Best Laptops of 2021

If you’re looking for a new laptop for school, work, or play, you’ll find lots of interesting options. Over the past few months, PC manufacturers like Dell, LG, and Samsung have released models that score quite well in our labs, exhibiting muscle for not only routine productivity tasks but also for more demanding workloads like editing hi-res video. They often ship with Windows 11, which brings a refreshed and more “modern” user interface to Microsoft’s long-running operating system. And if they don’t come with Windows 11, you can easily upgrade to it free of charge.

For Mac fans with demanding workloads, Apple’s recently released 14- and 16-inch MacBook Pros are a great choice, too. If your computing needs are more Microsoft Word than Adobe Premiere Pro, though, the MacBook Air remains a smart pick.

One potential wrinkle: Due to the ongoing chip shortage, you may have to wait a little longer than usual for your purchase to arrive. The shortage is expected to last into 2022, so you’ll want to make sure the laptop you buy is the right one for your needs, lest you waste precious time trying to return something you don’t like. And that’s where we come in.

We test dozens of new laptops every year, evaluating them for ergonomics, battery life, display quality, and portability so that you don’t waste your money on a clunker. We buy all the products we test—from headphones to SUVs—at retail, because samples sent directly from a manufacturer may be tweaked to perform better in a reviewer’s tests.

We also incorporate brand reliability and owner satisfaction data collected from surveys of our members into each laptop’s Overall Score.

Below are some of the best laptops covering the five screen-size categories we track, ranging from highly portable 10- to 11-inch models to hulking desktop replacements that span 17 to 18 inches.