable, and impeccably priced mid-range laptop should put it on their shortlist.

Read Mashable's full review of the 15-inch Apple MacBook Air (M5).

Why we picked this

The MacBook Air has always been an excellent laptop, but in 2026, it's become my standard bearer, my touchstone — the one I compare against virtually every other laptop that crosses my desk. Its M5 chip offers unrivaled performance for the price, whether you're using it for basic single-core tasks (like web browsing) or more demanding multi-core workloads (like occasional light video editing). Its build quality is also superb. Its Liquid Retina display is sharp and vibrant; its speakers sound incredible; its Magic Keyboard is satisfyingly snappy; and its smooth haptic touchpad gives it a premium feel. It's actually very rare to see the latter at this price point.

While it's not what I'd call a battery life overachiever — see: some of the Windows laptops on this list — the MacBook Air still lasts well over two workdays per charge. We got almost 18 hours out of it in a video rundown test.

I think most people will appreciate the larger screen on the 15-inch MacBook Air, but if you'd prefer a cheaper, more portable option, there's a 13-inch size, too. They're almost identical; the 15-incher just has two extra speakers and a slightly better GPU in its base model.

Details

the asus zenbook a14 against a pink background

The Good & The Bad

Incredible performance; can keep up with MacBooks in any scenario
Big NPU for on-device AI workloads
Amazing battery life
Super lightweight
Pretty OLED display
Creamy keyboard
A great value

Some compatibility issues
Average webcam and speakers

Who it's for

If you prefer Windows, the 2026 Asus Zenbook A14 is my top choice for almost anyone who needs a new daily driver. It actually makes a great MacBook Air alternative if you want a general-purpose ultraportable with better battery life, an OLED display, and more ports.

Why we picked this

Asus updated my beloved Zenbook A14 with Qualcomm's fresh Snapdragon X2 Elite processor for 2026. It's more expensive than the original version from last year, but it's definitely worth the upcharge. It used to lag behind same-gen MacBooks, but it's now one of the only devices that can keep up with both single- and multi-core tasks — so things like basic word processing and light video editing, respectively. In fact, in multi-core scenarios, it's almost 20 percent faster than the MacBook Air. At the time of writing, it was the seventh-fastest laptop in our entire testing database, beating 92 percent of the competition; other stragglers include the MacBook Pro and many beefy PCs geared toward gaming and creative work. (This is just in the context of our artificial performance benchmark, by the way. The competition won't throttle you as much when you're running demanding software IRL, but the Zenbook A14's results are amazing nonetheless.)

That impressive performance is boosted when you factor in this 14-inch laptop's battery life test results. It lasted over 27 hours on a single charge, up from 22 hours in the previous generation. It's the third longest-lasting laptop we've ever tried.

The Zenbook A14 is made of a magnesium-aluminum alloy called "Ceraluminum" that's durable, scratch-resistant, and deceptively lightweight. It weighs just 2.4 pounds, or 0.3 pounds less than the 13-inch MacBook Air. That doesn't sound like a huge difference, but I was shocked the very first time I picked one up. 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. (You'll want to show it off in public, by the way. That Ceraluminum chassis has a ceramic look and feel to it, and it's adorned with reflective gold Asus logos that remind me of jewelry. It's very "organic modern" and unique.)

For what it's worth, Asus also makes a 16-inch model called the Zenbook A16. It doesn't last quite as long but offers way more power, and it adds an SD card slot in addition to a sharper, brighter, smoother OLED touchscreen. It's also an excellent choice.

Details

the Acer Chromebook Plus 516 against a blue background

The Good & The Bad

Great battery life
Big, bright-enough display
Decent mid-range performance for a Chromebook
Comes with a protective sleeve
Often on sale for as little as $299

Not super portable (but on the lighter side for a 16-incher)
Tinny speakers

Who it's for

This 16-inch Chromebook is a durable, practical pick for users with the most basic workloads and the strictest budgets. Its large screen is handy for watching movies.

Why we picked this

The Acer Chromebook Plus 516 is nothing special, but it has no major flaws and doesn't feel like a clunker. (We've tried much nicer Chromebooks, but they cost upwards of $750 to $1,000. Just get a MacBook Air at that point.) It also happens to be the fastest sub-$500 laptop we've tried, if you don't count the MacBook Neo with Apple's education discount. Since it's a Chromebook Plus, it supports some exclusive AI features that aren't available on regular Chromebooks, like Live Translate and Help me read/write.

This puppy clocked in at just over 14 hours per charge, easily beating our 10-hour median for the Chromebook category; it's the third longest-lasting Chromebook we've ever tried. You won't have to worry about it dying in the middle of a Severance episode or a homework session.

The Chromebook Plus 516 isn't what I would call "portable," but it's on the lighter side for a 16-inch device. Its large 1200p matte display is rated at only 300 nits, but we found that it looks much brighter in person. Its plastic design is pretty boring, but it feels sturdy and doesn't have any issues with hinge strength or annoying fingerprint smudges. Its keyboard has a satisfying feel (and a numpad!), and it comes with an HDMI port if you want to hook it up to a monitor or TV. As an extra bonus, it's often on sale for as low as $300. Even at full price, though, you're not going to find a better value in the "under $500" realm.

Details

the apple macbook neo

The Good & The Bad

Amazing single-core performance
Same all-aluminum chassis as nicer MacBooks
Fun color options
Pretty Liquid Retina display
Great speakers

Only 8GB of RAM (and you can't upgrade it)
No keyboard backlighting
Few ports

Who it's for

If you're trying to spend well under $1,000, and you want a laptop that feels more premium than it really is, Apple's MacBook Neo is undoubtedly the best budget laptop you can buy.

Read Mashable's full review of the Apple MacBook Neo.

Why we picked this

The MacBook Neo is, in one word, a game-changer. Most cheap Windows laptops and Chromebooks have plastic components, but this thing has the same luxe, all-aluminum build quality as any other MacBook. You miss out on extra fixings like keyboard backlighting, a haptic trackpad, and Touch ID (on the base model, at least), but you still get a pretty Liquid Retina display and great speakers. It's a little thicker than a 13-inch MacBook Air, but weighs the same.

The Neo's A18 Pro processor is technically a pared-down iPhone chip, but don't be fooled: It's extremely impressive for a budget laptop CPU. In simple single-core workloads (web browsing, word processing), the Neo is just as fast as a last-gen M4 MacBook Air. Most other Windows laptops we've tried in the last two years, including five that cost over $2,000, don't feel as snappy in such scenarios.

The Neo lasted 14 hours and 50 minutes in our battery life benchmark. It lags behind its M-series peers there — our battery life median for MacBooks was 19 hours before it arrived — but it's an overachiever at its price point. Our median for other sub-$1,000 Windows laptops and Chromebooks is just 10.5 hours.

...Did I mention that the MacBook Neo starts at just $599? Better yet, students pay just $499 with Apple's education discount.

Details

the Alienware 16X Aurora

The Good & The Bad

Excellent performance
Attractive design that isn't overtly "gamey"
Pretty 2.5K display with easy-on-the-eyes matte finish
240Hz refresh rate
Great keyboard
Good mix of conveniently located ports

Grainy, noisy webcam
Plastic keyboard deck
Runs warm and loud
Heavy and bulky

Who it's for

The Alienware 16X Aurora is my top pick for anyone who wants to upgrade to a current-gen gaming laptop, especially one that isn't too obnoxious.

Why we picked this

The 16X Aurora is a nice mid-ranger with enough power to handle any AAA game you throw at it. The model I tested had a high-end Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX CPU, which easily beats the MacBook Pro's M5 chip in demanding multi-core workloads. (It's the fourth-fastest laptop we've ever tried on that point, and only one of two that cost under $3,600.) Its RTX 5070 GPU had no problem handling Cyberpunk 2077, one of the most graphically taxing games available. It even hit the game's 60fps minimum at its native 1,600 resolution without any AI upscaling turned on.

The 16X Aurora's design features a slew of premium components, including a satisfying keyboard, a nice mix of ports (mostly located on its rear for easy cable management), and an absolutely amazing display. It has a high-end 240Hz refresh rate, a 2.5K resolution, and an anti-glare finish that makes it comfy to stare at for hours. It doesn't have any RGB accents except some keyboard backlighting, so it's not very "gamer-y" (in a good way, IMO).

Stamina-wise, we got five hours and 40 minutes out of the 16X Aurora. That doesn't sound like a good number, but it's well above our current four-hour median for gaming laptops. They prioritize performance over battery life.

Details

the 14-inch m5 apple macbook pro

The Good & The Bad

Incredibly fast
Best battery life of any MacBook we've ever tested
Beautiful mini-LED 120Hz display with optional nano-texture finish
Great mix of ports
Awesome keyboard, speakers, and webcam
Optimized for running AI models locally

On the pricier side, especially as you add more RAM and storage
Space black colorway clings to fingerprints

Who it's for

Professional creatives like photo editors, video editors, and content creators — anyone who runs intensive apps on the reg, really — will be served incredibly well by the M5 MacBook Pro.

Read Mashable's full review of the Apple MacBook Pro (M5).

Why we picked this

The M5 MacBook Air is a beyond-fine pick for most use cases, but the M5 MacBook Pro offers some upgrades that are valuable for professional creatives — including content creators. (Jools LeBron of "very demure, very mindful" fame uses a MacBook Pro to edit videos and stay in touch with her fans.) It's got built-in fans that prevent thermal throttling when you're running heavy workloads for long periods of time, plus useful extra ports like an SDXC card slot, plus a much nicer display. Its crisp mini-LED screen has a 120Hz refresh rate and maxes out at an ultra-bright 1,600 nits for HDR content. You can further upgrade it with an optional nano-texture finish that minimizes distracting reflections.

What's more, this is the longest-lasting MacBook we've ever tried. It ran for 21 hours and 17 minutes before dying.